Copyright 1990 Gannett Company, Inc.
USA TODAY
October 6, 1990, Saturday, FINAL EDITION
SECTION: NEWS; Pg. 3A
LENGTH: 775 words
HEADLINE: Calif. wildfire still raging out of control
BYLINE: Paul Leavitt
BODY:
A wind-whipped fire that has destroyed 40 homes and caused $ 30 million in damage across 11,100 acres of California's Point Reyes National Seashore won't be controlled until at least Monday, state forestry officials said. More than 2,000 firefighters are battling the blaze, which officials say broke out from an illegal campfire Tuesday. Fire crews worked feverishly Thursday to keep flames from spreading to homes in Inverness, a 1,000-resident community 25 miles north of San Francisco. In southern California, an 820-acre wildfire destroyed two homes and several cars but spared hundreds of homes in a new subdivision of Santa Clarita.
FLIGHT DELAYS: The Navy's Blue Angels, practicing for a weekend show in San Francisco, grounded departing civilian flights for more than an hour and caused a backup for dozens of flights into early evening, an airport spokesman said. The Navy's ace flying squadron arranged with the FAA months ago to have precedence over local air traffic. But that was before officials knew a runway would be closed for repairs, said airport spokesman Ron Wilson.
AIDS LAWSUIT: Armour Pharmaceutical Co. of Collegeville, Pa., has settled out of court with three of six Vancouver, Canada, hemophiliacs who say they contracted AIDS from Factorate, a blood-clotting product, The Philadelphia Inquirer said. Terms: $ 1.55 million each. Documents at a government hearing in Toronto said Armour was told in 1985 its heat-treating process didn't kill the AIDS virus, but the company kept selling Factorate until 1987.
PARENTING RULES: Parents in Durham County, N.C., who wash a child's mouth out with soap or leave an 8-year-old alone for more than half-hour could find themselves under investigation by child-welfare authorities for violating the county's new standards of parenting. Also on the no-no list: locking a child in a darkened room, hitting a child anywhere but on the legs or buttocks, or leaving a 12-year-old alone for more than four hours. County-set bedtimes: 9 p.m. for 12- to 14-year-olds; midnight for 15- to 17-year-olds.
ALSO THURSDAY . . .
FORMER CONGRESSMAN TO PRISON: Mel Reynolds, 43, began serving his five-year prison sentence for having sex with a 16-year-old campaign volunteer and trying to sabotage the investigation. As the Chicago Democrat arrived at the Criminal Court Building he snapped at one photographer, "Do that again and you're going down."
BOMBING PHOTO: Oklahoma Natural Gas Co. sued fired employee Lester LaRue for rights to a widely published photo he took of a dead baby in the Oklahoma City bombing. Using a company camera and film, LaRue captured firefighter Chris Fields holding Baylee Almon.
GRIZZLY RULING: Environmentalists seeking to block a plan to remove the grizzly bear from the threatened species list won the support of a Cheyenne, Wyo., federal judge who ruled the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's Grizzly Bear Recovery plan doesn't establish "objective measurable criteria" to determine how the rare species is faring.
TRIAL-RELATED SLAYING: Billy Veasey, 35 - whose brother was to testify today in the Philadelphia trial of reputed mob boss John Stanfa - was shot to death in his car. Police said it may be a mob hit. The trial was recessed. Reputed mob capo John Veasey, 37, survived an attempt on his life before cooperating with federal prosecutors.
Court to hear sex bias case
The Supreme Court agreed to decide whether Virginia Military Institute can keep out women. The ruling also could affect The Citadel in Charleston, S.C., the nation's only other state-supported, all-male military college.
The 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond has said VMI may remain all-male because a new state-supported women's leadership program at private, all-female Mary Baldwin College in Staunton, is a suitable alternative.
At issue: whether courts should view sex bias as seriously as race discrimination. The 4th Circuit used a more relaxed standard, which makes it easier for the state to treat women differently from men than to treat blacks differently from whites.
Justice Clarence Thomas, whose son Jamal is a senior at VMI in Lexington,
Contributing: Patricia V. Rivera, M. David Goodwin and Steve Marshall
GRAPHIC: PHOTO, b/w, Bob Galbraith, AP; PHOTO, b/w, Ken Heinen