State Troopers

About 100 pounds of toxic sodium cyanide spilled from a truck onto a busy interstate highway Friday morning, and authorities warned motorists who may have driven through the chemical to check their cars. Eight drums containing the chemical in pellet form fell off the truck. The driver, apparently unaware of the accident, continued to East Providence where he was stopped and the truck impounded, police said. The driver of the Kraus Chemical Co. truck, Wayne A.

In a decision that roiled the state's political landscape, Assembly Speaker Jack Collins on Thursday refused to authorize the impeachment of a state Supreme Court justice accused of misleading state officials about the extent of racial profiling on the New Jersey Turnpike. But Collins, echoing other top lawmakers, called on Supreme Court Justice Peter G.

A tax war between Seneca Indians and New York state grew more divisive Thursday as Indians dropped burning tires off a highway overpass and clashed with state police. Thirteen protesters were arrested early Thursday and seven people, including four state troopers, were injured. More than 200 extra troopers were sent to the Cattaraugus Indian Reservation about 30 miles south of Buffalo, Sgt. Gregory Lang said. The protest focuses on sales taxes.

A kidnap and robbery suspect mistakenly freed from the San Bernardino Central Detention Center has been captured in Golden Beach, Md. Dorinda Carol White, 21, of Leonard Town, Md., was arrested by state troopers and is awaiting extradition to Las Vegas in the kidnaping of a flower shop employee, San Bernardino County sheriff's deputies said. A "computer glitch" led to White's release from the San Bernardino jail, officers said.

Tom West is the new vice president of development at the Orange County Performing Arts Center, where job one will be raising about $75 million needed to complete funding for the new Renee and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall, along with an additional $11 million or so for annual operations. West, whose hiring was announced Wednesday, spent the last nine years as a fundraiser for the Kennedy Center in Washington, most recently as vice president of development.

The case of the missing Wisconsin lawmakers echoes a previous legislative walkout. In May 2003, more than 50 Texas Democratic state lawmakers crossed state lines to block a vote on a GOP-backed redistricting plan. Last week, all 14 Democratic state senators in Wisconsin left the Capitol to deny the GOP-controlled Senate a quorum to vote on a plan to slash collective bargaining rights for state workers. For part of Thursday, some stayed at a hotel and water park in Illinois.

There will be no criminal investigation of two Arkansas state troopers who last month alleged that they helped then-Gov. Bill Clinton conceal his extramarital affairs and that when he became President offered federal jobs to discourage them from speaking out. Arkansas State Police Director Tommy L. Goodwin said reports of such an investigation published Jan. 13 by the Associated Press and the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette newspaper were erroneous. The AP account also appeared in The Times.

Re "Defying the Law In Support of the Law" (Feb. 13): What part of the separation of church and state don't Judge Roy Moore, Alabama Gov. Forrest James Jr. and their supporters understand? Far from seeming "a bit trivial," as your story suggests, the issue is the 1st Amendment, the very keystone of our society. With Judge Moore "just saying no" to enforcing the Constitution (his sworn duty) and Gov. James threatening dissenters with physical violence by calling out the National Guard and the state troopers to keep the Ten Commandments plaque in Moore's courtroom)

The man who succeeded President Clinton as Arkansas governor said Wednesday he was told of allegations made by state troopers that Clinton used them to arrange sexual trysts. "This was a group that was opposed to Clinton and seemed to have an ax to grind with him. They made allegations as to then-Gov. Clinton's personal life, yes," Jim Guy Tucker said in response to reporters' questions.

Two New Jersey state troopers who fired 11 shots at a van carrying minority passengers reached a plea bargain with the state Friday, avoiding a trial on charges of attempted murder, attorneys said. Troopers John Hogan and James Kenna are expected to plead guilty Monday to lesser charges, according to defense attorney Robert Galantucci. As part of the agreement, federal prosecutors will drop any plans to get involved in the controversial 1998 case. "It's over.