California

Jackson’s mother denies she avoided testimony

Michael Jackson’s mother said Sunday that she briefly left the courtroom during her son’s child molestation trial last week to use the rest room — not to avoid hearing graphic testimony.

Katherine Jackson, who has attended every day of the trial, said through a spokeswoman that many media outlets misinterpreted her brief absence from the courtroom on Thursday.

Her spokeswoman, Angel Howansky, said Katherine Jackson stepped out during a break when attorneys were meeting in the judge’s chambers. When she tried to re-enter, the jury had already been seated and she had to wait until the next break, Howansky said.

Michael Jackson, 46, is on trial for allegedly molesting a 13-year-old boy at his Neverland ranch in 2003. On Thursday, a former security guard at the ranch told a lurid story about seeing Jackson kiss, fondle and perform oral sex on a boy who later received a financial settlement from the pop star.

Defense attorneys have accused the guard of making the story after he lost a lawsuit against the singer.

Texas

Three killed in small plane crash

A small plane crashed into a lake Sunday, killing all three people on board, authorities said.

Authorities said they were working to recover the plane from Lake o’ the Pines, about 160 miles east of Dallas. The identities of the victims — two women and a man — were not immediately released.

The Federal Aviation Administration and National Transportation Safety Board were investigating the crash. A cause was not immediately known.

Seattle

States may need Guard for wildfires

The Northwest faces what could be one of its worst wildfire seasons in years, but military duty in Iraq means forestry officials might not be able to call on their states’ National Guard units as much as they’d like.

Wildland fires burned more than 155,000 acres in 2004 across Idaho, Montana, Oregon and Washington, and this year a preliminary outlook shows above-normal fire potential in the region because of a run of unusually dry weather.

Montana Gov. Brian Schweitzer already has asked the Pentagon to free up some of his state’s 1,500 National Guard soldiers still on active duty because of the war. Lt. Gen. H. Steven Blum, chief of the National Guard Bureau, said he couldn’t do that, but he promised help from other states if Schweitzer asked for it.

U.S. operations in Iraq have stripped Montana of its 12 UH-60 Blackhawks, which played critical roles in 2003 when wildfires in Montana burned more than 736,800 acres.

San Francisco

Sierra Club to vote on tighter immigration

One year after failing to win control of the Sierra Club in a bitterly contested election, advocates of stricter immigration limits are back, arguing that the venerable conservation group can best protect the environment by reducing population growth.

The club’s 750,000 members are voting this month on whether the 113-year-old organization should push for tighter restrictions on immigration, and on five seats on the 15-member board of directors, which sets club policy and commands the $100 million annual budget.

Sierrans for U.S. Population Stabilization, a network of club activists seeking to limit immigration, says overpopulation has led to a variety of environmental problems, including increased resource exploitation, the erosion of wilderness and the extinction of species.

“The issue of escalating population growth in the United States is the single most important environmental issue in the nation,” said board member Paul Watson, who also heads the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society. “We’ve got to address this problem.”

But opponents, including many current and former club leaders, argue that wading into the politics of immigration will alienate allies such as labor unions and civil rights groups, and won’t slow population growth worldwide.

Voting by mail and online is under way until April 25.

Miami

Cuban on hunger strike in bid to win freedom

Juan Emilio Aboy, a Cuban exile detained for almost three years on suspicion of being a Cuban spy operating in South Florida, has been on a hunger strike for the past month — demanding release from the Krome detention center in West Miami-Dade County.

In a telephone interview last week, Aboy — who weighed 225 pounds — said he has lost 35 pounds and become “weak.” He said he only drinks water and refuses food.

Aboy said he will not eat again until he is released — so he can pursue appeals in freedom.

Nina Pruneda, an Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokeswoman in Miami, confirmed that Aboy was on a hunger strike but did not provide details on his condition.

But Aboy said he heard officials were trying to obtain a federal court order to insert a feeding device into his body.

New York

Formerly evicted hawks expecting spring chicks

There are one to three eggs in the nest with the posh Manhattan address, and newborn chicks are expected to hatch within the next two weeks, according to avid bird watchers who monitor the nest daily and report the activity on the Internet.

The nest is at 927 Fifth Ave. — 12th floor, above the cornice — and the residents are Pale Male and Lola, the red-tailed hawks whose highly publicized eviction in December sent feathers flying among urban naturalists.

The birds drew international attention last December when residents of the building dismantled their original nest, objecting to bird droppings and rat carcasses that, they said, splattered on the sidewalk below.

But the tenants backed off a few weeks later after bird lovers picketed and spread birdseed on the sidewalk so that the building would be overrun by pigeons.

The saga pitted some of most recognizable names from New York high society against each other. Richard Cohen, who is married to CNN newscaster Paula Zahn, headed the building’s co-op board, which ordered the nest’s removal. Another tenant, actress Mary Tyler Moore, sided with the environmental groups that picketed the building.

The co-op board eventually agreed to erect an architect-designed steel cradle on the cornice, preventing debris from falling from the nest and allowing the birds to remake their home with twigs collected across the street in Central Park.