NORTHEAST

GIRL, 8, KILLED BY TREE AT BOY SCOUT CAMP

OCEAN TOWNSHIP, N.J. – An 8-year-old girl died and three others were injured yesterday when a tree fell on them during a first-aid class at a Boy Scout camp, authorities said.

The girls were participating in the class at an overnight camp when the 31-foot tree suddenly snapped, crashing through a tarp over a picnic table at which they were sitting, Police Chief Kenneth Flatt said. “There wasn’t a whole lot anybody could do,” said Mr. Flatt. The tree landed on the 8-year-old girl’s head. She was pronounced dead at Southern Ocean County Hospital in Manahawkin. The other girls – aged 9, 10, and 16 – suffered minor injuries and were treated and released from the hospital. Their identities weren’t immediately released. One girl suffered a broken ankle; the others had bruises and scrapes. There were seven counselors on the scene at the time, and one who had been teaching the 45-minute first-aid class administered CPR on the girl, to no avail.

The girls were among a group of 17 children from a northern New Jersey group called the Resident Camp Association. The group had arrived Sunday and was to stay until tomorrow, said Ethan Draddy, an executive with the Jersey Shore Council of Boy Scouts of America.

The tree accident was the latest in series of tragedies to strike scouting-related activities this summer. Four adult Scout leaders were killed in a July electrical accident in Virginia at the National Boy Scout Jamboree. Five other people have died this summer from drowning and lightning accidents during Scout outings in Wyoming, New Mexico, Utah, and California.

– Associated Press

SOUTH

TEXAS BECOMES NEWEST STATE TO HAVE MAJORITY-MINORITY POPULATION

EL PASO, Texas – Texas has become the fourth state to have a non-white majority population, the U.S. Census Bureau said today, a trend driven by a surging number of Hispanics moving to the state.

According to the population estimates based on the 2000 Census, about 50.2% of Texans are now minorities. In the 2000 Census, minorities made up about 47% of the population in the second-largest state.

Texas joins California, New Mexico, and Hawaii as states with majority-minority populations – with Hispanics the largest group in every state but Hawaii, where it is Asian-Americans. Five other states – Maryland, Mississippi, Georgia, New York, and Arizona – aren’t far behind, with about 40% minorities.

Public policy analysts said these states and the country as a whole need to bring minority education and professional achievement to the levels of whites. Otherwise, these areas risk becoming poorer and less competitive.

William Frey, a demographer at the Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C., said lawmakers need to start with immigration reform, while striving to bring minorities’ education and salary levels in line with those of whites.

– Associated Press

APPEALS COURT UPHOLDS VA. PLEDGE REQUIREMENT

RICHMOND, Va. – An appeals court yesterday upheld a Virginia law that requires public schools to lead a daily recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance, rejecting a claim that its reference to God was an unconstitutional promotion of religion.

A suit filed by Edward Myers of Sterling, Va., a father of three, raised the objection to the phrase “one nation under God.”

A three-judge panel of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the pledge is a patriotic exercise, not an affirmation of religion similar to a prayer.

– Associated Press

GRIEVING MOTHER’S WAR PROTEST OUTSIDE BUSH RANCH DRAWS ATTENTION

CRAWFORD, Texas – The mother of a fallen American soldier who started a quiet roadside peace vigil near President Bush’s ranch last weekend is drawing supporters from across the nation.

Dozens of people have joined her and others have sent flowers and food. One activist called her “the Rosa Parks of the anti-war movement.”

Cindy Sheehan, 48, of Vacaville, Calif., says she was surprised at the response.

“Before my son was killed, I used to think that one person could not make a difference,” she said yesterday under a tent where she has slept since Saturday. “But one person that is surrounded and supported by millions of people can be heard.”

On Saturday, two high-level Bush administration officials, the national security adviser and deputy White House chief of staff, talked to Ms. Sheehan for about 20 minutes. Ms. Sheehan called the brief meeting “pointless” and still wants to talk to the president.

Her 24-year-old son, Casey, was killed in Sadr City, Iraq, in April 2004 just five days after he arrived. Two months later, Ms. Sheehan was among grieving military family members who met with Mr. Bush at Fort Lewis, near Seattle.

– Associated Press

HEALTH

STUDY SUGGESTS STRICT DIET MAY BLOCK PROSTATE CANCER

A radical ultra low-fat diet and other lifestyle changes may help keep early-stage prostate cancer from worsening, says the first attempt to test the theory.

It’s a small study that tracked men whose tumors weren’t aggressive. Still, the research, published in the September issue of the Journal of Urology, promises to increase interest in whether diet might really help battle cancer.

The study was led by heart-health guru Dr. Dean Ornish, and used his famously strict regimen, where people become vegetarians, limit dietary fat to 10% of total calories, exercise regularly, and learn stress-management techniques such as yoga.

Dr. Ornish and fellow researchers at the University of California, San Francisco, recruited 93 men who had decided against treatment for early-stage prostate cancer, a route known as “watchful waiting.”

Half were randomly assigned to the Ornish diet and lifestyle regimen; the others weren’t asked to vary their usual routines. The researchers sent participants’ blood samples to Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York to measure PSA, or prostate specific antigen, a marker used to track prostate cancer growth.

– Associated Press