Washington, D.C.

Web site aids trackers of art stolen by Nazis

People searching for art that was stolen by the Nazis have a new tool: a Web site that allows U.S. museum collections to be checked for long-lost pieces.

The Nazi-Era Provenance Internet Portal — www.nepip.org — is a searchable registry for people looking for items that disappeared in Europe between 1932 and 1946. It goes online today.

So far 66 museums have signed up to participate in the program overseen by the American Association of Museums. They include the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and the Chicago Institute of Art. The Web site has indexed 5,761 of their objects and an additional 1,663 are in process.

Florida

Former congressman ‘Mr. Clean’ dies at 92

Charles Bennett, a Florida Democrat who served 44 years in the U.S. House of Representatives and earned the nickname “Mr. Clean” for championing ethical reforms, died Sept. 6 at a nursing center in Jacksonville, Fla. He had a stroke and a heart attack last year. He was 92.

Bennett was elected to the House in 1948, representing the Jacksonville area, and declined to seek re-election in 1992.

His career was underscored by a devotion to reform packages, from political ethics to animal rights, and legislation to help those with disabilities.

A co-sponsor of the Americans With Disabilities Act, he was disabled after contracting polio during World War II, when he was a guerrilla fighter in the Philippines. He spent his years on Capitol Hill using a wheelchair or cane.

Washington, D.C.

NASA plan details needed changes

Seven months after the Columbia tragedy, NASA has come up with a “return to flight” plan — one that envisions a resumption of flights as early as next March.

The 78-page report offers a look at the steps the space agency has been taking since the Feb. 1 accident to comply with the recommendations from the Columbia Accident Investigation Board.

The NASA plan, which will be released today, lists a number of improvements — including ways to better facilitate communication.

To address safety questions, the report said NASA was reviewing ways to harden the shuttle against damage caused by debris impacts, such as the one that doomed Columbia and its seven astronauts.

Space officials also will add a suite of cameras in various locations on the shuttle to get a better idea of any possible damage, according to the report.

Miami

Hurricanes Isabel, Fabian churn in Atlantic

Isabel strengthened from a tropical storm into the fourth Atlantic hurricane of the season Sunday, but forecasters said it was still several days from reaching land.

Hurricane Fabian, meanwhile, was losing strength but gaining speed in the northern Atlantic, two days after plowing through Bermuda. Forecasters monitored the other major Atlantic storm, a tropical depression that passed over Florida on Saturday, to see if would strengthen back into Tropical Storm Henri.

At 4 p.m. CDT, Isabel had maximum sustained winds of 80 mph — above the 74 mph threshold for a hurricane. The storm was 1,510 miles east of the Leeward Islands and moving west-northwest near 15 mph. Forecasters said by today, Isabel was expected to strengthen to a Category 2 hurricane, with winds between 96-110 mph.

Pennsylvania

Licensing sought for trash scavengers

One person’s trash is another’s treasure — reason enough to license trash scavengers, according to the former mayor of the Pittsburgh suburb of Whitehall.

“So much stuff is thrown away today, especially in suburbia,” said 85-year-old Edwin Brennan, whose 14-year tenure in the middle-class borough ended a decade ago. “It’s wasteful to do that.”

Brennan asked the borough council last week to consider licensing a limited number of scavengers who would pay $10 each to scour curbside trash to use or resell. The borough outlawed scavengers after residents complained strangers were going through the garbage.

The licenses are “just to make sure we know who’s out there, so if a patrol car sees a particular vehicle that’s licensed, we know who that guy is,” said police chief William Schmitt.

Maine

Bone, organs found near Bush home

A woman walking along a beach about a mile from former President Bush’s summer home Sunday found what appeared to be body parts on the shore, police said.

Kennebunkport Police contacted the state Medical Examiner’s Office after the discovery. The medical examiner will inspect the items, which include at least one bone and what appeared to be internal organs, said Stephen McCausland, spokesman for the state Public Safety Department. He said it wasn’t immediately known whether they were human.

California

Some progress made in forest wildfire

Aided by relatively mild weather, hundreds of firefighters made slow but steady progress Sunday against a wildfire feeding on an area of dense brush and timber that hadn’t burned in nearly 50 years.

Hundreds of evacuees remained out of their homes because of that and other wildfires in the West.

The fire in the San Bernardino National Forest about 60 miles east of Los Angeles was 30 percent contained Sunday after charring some 1,350 acres, said Georgia Smith, a fire information officer with the U.S. Forest Service.

Temperatures were only in the upper 50s before dawn Saturday, following highs in the 90s Saturday, while humidity rose to above 50 percent, fire information officer Marc Stamer said.