New Jersey

‘Melissa’ virus creator sentenced to prison

The creator of the “Melissa” computer virus was sentenced Wednesday in Newark to 20 months in federal prison for causing millions of dollars of damage by disrupting e-mail systems worldwide in 1999.

David L. Smith, 33, pleaded guilty in December 1999 to a state charge of computer theft and to a federal charge of sending a damaging computer program. In the federal plea, both sides agreed the damage was greater than $80 million.

The Melissa virus, which struck in March 1999, was disguised as an e-mail marked “important message” from a friend or colleague. It automatically spread like a chain letter by causing each infected computer to send 50 additional infected messages.

Texas

Chemical plant fire forces evacuations

A series of explosions rocked a chemical plant and sent flames hundreds of feet into the sky early Wednesday, prompting authorities to evacuate about 100 people from their homes in Pearland. No injuries were reported but one house was destroyed.

Residents near Third Coast Packaging were awakened when their windows were rattled by the blasts at the plant, which packages and labels chemicals and includes a tank farm for storage.

The explosions were heard up to five miles from the plant and flames were seen more than 10 miles away, witnesses said. Pearland is about 20 miles southeast of Houston.

A check for toxic chemicals showed no such substances were involved.

Florida

Superfund site runoff taints drinking supply

Central Florida’s main source of drinking water contains traces of a potentially toxic chemical leaking from a former Superfund cleanup site, officials said.

Environmental Protection Agency officials hope to identify the pollutant in the coming weeks and determine its health risk.

The substance, composed of pesticide molecules long classified as toxic, seeped into the ground below the abandoned Tower Chemical Co. plant, roughly a dozen miles west of Orlando. The pollutant then traveled through a sinkhole 90 feet underground into the Floridan Aquifer, from which most of the region draws its drinking water.

Washington, D.C.

T-ball season opens Sunday at White House

Play ball! It’s T-ball season at the White House again.

Presidential spokesman Ari Fleischer said Wednesday that two Little League teams would square off Sunday on the South Lawn of the White House.

President Bush will be on hand to watch the Sluggers from Uniondale, N.Y., face the 6&11 Sluggers from Trenton, N.J. The teams were originally scheduled to play each other Sept. 16, but the game was postponed because of the terrorist strikes five days earlier.