Chief seeks help in quelling violence

PHILADELPHIA - The city's embattled police chief, acknowledging that police alone cannot quell a run of deadly violence, has called on 10,000 black men to patrol the streets to reduce crime. Sylvester Johnson, who is black, says black men have a duty to protect more vulnerable residents. He wants each volunteer to pledge to work three hours a day for at least 90 days. The program's backers include Dennis Muhammad, a former Nation of Islam official who has been hired by police departments in Detroit, Syracuse, N.Y., and other cities to conduct community-sensitivity training. Philadelphia, the nation's sixth-largest city, has 1.5 million residents, 44 percent of them black. It has had 294 homicides this year. More than 80 percent of the slayings involve handguns, and most involve young black males. (AP)

WASHINGTON - The Environmental Protection Agency will finish 24 Superfund toxic waste cleanups this year, falling short of the 40 sites targeted. Among the most common contaminants at the sites are asbestos, lead, mercury, and radiation. Representative John Dingell, a Michigan Democrat who heads the House Energy and Commerce Committee, blamed the Bush administration's efforts to cut EPA spending for slowing the pace of cleanups. In February, Bush proposed cutting EPA's budget for next year by almost 5 percent, to $7.1 billion. But he also proposed a slight increase in the Superfund program, to $1.24 billion. (AP)

KANSAS CITY - The mother of a 3-year-old girl who was decapitated and for years was known as "Precious Doe" pleaded guilty yesterday to second-degree murder in her death. Michelle Johnson, 31, of Muskogee, Okla., also pleaded guilty to child endangerment, abandoning a corpse, and tampering with evidence. As part of the plea agreement, Johnson will testify against her husband, Harrell Johnson, who is charged with first-degree murder, officials said. Prosecutors allege Harrell Johnson was high on drugs when he kicked his stepdaughter, Erica Michelle Marie Green, because she wouldn't go to bed. They say he left her to die and later decapitated her. (AP)

LOS ANGELES - Orange County's Roman Catholic bishop testified that he was falsely accused of sexually molesting a male parishioner when he was a priest in Bakersfield decades ago, according to a transcript made public yesterday. Bishop Tod Brown testified this week in a court-ordered deposition as part of an unrelated sexual abuse lawsuit. Brown was praised in 2004 when he settled about 90 sexual abuse lawsuits against the Diocese of Orange for $100 million, the largest settlement at the time. At the time, Brown released a "Convenant of the Faithful," in which he pledged transparency and accountability in matters of clergy sexual abuse.