The Maltese Falcon, one of the most luxurious private yachts in the world, makes its way into San Francisco Bay under the Golden Gate Bridge. The 289-foot-long yacht with 191-foot-high masts has 15 sails and is owned by Tom Perkins of Belvedere, Calif. The sailing ship will be part of the Leukemia Cup Regatta, a two-day fundraising event.

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LOS ANGELES — Ronald N. Kornblum, a former Los Angeles County coroner who performed autopsies on such celebrities as John Belushi, Natalie Wood and Truman Capote, has died. He was 74.

Kornblum served eight years as county coroner before resigning in 1990 amid charges of poor management. He died Tuesday at his home in La Cañada Flintridge after a long illness, his family said.

Kornblum was hired in 1980 and for a time received praise for improving the efficiency and professionalism of the medical examiner's office. He attributed his department's later failings to a rise in county homicides that strained the office's resources.

An independent management audit found unsanitary conditions including dead insect larvae in the morgue and a body that had decomposed because it had been misplaced.

Kornblum said he had performed the job "as responsibly as possible, in a climate of continual turmoil and upheaval."

During his tenure, Kornblum handled the autopsies of Belushi, Wood, William Holden and other actors, as well as those of Capote and Karen Carpenter.

SACRAMENTO — Hollywood celebrities can continue to drive with animals nestled in their laps.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is vetoing a bill to fine motorists $35 for sharing the driver's seat with lapdogs or other animals.

Republican Assemblyman Bill Maze says the practice is distracting. He introduced the bill after seeing a woman driving with three dogs on her lap.

Schwarzenegger says he's signing only bills that are "the highest priority for California." And a lapdog ban isn't one of them.

DENVER — Officials at the Denver airport say a passenger is in custody after claiming to have explosives on a Northwest Airlines plane.

Airport spokesman Chuck Cannon says no explosives were found Saturday after the plane was towed away from the terminal and the man arrested.

Cannon says the plane was leaving the gate when the man said he had explosives in his luggage. Northwest spokeswoman Michelle Aguayo Shannon says about 140 people were on the Minneapolis-bound flight.

LARAMIE — The nation — and the city of Laramie — has become more accepting of gays and lesbians in the 10 years since a gay University of Wyoming student was beaten, lashed to a lonely fence and left to die, his mother said Saturday.

"We've learned a lot, we've talked a lot; we do it in public forums now," Judy Shepard said at a ceremony dedicating a bench to her son, Matthew Shepard. "So it's a wonderful tribute to Matt that these kinds of things are discussed."

About 100 people attended the ceremony at the University of Wyoming dedicating the memorial bench.

Shepard died Oct. 12, 1998, five days after he was found brutally beaten and tied to the fence outside Laramie. The two men who killed him are serving life sentences in prison.

The crime triggered nationwide sympathy and revulsion and brought a re-examination of attitudes toward gays.

PHILADELPHIA — Philadelphia school district officials say a high school football player has died of a drug-resistant staph infection.

The officials say tests on Friday confirmed that 17-year-old Saalen Jones had the contagious germ known as MRSA.

District spokesman Fernando Gallard says two other players have lesions that are being tested for the MRSA bacteria, and the school is being cleaned.

JUNEAU — The airport serving Alaska's capital city doesn't have to worry about bears coming around anytime soon.

Juneau International Airport had to be evacuated Friday afternoon because of an accidental discharge of anti-bear spray. The chemical comes in a canister like pepper spray but is used to defend against attacking bears.

Fire Chief Eric Mohrman says the spray spread through the building via the ventilation system. The terminal had to be cleared and the building aired out. One person was taken to a hospital for evaluation.

The airport reopened after about an hour and a half.

CEDAR RAPIDS — It wasn't just the caffeine that gave an Iowa woman an extra jolt after she had her morning coffee. It was also the bat she found in the filter.

The Iowa Department of Public Health says the woman reported a bat in her house but wasn't too worried about it. She turned on her automatic coffee maker before bedtime and drank her coffee the next morning.

She discovered the bat in the filter when she went to clean it that night. The woman has undergone treatment for possible rabies.