South Carolina: Law opens door for school prayer

Students in South Carolina public schools may be able to lead their classmates in prayer under a law signed this week by Gov. Jim Hodges.

The Student-Led Message Act allows school boards to adopt a policy permitting student-led messages, including prayers or religious messages, at school-sponsored events like graduation and sporting events.

Any such policy would require the speaker be selected by an objective standard, such as class rank. School officials would not be able to review the messages beforehand.

New York City: College Board to vote on overhaul of SAT

Trustees of the College Board are scheduled to vote today on a proposal to revamp the SAT I, a decision that would launch what could be the most significant overhaul in the 76-year history of the nation’s most widely used college admissions exam.

The changes, which observers expect to win approval, would continue the SAT’s evolution from a test that measures students’ aptitude to one that comes closer to assessing how well they learned the material taught in high school.

The proposal would alter the test by adding a writing section that includes a 20- to 30-minute handwritten essay, and by dropping a test of analogies from its verbal section. On the math portion of the test, the trustees are considering adding questions that include higher-level mathematics.

Florida: Miss Cleo takes Fifth

Television psychic Miss Cleo repeatedly invoked her Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination Wednesday, refusing to discuss a birth certificate showing she was born in Los Angeles to American parents.

Miss Cleo, whose real name is Youree Dell Harris and who has claimed to be a Jamaican shaman, was giving a deposition in Fort Lauderdale in a civil suit filed by Florida.

The suit accuses her of deceptive trade practices for her television ads pitching a psychic hot line that charged up to $4.95 a minute.

Washington: ‘Talking’ chimp dies

Moja, one of the “talking” chimps at Central Washington University who communicated with humans by means of sign language, has died at the age of 29 of complications from an abdominal hernia.

Moja died June 6. She was one of five chimps at the Ellensburg university’s Chimpanzee and Human Communication Institute, a sanctuary for adult chimpanzees who communicate using American Sign Language.

Moja’s name means “first” in Swahili.