From left, Lew Toulmin, Dick Sale, Deb Atwood and Robert Hyman update maps in quest for adventurer Steve Fossett, who vanished last year.

More Photos (1):

Related articles:

Around the nation Around the nation Around the nation Around the nation Around the nation: FAA blames delays on software problem Around the Nation Around the nation Around the nationAround the nation Around the nation

Construction
West-Press
Printing Health Care
CENTRAL ARIZONA COLLEGE
DIRECTOR OF HEALTH INFORMATION MANAGEMENT Finance and Accounting
Charles E. Gillman Company
Accounting Specialist Trades/Construction
RANCHO RESORT
MAINTANANCE POSITION Health Care
Sierra Tucson
Eating Disorders Program Coordinator Health Care
Dependable Health Services
Physical Therapists Administrative & Professional
Jorgensen Brooks Group
Counselor

DETROIT — Lawyers for Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick have proposed a deal in which he would resign, plead guilty to two felonies, make restitution and serve five years' probation in exchange for avoiding jail time, a newspaper reported Sunday.

The Detroit Free Press quoted "a source familiar with all aspects of the negotiations" as saying the Democrat's legal team also said he would give up his law license, not run for office for two years, and do 300 hours of community service.

Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy hadn't yet issued a response to the offer, the newspaper said.

Kilpatrick, 38 and in his second four-year term as mayor, is charged with 10 felonies in two cases. He also faces removal proceedings set to begin Wednesday before Gov. Jennifer Granholm.

EAST ST. LOUIS — One of two Missouri hospital emergency rooms reopened Sunday, a day after being shut down under quarantine when eight people sickened by a dangerous chemical's release sought treatment.

Price McCarty, an FBI spokesman in Springfield, Ill., said the chemical release Saturday at the Ro-Corp. plant caused no deaths, countering a statement earlier Sunday by an East St. Louis city official that two people had died.

The chemical, which authorities said was likely the highly toxic material nitroaniline, was released when a barrel was dropped at the Ro-Corp. plant.

The eight people sickened — identified by the FBI as mostly Ro-Corp. workers — remained hospitalized Sunday.

Three were in good condition at SSM DePaul Health Center in Missouri's St. Louis County. The hospital reopened its emergency department Sunday afternoon after quarantining it the previous night, spokeswoman Jamie Newell said.

Three others were in satisfactory condition at St. Anthony's Medical Center. Most of the hospital's emergency department was reopened Sunday following decontamination, the hospital said on its Web site.

One of those sickened was released from St. Louis' Barnes-Jewish Hospital late Sunday, a spokeswoman said. Another was listed in serious condition in the intensive care unit at Saint Louis University Hospital.

CHARLESTON — The first lady of West Virginia is recovering from bruises after she was struck by a car while riding a bicycle with her husband, Gov. Joe Manchin.

A spokeswoman for the governor says that first lady Gayle Manchin was taken to a hospital Sunday after the accident but was OK and went home.

Spokeswoman Lara Ramsburg says the accident occurred during a bike ride near the state Capitol, when a vehicle pulling onto a road hit the first lady.

The governor was not hit. He turned back to help his wife, who was also aided by their security detail.

MODESTO — Police say a man tried to cut off his own arm at a restaurant in Modesto, Calif., because he thought he had injected air into a vein while shooting cocaine and feared he would die unless he took drastic action.

Authorities say 33-year-old Michael Lasiter rushed into the Denny's restaurant late Friday and started stabbing himself in one arm with a butter knife he grabbed from a table.

They say that when the butter knife didn't work, Lasiter took a butcher knife from the kitchen and dug it into his arm.

Police Sgt. Brian Findlen says Lasiter told officers he thought he needed to amputate his arm to keep himself from dying from the cocaine injection.

Lasiter was taken to a hospital for treatment of severe cuts.

HARRISBURG — The clock is ticking down on Pennsylvania smokers who want to light up in many public spaces.

A statewide smoking ban goes into effect in less than two weeks — 90 days after it was signed by Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell.

The measure bans cigarette, cigar and pipe smoking in restaurants, office buildings, schools, sports arenas, theaters, and bus and train stations.

However, it allows smoking in some bars and taverns, portions of casino floors, private clubs and elsewhere.

HAWTHORNE — A year after aviator and adventurer Steve Fossett vanished on a Labor Day solo flight over western Nevada, friends and admirers are waging a new search for some sign of him in an area of rugged mountains.

Steep canyons and gulches choked by concealing trees and brush on the west slope of the Wassuk Range are being combed by 28 searchers headed by explorers Robert Hyman, Lew Toulmin and Bob Atwater.

They're relying in part on new information from another pilot who was in the area that day that alters earlier assumptions about Fossett's likely path on what was supposed to have been a short flight. He had flown over the area many times since the mid-1990s and once hiked to the top of the Wassuk Range's 11,239-foot Mount Grant.

"This is the right thing to do," Hyman said in a weekend interview at the search team's isolated camp. "Explorers don't leave fellow explorers lost. . . . We want to find out what happened to our friend and colleague, no more and no less."

The main search area is just west of Hawthorne and only 10 to 15 miles from the Flying M Ranch of longtime Fossett friend and hotel magnate Barron Hilton, where Fossett had borrowed a plane for his flight.