New York

Inductee killed at Masonic ceremony

A man was killed during a Masonic initiation ceremony when another member fired a gun loaded with real bullets instead of the expected blanks and shot him in the face, police said Tuesday.

A 76-year-old man alleged to have fired the shot was charged with manslaughter.

William James, 47, was shot while participating in an induction Monday night at the Southside Masonic Lodge in Patchogue.

Detective Lt. Jack Fitzpatrick said the ritual that went “tragically wrong” involved making a loud noise to frighten the new member.

The lieutenant said the Masons sat James in a chair and placed cans on a small platform around his head.

The alleged shooter, Albert Eid, was standing approximately 20 feet away holding a gun, Fitzpatrick said. When the gun was fired, a man who had been holding a stick out of sight was supposed to knock the cans off the platform to make the inductee think they had been struck by bullets, he said.

Colorado

Satellite service loses Viacom channels

EchoStar Communications Corp. pulled the plug on CBS programs in more than a dozen cities Tuesday and dropped MTV, Nickelodeon and other cable channels from its satellite network over a fee dispute with Viacom.

As many as 9 million satellite customers in all 50 states lost the Viacom-owned cable networks, and 1.6 million of them also lost their local CBS station, which could threaten their ability to watch among other things the NCAA men’s basketball tournament, which begins next week.

Customers hoping to watch the disrupted channels instead saw a message accusing Viacom of asking for an unreasonable rate increase that would result in higher monthly satellite bills for EchoStar’s DISH Network customers.

Baltimore

Second person dies in water taxi accident

A second person has died as a result of the weekend capsizing of a water taxi in Baltimore Harbor, and recovery crews spent another day Tuesday trying to find the bodies of three people still missing.

The 36-foot pontoon boat overturned Saturday near Fort McHenry when a sudden thunderstorm struck the harbor with wind gusts of up to 55 mph, throwing all 25 people on board into the chilly water.

The woman who died Monday evening, Lisa Pierce, 30, was the daughter of another victim, JoAnn Pierce, 60, of Cumberland County, N.J.

New Orleans

Rep. Billy Tauzin battles intestinal cancer

Rep. Billy Tauzin was diagnosed with a rare form of intestinal cancer, but the Louisiana Republican is confident he will recover, his spokesman said Tuesday.

The cancer was found in the upper small intestine during tests at Johns Hopkins Hospital, where he will undergo surgery next week, Ken Johnson said.

Tauzin, 60, had been suffering from bleeding ulcers for a while and had suspected cancer, Johnson said.

Tauzin recently announced that he would not seek re-election after 24 years in Congress.

Kansas City, Mo.

Request withdrawn for abortion records

The Justice Department has withdrawn a request for the medical records of women who received abortions through the Kansas City affiliate of Planned Parenthood.

Last month, the department subpoenaed the records of about 1,000 patients of six Planned Parenthood agencies as part of its defense of the Partial-Birth Abortion Act. Affiliates in western Pennsylvania, San Diego, Los Angeles, New York City and the Washington area also were subpoenaed.

The Planned Parenthood Federation of America is contesting a law, signed in November by President Bush, that bans certain abortion procedures performed late in pregnancy.

Justice Department lawyers have said they needed the medical records to test Planned Parenthood’s claim that the abortion procedure was medically necessary and to assess its safety.

Washington, D.C.

Senate panel votes to raise indecency fines

Congress is inching closer to making it much more expensive for a radio or TV station to air something indecent.

The Senate Commerce Committee, following its House counterpart, voted Tuesday to increase the fine for indecent programming from $27,500 to $500,000.

Lawmakers appear eager to crack down on what critics say is increasingly coarse programming airing during hours when children can hear and see it. The rallying point was last month’s racy Super Bowl halftime show that ended with singer Justin Timberlake exposing Janet Jackson’s breast to 90 million viewers.

The indecency rules prohibit over-the-air radio and TV stations from airing material that refers to sexual and excretory functions between 6 a.m. and 10 p.m., when children may be tuned in.

Sen. Sam Brownback, R-Kan., is a sponsor of the bill.