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NEW BEDFORD -- Federal Aviation Administrator David Hinson told a gathering at the city's airport yesterday that "you need to have 8,000 feet" of runway if expanded air service and business are to take off.
Mr. Hinson, visiting the airport with Sen. John F. Kerry, addressed a host of area government, business and environmental representatives about a proposal to extend the airport's main runway 3,000 feet, from its current 5,000 to 8,000.
That length is considered the minimum for safe landing of large cargo and passenger jets, spurring both more activity at the airport, and more businesses locating at and near it.
FALL RIVER -- The brutally murdered couple found by their young children two months ago were executed by a man who was convinced the two tipped off police to a crack cocaine ring, authorities said yesterday.
Sonia Shurtleff, 23, and her fiancé, David C. Allen, 32, were shot, stabbed and strangled just hours after narcotics detectives raided an acquaintance's apartment around the corner and seized $2,500 in crack, authorities said.
WAREHAM -- A convicted child molester ordered to serve out a 15-year jail sentence after local police found him with two young boys last fall has been indicted on armed assault charges.
Michael P. Nickerson, 22, was indicted by a grand jury on charges of assault with a dangerous weapon.
Police said they found a double-edged knife in Mr. Nickerson's pickup truck the night he was found with a 13-year-old boy in the woods off Glen Charlie Road in East Wareham last Dec. 6.
NEW BEDFORD -- Rep. Barney Frank says tying an expanded $25 million fishing boat buyback program to the new Amendment 7 groundfish plan is just "a bureaucratic ploy."
"That's just nonsense," said the Massachusetts Democrat, reacting to comments made earlier this week by John K. Bullard, the Washington point man to the New England fishing crisis. "It's absolutely wrong and we should pay no attention to it."
In preparing to announce an expanded boat buyback earlier this week, Mr. Bullard, director of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's office of sustainable development and intergovernment affairs, said the $25 million effort could be jeopardized if Amendment 7 is overturned.
By Ric Oliveira, Standard-Times staff writer
FALL RIVER -- Ten years ago, when Antonio Carvalho, Heitor Souza and a handful of others first dreamed of carrying a childhood tradition from the Azores to the city, they had no idea it would turn out to be the biggest Azorean feast in North America.
Many churches in this area hold feasts in honor of their patron saints. But few honored the recognized patron of the Azorean people -- the Holy Spirit.
WAREHAM -- The committee that recommended the town expand the Route 28 police station into a public safety facility will make the first in a series of informational presentations to the public Sunday night.
NEW BEDFORD -- After a 13-year-old boy was attacked near his home by a teen claiming to be a gang member, investigators are trying to learn whether the incident is tied to other assaults in the Common Park neighborhood.
"There doesn't seem to be any reason for these assaults," said Detective Sgt. Richard Ferreira.
Although none resulted in serious injuries, Sgt. Ferreira said authorities are concerned by the seemingly random attacks.
The victims do not appear to be linked and have ranged from children to intoxicated adults.
NEW BEDFORD -- Gloribel Fuentes eyed the 280 pounds of green bananas that she and more than a dozen other youngsters would spend the day peeling and mashing.
"It's easy," the 10-year-old said hesitantly, staring at the fruit-filled table. "I don't think it will be hard to do at all."
What was hard, organizers of this year's Latino Festival admit, was figuring out a way to prepare all the food needed to feed the expected crowds Saturday and Sunday at Fishermen's Wharf on Pier 3.
The festival will be held from 3 to 9:30 p.m.
FALL RIVER -- When Gov. William F. Weld and top court officials formally dedicate the new courthouse here today, the county prosecutors won't be there.
That's because Bristol County District Attorney Paul F. Walsh Jr. will not send any of his staff to work at the $15.4 million renovated building, saying the space they were allocated is woefully inadequate.
WASHINGTON -- Scientists have decoded the genes of a microbe that lives on the ocean floor, can survive only in near-boiling water and thrives on carbon dioxide. The study confirms existence of a third major branch of life, experts say.
A team of researchers from three institutions announced yesterday that they decoded the 1,700 genes of a microbe called Methanococcus jannaschii and found that it is a member of a branch of life called archaea.
WASHINGTON -- Sweeping aside six decades of social policy, President Clinton signed welfare legislation yesterday that ends guaranteed cash payments to the poor and demands work from recipients. The historic act divided Democrats on the eve of their Chicago convention.
Unusually subdued for a Rose Garden ceremony, the president called the measure "far from perfect" and vowed to prepare second-term proposals that would ease the sting to needy Americans.
By Bob Mims, Associated Press writer
TOOELE ARMY DEPOT, Utah -- Years behind schedule, the Army yesterday began destroying a U.S. stockpile of chemical weapons in a high-tech incinerator, starting with nerve-gas rockets that were reduced to ash and molten aluminum.
By day's end, the Army planned to incinerate 60 M55 rockets containing the deadly nerve agent GB -- the first weapons to go in a $12 billion effort to eliminate 31,000 tons of mustard and nerve gas packed into 3 million rockets, land mines, bombs, mortars, missiles and canisters stored in eight states.
The Titanic's maiden voyage, abruptly interrupted by an iceberg 84 years ago, could end in New York Harbor within a fortnight.
Well, sort of.
BOSTON -- Raising the spirits of local taxpayers, Gov. William F. Weld in 1994 signed a bill that included $658,790 to restore the Padanaram Bridge in Dartmouth.
The cranky, old bridge would be upgraded with a much-needed tune-up. And a fresh coat of paint would be applied, protecting the bridge from rust and rot.
