Across the Nation

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — Three college students suspected of a string of Alabama church fires may have been out drinking when they began their spree, authorities said.

Benjamin Nathan Moseley and Russell Lee DeBusk Jr., both 19-year-old theater students at Birmingham-Southern College, were arrested this week along with 20-year-old Matthew Lee Cloyd, who was studying pre-med at the University of Alabama at Birmingham.

Throughout the monthlong investigation, authorities said alcohol could have led to a warped bravado that sparked the arsons, and initial interviews with the suspects bore out the theory, according to one officer.

Judge declares mistrial in retrial

of ‘Junior’ Gotti

NEW YORK — Gambino crime family scion John A. "Junior” Gotti dodged a legal bullet for the second time in six months Friday when a federal jury deadlocked on racketeering charges against him, leading to a mistrial.

U.S. District Court Judge Shira Scheindlin excused jurors after they said they were at an impasse despite less than two full days of deliberations. Prosecutors quickly said they intended to try Gotti, 42, a third time, and the judge indicated she would set a new trial date Monday.

NASA spacecraft successfully enters orbit around Mars

PASADENA, Calif. — A NASA spacecraft successfully slipped into orbit around Mars Friday, joining a trio of orbiters already circling the Red Planet after a critical firing of its engines.

Scientists cheered after the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter emerged from the planet’s shadow and signaled to NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory that the maneuver was a success.

"Oh I am very relieved,” project manager Jim Graf said minutes later. "It was picture perfect.”

The two-ton spacecraft is the most sophisticated ever to arrive at Mars and is expected to gather more data on the Red Planet than all previous Martian missions combined.

Former Altanta mayor acquitted of charges

ATLANTA — Former Mayor Bill Campbell was acquitted Friday of lining his pockets with payoffs while guiding Atlanta through a period of explosive growth that helped secure its place during the 1990s as a world-class city. But the jury convicted him of tax evasion.

Campbell, 52, could get up to nine years in prison and $300,000 in fines, but legal experts have said it’s doubtful he would receive the maximum sentence.

The federal jury took a day and a half to acquit Campbell of racketeering and bribery after a seven-week trial that put his womanizing and his high-rolling, jet-setting ways on display with his wife sitting dutifully in the courtroom for most of the proceedings.

Santa Clara to pay Enron creditors $36.5 million to settle suit

SAN FRANCISCO — The city of Santa Clara agreed to pay Enron Corp. creditors $36.5 million to settle a lawsuit over terminated electricity contracts with the city’s municipal utility, the two parties said Friday.

Enron, the scandal-plagued power supplier that collapsed into bankruptcy in 2001, sued Santa Clara the following year, claiming officials owed it $147 million for terminating two electricity contracts ahead of schedule.

Santa Clara stopped paying Enron in December 2001 after the company ceased delivering promised electricity, said Junona Jonas, utility director for Silicon Valley Power, the city-owned electricity utility.

While Silicon Valley Power contended it was Enron that ended the contracts when it couldn’t deliver electricity, the utility settled to avoid further legal costs.

Chertoff will tour Northern California levees next week

SACRAMENTO — Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff will tour California’s levee system March 17, part of a bid by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to persuade the federal government of the risks of a Hurricane Katrina-style disaster here, the governor’s office said.

Chertoff is scheduled to survey the levee system by helicopter and likely will meet with state and federal officials. The details of his visit are still being worked out, said Margita Thompson, the governor’s spokeswoman.

It is unlikely that Chertoff will come bearing the news that Schwarzenegger most wants to hear. The governor asked President Bush last month for a federal disaster declaration for the Sacramento area’s fragile river and delta levee system.

But White House officials said such an extraordinary pre-emptive declaration is unlikely. The administration is considering other ways to help, said a Bush administration official who spoke on condition of anonymity because the federal government is still negotiating with California officials.

Chertoff’s visit is part of that fact-finding process.

The 1,600 miles of federal-state levees protect farms and homes throughout the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta and along the rivers that flow into it.

Largely because of weaknesses in the levees — some built more than a century ago — parts of the Sacramento region have less than 100-year flood protection, the lowest of any large urban area in the nation. That’s led to fears that an earthquake or flood could cause a Katrina-type catastrophe and jeopardize the water supply for 22 million Californians.

Schwarzenegger is seeking $6 billion in voter-approved bonds for levee repairs as part of a massive public works spending plan he is negotiating with lawmakers.<