Oregon

DJs fired after playing audiotape of beheading

Two disc jockeys were fired after playing an audiotape of the beheading of American Nick Berg by Iraqi militants, and cracking jokes about the grisly death.

Listeners called the radio station to complain after hearing Berg’s bloodcurdling screams in the broadcast of the tape, followed by the DJs laughing and playing musical accompaniments.

The DJs, known as Marconi and Tiny, were fired Thursday from their morning show perch at Portland’s KNRK-FM, which is owned by Pennsylvania-based Entercom Communications Corp. Their producer, known as “Nickie J,” also was fired. Station employees would not release the legal names of the three.

Oklahoma

Thief takes 2 1/2 tons of used cooking grease

A thief has slipped away with nearly 5,000 pounds of used cooking grease bound for recycling.

Authorities say the grease from three Edmond restaurants has a resale value of about $380. The latest theft occurred sometime between Monday night and Tuesday morning, police said.

Police think the thief is someone familiar with the restaurant industry and is looking to turn in the grease for the recycling value, police spokeswoman Glynda Chu said.

DETROIT

Two sentenced to jail for defacing monument

Two white men who threw white paint on a landmark sculpture of boxer Joe Louis’ fist were sentenced Friday to 30 days in jail for a crime that raised suspicions of racism.

Brett Cashman, 45, and John T. Price, 27, also were ordered to serve 18 months on probation and pay $1,000 each for malicious destruction of property.

The damage to the 8,000-pound sculpture of the black boxing great’s arm and fist was discovered Feb. 23. At the statue’s base were pictures of two white police officers killed the week before, with the words “Courtesy of Fighting Whities.”

Cashman and Price have said they targeted the 24-foot sculpture because of its violent imagery, not as a racist act.

Georgia

911 operator convicted of poisoning husband

A jury convicted a former 911 operator of murder Friday in the 1995 poisoning death of her husband, whose body was exhumed after it was learned that the woman’s ex-boyfriend also had been poisoned.

Lynn Turner, 35, was sentenced to life in prison for killing Cobb County Police Officer Glenn Turner, 31.

The three-week trial hinged in large part on Lynn Turner’s alleged involvement in the 2001 poisoning death of her boyfriend, firefighter Randy Thompson, 32.

Though Turner was not charged in that case, prosecutors were permitted to draw on similarities between the two men’s deaths.

A grand jury will be asked next month to charge Turner with Thompson’s death, which could bring the death penalty.

Tennessee

Tradition keeps William popular name in South

William has conquered the South.

William has become one of the most popular names for baby boys below the Mason-Dixon Line, ranking No. 1 in at least five states.

Naming experts attribute William’s popularity to English ancestry and a strong sense of tradition in the South.

“The William Belt is one of the most striking regional differences,” said Cleveland Evans, a member of the American Name Society and a psychology professor at Bellevue University in Nebraska.

William ranked only 11th nationally among baby names for boys in 2003, but was No. 1 in Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi, South Carolina and Tennessee, according to the Social Security Administration.

Colorado

Rock slide derails train, forces Amtrak detour

A rock slide that derailed a coal train in the mountains west of Denver forced Amtrak to detour all trains coming through the state Friday.

Union Pacific Railroad officials said the slide knocked the coal train off the tracks late Thursday near Granby, about 60 miles northwest of Denver.

Three workers were briefly trapped and suffered minor injuries. Railroad officials said none of the coal was spilled.

Amtrak spokesman Marc Magliari said the California Zephyr that runs through Colorado was detoured Friday through Wyoming and Utah. Passengers arriving in Colorado were bused to detour points.