Jonestown survivor wins House seat

April 10, 2008

SACRAMENTO - Former state lawmaker Jackie Speier, a survivor of the Jonestown tragedy three decades ago, won a special congressional election to fill the seat of the late representative Tom Lantos. With her win Tuesday, Speier, 57, avoided a runoff in the contest to replace the 14-term congressman, who died in February. Speier, a former state assemblywoman and senator, also plans to seek a full term in 12th Congressional District later this year. In 1978 Speier, an aide to Representative Leo Ryan, went to Guyana to investigate claims that Peoples Temple leader Jim Jones was holding followers against their will at the California-based group's Jonestown compound in the South American country. An ambush at the Jonestown airstrip left Ryan and four others dead and Speier severely wounded. Jones and more than 900 followers then committed mass murder-suicide, drinking cyanide-poisoned punch. (AP)

NEW YORK - A livery driver who was hailed as a hero, then charged as a criminal, for leaving a baby girl at a firehouse will have his case dismissed if he stays out of trouble for the next six months, prosecutors said yesterday. Klever Sailema, 44, made headlines after he took 6-month-old Daniella to the Queens firehouse in February. He initially told investigators that a nervous-looking man got into his cab carrying the baby and a diaper bag, then disappeared after asking him to pull over so he could make a phone call. Two days later, police declared Sailema had made it up and had plotted with his girlfriend - Daniella's aunt - to get rid of the baby. The baby's mother is a 14-year-old runaway from Baltimore, officials said. (AP)

The pilot who steered a freighter into the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge last fall, causing a huge oil spill, had a drunken driving conviction and a history of alcohol abuse and took numerous prescription drugs that could have impaired his judgment, federal investigators said yesterday. Captain John Cota had regularly received waivers allowing him to keep his license, despite a long list of illnesses, including glaucoma, depression, kidney stones, migraines, pancreatitis, and sleep apnea, according to testimony at a National Transportation Safety Board hearing. (AP)

MIAMI - The Colorado State University hurricane research team predicted yesterday that 15 tropical storms would form during the coming Atlantic storm season, of which eight would strengthen into hurricanes. The team founded by forecasting pioneer Bill Gray increased its outlook by two tropical storms and one hurricane over its last outlook, issued in December. The Colorado State team, now led by Gray protege Phil Klotzbach, predicted in December that the six-month season beginning on June 1 would produce 13 tropical storms, of which seven would eventually become hurricanes. (Reuters)