Detroit

Plane crash sparks two house fires

A small plane crashed in a Detroit neighborhood Monday after it clipped a utility pole, setting fire to two houses and injuring both people aboard the plane.

The pilot and passenger escaped the wreckage on their own and were hospitalized in fair condition with broken bones. No one on the ground was hurt, officials said.

The Piper Aztec began having engine problems immediately after taking off from Detroit City Airport, and clipped the pole as it made a turn, police said.

Police said the roof and much of the second story of a new house burned away. Across the street, the mangled remains of the aircraft lay near another house that also suffered fire damage.

Michigan

Kevorkian seeks sentence commutation

An attorney for Jack Kevorkian asked the state parole board Monday to recommend that the assisted suicide advocate be released from prison for health reasons.

Attorney Mayer Morganroth said Kevorkian had health problems including high blood pressure, a hernia and arthritis, and the board should urge Gov. Jennifer Granholm to either pardon him or commute his sentence.

Kevorkian’s blood pressure “has been extremely volatile in nature and has risen to the danger level for a heart attack at times,” Morganroth wrote in the request.

Kevorkian, 76, has been in prison 5 1/2 years.

The request comes a week after U.S. Supreme Court justices decided against hearing Kevorkian’s appeal of his second-degree murder conviction for the 1998 poisoning of Thomas Youk.

Youk suffered from Lou Gehrig’s disease and his death, which Kevorkian called a mercy killing, was videotaped and shown on national television.

New York City

Mother to give birth to twins at age 56

At the noteworthy age of 56, the sister of Guardian Angels founder Curtis Sliwa was expected to become a mother for the first time today — delivering twins conceived through in vitro fertilization.

Aleta St. James was due to undergo a Caesarean section at Mount Sinai Hospital in Manhattan. St. James turns 57 Friday. Her twins, a boy and a girl, are expected to be named Gian and Francesca.

St. James wouldn’t be the first woman to give birth in her 50s — more and more women past reproductive age are artificially conceiving — but such births are still relatively rare, fertility experts said Monday.

Some women have managed to have successful, though controversial, pregnancies even past the age of 60. In 1994 a 63-year-old Italian woman gave birth to a boy, and in 1996 a 63-year-old California woman delivered a girl. Both had used in vitro fertilization.

Washington, D.C.

9-11 compensation totals $38.1 billion

Victims of the Sept. 11 attacks received $38.1 billion in compensation, with insurance companies picking up the largest portion of the tab, according to a study released Monday.

The report by Rand Institute for Civil Justice found that civilians killed or injured have received an average of $3.1 million per person from the government, charities and insurance companies, or $8.7 billion.

Emergency personnel killed or injured were given a total of about $1.9 billion. First responders received an average of $1.1 million more than civilians with similar economic losses, the study found. Most of the extra money came from charities.

Insurers paid 51 percent of the overall total, or about $19.6 billion. The government distributed $15.8 billion, or 42 percent, and charities paid $2.7 billion, or 7 percent.

The majority of the money went to New York City businesses, which received $23.3 billion, according to Rand.

Even the secondary assistance added up to billions of dollars in compensation. About $3.5 billion was paid to displaced residents, workers who lost their jobs, and those who suffered emotional problems or were exposed to environmental dangers.

New Jersey

Governor makes farewell address

A contrite Gov. James E. McGreevey delivered a farewell address Monday in Trenton in which he said he did not apologize “for being a gay American but rather for having let personal feelings impact my decision-making.”

McGreevey made a stunning, nationally televised resignation announcement three months ago with his wife and parents by his side.

“I am sorry that I have disappointed the citizens of the state of New Jersey who gave me this enormous trust,” said McGreevey, whose family did not attend Monday’s speech.

McGreevey is to step down Nov. 15. He resigned over a gay affair with a man identified as Golan Cipel — hired by the governor in 2002 to head the state’s Homeland Security department. Cipel has steadfastly denied any involvement with McGreevey and has alleged he was sexually harassed by the governor.

McGreevey highlighted reforms of the state’s child welfare agency, environmental protections and benefits for domestic partners as some of the top achievements of his administration.

Washington, D.C.

Reagan shooter asks for more time on own

The blond hair is going gray, but the man who shot President Reagan still looks much as he did 23 years ago. His lawyer argued Monday that John Hinckley is a changed man, however, and ready to live part-time away from the mental hospital where he has been confined since shortly after the failed assassination attempt in 1981.

Hinckley, 49, sat silently in a federal courtroom as a judge began hearing from psychiatrists and others who disagree over whether Hinckley is entirely well and can be trusted to spend days at a time off the hospital grounds. If U.S. District Judge Paul Friedman agrees, Hinckley will gain his greatest freedom yet and move another step toward eventual full release.

Hinckley wants permission to stay at his parents’ home in Williamsburg, Va., for four nights at a time every two weeks. Officials at St. Elizabeths Hospital suggested instead that Hinckley spend Thanksgiving and Christmas with his family this year, before going ahead with regular visits. Federal prosecutors oppose both plans.