Travel boycott of Aruba urged

Gov. Bob Riley called for a nationwide travel boycott of Aruba on Tuesday on behalf of a missing Alabama teenager's family, who accuse the island's government of not fully cooperating with the investigation into her disappearance.

Riley asked his fellow governors to join him in urging the boycott of Aruba, where Natalee Holloway, 18, was last seen May 30. "There are no other alternatives to get Aruban authorities to take this as seriously as they should," Riley said.

Holloway's mother, Beth Holloway-Twitty, says Aruban authorities have failed to adequately investigate the possible killing of her daughter.

Aruba Police Chief Gerald Dompig said Tuesday that the investigation into Holloway's disappearance is not complete. Officials in Aruba referred questions about the boycott to the Dutch Embassy in Washington, D.C., which did not immediately return a phone call.

Woman, legislator reach settlement

U.S. Rep. Don Sherwood reached a settlement Tuesday with a former mistress who accused him of abuse in a $5.5 million lawsuit, according to his lawyer.

Terms of the settlement between Sherwood, R-Pa., and Cynthia Ore, with whom he acknowledged a five-year affair, will remain confidential, said Paul Clark, a spokesman for Sherwood's attorney.

Ore's attorney, Patrick Regan, did not immediately return a message left at his office Tuesday evening.

Sherwood, 64, a fourth-term congressman, is married and has three daughters. He issued a statement this summer apologizing for the affair but denying he physically hurt Ore, 29.

Ore filed suit after it became public that she called police from his Capitol Hill apartment on Sept. 15, 2004. According to the police report, Ore called 911 on her cellphone from the bathroom and reported that Sherwood had "choked her for no apparent reason."

Washington

Bill would lift fee to cut firewood

The Republican chairman of the House Resources Committee, saying there's no easy solution to the huge heating bills facing many people this winter, wants to make it cheaper to cut firewood in national forests.

Although that's unlikely to aid millions of urban households or those with no federal forest nearby, Rep. Richard Pombo, R-Calif., says, "Every bit helps." He introduced legislation Tuesday that would waive the $10 to $15 fee the government charges per cord.

"Rural American families who depend on firewood to heat their homes will be hit just as hard as those who use oil and natural gas," Pombo said in a news release.

High heating bills are forecast this winter because of the soaring cost of fuel oil and natural gas.

Compiled from The Associated Press