Massachusetts

Probation ordered for fatal warehouse fire

A formerly homeless couple who accidentally started a Worcester warehouse blaze that killed six firefighters will serve no jail time under an agreement reached Thursday.

Thomas Levesque, 39, and Julie King, 22, were sentenced to five years of probation but maintained their innocence of involuntary manslaughter charges. If they stay out of trouble during that time, the charges will be dropped from their records.

King and Levesque started the December 1999 fire when they knocked over a candle while fighting in the abandoned warehouse where they were living. The couple fled the burning building without reporting it, authorities said.

LOS ANGELES

Spielberg to collect bachelor’s degree

Steven Spielberg’s got five honorary doctorates, the latest one received Monday from Yale.

But during the fall semester of 2001, the Oscar-winning movie director wrote a term paper for his Natural Science 492 class at California State University, Long Beach, fulfilling a general education requirement to earn the one credential missing from his astonishing resume: bachelor of arts, with an option in Film/Video Production.

Now today, 33 years after he dropped out, Spielberg plans to wear a $40 cap and gown his staff rented from the campus bookstore, sit among some 500 graduates of the College of Arts and, when his name is called, walk across the stage to receive his diploma.

WASHINGTON

Coast Guard leader changing federal jobs

On the day he retired as commandant of the Coast Guard, Adm. James Loy was named chief operating officer of the new Transportation Security Administration.

Loy will serve as deputy undersecretary for transportation security, second in command to John Magaw, the former head of the Secret Service and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, who is running the security agency.

Transportation Secretary Norman Y. Mineta made the announcement Thursday after a ceremony at Fort McNair, where Loy turned over command to Adm. Thomas Collins.

California

Gunman opens fire in grocery store

A gunman opened fire Thursday inside a Long Beach grocery store, killing two people and wounding four others before he was shot by police, authorities said.

Officers responding to a call of shots fired at a Top Valu Market near the downtown marina found the gunman inside, said police spokeswoman Nancy Tabing. The officers opened fire, striking the gunman, she said.

Two victims died at the scene; the others were hospitalized in stable condition. The gunman was hospitalized in critical condition, Tabing said.

WASHINGTON

Bush continues Crusader opposition

President Bush pressed his plan to cancel the Army’s $11 billion Crusader artillery system by proposing to Congress new ways to spend the $475 million he initially sought for the program in the 2003 budget year.

The Army would keep all $475 million, with 94 percent devoted to artillery and precision-strike efforts. The rest would be spent on a new engine for the Abrams tank.

The Crusader was planned as a 40-ton, self-propelled cannon designed to rain 155 mm shells every six seconds on enemy forces. The only one built so far weighs 60 tons.

Critics contend it is too big and unwieldy to fit in with the Army’s plans for a lighter, faster and more mobile force.

Supporters say it would save soldiers’ lives by hitting enemy forces before they are within striking range of U.S. troops.