The nation in brief

Compiled from Times wires

© St. Petersburg Times, published April 25, 2001

Strike resolved, Hawaii students return to class

HONOLULU -- The state's schoolteachers were expected to approve a new contract, allowing Hawaii's schoolchildren to return to class Thursday for the first time in three weeks.

Approval of the deal Tuesday would end the second of two walkouts that had shut down a state's entire public education system for the first time. The two-year agreement, endorsed by the union board about midnight Monday, includes 16 percent pay hikes.

Harvard students protest

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. -- For seven days now, about 40 student protesters have been occupying the first floor of Harvard's Massachusetts Hall, where the university president, Neil L. Rudenstine, has his office.

The protesters are demanding that Harvard pay its workers a minimum "living wage" of $10.25 an hour, and have vowed not to budge until the university's position does.

The administration would talk with them, Rudenstine said, "once an environment of genuinely free discussion has been restored." Read: the administration will not negotiate with the sitters-in until they quit the building.

Passengers to be paid

ROMULUS, Mich. -- At least 3,700 Northwest Airlines passengers who endured lengthy delays during a January 1999 blizzard will get checks averaging $1,300.

Wayne County Circuit Judge Daphne Means Curtis granted final approval Tuesday to a $7.15-million settlement, ending a class-action passenger lawsuit over Northwest stranding thousands during the snowstorm. Checks are to be issued by early June.

Ellis Island site jammed

Those trying to log on to the Ellis Island database on the Internet may be frustrated.

The much anticipated database, containing information on 22-million immigrants, had 27,000 users per second after it went online April 17.

The good news is that the site has not crashed, said Peg Zitko, spokesperson for the Statue of Liberty-Ellis Island Foundation Inc. Up to 10 more servers are being rushed into service to help handle the load.

The majority of people trying to get onto the site (www.ellisislandrecords.org) get a message to try back later.

Elsewhere

RUMSFELD WANTS DELAY FOR STOCK: Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld has asked for an extra three months to dispose of stock holdings he agreed to relinquish as a condition of being confirmed by the Senate.

NEA CHIEF QUITS: Bill Ivey, appointed chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts by President Clinton, announced Tuesday that he will leave his post Sept. 30.

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