News In Brief
A man who sprayed a Jewish community center in Los Angeles with multiple rounds of gunfire - injuring three young boys, one critically, and two women - was the target of a widespread search. The Seattle Times said Buford O'Neal Furrow, named by police as suspect in the shooting, was a member of the Idaho-based Aryan Nations group and had once lived in Washington with the widow of Robert Mathews, founder of the neo-Nazi group The Order. The Simon Wiesenthal Center said an American Nazi Party book was found in a van used by the attacker. Above, Richard Macalas holds his son David while talking to reporters outside the center.
The number of students expelled for having guns or explosives in US schools fell 31 percent last year, the Education Department reported. It said 3,910 students were expelled nationwide during the 1998-99 academic year for this reason - down from 5,724 the previous year. About 57 percent were high school students, 33 percent were in junior high, and 10 percent attended elementary schools, the report said.
Christian Coalition President Pat Robertson said assassinating rogue world leaders would be more practical than the US policy that bans such killings. Robertson made his comments Monday on the "700 Club," a nationally syndicated TV show on his Christian Broadcasting Network. Americans United for Separation of Church and State, a nonprofit group, distributed copies of the comments in a news release criticizing Robertson.
New Hampshire Sen. Bob Smith turned to the conservative US Taxpayers Party in his bid for the White House. Smith, who bolted from the Republican Party four weeks ago, told reporters he would seek the presidential nomination at the Taxpayers convention in St. Louis early next month. In 1996, the party's founder, Howard Phillips, received 182,924 votes, 0.2 percent of the vote, in the presidential election.
A proposal aimed at stopping lawyers from making donations to public officials in hopes of winning business was voted down by the American Bar Association's policy-making House of Delegates. The proposed language would bar lawyers or law firms from accepting work or an appointment by a judge if they made a political contribution or solicited political contributions in order to gain business or an appointment. Proponents said ending "pay-to-play" donations was particularly important in the $1.3 trillion municipal-bond market.
General Motors said it plans to offer voice-activated Internet access in a car - probably a Cadillac - by the end of next year. Within five years, in-car services such as Internet access and CD-quality satellite-radio broadcasts could generate revenues for GM in the range of $4 billion to $6 billion a year, a GM official commented.
Nissan North America said it is seeking final approval from the California Air Resources Board for a gasoline-powered 2000-model vehicle that will meet the state's rigorous emissions rules. It is expected to emit about 25 percent of the unburned hydrocarbons and 10 percent of the nitrogen oxides of the cleanest gasoline-powered car now sold in the state, Nissan said. The car, which has a 1.8-liter engine, is a version of the new Sentra compact sedan.
(c) Copyright 1999. The Christian Science Publishing Society
