California

Sentence lengthened in SLA bomb case

Former Symbionese Liberation Army member Sara Jane Olson should serve at least five additional years in prison beyond her scheduled 2005 release for her role in a 1975 plot to bomb police cars, a state board ruled Wednesday.

The three-member Board of Prison Terms cited the plot’s potential for harm, its multiple intended victims, its professionalism and Olson’s later flight.

The board, in Chowchilla, scrapped her 5-year, 4-month sentence in favor of a 14-year sentence. She could be out in seven to nine years.

Olson’s attorneys said they would challenge the ruling.

Olson, formerly known as Kathleen Soliah, went underground after the bombing attempt and was captured decades later in 1999 in St. Paul, Minn., where she was living under an assumed name as a doctor’s wife and mother of three.

Los Angeles officials had asked for a sentence commensurate with an act of terrorism. The board invoked a little-used law allowing the recalculation of sentences for old crimes.

Baltimore

Rowhouse fire kills five children, mother

A woman who neighbors said tried to force drug dealers off her street corner was killed, along with five of her children, when fire tore through their home Wednesday.

It was the second fire to strike the corner rowhouse in two weeks, investigators said.

The only survivor of Wednesday’s fire was the woman’s husband, who was critically injured. He suffered third-degree burns and jumped from a second-floor window, fire officials said.

Investigators hadn’t determined late Wednesday what caused the 2:30 a.m. fire.

In the first fire, a “cocktail bomb” was thrown through the kitchen window as the family slept, about the same time as Wednesday’s fire, neighbors said. The woman’s husband woke in time to put out the flames.

CINCINNATI

Procter & Gamble revives Ivory baby ads

www.ivory.com

The Ivory baby is coming back, 30 years after the little bundle of joy was last seen in American advertising.

Procter & Gamble Co., the maker of Ivory soap, is working on a new ad campaign that will reintroduce the baby to a new generation.

The ads first appeared in 1887 and ran into the 1970s. They included a baby sitting in bed cuddling with a mother, a baby waving from a tub and a crawling infant clutching a bar of Ivory. The babies disappeared when P&G decided to aim Ivory ads at other generations in the family.

But buyers of Ivory kept telling P&G they liked the babies, so the company is bringing them back next year.

The company will select a child in a nationwide competition. Parents have until May 12 to submit a photo of their child with a bar of soap, along with a 25-word essay. Children as old as 5 are eligible.

Houston

Continental pilot tested positive for alcohol

A Continental Airlines pilot who was pulled from a flight after an altercation with a federal air marshal tested positive for alcohol, the Federal Aviation Administration said Wednesday.

The marshal notified the airline following the confrontation Tuesday.

The plane was going from Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston to Orlando, Fla., loaded with 154 passengers. The crew, which was coming off an 18-hour rest, was replaced, and the Boeing 737-900 took off 30 minutes late.

The Federal Aviation Administration investigation into the incident is continuing, and the pilot was grounded pending the outcome.

Continental spokeswoman Julie King said alcohol was involved but refused to disclose additional details.