National briefs

Compiled from Times wires

© St. Petersburg Times, published December 3, 2000

Attica riot settlement on way to inmates

AUBURN, N.Y. -- More than a quarter of a century after the deadly Attica prison riots, $8-million in settlement checks are on their way to hundreds of inmates injured in the uprising.

Federal officials said Friday that checks for between $6,500 and $125,000, depending on the severity of the inmate's injuries, had been mailed to 502 Attica inmates or their surviving relatives.

The 1971 Attica uprising was the country's deadliest prison riot. Thirty-two inmates and 11 prison employees were killed, all but four shot to death when state police retook the prison in western New York after a four-day standoff.

In their civil suit, surviving inmates claimed they were brutally beaten by authorities in the hours and days after the retaking.

New York state in January agreed to pay the inmates $8-million and their lawyers $4-million in fees, although it denied any wrongdoing.

Charlotte board rejects school choice plan

CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- The School Board voted to reject a race-neutral plan on where it assigns students, a day after a federal appeals court said the district has vestiges of segregation.

The Charlotte-Mecklenburg County School Board had passed the race-neutral, family-choice plan in June to be used next fall if the federal appeals court had lifted current desegregation practices.

Board members met into the evening hours Friday before defeating, 5-4, the race-neutral plan and voting later, again 5-4, to assign students under the plan used since 1997.

"A choice plan will resegregate this community," board member Vilma Leake said. "I want to know how we can provide equity and equality for all our children."

Tour bus-truck crash in Ohio kills 4, injures 7

TIPP CITY, Ohio -- A tour bus returning from a gambling trip crashed into a pickup truck on an icy section of Interstate 75, killing four people and injuring at least seven others.

Miami County Sheriff Charles Cox said the pickup apparently slid into the path of the bus about 8:30 p.m. Friday.

Four of the five people in the pickup were killed, and the fifth was in critical condition Saturday, authorities said. All were between the ages of 17 and 23.

Six bus passengers were taken to Upper Valley Medical Center in Troy, but none of their injuries appeared life-threatening. Hospital spokeswoman Becky Rice said most of the injuries involved cuts, bruises, broken bones and neck and back injuries. Two people remained hospitalized Saturday.

The wreck had jammed the door to the bus, forcing rescuers to free passengers through the windows by stretcher.

The Econotravel bus was returning to the Detroit area after a four-night trip to a Tunica, Miss., casino.

Moderate earthquakes shake California

Moderate earthquakes occurred Saturday morning in both northern and southern California, with the Donner Pass area near Lake Tahoe the hardest hit, the U.S. Geological Survey reported.

A magnitude 4.8 temblor at 7:34 a.m., centered 13 miles west of Truckee, was the strongest of nine quakes felt near Donner Pass.

None of Saturday's quakes, all in mountainous areas, caused either damage or injuries.

A few hours earlier, at 12:28 a.m., a magnitude 4.1 temblor shook the seismically active Big Bear area in the mountains northeast of Los Angeles.

Sotheby's to auction off Jefferson document

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. -- Sotheby's will auction off an 1817 document in which Thomas Jefferson outlines plans to build the University of Virginia.

The 15-page document is expected to fetch $300,000 to $500,000 when it goes on the auction block Dec. 13 at Sotheby's in New York, the auction house said.

Jefferson sent the manuscript Sept. 9, 1817, several years after his presidency, to Joseph Carrington Cabell, a Virginia state lawmaker and supporter of the movement for public education. The university was founded two years later.

In the document, Jefferson outlined steps for forming an independent public school system free of religious influence. Jefferson also made provisions for founding other state colleges, recommended scholarship programs and outlined the maintenance of the school system.

Cabell's descendants have consigned the document for sale.

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