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State

City budget cuts reduce APD copter patrol hours

ALBUQUERQUE (AP) - The Albuquerque Police Department won't have its new $1.5 million patrol helicopter in the air as much as it tightens its belt.

Mayor Martin Chavez, who took office in December, has ordered city departments to cut their budgets to balance the city's overall spending.

The police cut the helicopter's patrol hours from 25 to 12 a week in January. The helicopter used to spend five hours in the air five nights a week. Now it's on patrol four hours for three nights.

The reduced hours could save an estimated $15,000 over the next six months.

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"Right now, it seems the fiscally responsible thing to do," said Lt. Bob Huntsman, who oversees the department's air support unit.

Deputy Chief Ray Schultz said the helicopter still could be called out for emergencies.

"Just because it's not up in the air doesn't mean it's not available," he said.

The helicopter largely is used for surveillance, to help with SWAT situations and to take aerial photographs of crime scenes.

The department late last year replaced two Vietnam War-era Kiowa OH-58 helicopters with a sleek new helicopter that came with high-tech equipment and makes about half the noise of the old ones.

It costs about $36 an hour for fuel and maintenance, compared to between $56 and $85 an hour to operate the Kiowas. Pilot fees are $26.45 an hour.

The department also is selling the old helicopters. Air support Sgt. Tim Rainey estimated that together, they are worth $1 million. The sale money will go into the city's general fund.

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National

Passenger detained for carrying inert explosives

LOS ANGELES (AP) - An inactive Army National Guardsman was arrested early Monday after trying to pass a nonfunctioning military explosive through security at Los Angeles International Airport, police said.

A screener became concerned after noticing the device, which resembled an M-80 firecracker, said Los Angeles police Sgt. Greg Glodery.

A Federal Aviation Administration official said the device was found in the man's carryon luggage.

The man, whose name was not immediately released, was arrested at about 6:10 a.m. for investigation of possessing an explosive device. A bomb squad later determined the device was inert, police said.

The FBI has detained the man for questioning, airport spokesperson Gaby Pacheco said.

No evacuations were ordered at Terminal 6, where the item was discovered, Glodery said. The terminal serves Continental Airlines and portions of United Airlines fleet.

The screening station where the item was noticed in an X-ray machine was temporarily shut down, Glodery said. No flights were delayed, officials said.

In an unrelated incident at New York's La Guardia Airport, a flight that had left for Cleveland was forced to return after it was discovered a passenger was not properly screened. A concourse was evacuated and everyone was screened again.

Doctor on trial for liberal use of prescription pad

MILTON, Fla. (AP) - A doctor on trial for the deaths of four patients who overdosed on OxyContin is no different from a drug dealer, a prosecutor said Monday in closing arguments.

Witnesses testified that crowds of patients ate lunch or worked on their cars in the parking lot of Dr. James Graves' office, giving each other high fives when they came out with prescriptions, Assistant State Attorney Russell Edgar said.

"You've got to realize something's wrong when outside your office people are having tailgate parties," Edgar said.

Graves, 55, testified that he did not know his patients were abusing drugs and said no one would have died if OxyContin had been taken as prescribed.

Prosecutors contend Graves knew or should have known that his booming practice was made up largely of drug addicts seeking prescriptions for OxyContin and other narcotics popular on the street.

The six-member jury is expected to begin deliberating Tuesday. A guilty verdict would make Graves the first doctor in the nation convicted of manslaughter or murder in the deaths of patients due to OxyContin overdoses.

Graves is charged with racketeering, four counts of manslaughter through culpable negligence and five counts of unlawful delivery of a controlled substance. If convicted on all counts, Graves could face up to 30 years in state prison.

Edgar said Graves needed money after he was forced out of the Navy and fired from jobs at a Pensacola pain clinic and a state prison. He said the money rolled in as patients, most paying cash, returned repeatedly to feed their addictions.

"Word spread that he was the go-to doctor," Edgar said. "He's no different than a drug dealer."

