John Travolta’s son dies in bathtub accident

John Travolta’s son dies in bathtub accident

NASSAU, Bahamas — John Travolta’s teenage son, Jett, died in the Bahamas after falling ill and hitting his head at his family’s vacation home, police said Friday.

A house caretaker found Jett, 16, unconscious in a bathroom late Friday morning. The teenager had last been seen going into the bathroom Thursday and had a history of seizures, according to the statement. Police said they are planning an autopsy for Monday.

A police spokeswoman said Jett apparently hit his head on the tub.

Jett was the older child and only son of Travolta and his wife, actress Kelly Preston, who also have an 8-year-old daughter, Ella. The family arrived on a private plane Tuesday and had been vacationing at their home in the Old Bahama Bay resort community.

Ala. jobless calls going to 2 Calif. residences

MONTGOMERY, Ala. — There used to be a time when people who called Linda Jahraus’ home in Laguna Beach, Calif, were actually wanting to speak to her or her husband.

But for the past several months, the majority of callers have been trying to reach an Alabama unemployment hot line. The call confusion has added to the frustrations of the state’s unemployed and has left at least two California households hoping for a little less ringing in the new year.

The Alabama Department of Industrial Relations administers unemployment benefits and set up a toll-free number for jobless Alabama residents to apply for benefits.

Cybil and Harvey Bernash of Irvine, Calif., have also been getting Alabama hot line calls. Cybil Bernash discovered she wasn’t alone when she called the hot line number to report the problem — and wound up on the phone with her friend, Jahraus.

After making little progress with Alabama officials or her phone company, Jahraus contacted the Montgomery Advertiser, which reported on the story Friday.

AT&T Alabama spokeswoman Sue Sperry said the company would be working through the weekend to trace the problem.

Mixed-race couple has 2nd set of unusual twins

LONDON — A mixed-race British couple has defied the odds — twice — by producing two sets of twins in which one sibling appears to be black and the other white. Dean Durrant’s newborn daughter Miya has dark skin like him. Twin sister Leah has fair skin like her blue-eyed, red-haired mother, Alison Spooner.

Their older siblings Lauren and Hayleigh, born in 2001, also have strikingly different skin tones and eye colors.

Both sets of twins are fraternal rather than identical, meaning they are the product of two separately fertilized eggs, so it is not unusual that they don’t look alike. Scientists say it’s rare for a couple to have two sets of twins, and even rarer for them to have such different appearances.

Different way of taxing

PORTLAND, Ore. — Oregon is among a growing number of states exploring ways to tax drivers based on the number of miles they drive instead of how much gas they use, even going so far as to install GPS monitoring devices in 300 vehicles.

The idea first emerged nearly 10 years ago as Oregon lawmakers worried that fuel-efficient cars such as gas-electric hybrids could pose a threat to road upkeep, which is paid for largely with gasoline taxes.

Oregon is ahead of the nation in exploring the concept, even though it will probably be years before any mileage tax is adopted.

Congress is talking about it, too. A congressional commission has envisioned a system similar to the prototype Oregon tested in 2006-07.

Shoe-lover’s dream

MIAMI — State troopers are looking for a charity to take thousands of shoes that were dumped on a Miami expressway, tying up rush hour traffic. Lt. Pat Santangelo says the Florida Highway Patrol received a call about the shoes Friday morning.

Santangelo says he’s not sure where the shoes came from. There were no signs of a crash, and no one stopped to claim them. He says he hopes someone will take them because he doesn’t want to send them to the dump.

Workers using a front-end loader and a dump truck were able to quickly clear at least one lane by sweeping all the shoes to the shoulder, but delays were expected until they could all be removed.

Associated Press