Arizona

Wildfire jumps line where crews hoped to stop it

A wildfire that has charred 65,000 acres in central Arizona jumped a highway Friday where firefighters were hoping to contain it, forcing the evacuation of a handful of homes in the tiny community of Sunflower.

Another 350 homes near another side of the fire also remained evacuated.

The fire was as close as a half-mile to that area, said Angela Goldman, a spokeswoman for the team fighting the fire.

Arizona firefighters also battled a 10,500-acre fire in the Bradshaw Mountains.

In southwestern Utah, residents of the village of Motoqua returned to their homes Friday after the threat from a 3,500-acre wildfire subsided.

The fire destroyed one home on a ranch, but 19 other structures near the town were not damaged, said David Boyd, a fire spokesman for the Bureau of Land Management.

The National Interagency Fire Center said 32 large fires were active Friday, mostly in western states. About 3.9 million acres have burned this year, compared with 4.6 million at this time last year.

Miami

Two pilots jailed for flying while drunk

Two airline pilots who got behind the controls after a night of heavy drinking at a sports bar have been sentenced to prison by a judge who didn’t hide his disdain, saying “What were you thinking of?”

Thomas Cloyd, 47, of Peoria, Ariz., and co-pilot Christopher Hughes, 44, of Leander, Texas, were drunk when they settled into the cockpit of a Phoenix-bound America West jetliner in 2002. They were arrested before the plane took off but after it had pushed away from the gate.

They were fired and found guilty June 8 of operating an aircraft while drunk.

Cloyd was sentenced to five years in prison. Circuit Judge David Young said he had no sympathy for Cloyd, who had been on probation for an alcohol-related offense just months before his arrest.

Hughes was ordered to serve 2 1/2 years behind bars.

The pilots had been at the bar up until about six hours before their departure time; federal rules say pilots cannot drink in the eight hours before a flight. Police stepped in after screeners smelled alcohol on their breath.

Washington

Report: Government broke privacy laws

The Transportation Security Administration violated privacy protections by secretly collecting personal information on at least 250,000 people, congressional investigators said Friday.

The Government Accountability Office sent a letter to Congress saying the collection violated the Privacy Act, which prohibits the government from compiling information on people without their knowledge.

The information was collected as the agency tested a program, now called Secure Flight, to conduct computerized checks of airline passengers against terrorist watch lists.

TSA had promised it would only use the limited information about passengers that it had obtained from airlines. Instead, the agency and its contractors compiled files on people using data from commercial brokers and then compared those files with the lists.

The GAO reported that about 100 million records were collected.

Miami

Franklin spares Florida, though path uncertain

Tropical Storm Franklin headed north away from Florida and the Bahamas on Friday, though forecasters said its path remained uncertain.

The storm had sustained winds near 50 mph, above the 39 mph threshold for a tropical storm.

Franklin was moving north at 9 mph, according to the National Hurricane Center in Miami. The storm was expected to continue offshore from Florida to the Carolinas through the weekend, forecasters said.

The storm may drop 2 to 4 inches of rain over the northern Bahamas, the hurricane center said.

Less than two full months into the current season, there have already been a record five named storms, including two major hurricanes – Dennis and Emily.

Hawaii

Carnivorous caterpillar discovered in rain forest

Biologists have discovered a new species of caterpillar in the Hawaiian rain forest that ensnares snails in silken webs, then feasts on them like a famished cannibal until nothing but the shell is left.

It’s the first time such behavior has been documented in caterpillars – or any other member of its biological order, Lepidoptera, which includes moths and butterflies.

“It was like finding a wolf that dives for clams,” said University of Hawaii biologist and entomologist Daniel Rubinoff, who reported the discovery with William P. Haines, a biologist at the university, in Friday’s edition of the journal Science.

Although all caterpillars have silk glands, this species is the first to be seen using that organ like a spider. And although nearly all Lepidopterans are vegetarians, “This caterpillar wouldn’t sample foliage even if it were starving,” Rubinoff said.

Rubinoff said the new species, Hyposmocoma molluscivora, would not have been able to develop such a novel feeding strategy without the isolation of the Hawaiian archipelago.

Atlanta

Bush, his mother pitch his agenda to seniors

His mother at his side, President Bush on Friday sought to rekindle interest in his languishing Social Security restructuring plan, marketing it as part of a “Senior Security” package.