But the money was never appropriated and the work never done. Two years later, the bridge -- closed unexpectedly to car and pedestrian traffic for two days last week after engineers found it to be seriously degraded by rust -- is in need of a $1.2 million overhaul made worse by the postponed maintenance.
BOSTON -- A federal jury yesterday found the 1993 firing of a former New Bedford city councilor's husband from a Public Works Department job was not politically motivated.
The jury of six men and four women deliberated for 25 minutes before announcing their verdict in U.S. District Court before Magistrate Judge Robert Collings.
WEYMOUTH -- The quickest way to replace jobs and payroll when a Navy air base closes in September 1997 would be to convert it into a regional airport, a recent study says.
FALL RIVER -- Ruth Allen gripped her arms tightly, a heart-wrenching sob catching in her throat, as the prosecutor recounted the last moments of her son's life.
Her son, David C. Allen, 32, was shot once in the head and stabbed 10 times, six in the heart, before dying in the living room of his Baker Street apartment.
Tears welled in her eyes as she heard how his fiancée, Sonia Shurtleff, was shot once, stabbed 19 times, then strangled with an electrical cord -- all as the couple's two children, ages 3 and 5, slept in another room.
DETROIT -- Reporting progress in preliminary talks with the Big Three, leaders of the United Auto Workers yesterday put off naming the automaker the union will target in its final push for new contracts for 385,000 members.
UAW President Stephen Yokich said it made no sense now to focus on one company when negotiations were progressing with all three.
By Patricia O'Connor, Standard-Times staff writer
NEW BEDFORD -- Felix Petrarca waited more than seven years for an opportunity to buy Fairhaven Mills. He finally got his chance yesterday, and after a tense, half-hour auction he emerged as the top bidder for a portion of the troubled complex.
Mr. Petrarca's offer of $480,000 for two of the Fairhaven Mills' six buildings was the high bid. He also must pay more than $450,000 in back taxes and interest on the property. The deal is scheduled to close Sept. 26.
Something is missing at Diablo Day Camp in Lafayette, Calif., this year.
At the 3 p.m. sing-along in a wooded canyon near Oakland, 214 Girl Scouts are learning the summer dance craze, the Macarena. Keeping time by slapping their hands across their arms and hips, they jiggle, hop and stomp. They spin, wiggle and shake. They bounce for two minutes.
In silence.
"Yesterday, I told them we could be sued if we played the music," explains Teesie King, camp co-director and a volunteer mom. "So they decided they'd learn it without the music."
This week's how-the-mighty-have-fallen award in sports goes to Michael Irvin of the Dallas Cowboys. On top of all his other troubles, Irvin now has car trouble, too.
And so there may be some justice in this world after all.
On Wednesday night, Irvin lost a $50,000 jeep. Not lost as in misplaced -- parked it somewhere and forgot where. But lost in a worse way -- the car dealers who put the Land Cruiser in his driveway free of charge repossessed it.
BOSTON -- They didn't get mad. They got even. But who thought it would take most of the season?
They needed 128 games, covering nearly five months, but the Red Sox have earned themselves a second chance. With just over five weeks left in the season, they're ready to start over.
This morning the Red Sox are at .500, and given the circumstances, darn proud of it.
By Kevin McNamara, New England Sports Service
FOXBORO -- The final game of the preseason is like getting your teeth cleaned -- a necessary evil.
Tonight at Foxboro Stadium, the Patriots host the Washington Redskins in their final tune-up before reality sets in a week from Sunday at Miami's Joe Robbie Stadium. In a switch from previous years, Bill Parcells said earlier this week that his team needs one more dress rehearsal, but he also realizes the inherent ingredients for disaster.
"It's going to be a gut feeling this week," on playing time, Parcells said. "I'm just mostly looking at individuals, like (Chris) Slade. If he can play a little bit, I'll play him. He needs it."
By Bud Barker, New England Sports Service
WILLIAMSPORT, Pa. -- They snuck in the back door and came out the front yesterday as Little League National Champions.
Amazing Cranston Western made more history last night, with its 6-3 win over previously unbeaten South champion, Panama City, before 16,000 new believers at Howard J. Lamade Stadium.
Cranston becomes the first Rhode Island team to ever gain a berth in the Little League World Series championship game, and are the first team to get into the title game with more losses than victories.
During the Greater New Bedford Youth Baseball League's 22-game regular season, two-time defending champion Ma's Donuts put together an impressive 19-3 record.
The only obstacle standing between themselves and the top of the standings was a team riding the wave of a storybook summer.
Manager Ron Duarte's Young Cape Verdean A.A. had defeated everyone in sight (including Ma's twice) to roll into the championship series carrying a 24-0 record.
It's unnerving. It's creepy. It's annoying. It's revolutionary, so get used to it. It's NYNEX's new computer voice-recognition directory assistance service, which has customers throughout New England talking like robots into their phones and rolling their eyes in despair at this attempt to save NYNEX 10 percent on its information services.
It was foggy and damp as I drove past what used to be the Westport Drive-in the other afternoon.Workers were leveling the rolling asphalt surface and there was not much left beyond a dilapidated screen boarded up almost beyond recognition. Nevertheless it was more than enough to bring back a host of bittersweet '60s memories.
By John Horn, Associated Press entertainment writer
Religion in Hollywood? You're a lot more likely to find Jim Carrey reciting Shakespeare or Sony Pictures releasing a profitable film.
"A movie about faith" is as welcome a show-business phrase as "Something's terribly wrong with your BMW." And yet two new films with solid spiritual underpinnings -- one produced by Roman Catholic missionaries and one about a Roman Catholic missionary -- will debut within the next two months.
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