Copyright 2000 The Atlanta Constitution
The Atlanta Journal and Constitution
June 16, 2000, Friday, Final Edition
SECTION: News; Pg. 22A
LENGTH: 658 words
HEADLINE: NATION IN BRIEF
BYLINE: From our news services SOURCE: JOURNAL
BODY:
Texas A&M to suspend annual bonfire Texas A&M University has reportedly decided to suspend its traditional pre- game bonfire following an accident last year that killed 12 students. Relatives of the victims said in published reports today that the bonfire, a 90-year tradition, will be suspended until at least 2002 and resume only under engineers' supervision. The collapse of the 2 million-pound log stack last Nov. 18 also injured 27 students. A school commission blamed flawed construction techniques and inadequate supervision of students assembling the four-tiered stack.
Michael Self, father of victim Jerry Don Self, said a letter from A&M vice president Malon Southerland said future bonfires will rely on groups of professional, adult supervisors. According to a school memo sent to victims' relatives, the bonfire stack will also be smaller and constructed in a single- tier, teepee-style structure. Many victims' relatives have called for the bonfire tradition to continue, and a student group collected 7,204 signatures. Ex-security guard executed in Texas A former security guard who raped and strangled a 61-year-old woman while high on drugs and alcohol was executed by injection in Huntsville, Texas, Thursday night. Paul Nuncio, 31, was the third Texas inmate to be executed this week and the 22nd this year. Virus deadly to humans found in N.Y. fowl A chicken has tested positive in New York for the West Nile virus in the same area as last year's deadly outbreak, city officials said. The chicken --- among dozens of ''sentinel'' birds being regularly tested --- will be retested at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta and a Department of Agriculture lab in Iowa, Dr. Neal Cohen, the city's health commissioner, said Thursday. Results are expected by Saturday. If the chicken tests positive again, Mayor Rudolph Giuliani said the city would begin pesticide spraying next week. Last summer, West Nile virus killed six people and infected 62 others in New York metropolitan area. Unabomber to sell Montana property Ted Kaczynski is selling the rural Montana property where he lived alone in a one-room cabin for more than two decades and plotted a mail-bombing spree. Joy Richards, 47, has corresponded with the Unabomber since his arrest, and has agreed to pay $ 7,500 for his share of the 1.4-acre plot of land four miles from her Lincoln, Mont., home. Kaczynski, 58, is serving life without parole in a federal prison for the bombings that killed three people and injured 23 others. Kaczynski's brother David owns part of the property and said Thursday he had no plans to sell. Associate professor is interim Peabody head The University of Georgia has named an associate professor of telecommunications as interim director of the Peabody Awards. Louise Benjamin replaces Barry Sherman, who died May 2 after collapsing during a pickup basketball game on campus. Benjamin has worked as a producer, writer and director for WHO-TV in Des Moines, Iowa, and as a free-lance producer and director. The university will conduct a national search for a permanant replacement for Sherman, 47. Man convicted of killing dog he thought was gay An Ocala, Fla., man accused of beating to death a dog he thought was gay was convicted of animal cruelty. George Stephens Finley, 58, could face up to a year in jail. Witnesses testified Finley was upset that his wife's neutered male poodle-Yorkshire terrier tried to engage in sexual activity with another family dog, a male Jack Russell terrier. Deadly helicopter crash blamed on crew A Marine Corps helicopter crash off San Diego that killed seven men was caused primarily by crew mistakes while approaching a Navy ship, military officials said Thursday. "The helicopter simply came in too low and too fast," Marine Lt. Col. Carol McBride said in announcing the results of an investigation into the Dec. 9 accident. LOAD-DATE: June 17, 2000