New Mexico: Patriot missiles off target in test

Engineers spent hours gathering data to determine why two Patriot missiles did not hit their targets during a test Saturday.

The test at White Sands Missile Range in southern New Mexico involved three missiles and three targets. It was designed to simulate a battlefield scenario.

“We had one hit and two misses,” said Pam Rogers, an Army spokeswoman in Huntsville, Ala.

The Army and the Missile Defense Agency fired a Lockheed-Martin PAC-3 missile to intercept a cruise missile target. It missed.

Meanwhile, two Raytheon-developed PAC-2 missiles were launched to intercept a subscale aircraft and a drone emitting radar-jamming signals. The missile trained on the drone hit its target while the other one missed.

CLEVELAND: Another allegation leveled at congressman

A $36,900-a-year congressional aide to U.S. Rep. James A. Traficant Jr. has helped him at his bribery trial by taking notes and handling legal files, The Plain Dealer reported Saturday.

Danette Palmer, who serves as a liaison between the district and Capitol Hill for Traficant, told the newspaper she was doing nothing to help Traficant in his defense. Traficant is not a lawyer but is defending himself in court.

The charges against Traficant include allegations that congressional staff members worked on his horse farm south of Youngstown and on a houseboat he owned in Washington.

Transcripts of discussions among Traficant, prosecutors and U.S. District Judge Lesley Wells show that Palmer helped the congressman by taking notes and handling files.

Tennessee: Fake-license defendant buried after fatal fire

A woman who was charged in a scheme with five Middle Eastern men to sell fraudulent driver’s licenses was remembered Saturday for her good deeds and Christian life.

“We’re not here to remember how she died,” Rev. L.F. Self told about 200 mourners gathered at Great Ebenezer Baptist Church.

Katherine Smith, 49, was found burned to death in a 1992 Acura Legend after it ran off the road Feb. 10. She was scheduled to be arraigned the next day on federal charges of helping the five men from New York obtain the fake driver’s licenses.

“While others are speculating or wondering about what’s in the background … I know how she lived,” Self said. “She was a child of God.”

Smith’s family declined to comment.

Los Angeles: Actor-director Bert Conway dies

Bert Conway, a stage actor and director whose 60-year show business career included work in films and television, died Feb. 7 of heart failure at his home in Mission Hills, Calif. He was 87.

After serving in the Army during World War II, Conway headed for Hollywood, where he played minor parts in William Wyler’s “The Best Years of Our Lives” and Elia Kazan’s interracial drama “Pinky,” and had small roles in other films, including “Dragnet” and “New Orleans.”

Conway began directing in 1947 at the Actors Lab in Hollywood, and he directed the first interracial production of “Golden Boy” for the Negro Art Theater in Los Angeles.