Florida

Schiavo’s husband says money motivating in-laws

The husband seeking to end his severely brain-damaged wife’s life said Monday his in-laws had set out to block his actions because they initially wanted part of a medical malpractice settlement and more recently because of right-to-life causes.

In his first interview since the latest round of legal fighting in the case, Michael Schiavo said on CNN’s “Larry King Live” that he continued to fight to end his wife’s life because her wishes were not to be kept alive artificially.

“He’s always wanted the money,” Schiavo said of his father-in-law, Bob Schindler. “He wants the money. He wants the control.”

Terri Schiavo, 39, has been in a persistent vegetative state since 1990 when a chemical imbalance, brought on by an eating disorder, caused her heart to stop and deprived her brain of oxygen.

Her parents, Bob and Mary Schindler, believe their daughter could be rehabilitated and do not believe she had any wishes to not be kept on life support.

New York City

Kansans meet resistance during anti-gay protest

Hundreds stood outside Mepham High School yesterday to blast a handful of out-of-town picketers who said teaching tolerance of gays led to a football hazing incident.

The picketers — eight family members from a church in Topeka, Kan., gathered on the sidewalk in front of the Bellmore school at 7 a.m. waving anti-gay signs, including one that read “God Hates Fags.”

“When you teach children that it’s okay to indulge in any kind of sex act that they like … that it’s okay to be gay, it is inevitable that they will end up being violent and doing things that they shouldn’t,” Margie Phelps said.

Mepham High School has been in the national spotlight since three members of its varsity football team were accused of sodomizing younger players with objects as part of a hazing ritual.

One of the picketers carried a sign reading, “Thank God for Sept. 11th” in front of the 400 counterdemonstrators.

New York City

New York Times names ombudsman after Blair fiasco

The New York Times has named its first ombudsman, filling a position announced three months ago after an internal probe of the Jayson Blair scandal.

Daniel Okrent, a former editor of Life magazine and of Time Inc.’s new media operations, will oversee coverage, review reader complaints and write a periodic column in the newspaper, the Times said in an article in Monday editions.

Okrent will fill the position — officially called “public editor” — for an 18-month term beginning Dec. 1.

The paper created the position and two other masthead-level jobs in July, acting on recommendations of a committee formed after the Blair debacle. The Times had published three dozen stories by Blair that were false, plagiarized or inaccurate.