Path: bloom-picayune.mit.edu!enterpoop.mit.edu!snorkelwacker.mit.edu!americast.com!americast.com!americast-post Newsgroups: americast.twt.news From: americast-post@AmeriCast.Com Organization: American Cybercasting Approved: americast-post@AmeriCast.com Subject: Headline Article Date: Thu, 26 Nov 92 15:00:28 EST Message-ID: Lines: 231 \SE A;TOP OF THE NEWS;NATION \BY FROM WIRE DISPATCHES AND STAFF REPORTS S=NEW STORY Judge approves sweepstakes settlement NEWARK, N.J. - Millions of people got another chance to win the Publishers Clearing House sweepstakes yesterday when a judge approved a settlement in a lawsuit filed after unopened sweepstakes forms were found in the trash. "People want to invest in a dream," Superior Court Judge Murray Simon said. "Somebody has to win, and if you're not entered, you can't win." Under the settlement, those who failed to return a contest form they received between Feb. 10 and Oct. 7 will be entered into the drawing. Jeffrey Herrmann, attorney for the plaintiffs, said 60 million forms were returned, and now 40 million more can enter. Publishers Clearing House attorney William Maderer said the settlement reaffirms the company's "long-standing reputation for integrity." S=NEW STORY Doomed foghorns win a reprieve SAN FRANCISCO - San Franciscans who miss the deep boom of the foghorns reverberating across the bay may soon be hearing that familiar sound again. A San Francisco politician claimed victory yesterday in her battle to win a reprieve for the noisy old foghorns, which recently disappeared from the city after 135 years. Annemarie Conroy, a member of the city's Board of Supervisors, and other concerned citizens caused an uproar earlier this month when the U.S. Coast Guard took down the last working foghorns on Alcatraz Island. The Coast Guard replaced them with electronic alarms, which they say are much more efficient as navigational aids. Miss Conroy said yesterday that her talks with Rear Adm. Marshall Gilbert, the local Coast Guard commander, produced a tentative plan to put a foghorn on Alcatraz Island maintained with private funding. S=NEW STORY HIV-infected man guilty of attempted murder PORTLAND, Ore. - A man accused of trying to give AIDS to a 17-year-old girl through unprotected sex was found guilty yesterday of attempted murder. Alberto Gonzalez, 28, also was found guilty of attempted assault, delivery of marijuana and contributing to the sexual delinquency of a minor. The girl, now 18, testified that she had unprotected sex with Gonzalez in 1990. She has tested negative for the AIDS virus. Gonzalez reportedly learned he was HIV-positive in 1988, but he has not developed AIDS. S=NEW STORY Alaska pipeline group settles Valdez case JUNEAU, Alaska - The operator of the trans-Alaska oil pipeline will pay Alaska and the federal government $32 million to settle lawsuits over its failure to respond quickly to the Exxon Valdez spill, officials said yesterday. Alyeska Pipeline Service Co., a consortium of oil companies formed to operate the trans-Alaska oil pipeline and terminal at Valdez, was the agency charged with the initial cleanup response to the disastrous 1989 spill in Prince William Sound. The settlement, approved by U.S. District Judge H. Russel Holland in Anchorage, brings to an end the governments' litigation surrounding the nation's worst oil spill, state Attorney General Charlie Cole said. The governments settled their litigation against Exxon Corp., owner of the tanker Exxon Valdez, for a record $1 billion last year. S=NEW STORY FDA to review contact lens safety Federal safety officials said yesterday they were reviewing the safety of extended-wear contact lenses, worn by about 2 million Americans, based on studies that wearers are at risk of a serious eye infection. The Food and Drug Administration said it is inspecting all three manufacturers of disposable lenses to make sure there are not manufacturing problems that might result in defects. Extended-wear lenses are contacts that can be worn day and night for one to seven days before they are removed, cleaned and disinfected. Daily-wear lenses must be removed and disinfected daily. Another type, the disposable lens, is an extended-wear lens that can be worn for one to seven days and discarded. Researchers at Johns Hopkins University's Wilmer Eye Insitute reported earlier this month that the risk of a serious eye infection