Sen. Ted Stevens hosts big-bucks gala

What, him worry?

Some people might think indicted Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, who is running for re-election in November, might be worried about raising money for that race or for his legal-defense fund. But he didn't seem worried last weekend at the wedding of his 27-year-old daughter Lily. More than 400 guests watched as Stevens, 84, gave away the bride — a University of California, Berkeley, law-school graduate clerking at the U.S. Court of Federal Claims — at the luxury Greenbrier resort in West Virginia. That would cost at least $60,000 just for the food and drinks, according to those in the know.

Sick bay

Jackson leaves hospital

The Rev. Jesse Jackson, 66, was released Friday from Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago, two days after he was admitted for severe stomach pains. He had a series of tests that determined he had viral gastroenteritis. His office later said he had been stricken by food poisoning and was severely dehydrated.

Critters

A rescue for the birds

Neighbors called police Wednesday in Trenton, N.J., after hearing persistent cries of "Help me! Help me!" coming from a house. Officers arrived and when no one answered the door, they kicked it in. Instead of a damsel in distress, officers found a caged cockatoo that sounded like a woman. It wasn't the first time the 10-year-old bird, Luna, said something that brought authorities to the home of owner Evelyn DeLeon. About seven years ago, the bird cried like a baby for hours, leading to a visit by child-welfare workers.

"Oldest" gorilla dies

Jenny, 55, the oldest gorilla in captivity, died at the Dallas Zoo, her home for more than 50 years, a spokesman said Friday. Zoo officials euthanized Jenny late Thursday because of an inoperable tumor in her stomach. She had stopped eating and drinking, and tests showed she was unlikely to recover, a spokesman said.

Bear busts pot operation

Utah investigators say a black bear raided a clandestine marijuana-growing operation so often that it chased the grower away. "This bear is definitely law-enforcement minded," Garfield County Sheriff Danny Perkins said. "If I can find this bear, I'm going to deputize him." Deputies found food containers ripped apart, cans with bear-teeth marks, claw marks and bear prints across the camp Tuesday. Perkins said the operation on Boulder Mountain included 4,000 "starter" sacks of pot and 888 young plants.

People

Soprano gives birth

Soprano Anna Netrebko, 37, gave birth to a 7-pound, 13-ounce boy Friday in Vienna, Austria, her publicist said. Her fiancé, bass-baritone Erwin Schrott, attended the birth.

Passages

Ralph Kovel, 88, a pioneer of price guides for antiques and collectibles who wrote 97 books on the subject and helped create the modern mania for family heirlooms and flea-market finds on "Antiques Roadshow" and eBay, died Aug. 28 at the Cleveland Clinic after complications from hip surgery.

Victoria Levin, 74, the wife of U.S. Rep. Sander Levin, D-Mich., and an advocate for research on children's mental health, died Thursday of breast cancer.

Today in History

1901: President McKinley was shot and mortally wounded by anarchist Leon Czolgosz in Buffalo, N.Y. McKinley died eight days later; he was succeeded by Vice President Theodore Roosevelt. (Czolgosz was executed in October 1901.)

1909: U.S. explorer Robert Peary sent word that he had reached the North Pole five months earlier.

1978: James Wickwire of Seattle and Louis Reichardt of San Francisco became the first Americans to reach the summit of Pakistan's K2, the world's second-highest mountain (after Mount Everest).

Today's Birthdays

Comedian JoAnne Worley, 71. Comedian-actress Jane Curtin, 61. Actor-comedian Jeff Foxworthy, 50. Actress Rosie Perez, 44. R&B singer Macy Gray, 38. Rapper Foxy Brown, 29.

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