Minnesota

Senator diagnosed with ‘mild’ form of M.S.

U.S. Sen. Paul Wellstone, D-Minn., said Sunday that he was recently diagnosed as having a mild form of multiple sclerosis.

Wellstone, who long has suffered back pain from an old injury as a collegiate wrestler, said he had been experiencing weakness in his right leg and that it was diagnosed about a month ago as multiple sclerosis.

Wellstone, a candidate for reelection, said the neurological disease has not affected his ability to work long hours and will not impair his ability to campaign or to serve another six years in the Senate.

Wellstone said people have been asking him with increasing frequency about a limp.

“I can no longer say it is a wrestling injury because it’s not,” Wellstone said. “It’s a mild form of M.S.”

New York

Murder charge filed in biker’s death

An alleged member of the Hells Angels was charged with killing another biker, a member of a rival gang, during fighting at a motorcycle and tattoo expo called the Hellraiser Ball.

More than 70 other people were in custody. At least 10 others were injured in Saturday’s free-for-all in Plainview, including four wounded by gunfire.

Authorities said the violence broke out when about 100 Pagans in a fleet of 10 vans showed up at the ball, an annual event sponsored by the Hells Angels’ Long Island chapter.

The Pagans invaded the hall wielding bats, knives, brass knuckles and other weapons, authorities said.

Authorities charged Raymond G. Dwyer, 38, of Oceanside, with second-degree murder in the shooting of Robert Rutherford, a purported Pagan member. Rutherford, 51, of Lancaster, Pa., died during surgery at North Shore University Hospital.