called ulcerative keratitis was found 14 times more often among disposable-lens wearers than among wearers of daily-use contacts. S=NEW STORY George jury recesses until next week The jury in the second Iran-Contra trial of former CIA official Clair George recessed yesterday until next Tuesday after failing for the fourth day to reach a verdict. The eight women and four men are trying to determine if Mr. George, 62, is guilty of lying to congressional committees and a federal grand jury about his knowledge of the Reagan administration's arms-for-hostages deal with Iran in 1985-86 and use of some of the funds to aid the Nicaraguan Contras. The jury has been considering the case since last Friday after four weeks of testimony. S=NEW STORY USDA to fly in political appointees The Agriculture Department is flying dozens of employees into Washington next week to talk about closing field offices. But Sen. Patrick Leahy, Vermont Democrat and Agriculture Committee chairman, called the plans "11th-hour political grandstanding" and a waste of taxpayers' money. USDA spokesman Roger Runningen said he had no idea how much it will cost to bring in 250 employees from every state for Monday's meeting. Many are political appointees who will be replaced after President-elect Bill Clinton is sworn in Jan. 20. S=NEW STORY Judge says marshal was harassed A deputy U.S. marshal was harassed and unfairly disciplined at work because he is white and Jewish, a federal judge ruled yesterday. Deputy Marshal Robert S. Turner was subjected to repeated comments about his religion, such as a supervisor's "joke" about the Holocaust referring to Germany's high gas bills during World War II, U.S. District Judge Charles R. Richey said. Mr. Turner and other white deputies assigned to D.C. Superior Court were referred to as "white boys" and one black deputy said they worked in a "black office, for blacks, supervised by blacks," Judge Richey wrote. The harassment created a hostile working environment prohibited by federal civil rights law, the judge said, ruling in Mr. Turner's civil lawsuit against the Marshals Service. Mr. Turner was assigned to Superior Court in April 1989. Judge Richey ordered the service to see that such harassment is halted. S=NEW STORY Donation proposed to end Indian dispute The Bush administration yesterday approved a proposed settlement of a bitter century-old American Indian land dispute that gives nearly 400,000 acres of public land in Arizona to the Hopi tribe. The agreement, which must still be approved by Congress, would end one of the West's most intense and longstanding quarrels between Indian tribes over ancestral land rights. The dispute between the Hopis and Navajos in northeastern Arizona dates back to the 1880s. "We cannot pass up this once-in-a-century opportunity to settle this bitter dispute," Interior Secretary Manuel Lujan said in a statement announcing the land deal that involves two large, separate areas near Flagstaff, Ariz. S=NEW STORY 1 dead, 12 hurt in commuter-rail crash LOS ANGELES - The first accident on a month-old commuter rail system killed a driver whose city trash truck was struck at an unmarked crossing by a Metrolink train yesterday. One train car derailed and was scorched by a flash fire on impact, said fire Capt. Steve Ruda. Twelve commuters were hurt slightly on the train, which was carrying about 75 passengers through the San Fernando Valley from Santa Clarita to downtown. The derailed double-deck car was one of three being pushed by an engine, Capt. Ruda said. S=NEW STORY Principal eats 'book' after pupils read ROY, Utah - Principal Bill Lythgoe ate a book, just as he promised he would if his elementary school pupils read more than 100,000 pages. It helped that the book was made of gingerbread, licorice and won-ton wrappers formed into the shape of a novel. Students read more than double the agreed-upon pages, forcing Mr. Lythgoe to eat up at an assembly Monday at Lakeview Elementary. Third-grader Dalton Rosenberg said he would like to eat a book. "It looked good," he said. But Mr. Lythgoe said the novel was a bit unsettling. "This stuff is starting to react in my stomach," he said. This article is copyright 1992 The Washington Times. Redistribution to other sites is not permitted except by arrangement with American Cybercasting Corporation. For more information, send-email to usa@AmeriCast.COM