Washington

City Hall computers seized amid sex probe

Spokane officials have seized Mayor Jim West’s City Hall computers for an investigation into whether he improperly used them to visit gay online chat rooms.

West, a longtime Republican foe of gay rights, has acknowledged offering autographed sports memorabilia and a possible City Hall internship to someone he thought was an 18-year-old man in a gay online chat room. The man was actually a computer expert hired by The Spokesman-Review as part of a journalism sting operation.

City officials on Monday were organizing an independent investigation into West’s possible misuse of city computers, City Attorney Mike Connelly said.

On Thursday, The Spokesman-Review reported on West’s online activities, along with allegations that West molested boys while he was a sheriff’s deputy and Boy Scout leader in the late 1970s and early 1980s. West denied the molestation claims but acknowledged that he had visited a gay chat room and had relations with men.

SAN FRANCISCO

Former employee kills worker at health clinic

A man who was fired from a mental health center last year returned to the office Monday and opened fire with a handgun, killing one employee. Two others tackled the gunman as he reached for a shotgun, police said.

“They subdued him before he could do a lot worse,” said Seth Katzman, an administrator at Conard House Inc.

Gregory Gray, 54, of San Francisco, was arrested and charged with murder, police said. Katzman said he was fired from the center in September.

Katzman identified the victim as Bruce Franks, a father of two who worked for Conard for about three years and worked in homeless shelters.

Police said six employees were in the office when the gunman entered and opened fire. After he dropped a handgun and began reaching for a shotgun, police said a male case worker tackled him and yelled for help. That drew the attention of a client, who helped wrestle the man to the floor.

As the men struggled, a homeless man grabbed the shotgun, wrapped it in a coat and took it onto the street where he gave it to an arriving police officer, San Francisco police spokesman Neville Gittens said. The gunman was arrested soon after, he said.

New York

Researchers find some have aspirin resistance

At 57, Richard Schornstein stares down a family history of heart disease by taking a daily aspirin to prevent platelet clotting that can cause heart attack.

But after five years of this preventive therapy, a new 10-minute blood test revealed the baby dose he was taking wasn’t effective. Now, he’s taking a normal dose, and repeated blood tests show that is working.

New research suggests that up to 27 percent of people taking aspirin may be resistant to it. Those most at risk for aspirin resistance include women, people over 65, diabetes patients and people taking less than 100 milligrams of aspirin.

“The question to ask is: Is aspirin working for me?” said Dr. Guy Mintz, medical director of the New York Preventive Cardiology Institute in Great Neck, N.Y. The cardiologist has been using the test, called Verify Now, developed by the San Diego-based company Accumetrics, routinely on his patients and finds that almost a third of them are aspirin resistant or that the dose they are taking is too small. The $22 test is covered by insurance.

WASHINGTON, D.C.

Traffic jams spreading

Sitting in traffic, an annoying part of life in many big cities, is becoming a major headache in places not usually lumped in with New York, Washington and Los Angeles.

Take Omaha, Neb. Each year, motorists in one of the country’s most wide-open states spend the equivalent of nearly a full day in highway gridlock, according to the annual Urban Mobility Report released Monday by the Texas Transportation Institute.

Omaha is among a growing list of metropolitan areas where drivers are delayed at least 20 hours a year. There are 51 such places now, compared with just five in 1982. Among some of the newer entries: Colorado Springs, Colo.; Virginia Beach, Va.; Charleston, S.C.; New Haven, Conn.; Raleigh-Durham, N.C.; Salt Lake City; and Cincinnati.

“That’s where the growth is,” said Tim Lomax, one of the report’s co-authors. “The medium cities are about 10-15 years behind the big cities.”