National briefs

By Compiled from Times wires

© St. Petersburg Times, published September 19, 2000

Small plane crashes in Alaska, kills 4

NUIQSUT, Alaska -- A small plane crashed Monday while landing at the Nuiqsut airport on Alaska's North Slope, killing four of the 10 people aboard, authorities said.

Police said the plane crashed about 3 p.m. near the runway of this village north of the Arctic Circle. It went into the tundra and did not hit any buildings, said Paul Carr, chief of the North Slope Borough Police Department.

The six survivors were taken by helicopter to hospitals in Barrow, Fairbanks and Anchorage, Carr said. The identities of those killed were being withheld pending notification of kin.

The twin-engine aircraft belonged to Cape Smythe Air in Barrow. Cape Smythe president Grant Thompson said there were nine passengers and a pilot aboard the Piper 1040.

House passes debt reduction plan

WASHINGTON -- The House voted overwhelmingly on Monday night to commit 90 percent of next year's federal surplus to reduce the national debt and to make it harder to use Medicare or Social Security surpluses for tax cuts or other programs.

The legislation was assembled by Republicans last week in an effort to choke off increased spending during forthcoming budget negotiations with the White House. It also lets Republicans embrace two popular campaign issues -- cutting the debt and protecting Social Security and Medicare -- while blunting Democratic criticism that they are fiscally irresponsible.

After a brief debate, the bill passed, 381-3. The Senate is also expected to approve the measure overwhelmingly.

The legislation calls for setting aside about $240-billion for debt reduction, or about 90 percent of the $268-billion overall surplus the Congressional Budget Office expects in the coming fiscal year, which begins Oct. 1. That includes the entire projected Social Security and Medicare surpluses, plus an additional $42-billion.

In Washington . . .

DEUTCH INQUIRY: The Pentagon was alerted in the summer of 1998 that former CIA Director John Deutch downloaded defense secrets to unsecured personal computers and was urged to assess the damage. But documents obtained by the Associated Press show it waited until February to begin investigating.

Among those who were told that the CIA was recommending a Pentagon damage assessment was Defense Secretary William Cohen.

Rear Adm. Craig Quigley, a spokesman for Cohen, said the secretary did not act in 1998 because the Pentagon was "not in possession of any documentation from the CIA's investigative efforts." He said that when information was turned over last February, Cohen ordered the inquiry now under way.

BIAS ALLEGED: Nuclear scientist Wen Ho Lee was the victim of the same type of racial profiling that sent Japanese-Americans to internment camps during World War II, Asian-American civic leaders told a presidential commission Monday.

Chicken and turkey franks being recalled

WASHINGTON -- A Plant City company is recalling 40,000 pounds of chicken and turkey franks that may be undercooked, the Agriculture Department said Monday. They should be returned to the place of purchase.

The franks, made by Lykes Meat Group of Plant City, were sold in Florida and other states.

The franks, sold under the names Smithfield and Fairgrounds, were produced Aug. 14 and bear "P-2653" on the label. No illnesses have been associated with the product, USDA said.

The products and the identifying codes are:

Fairgrounds "jumbo franks," code dated 227002A, for use by Oct. 23.

Smithfield "grill ready chicken franks," code dated 227002A, for use by Oct. 13.

Smithfield "premium hot dogs," code dated 227002B, for use by Oct. 13 or Oct. 23.

N.H. opens impeachment trial of chief justice

CONCORD, N.H. -- The New Hampshire Senate opened the state's first-ever impeachment trial Monday, sitting as a jury to hear charges against state Supreme Court Chief Justice David Brock.

The House voted in July to impeach Brock, 64, a high court justice since 1981 and chief justice since 1986.

The House accused Brock of lying to its investigators, making an improper call to a lower-court judge in 1987, soliciting comments from then-Justice Stephen Thayer about Thayer's own divorce case in February, and routinely allowing judges to comment on cases from which they were disqualified for conflicts of interest.

United Way national chief resigns in power struggle

Betty S. Beene resigned Monday night as president of the United Way of America as it grappled with its worst crisis since 1992, when a former president was found to be stealing funds.

Beene announced her resignation to the United Way of America's executive board as it met behind closed doors in Alexandria, Va., to deal with a power struggle with a number of large United Ways, including those in San Francisco, Chicago, Boston and Washington, over a national pledge-processing center.

Also . . .

OFFICE SHOOTING: A man whose disability claim had been denied walked into a Social Security office in Sacramento, Calif., on Monday and fatally shot a security guard before surrendering, police said. A bystander was wounded.

KILLER CONVICTED: A drifter who has allegedly confessed to a dozen slayings across the country was convicted in Del Rio, Texas, on Monday of killing a 13-year-old girl New Year's Eve. Tommy Lynn Sells, 36, was convicted of capital murder and faces life in prison or lethal injection.

HEALTH CARE STRIKE: Hundreds of nurses and other Sacramento County, Calif., health workers went on strike for higher wages Monday, closing at least one clinic.

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