Last 2 Teens Captured After Escaping Wilderness Program

CEDAR CITY, Utah - The last two teenage boys who escaped from a wilderness program after allegedly assaulting their counselors were taken into custody in southwest Utah early today.

The Iron County sheriff's office said one boy was walking along train tracks and flagged down a freight train near Latimer, 40 miles northwest of Cedar City. He told deputies how to find the other youth.

The two teens, who were in good condition, were taken to a youth-detention center at Cedar City.

In all, eight teens escaped Saturday from the RedCliff Ascent Therapy Program, designed for troubled youths. Five boys were captured Monday. Another turned himself in.

The boys, ages 14-17, are accused of beating counselor Kirk Stock, 23, and binding him with duct tape, then tying counselor Sunshine Fuller, 22, to a tree.

Sheriff David Benson said all eight boys will be charged with felony aggravated assault, simple assault and theft of a two-way radio. They were on a 60-day survival outing when they escaped into the Utah desert with blankets and food.

Judge, two others in suit say L.A. police use racial profiling

LOS ANGELES - A Virginia state judge says Los Angeles police officers ordered her out of a car at gunpoint during a traffic stop this summer, then handcuffed her and forced her to lie face down on the hot asphalt for half an hour - only because she is black.

Judge Alotha Willis, a former prosecutor who sits on the Juvenile and Domestic Relations Court in Portsmouth, Va., made the charges in connection with a civil-rights lawsuit filed last week in federal court in Los Angeles.

Willis' husband, identified as W. Person, a civilian procurement official with the Navy, and a friend, Los Angeles schoolteacher S.W. Crayton, made the same allegations in companion suits. Both are also black.

A spokesman for Los Angeles Police Chief Bernard Parks said the department had no comment.

Florida judge cuts off access to peers' financial reports

WASHINGTON - A federal judge in Florida has cut off public access nationwide to financial-disclosure reports required of federal judges each year, an unprecedented move that is drawing strong rebukes from open-records advocates.

U.S. District Judge William Zloch ordered the moratorium out of concern that posting the reports on the Internet would mean "universal and anonymous access, raising security issues," federal courts spokeswoman Karen Redmond said.

Since 1979, federal judges and other high-ranking federal officials have been required by federal law to report all stock holdings and other family assets within broad ranges of estimated worth. They also must list gifts and other reimbursements.

2 California men arraigned in propane-tank bomb plot

SACRAMENTO - Two anti-government militiamen face a Dec. 20 hearing on weapons charges in an alleged plot to create a propane explosion so disastrous that it would lead to a government overthrow.

Both prosecutors and a defense attorney expect more charges against Kevin Ray Patterson, 42, and Charles Dennis Kiles, 49. They were arraigned yesterday on federal firearms charges. They could face up to 30 years each on those charges.

Magistrate Judge Dale Drozd ordered Kiles held without bail, ruling that he was a flight risk, and scheduled a hearing tomorrow to determine Patterson's status.

The men hoped that blowing up the tanks in a Sacramento suburb would force martial law and protests leading to an overthrow, federal agents say.

Environmentalists take aim at off-road vehicles in parks

WASHINGTON - Environmentalists yesterday launched efforts to ban four-wheelers, motorcycles and other off-road vehicles in national parks and in one-third of national forests.

The National Park Service was asked to ban recreational use of off-road vehicles in 23 national parks where they currently are allowed. None of those is in Washington state.

The agency also was asked to step up enforcement in 40 large parks where illegal use has been reported.