February 8, 1996
Web posted at: 5:15 p.m. EST
SAN FRANCISCO (CNN) -- Doctors performed an emergency liver transplant Thursday on a 13-year-old girl who became critically ill after eating poisonous wild mushrooms that had been added to tomato sauce.
The girl was in critical but stable condition at the University of California Medical Center, and doctors were optimistic she would recover, said hospital spokesman Bill Gordon.
"Everything is going well," Gordon said.
The girl's brothers, ages 11 and 14, and their mother were in serious condition after eating the dangerous "death cap" mushrooms they had picked, Gordon said. The family was not identified but the hospital said they lived in Orinda, 20 miles east of San Francisco. Wild mushrooms have sprung up around the San Francisco Bay area after recent heavy rains.
The family, who apparently emigrated from Taiwan, might have mistaken the mushrooms for a common edible mushroom called Coccoli, said William Freedman, chairman of the toxicology committee of the San Francisco Mycological Society. The society promotes the study of mushrooms.
NEW YORK (AP) -- Federal prosecutors have reopened a probe to determine whether leading tobacco companies misled the government about a nonprofit research organization they funded, The Wall Street Journal reported Thursday.
Prosecutors in the U.S. attorney's office in Brooklyn want to know if the industry-funded Council for Tobacco Research lied when it applied for and received not-for-profit status, the newspaper said. It cited unidentified sources close to the investigation.
Prosecutors also are trying to determine whether the council, which claims to sponsor independent research, hid its finding on the dangers of smoking. The New York-based council has been conducting research since 1954.
The paper said the investigation was begun in 1992 but had been dormant for more than three years before being revived within the past couple of months.
In all, the tobacco industry faces three major criminal investigations.
BOSTON (AP) -- When David Schultz was told he would no longer be certified as a lifeguard for the YMCA, he was shattered.
After all, he had spent more than 16 years of his life as a professional lifeguard and swimming instructor. Schultz, 32, is profoundly deaf, but he says his sharp eyes and years of training have made him a top-notch lifeguard -- and helped him save dozens of lives.
But the national brass yanked Schultz from pool duty when they found out he could not hear, a disability officials said would keep him from reacting quickly to drowning person's cry for help.
"I felt dehumanized," said Schultz, who filed a $20 million lawsuit against the YMCA's national organization Wednesday. He filed the same suit earlier in Boston against the Hockomock Area YMCA in North Attleboro.
His lawyer said that when the YMCA revoked Schultz's certification, it violated state disability laws and the federal Americans with Disabilities Act. The act says that a disabled person cannot be discriminated against as long as he can perform the essential job functions.
Edwin H. Hurley, general director of the Hockomock Area YMCA, said officials at his facility are "saddened and disappointed" by Schultz's lawsuit. Steve Hockensmith, spokesman for the YMCA of the USA in Chicago, said the agency's guidelines are meant to ensure swimmers' safety.
NEW YORK (CNN) -- Wali Khan Amin Shah, jailed on charges of conspiring to blow up an airliner in the Philippines, broke out of a Manhattan prison Tuesday but was recaptured, federal authorities said Wednesday.
Robert Manco, executive assistant for the Manhattan Correctional Center, said Shah was discovered missing from the prison's rooftop recreation area at 6:15 a.m. Tuesday but was discovered by prison guards shortly thereafter standing on another roof four stories above the 12-story recreation roof.
Shah was arrested in December in Malaysia and brought to the United States to join two other suspects charged in the conspiracy to bomb airlines. One of the suspects is Ramzi Yousef, the alleged mastermind of the World Trade Center bombing. The suspects will be tried in March.
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A train carrying nearly 1,400 military bombs derailed Wednesday near Sewal, Iowa, in Wayne County, tossing 24 of the 750 pound bombs onto the ground. There were no casualties reported.
The munitions, manufactured in the 1970s, had outlived their usefulness and were scheduled for disposal. They belong to the U.S. Air Force.
Steve Abney, an Army public affairs specialist, told CNN there were seven cars were loaded with 198 bombs each. The bombs are transported without the fuses used to detonate them, reducing the possibility of accidental detonation.
NEW YORK (CNN) -- The three works of art stolen from a baggage handling company at Kennedy Airport and then recovered have been determined to be fakes, investigators said Wednesday.
The three pieces, at first believed to be the work of Picasso and Pissaro, were examined by experts who "pretty quickly reached the conclusion, unanimously, that they were not the legitimate work of either artist," said FBI spokesman Joe Valiquette.
Authorities made two arrests after recovering the works, which were stolen from the airport last week.
Jason George, 26, and his brother-in-law Joe Casella, 19, were arrested on federal conspiracy and theft charges, according to Valiquette.
BOSTON, Massachusetts (CNN) -- Accused gunman John Salvi, on trial for the deaths of two abortion clinic receptionists, erupted in a fit of anger Wednesday after he was prevented from having contact with courtroom media.
He shouted, kicked aside his chair, overturned a table, then struggled with bailiffs who removed him from the room. Salvi apparently was angered when he was restrained from holding up a paper to news photographers. Court documents on the table were scattered during the melee.
"This is unconstitutional. You cannot deny me the right to speak to the press. I have the right to speak to the people," Salvi yelled. His handcuffs had been removed earlier as the court prepared to resume jury selection.
Salvi, 23, is accused of murdering the women and wounding five other people in a shooting spree at two Brookline abortion clinics outside Boston in December 1994. It was the third day of his trial in Norfolk Superior Court.
HONOLULU, Hawaii (CNN) -- After a six-hour standoff, police sharpshooters killed a man who had stood pointing a sawed-off shotgun to the neck of his hostage, a former co-worker.
Gunman John Miranda had warned the crisis would "end with a gun bang," and as tensions mounted, he began a 60-second countdown. When he reached 15, hostage Tom McNeil broke away and grabbed the gun.
Miranda fired twice, but missed. Police then opened fire and killed him Tuesday with shots to the chest. Miranda, 28, had taped the shotgun to his hand. Police said any chance of a peaceful resolution ended when Miranda began his countdown.
The drama began inside Seal Masters, the waterproofing business where Miranda worked before being laid off. McNeil, 30, had scratches; but supervisor Guy George, 39, who was shot in the leg earlier, was in guarded condition.
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A 25-year-old man pleaded guilty Tuesday to conspiracy in the theft of $60,000 in Federal Reserve notes from the Bureau of Engraving and Printing.
Rayford Young Jr. of Largo, Maryland, was a currency checker processor at the tightly guarded printing plant when the theft occurred.
According to U.S. Attorney Eric Holder, Young admitted stealing $60,000 worth of $50 notes in August and September, along with two other bureau employees. The thefts were not discovered until November and December. The identities of the other workers wasn't provided. The probe was continuing.
Young faces a maximum sentence of five years in prison and up to a $250,000 fine. In addition, he has agreed to sign an agreement to repay the government $17,500.
CAMP PENDLETON, California (CNN) -- A Marine Corps corporal who fled to Canada after returning home from Vietnam 25 years ago has returned to face a demotion and a bad-conduct discharge.
Cpl. Donald J. Bailey pleaded guilty Tuesday at his court-martial hearing to three counts of unauthorized absence and was sentenced by a military judge. Following a review, the punishment will take effect in about three months.
Bailey fled the Marines in December 1970 when he was 19. He had seven months of service left. He said he went to Canada because he was disgusted with the reaction he got at home after serving 13 months as a rifleman in Vietnam.
"This was not a politically correct decision, this was the right decision," said Lt. Col. Jerry Broeckert, a spokesman at Camp Pendleton, where Bailey has been living since his return in October.
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Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.
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