Briefly

Salt Lake City: Police check on report that missing girl sighted

Police said Monday they were investigating a report that a distraught girl about the same age as Elizabeth Smart was spotted in a minivan in Nebraska, possibly being held against her will.

Lincoln, Neb., police issued a nationwide alert of a possible abduction last week after witnesses at a gas station convenience store there reported seeing a crying girl, between 12 and 14, with light hair.

But authorities said they have not connected the sighting to Smart, 14, who disappeared from her home June 5, nor have Salt Lake City police.

Witnesses said the girl stared at the store with tearful eyes until she was pulled over a seat and out of sight.

“They said they saw a pair of arms come from the back and pull her into the back, but nobody got a look at that person,” Lincoln police Sgt. Larry Barksdale said Monday.

San Francisco: Maximum term given for dog-mauling death

Marjorie Knoller was sentenced to the maximum of four years in prison Monday for the dog-mauling death of a neighbor in their apartment building last year. With time served and credit for good behavior, she could be out in about 14 months.

Knoller and her husband, Robert Noel, were convicted in March in the death of Diane Whipple, who was attacked outside her door by the couple’s two huge Presa Canario dogs in January 2001. Noel is already serving a four-year term.

Judge James Warren said Knoller deserved the maximum because she had shown no remorse and had lied under oath in denying that she had seen the two huge dogs bite or menace others.

Knoller, who said nothing in court, also was ordered to pay $6,800 in restitution to Sharon Smith, Whipple’s partner.

Miami: Tropical Storm Arthur forms in Atlantic

The first tropical storm of 2002 formed Monday in the Atlantic Ocean, growing out of the system that soaked South Florida last week.

Tropical Storm Arthur posed no threat to the United States, but forecasters said its birth marked the beginning of the serious phase of the hurricane season.

“You better start paying attention because by the time we get into August or September, this could be a common occurrence,” said forecaster Stacy Stewart of the National Hurricane Center in West Miami-Dade.

Forecasters said Arthur was a strong tropical storm, but it was not expected to intensify beyond the 74 mph threshold of a hurricane. At the moment, it represented a danger only to ships, Stewart said.

California: Homeowner groups can’t ban U.S. flag

It’s official: It’s legal to fly the U.S. flag in California, no matter where you live.

In the aftermath of Sept. 11, many Californians discovered they were prohibited from putting up an American flag because of developer restrictions that forbid lawn ornaments, political statements or architectural changes.

On Monday, Gov. Gray Davis signed legislation that requires homeowner and other common interest developments to allow residents to display Old Glory.

“I understand the intent of a community’s rules and regulations; everyone wants to live in a decent, clean environment,” Davis said in Sacramento. “But when those rules infringe on a homeowner’s basic right of showing their love of the USA, well, then that’s going too far.”

New York City: Martha Stewart’s broker submits phone records

Martha Stewart’s broker handed over phone records Monday to meet a deadline set by congressional investigators looking into the ImClone trading scandal.

The House Energy and Commerce Committee had subpoenaed Peter Bacanovic’s home phone and cell phone records from December, threatening him with contempt of Congress if they weren’t delivered by July 15.

Bacanovic worked at Merrill Lynch & Co. and orchestrated Stewart’s sale of nearly 4,000 shares of ImClone Systems, Inc. on Dec. 27. The stock plummeted the next day after the Food and Drug Administration announced publicly that it would not review the biotech company’s cancer drug Erbitux.