National Briefs

NEW YORK (AP) -- Passions are still strong among supporters and opponents of former Weather Underground radical Kathy Boudin, who was denied parole for her murder conviction in a 1981 armored car heist.

"I'm just relieved," said Diane O'Grady, widow of police Sgt. Edward O'Grady, one of three men killed by the robbers. "I'm glad for everyone's sake that justice is being served and she's staying in."

Other residents of suburban Rockland County, north of New York City, where the robbery and subsequent shootout took place, were pleased with the board's decision to delay parole for at least two years.

Boudin, 58, is serving a 20 years-to-life sentence. She was part of the getaway team for six armed radicals who robbed a Brink's truck of $1.6 million on Oct. 20, 1981.

Supporters argued that Boudin had turned her life around while in prison, working to help inmates with AIDS and earning a master's degree in adult education.

Boudin, who had a year-old son when she was arrested, also developed a program on parenting behind bars and helped write a handbook for inmates whose children are in foster care.

Boy killed by BB

CLEVELAND (AP) -- A 13-year-old boy killed in a drive-by shooting while picking pears with friends at a garden center was hit with a BB, not a bullet, police said.

At a news conference Wednesday, Mayor Michael R. White displayed a small, round BB that police said had killed Raymond Bozak.

"These type of pellets are in the air rifles and air guns of children across this entire city and entire county and they will kill," White said. "Parents ought to be looking at what their children are carrying, and look at what they are doing with these weapons," White said.

Suit alleges rape of workers

CLARION, Iowa (AP) -- Federal officials have filed a lawsuit alleging that Mexican women who worked as egg packers were raped by supervisors who threatened to have them fired or killed if they didn't submit.

The lawsuit filed Monday by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission accuses three former DeCoster Farms supervisors of raping the women last year and this past March. At least one alleged rape occurred at knifepoint.

"We don't know how widespread this is," said Chester Bailey, director of the EEOC office in Milwaukee. "People are fearful of their lives and their families' lives."

No criminal charges have been filed against the supervisors, who worked at four DeCoster Farms facilities near Clarion, 80 miles north of Des Moines.

Pharmacist accused

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) -- At least 150 intravenous bags of cancer drugs used by chemotherapy patients may have been altered for profit by a greedy pharmacist, federal prosecutors said.

Each dilution could count as both a "misbranding" and an adulteration under federal law, prosecutors said in a civil court filing Wednesday. All 300 charges could trigger $3 million in fines.

But so far, Robert R. Courtney has only been charged with a single count of misbranding and adulterating a drug.

Courtney allegedly told investigators he cut the strength of the expensive cancer drugs Gemzar and Taxol out of greed. Authorities claim diluting the drugs would have saved him hundreds of dollars per dose.

Stabbing at Wal-Mart

WASHINGTON, Utah (AP) -- Authorities say a man was planning to kill as many people as he could when he walked into a Wal-Mart store with four kitchen knives and stabbed a clerk.

A sheriff's deputy patrolling the store's parking lot heard the 911 call about 1:30 a.m. Wednesday and got the man to drop his weapons. The clerk was hospitalized in fair condition.

Paulson Tsosie, 23, was charged with attempted criminal homicide and aggravated assault.

Washington County Sheriff Kirk Smith said Tsosie walked into the store with four large-bladed kitchen knives and began stabbing Kimberly Davis, 26, as she was hanging clothing.

"When (officers) interviewed him, he said he didn't know the woman," Smith said. "He went in there to kill as many people as he could."

Rain aids firefighters

COULTERVILLE, Calif. (AP) -- Cooler weather and lighter wind helped firefighters contain 60 percent of a 11,500-acre wildfire just west of Yosemite National Park that at one point forced more than 400 people from their homes.

The fire, believed to have been intentionally set, has been burning since Sunday. It threatened 3,000 structures at one point Wednesday.

"A lot of people have gotten through and said in our neighborhood we were spared," said resident Casey Garrigan. "We were smiling all day today."

Firefighters were hampered somewhat by smoke, which prevented air tankers from being able to drop fire retardant.

The fire has burned four homes and four other structures and injured 11 people. It also forced two highways to close for a few hours late Tuesday and early Wednesday. More than 2,400 firefighters battled the blaze, which was expected to be fully contained by Saturday.

Rain also helped firefighters get the upper hand against other Western wildfires, including several in Oregon and Washington. Fire crews took advantage of the weather to make direct attacks on seven major blazes burning on more than 150,000 acres in eastern Washington.

Across the West, 32 major fires were burning Wednesday, down from 42 the day before, said Rob Kopack of the National Interagency Fire Center in Boise, Idaho.