Calling his mother, Barbara Bush, “my favorite senior citizen,” Bush said the new prescription drug program under Medicare – which takes effect in January – would benefit nearly every one who signed up.

He also vowed that nothing in his Social Security proposal would reduce benefits for current retirees or those close to retiring.

“Seniors have nothing to worry about … What you should be worried about is whether your grandchildren are going to get any checks,” Bush said.

Bush and the former first lady first visited a senior center here to thank volunteers who are helping explain the new benefit program to future beneficiaries.

Then he promoted his Social Security plan, his top domestic priority, before an invitation-only audience of supporters in a civic center.

Philadelphia

Couple get probation for harboring illegal alien

Even U.S. District Court Judge Freda Wolfson didn’t know what to make of all the conflicting information in the case of Sri Lankan maid Chandra Bulathwatte.

Wolfson decided to focus on the crimes to which the Jishis pleaded guilty in federal court in Camden, N.J. In April, Maher Jishi pleaded guilty to concealing or harboring an illegal alien. His wife pleaded guilty to failure to report knowledge of a felony.

Friday, Wolfson sentenced both to one year of probation. Maher Jishi must serve six months of unsupervised house arrest, and both must pay fines.

Bulathwatte worked for the Jishi family first at their home in Marlton, N.J., then at a home in Washington Township, N.J. In February 2004, Bulathwatte, then 45, ran to a neighbor’s house in her bare feet and without a coat. The neighbor called the police.

Prosecutors said Bulathwatte had been held against her will, and they said the Jishis had taken her passport and forced her to work 16 hours a day, seven days a week, for almost no pay.

The Jishis admitted paying Bulathwatte about $3,000 for two years’ work.

New York

20 injured by SUV at car auction

At least 20 people were injured Friday when an out-of-control sport utility vehicle about to be auctioned off plowed into bystanders and cars, Long Island police said.

Smoke and flying car parts sent the crowd of about 500 into panic, witnesses and police said.

The auction had been under way for two hours when the driver of a 2003 Lincoln Navigator set off a chain-reaction crash involving six other vehicles.

It was not known what caused the driver, Louis Amelia, 78, of Moriches, N.Y., to lose control of the Navigator as he prepared to enter into a line of vehicles waiting to be presented at the auction, Suffolk County Det. Sgt. Michael Traulli said. Police said the crash appeared accidental. The car was impounded for a safety check.

Florida

Commander says launch date not important

On the verge of a second launch countdown, the astronaut who will lead NASA’s return to space said Friday it’s not important when she and her crew fly, but that “we do it right.”

Discovery is scheduled to blast off Tuesday after a two-week delay caused by a malfunctioning fuel gauge, a “very elusive problem” in commander Eileen Collins’ words.

“We hope that we’re able to launch on Tuesday,” she said. “But regardless of when we launch, the launch date to us isn’t that important. What’s important to us is that we get through this process and that we do it right.”

Collins made the comments after arriving back at Kennedy Space Center with her six crewmates, following a brief trip to Houston for launch refresher training. It was the astronauts’ first public appearance since July 13, when NASA halted its first shuttle launch countdown since the 2003 Columbia catastrophe.

Standing at the shuttle runway under a broiling midday sun, NASA’s first and only female spaceship commander noted that it was a great day for liftoff. “We’re hoping that this weather holds through all of next week – or whatever day we launch,” she told reporters just 24 hours before the start of the three-day countdown.

Tropical Storm Franklin, brewing out in the Atlantic, was expected to remain well offshore.

Georgia

Grenade thrower charged in separate murder

A man who confessed to throwing a live grenade toward President Bush during a rally in Georgia was charged with premeditated murder Friday in the killing of a policeman during a shootout that preceded his arrest.

Vladimir Arutyunian, who has been hospitalized since he was detained Wednesday, admitted in video footage shown Thursday that he threw the grenade that landed near a podium where Bush was speaking in the Georgian capital, Tbilisi, in May, officials said. The grenade malfunctioned and did not explode.

Both Bush and Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili were on the podium when the grenade landed about 100 feet away.

Investigators were searching for a motive for the grenade incident after determining that the 27-year-old suspect has no connection with Russian forces.

Russia has troops at two military bases in Georgia and their withdrawal, now scheduled for 2008, had been a tense issue. Georgia and Russia agreed in June on a withdrawal date.