Across The Nation

York GOP congressman to retire after 13th term

GARRISON, N.Y. - Rep. Hamilton Fish Jr. told Republicans in his district that he has cancer and will not seek a 14th term in Congress, the Times Herald-Record of Middletown reported today.

In 1982, Fish underwent surgery for prostate cancer, and doctors had predicted a full recovery.

Fish, 67, was first elected to Congress in 1968, after defeating then-unknown lawyer G. Gordon Liddy in the Republican primary.

His late father, Hamilton Fish Sr., represented the same Hudson River Valley area from 1920 to 1944.

Legislature in California approves big bond issues

SACRAMENTO, Calif. - The California Legislature sent to Gov. Pete Wilson nearly $4 billion worth of bond issues, including $2 billion to finance recovery costs for the Jan. 17 Southern California earthquake as well as highway seismic safety improvements.

The Assembly and Senate also passed a separate $1 billion bond-issue bill for construction and remodeling of public-school buildings and a $900 million bond issue for construction at the campuses of the University of California, the California State University system and the state's community colleges.

The bond issues are scheduled to appear on the June 7 election ballot.

Republican Wilson has endorsed the earthquake-related bond measures and the public-schools proposal as part of a political compromise. But a Wilson spokesman said it was not clear whether the

governor would sign the higher education measure, which was not formally part of the settlement package.

Principal is out, prom is in at mixed-race Alabama school

WEDOWEE, Ala. - The high school prom is on, and the principal who talked of banning interracial couples is out, at least for now.

Hulond Humphries was suspended yesterday by the Randolph County School Board while it investigates complaints he told a mixed-race student she was a "mistake" and told students at an assembly on Feb. 24 that there would be no prom if black and white students showed up as dates.

About 500 people jammed the Randolph County High School auditorium amid heavy security for the board hearing. Civil-rights leaders spoke on behalf of the mixed-race student, ReVonda Bowen.

Humphries' supporters said his comments were misinterpreted and were a result of his frustration with racially motivated fights at the 680-student school, which is 62 percent white and 38 percent black.

The high school was closed today after a bomb scare yesterday.

Humphries, 55, has been principal for 25 years.

Bowen, president of the junior class, said she asked Humphries, "Who am I supposed to take to the prom?"

She said he responded: "That's just it. Your mom and dad made a mistake having you as a mixed child."

Some students said Humphries tried without success to explain himself and apologize in the uproar that followed.

Former nuclear inspector settles lawsuit over cancer

SAN DIEGO - A former nuclear inspector who claims she got cancer from leaking radiation at the San Onofre power plant settled her lawsuit for an undisclosed sum.

Rung Tang, 44, had sued Southern California Edison, the Tangplant's owner, for up to $25 million in compensatory damages, plus millions more in punitive damages.

The settlement was announced yesterday, one day before Tang's case was to go trial for the second time. The federal jury that first heard her case deadlocked 7-2 in her favor.

The former inspector for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission is recuperating after a bone-marrow transplant she received to try to stop her rare form of leukemia. Her doctors said she has a 50-50 chance of living five years.

Under the settlement, Edison acknowledged no responsibility for Tang's illness.

Fired worker invades plant, slays three, then himself

SANTA FE SPRINGS, Calif. - A man who was fired weeks ago from an electronics factory used a still-valid security code to get back in and shot three people to death before killing himself.

Two other employees were wounded in the rampage yesterday at Extron Electronics.

Tuan Nguyen, 29, of Huntington Beach, entered through a rear door, Extron spokesman Ivan Perez said.

Wielding a .38-caliber pistol, Nguyen shot his first victim about 20 feet inside, then continued walking and shooting, pausing at least once to reload.

He appeared to have picked his targets with care, sheriff's Deputy Cheryl Comstock said.

Nguyen did not shoot the managers involved in his firing even though they were in the factory, said Gary Kayye, an Extron vice president.

The rampage ended with Nguyen shooting himself in the head.

Nguyen was dismissed as a computer components assembler about 2 1/2 weeks ago for unsatisfactory performance, sheriff's Lt. Don Bear said. He had been on the job about 2 1/2 months and made no threats after his dismissal, Bear said.

Perez said security codes are changed monthly. He and other company officials would not say if codes are changed after an employee is fired.

Illinois child-welfare worker fired for not pressing case

CHICAGO - The investigator who failed to do more than knock on the door of a home where 19 children were later found living in squalor has been fired by the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services, a spokeswoman for the state's child-welfare agency said yesterday.

The investigator, who had worked for the agency since 1986, was suspended last month after it was learned that on at least two occasions she had gone to the two-bedroom apartment where the children were living but left when she was denied entrance.

An internal investigation of the worker's actions later resulted in her dismissal. That dismissal had been recommended by Gov. Jim Edgar shortly after the worker's actions were made public, DCFS spokeswoman Martha Allen said.

When DCFS workers are denied entrance to homes, department procedures require them to call police to try to help them get into homes.

However, the investigator never contacted police even though the DCFS had received several hot-line calls that a 4-year-old boy with cerebral palsy was being abused. - Seattle Times news services