OxyContin is a 12-hour synthetic opiate. Addicts defeat the time delay and get a heroin-like high by chewing the pills or crushing them and then injecting the drug.

Two dozen pharmacists testified they stopped filling what they called "Graves cocktails" that included Lortab, another painkiller, the tranquilizer Xanax and the muscle relaxant Soma besides OxyContin.

"Each one of these were popular street drugs," Edgar told the jury. "In the case of OxyContin, one pill sold for $50. The defendant knew that."

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International

NY students begin mural as part of Germany visit

BERLIN (AP) - New York high school junior Nicholas Lara felt his school shake on Sept. 11 when the second plane hit the nearby World Trade Center.

After being evacuated to Battery Park, the 16-year-old watched the first tower waver and remembers thinking it might fall where he and his classmates were standing.

Invited by Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder to Germany after the attacks, Lara and 24 other New York students from the four high schools nearest ground zero on Monday began a mural as part of their visit, artistically expressing their feelings about that day.

Lara, a student at the High School for Leadership and Public Service, painted two large white doves and many smaller ones flying through green trees into a blue sky.

"The doves are for peace, the trees are for life," he explained. "That's how I want the future to be - with people living in peace."

Krista Niles, another Leadership student, painted an airplane flying away from the twin towers.

"I want to erase all my memories of the World Trade Center," the 16-year-old said.

The students are the first of 1,000 who will cross the Atlantic over the next 18 months.

Led by artist Christine Haberstock, the group worked on three 6-foot by 8-foot wooden panels.

"They're so honest," said Haberstock, a South African painter and illustrator who spent a decade in Los Angeles before relocating to Berlin. "They were totally loaded with ideas - I didn't have to do anything."

Obinna Onwuchekwa, 16, from the High School for Economics and Finance, painted the twin towers in simple black, then wrote the words "FDNY, NYPD, Port Authority, Victims and Never Forget 9-11-01" around the peripheries.

"There's so much good art here," he said gesturing at the mural, "that I just thought: something simple."

After the 1,000 students have worked on additional panels, the mural will be about 30 yards long, Haberstock said. It will likely be brought back to the United States as a touring display, and perhaps visit other countries.

"Everybody likes to be actively involved - this is their voice - and through the art their voice is being heard," Haberstock said.

The students visiting Germany are being drawn from all New York City high schools, public and private, but the first 25 are from the four closest to ground zero - Murry Bergtraum, Stuyvesant, the High School for Leadership and Public Service, and the High School for Economics and Finance.

They began their journey meeting former New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani at an award ceremony in Baden-Baden on Saturday, and are to see Schroeder in Berlin on Tuesday before traveling to Munich, Stuttgart, Heidelberg and Cologne.

Austrian police detain man suspected of plans

VIENNA, Austria (AP) - Police have detained a man of Arab origin suspected of planning an attack against the U.S. Embassy in Vienna, an Interior Ministry spokesman said Monday.

The man, whose identity was not revealed, was taken into police custody Feb. 10, said the spokesman, Rudolf Gollia. The suspect remained in custody on Monday, as police continued their investigation, Gollia said.

The U.S. Embassy was closed last Wednesday in response to a suspected threat, an embassy employee familiar with security measures said while speaking on condition of anonymity.

Officials from the embassy were unavailable for comment Monday because of the holiday.

Police in Austria say they placed the man in investigative custody after receiving evidence that he might have been linked to a purported attack, but declined to say what type of information they received.

Since the Feb. 10 arrest, however, police have uncovered no evidence that the suspect was involved in any embassy plot.

"It's now becoming clearer that he did not intend to attack the embassy," Gollia said. "He seems to be innocent."

The threat marks the second scare in recent months involving a U.S. installation in Austria.

An anonymous bomb threat was directed against Vienna's Marriott hotel, which is located in the same building as the U.S. Consulate.

That Oct. 14 threat turned out to be false.

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