‘Prison Break’ actor’s SUV crashes, killing 1 teen

Beverly Hills, Calif. – A sport utility vehicle carrying Lane Garrison of TV’s “Prison Break” and three teenagers struck a tree, killing a 17-year-old boy, police said.

Two 15-year-old girls inside the vehicle were also injured, one critically, during the late Saturday night accident, police said. Garrison, 26, had minor injuries.

The vehicle jumped a curb and hit a tree. Authorities were trying to determine who drove the SUV, which was registered to Garrison.

The boy was taken to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center where he died. His name was not released. The conditions of the girls were not immediately released.

Garrison, a Dallas native, plays “Tweener” on Fox’s “Prison Break.” He has worked mainly in television, but appears in the upcoming film “Shooter,” which is due out next year.

Garrison’s publicist, Catherine Olim, did not immediately return a phone call Sunday.

Dreyfuss wants to improve school civics curriculum

New York – Richard Dreyfuss wants to show Americans how to be better citizens.

“The teaching of civics presently in the United States is dismal and startling,” the Oscar-winning actor said on ABC’s “This Week” on Sunday.

Dreyfuss is launching a campaign to develop a civics curriculum for the nation’s schools.

When he was a child, Dreyfuss said, civics classes taught not only the checks and balances in government but also the reasons behind the creation of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights.

“We want to define the necessity of civics,” he said. “What is it, and is it necessary? If it’s necessary, is it urgent? And if it’s urgent, what do we do? And then to proceed to literally design classes.

“It is time that we revive the notion that we can learn how to run the country and learn, not, you know, for Republicans and not for Democrats, but learn how to run the Constitution,” he said.

Dreyfuss, who won a best actor Oscar for “The Goodbye Girl,” also starred in “Close Encounters of the Third Kind” and “Mr. Holland’s Opus.”

Jean urges countrymen to ‘build a new Haiti’

Jacmel, Haiti – Wyclef Jean called on his Haitian countrymen to reject violence and work for a stable future during a free concert aimed at promoting development in the impoverished nation.

“It’s time to build a new Haiti,” the Grammy-winning artist told more than 20,000 cheering fans Friday night at the waterfront pier of this resort town. It was his first concert in Haiti in eight years.

The concert capped off a weeklong film and culture festival organized by Jean’s Yele Haiti charity, which promotes music and the arts as a way to reduce poverty, create jobs and improve Haiti’s image.

Haiti is the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, and most of its 8 million people live on less than $2 per day. The Caribbean country is struggling to recover from a bloody 2004 revolt that toppled former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide.

Jean, a Haitian citizen who lives in the United States, condemned the ongoing street violence that has followed the revolt, especially a wave of kidnappings for ransom that have plagued the capital, Port-au-Prince.

“If we don’t stop kidnappings, the country can’t develop,” Jean said.

Jean was born in Haiti but left for the United States with his family at age 9.