Civil rights activist dies

Civil rights activist dies

MONTGOMERY, Ala. — Johnnie Carr, who joined childhood friend Rosa Parks in the historic Montgomery bus boycott and kept a busy schedule of civil rights activism up to her final days, has died. She was 97.

Carr died Friday night, said Baptist Health hospital spokeswoman Melody Ragland. She was hospitalized after a stroke Feb. 11.

Carr succeeded the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. as president of the Montgomery Improvement Association in 1967, a post she held at her death. It was the newly formed association that led the boycott of city buses in the Alabama capital in 1955 after Parks, a black seamstress, was arrested for refusing to give up her seat to whites on a crowded bus.

A year later the U.S. Supreme Court struck down racial segregation on public transportation.

Celebs, patrons urged
to get hepatitis A shot

NEW YORK — Hundreds of patrons of a posh Manhattan hot spot, including A-list celebrities who attended actor Ashton Kutcher’s 30th birthday party there, may have been exposed to hepatitis A, health officials said.

The Department of Health and Mental Hygiene offered free vaccines through Sunday to anyone who had been to Socialista in the West Village during the city’s Fashion Week this month, after a bartender there was found to have the infectious disease.

More than 700 people, including celebrities who attended Kutcher’s bash, may have been exposed to the liver disease, health department officials said. Demi Moore, Bruce Willis, Gwyneth Paltrow, Ivanka Trump and Madonna reportedly attended the event.

The hepatitis A virus is found in fecal matter. If someone with the disease doesn’t wash his or her hands properly and handles food or drinks, the virus can be spread.

The Socialista bartender, whose name was not released, handled glasses and garnishes, and there was no soap behind the bar, said health department spokeswoman Jessica Scaperotti.

The disease is rarely fatal, she said, and recommended that people be vaccinated within two weeks of exposure.

Arrested in ’81 shooting

LOS ANGELES — A Japanese businessman has been arrested on suspicion of murder more than a quarter-century after an infamous downtown shooting in 1981 that left his wife dead and sparked an international furor, police said.

Kazuyoshi Miura, 60, had already been convicted in Japan in 1994 of the murder of his wife, Kazumi Miura, but that verdict was overturned by the country’s high courts 10 years ago.

Miura was arrested Friday while visiting Saipan, a U.S. commonwealth territory in the Pacific, after cold-case detectives from the Los Angeles Police Department worked with authorities there and in Guam, police said in a brief statement.

“A murder suspect who has been eluding [the] dragnet has been finally captured,” the LAPD said. “Miura’s extradition is pending.”

Officer April Harding, a department spokeswoman, said no other details were available.

7-year-old’s ID stolen

CARPENTERSVILLE, Ill. — Police in a Chicago suburb say the Internal Revenue Service has told a 7-year-old boy he owes back taxes on $60,000 because someone else has been using the youngster’s identity to collect wages and unemployment benefits.

Officers in suburban Carpentersville said Friday the second-grader’s identity has been in use by someone else since 2001.

Detectives filed a felony identity theft charge against 29-year-old Cirilo Centeno of Streamwood, Ill.

They accuse Centeno of using the boy’s personal information to collect more than $60,000 in pay and services while working three jobs.

FEMA to test trailers

NEW ORLEANS — Occupants of FEMA trailers placed in disaster areas may now get their units tested for formaldehyde contamination if they file a request.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency says that for the first time it will open up the testing program to hurricane evacuees living in thousands of federally supplied trailers and mobile homes along the Gulf Coast, and to anyone using similar FEMA-supplied trailers in other states that have been affected by floods, tornadoes and other disasters.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said this month that tests on a sample of 519 trailers and mobile homes in Louisiana and Mississippi detected formaldehyde at levels that averaged about five times what people are exposed to in most modern homes.

Formaldehyde is a preservative also commonly used in construction materials; it can lead to breathing problems and is also believed to cause cancer.

Associated Press