Around the Nation

Around the Nation

2 killed, 106 injured in PSU bus crash

The four buses were among six carrying 280 students home from a shopping trip to New York, officials said.

University President Graham Spanier said the buses hit a "very thick wall of fog" while traveling on Interstate 80 just after midnight.

The ensuing chain-reaction wreck involved three of the buses smashing into one another with a fourth hitting a guard rail. A pickup truck and two cars also became tangled in the wreckage, officials said.

The bus driver who died, Robert Clifford Burge, was in the second of the four buses. The student, whose name was not released, was in the first row of seats on the third bus, Spanier said.

At least five people, including another bus driver who underwent surgery, remained hospitalized in serious condition yesterday, he said. Police didn't know the conditions yesterday of the drivers and passengers in the cars.

Spanier said most of the other injuries were minor.

Students who weren't injured gathered at the nearby Church of Saint Patrick after the crash until more buses arrived to take them back to State College.

FBI: 10 percent drop in serious crimes

Led by drops of 13 percent in murders, 14 percent in burglaries and 12 percent in auto thefts, the preliminary FBI report surprised experts.

The overall crime figure declined by only 5 percent, 4 percent and 3 percent in the preceding three first-half-year reports.

This year, among other violent crimes, robbery dropped 10 percent; rape, 8 percent; and aggravated assault, 7 percent. In other property crime, larceny-theft declined 8 percent. Nationally, the report gives only percentage changes between the first six months of 1999 and of 1998.

"These drops are enormous and encouraging," said Carnegie Mellon University professor Alfred Blumstein.

"This is astounding," said James Alan Fox, a professor of criminal justice at Northeastern University.

Bush refuses to meet with gay GOP group

''I don't believe in group thought, pitting one group of people against another,'' the GOP presidential front-runner said from the Texas governor's mansion.

He offered no new policy initiatives as he sought to reinforce his readiness for the White House. ''I will bring honor and dignity to the White House, just like I've done as the governor of Texas,'' he said, emphasizing the theme of his latest commercial in New Hampshire.

11-22-99