Intruder

When two gunmen smashed through the glass front door of her suburban Fort Worth home, Kellie Hoehn didn't think twice. The 34-year-old mother of two grabbed a shotgun that had been pointed at her face, starting a struggle that ended with her husband, Keith, fatally shooting one intruder and wounding the other. "I wasn't going to let them get to my babies," she said. Dakota Scott Benoit, 20, of Richland Hills was pronounced dead at a hospital. John Garland Pierson, 25, of Haltom City was in critical condition and in police custody at the hospital.

A resident fatally shot one of three armed intruders who broke into a house Friday in an apparent home invasion robbery, police said. Los Angeles Police Department officers were looking for the other two intruders. Officer Jason Lee said the shooting occurred about 2:45 p.m. in the 24300 block of Burbank Boulevard when three men kicked in the door to the house. In the house at the time were an elderly couple and their two grown sons. Police did not release information about who fired the fatal shot or how many might have been involved in the gunplay.

MURFREESBORO, Tenn. -- Andre Norton, one of science fiction's most prolific female writers until she died three years ago, intrigued her readers by creating hundreds of fantasy worlds during her 70 years of writing. And in a decision that may have been accidental or calculated, she left her friends and fans a final puzzle: Who should control the rights to her more than 130 books, including the popular "Witch World" series?

Wonderful and aptly depicted article on Glendale's Americana at Brand ["The New Mayberry?" July 3]. I was soooo glad you mentioned that infernal music. Who could ever imagine that those classics, having reemerged in our lifetime, could prove to be so annoying! My sister and I spent the day at this mall but were eventually driven away by the relentless crooning. I imagine living there would eventually be like finding yourself in a bad episode of "The Twilight Zone."

Police are still searching for a heavyset man who entered the unlocked homes of women, dancing for them and touching them before the women kicked him out, authorities said. The bearded man apparently walked into an apartment in the 1700 block of Marguerite Avenue about 10 a.m. Sunday, telling the woman inside he was on a fraternity scavenger hunt in which he had to dance and eventually place his hand on her buttocks, said Newport Beach Police Sgt. Evan Sailor. A similar incident occurred April 12 in the 700 block of Begonia Avenue in Corona del Mar, although police are not positive it was the same person.

An off-duty police officer shot a man who allegedly was burglarizing his home, police said Tuesday. The unidentified man ran away after being shot in the jaw and grazed in the chest and later was found in the backyard of a nearby residence. The 30-year-old man was treated by paramedics and taken to UCI Medical Center, where he is expected to recover. After he is released, the suspect will be booked at county jail on suspicion of burglary and parole violation. Police said the officer fired his weapon because he believed that the suspect was armed, but a statement from the Garden Grove Police Department did not mention that the man was carrying a weapon.

Police in Santa Barbara used a stun gun to subdue a naked man inside a home where he was allegedly holding two people at knifepoint. Phillip Kenneth Matovich is in jail, where he has been booked for investigation of attempted murder, burglary, kidnapping, hostage-taking, false imprisonment, making terrorist threats and brandishing a knife. Police say the 26-year-old man broke into two homes. Sgt. Lorenzo Duarte says Matovich was arrested Saturday night inside the second home, where he was holding a woman and her boyfriend hostage.

Having left my heart in my hometown of "ugly people" (as reported about Philadelphia by Travel & Leisure Magazine) for the "beautiful people" of Los Angeles decades ago, I dismiss this unfair slap in our collective faces, the ones evidently only our mothers could love. Besides, the issue of beauty will be rendered moot when we get to genetically choose our looks. Supermodels won't be any more super than anybody else.

Norilsk Nickel is building its own fleet of ships to capitalize on the melting of the polar ice caps. The company ordered five reinforced cargo vessels that can plow through the waters north of Siberia as new sea routes open. Moscow-based Norilsk, the world's biggest producer of nickel, is spending at least $467 million to buy reinforced vessels rather than rent both freighters and icebreaker escorts. The thawing sea "has enormous economic implications, and commerce is going to push this ecological zone to the limit," said Rear Adm. Timothy McGee, head of the U.S. Navy's Meteorology and Oceanography Command.

Re "Inquisition at JPL," Opinion, Jan. 16 The background checks at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory are a colossal waste of time and money. They are an unnecessary distraction to a part of the space program that works exceptionally well, and another example of the Bush administration trivializing the momentous and complicating the obvious. "Patterns of irresponsible behavior" like homosexuality? I'm surprised they're not still looking for Communists. The inquest of America's best and brightest vaults the administration's foolishness to new heights.