$95m deal to preserve Hearst coastal area
CALIFORNIA
SAN FRANCISCO -- One of the largest land-conservation deals in California history became final yesterday, when the state and two private groups closed on a $95 million agreement to preserve the nearly pristine stretch of coastal rangeland that surrounds Hearst Castle. Nearly all the 82,000-acre Hearst Ranch about 200 miles north of Los Angeles will remain undeveloped, while 13 miles of coastline that has been privately held for generations will transfer to the state for public access, state officials said. (AP)
NORTH CAROLINA
Mud-wrestling soldier said to face discharge
RALEIGH -- A military police private who bared her breasts during a mud-wrestling party at an Army camp in Iraq is being kicked out of the service, her grandmother said yesterday. Luci Tomlin said 19-year-old Private First Class Deanna Allen was being singled out since photos of the event were published earlier this month. ''She got caught up in the moment and didn't realize the repercussions," Tomlin said in a telephone interview. Allen was initially demoted from specialist after the photos surfaced from the Oct. 30 party at the Camp Bucca detention center in Iraq. Major Richard Patterson, a spokesman for the 18th Airborne Corps at Fort Bragg, declined to comment on whether Allen was being ousted. Allen said in an e-mail she was being separated from the military. (AP)
Impact study required for Navy airfield plan
RALEIGH -- A federal judge yesterday blocked the Navy from working on a proposed landing field in eastern North Carolina until it completes environmental impact studies for the site. Judge Terrence Boyle of the US Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit agreed with environmentalists and local officials that work should be halted while the Navy takes another look at how the field would affect the nearby Pocosin Lakes National Wildlife Refuge, winter home to tens of thousands of swans, geese, and other birds. The Navy wants to build the landing field to give new F/A-18 Super Hornet jets a place to practice aircraft carrier takeoffs and landings. It argued at a hearing last month that the facility is crucial to national security. (AP)
TEXAS
$5.7m deal reported in drug framing case
DALLAS -- The city will pay about $5.7 million to settle lawsuits brought by 16 people who were jailed after paid police informants planted bogus drugs on them, two attorneys said yesterday. The settlements cover more than half of the 24 plaintiffs, mostly Mexican immigrants, who sued over the 2001 arrests. Plaintiffs' attorney Don Tittle said 12 of his 19 clients reached settlements totaling about $4.5 million. Another plaintiffs' attorney, Tony Wright, said his four clients settled for about $1.2 million. The settlements ranged from $120,000 for a client who spent one day in jail to $480,000 for a client jailed for months, he said. Informants planted packages of billiard chalk and other legal substances on people to frame them. (AP)
FLORIDA
NASA sets May 15 as shuttle launch date
MELBOURNE -- NASA has set May 15 as the launch date for the first shuttle mission since the Columbia accident two years ago, the agency said yesterday. The board that investigated the 2003 Columbia accident, which killed seven astronauts, recommended NASA make 15 changes before resuming shuttle flights. A special panel overseeing implementation of the accident board's findings said Thursday that NASA fulfilled seven recommendations fully and one conditionally. May 15 was chosen as the launch date for Discovery and its seven-member crew because of lighting conditions and thermal issues related to the shuttle's launch and docking at the International Space Station. (Reuters)
