Around the Nation

CALIFORNIA

Judge refuses to release Olson

SACRAMENTO — A judge has refused to free a 1970s radical and longtime fugitive who was sent back to prison days after state corrections officials released her by mistake.

Attorneys for former Symbionese Liberation Army member Sarah Jane Olson failed to show that corrections officials acted illegally, and Olson should have realized she was freed too soon, Sacramento County Superior Court Judge Thomas Cecil said in a ruling released yesterday.

Olson’s attorneys had argued that corrections officials had no authority to rearrest her after she was mistakenly paroled March 17 after six years in prison.

Olson, 61, pleaded guilty to the attempted bombing of Los Angeles police cars and to the killing of a customer during a 1975 bank robbery in suburban Sacramento. She lived as a fugitive in Minnesota for 25 years until her capture in 1999.

SOUTH CAROLINA

Teen wanted to kill Jesus, investigators say

FLORENCE — A South Carolina teen accused of plotting to blow up his high school told police that he wanted to die, go to heaven and kill Jesus, federal authorities said.

A dark portrait of Ryan Schallenberger emerged yesterday in a federal courtroom as prosecutors argued that the teen needs a psychological evaluation.

An agent from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives said Mr. Schallenberger told a sheriff about his wish to die after his arrest. Prosecutors also played a 911 tape of the teen’s mother calling police after he smashed his head into a wall. She said on the tape that her son had threatened to shoot police if they were called to his home.

Authorities said the teen bought materials to make several bombs and had written a journal detailing his plans to attack Chesterfield High School.

COLORADO

Dog survives days trapped in rubble

BRECKENRIDGE — A dog was found alive and in relatively good shape after spending eight days trapped in the rubble of a building that exploded, critically injuring the pup’s owner.

Lulu, a Springer spaniel, was rescued Sunday after the owner of the business that had been housed in the two-story building heard her whimpering.

“We turned off the radio and started calling out Lulu’s name. Then we heard some yelping,” Brian Hold, owner of Good Times Adventures, a snowmobiling and dog sledding business, told the Summit Daily News in yesterday’s editions.

Lulu’s owner, Brian Mislanski, had been critically injured in the April 19 explosion and remained at St. Anthony Central Hospital in Denver yesterday.

“I’m happy,” Mr. Mislanski, a company van driver, told the Associated Press yesterday. He declined to comment further, but friends who are caring for Lulu said they took her to visit him — with permission from the hospital.

Veterinarian Christine Murphy said Lulu suffered mild dehydration and had some trauma to her left eye. She probably survived by drinking melting snow and eating food that she found in the debris, Dr. Murphy said.

LOUISIANA

Standoff ends at Swaggart office

BATON ROUGE — A machete-wielding man held sheriff’s deputies at bay for two hours outside the Rev. Jimmy Swaggart’s headquarters yesterday before officers broke into his truck and arrested him.

Workers at Jimmy Swaggart Ministries called police after they became suspicious of Garland Morris, who had spent four hours in his pickup in a parking lot, listening to the televangelist’s radio station at loud volume, said Casey Hicks, a spokeswoman for the East Baton Rouge Sheriff’s Office.

Mr. Morris also appeared at the ministries a day earlier and asked to speak with someone who worked there, Miss Hicks said.

Mr. Morris, 35, of Carville, was charged with disturbing the peace and aggravated assault, Miss Hicks said.

MONTANA

Yellowstone bison population reduced

GARDINER — U.S. wildlife officials said they put a halt to its disease-management program because the bison population in Yellowstone National Park declined by half.

A harsh winter brought on starvation and disease to the only wild bison herd in the lower 48 U.S. states, contributing to a drop in the herd population from 4,700 in November to 2,300, CNN reported yesterday.

Of those 2,300, hunters killed or wildlife officials slaughtered more than 1,600 in an effort to control the population and spread of the disease brucellosis, which affects the fertility of domestic cattle.

Wildlife officials limited the culling program to infected bison during the winter and shelved further programs until this summer.

NEW YORK

Chickens can stay at ritzy high-rise

NEW YORK — A ritzy high-rise is a fashionable address for some recent arrivals to the city: A batch of tiny chicks.

The superintendent of the building near the United Nations headquarters said he uses a makeshift basement pen as a temporary home for mail-order critters that are destined for his upstate farm.

“I’m raising chickens because I plan to retire,” the 62-year-old super, John Hyranyaz, told the New York Post for a story in yesterday’s editions.

The building at 100 United Nations Plaza is home to many diplomats, and some of its two-bedroom condos are advertised at up to $1.8 million.

The Health Department told the newspaper that it was not illegal to keep chickens in the city, only roosters.

TEXAS

Polygamist-sect teen goes into labor

SAN MARCOS — One of hundreds of young polygamist-sect members taken into custody by the state was giving birth yesterday while child welfare officials and state troopers stood watch outside the maternity ward.

The teenager was admitted to the Central Texas Medical Center and was in labor, said Rod Parker, a spokesman for the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He contends that she is 18, but state officials have the girl on a list of minors taken into state custody.

State officials raided the FLDS’s Yearning For Zion Ranch in Eldorado on April 3. They took custody of 463 children on the belief that the sect’s practice of underage and polygamous spiritual marriages endangered the children. The children now are scattered in foster-care facilities across the state.

CPS spokesman Darrell Azar said he was not aware that an FLDS teen had gone into labor, but added that typically, a child born to a ward of the state likewise becomes a ward of the state.

On Monday, CPS announced that almost 60 percent of the underage girls living on the Eldorado ranch either have children or are pregnant.

UTAH

Ricin suspect pleads not guilty

SALT LAKE CITY — A man accused of failing to report that his cousin was making the deadly toxin ricin pleaded not guilty to a federal charge yesterday.

Thomas Tholen told investigators that he knew ricin was being produced in his suburban Salt Lake City basement but didn’t call authorities because he didn’t want anyone to find the weapons and explosive devices stored down there, according to court documents.

Mr. Tholen, 54, of Riverton, pleaded not guilty to a felony count of knowing about a crime but failing to report it. If convicted, he could get up to three years in prison and a $250,000 fine, prosecutor John Huber said.

Mr. Tholen’s cousin, Roger Bergendorff, is charged in Las Vegas with possessing a biological toxin. He was in a hospital for two months after authorities suspect he was poisoned by ricin.

From wire dispatches and staff reports