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By Compiled from Times wires
© St. Petersburg Times, published September 17, 2000
L.A. bus, rail drivers go on strike
LOS ANGELES -- Bus drivers hoisted picket signs under the scorching Southern California sun, and riders scrambled for other transportation Saturday as a transit strike expected to affect as many as 450,000 of Los Angeles County's poorest residents began.
The contract dispute with the Metropolitan Transportation Authority left only a handful of buses serving a 1,400-square-mile area. Several suburban municipal bus lines expanded their service to downtown on Saturday, but their routes reach only a tiny fraction of riders.
Three unions representing 6,750 MTA drivers, clerks and mechanics walked out of negotiations Saturday at one minute after midnight, and no new talks were scheduled.
BOULDER, Colo. -- Flames leapt from tree to tree and shot high into the air Saturday as a wildfire raged through more than 600 acres west of the city, prompting authorities to urge the evacuation of 200 mountain homes.
A plume of smoke hundreds of feet high was visible from Fort Collins, nearly 50 miles away.
Lt. Joe Gang, spokesman for the Boulder County Sheriff's Office, issued an urgent plea for more help, saying the 100 firefighters struggling to extinguish the blaze had been slowed by the area's rough terrain.
"We don't have the resources to fight this," Gang said.
SALT LAKE CITY -- A passenger who tried to break into the cockpit on a Southwest Airlines flight was killed by the passengers restraining him, not a heart attack, an autopsy concluded.
The U.S. Attorney's Office described Jonathan Burton's Aug. 11 death as an act of self-defense by frightened passengers and said it would not file criminal charges.
Burton, 19, of Las Vegas, became combative 20 minutes before Flight 1763 was due to land, hitting other passengers and pounding on the locked cockpit door. As many as eight passengers subdued him until the flight arrived in Salt Lake City.
Burton died after being removed from the plane. The report said he suffocated.
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. -- An attempt to sell crime scene and autopsy photos of three slain boys has prompted Internet auction site eBay to change its policy on graphic photos.
The items came to the company's attention after the victims' rights group Parents of Murdered Children complained, eBay spokesman Kevin Pursglove said.
"This was the first time a crime scene photo of a minor had been placed on eBay," he said. "It was also the first time, that we are aware of, of a coroner's photo being placed on the site."
The photo was moved to eBay's adults-only site about a month ago, he said. EBay employees later saw a reference to several, more graphic, pictures, including autopsy photos, available through the same seller. The photos were removed, but not before one was sold.
EBay has since modified its user policy to specify the company has discretion to remove items such as morgue and crime scene photos, Pursglove said.
SACRAMENTO -- Standing beside her adoptive parents, Corina Rose Lange, 3, raised her right hand and said "I do," forsaking her allegiance to China.
Her parents say the swearing-in Friday at the Sacramento Zoo -- one of two children-only naturalization ceremonies in the nation -- marked a fitting finale to the adoption process begun before their daughter was even born.
Thirty-seven flag-waving children from 13 countries took the oath of citizenship at the event. The other children-only ceremony is held in Washington, D.C.