US Airways to end free snacks in coach

Tempe, Ariz.

In what could be the ultimate cost-cutting move by airlines, US Airways Group said it will eliminate free snacks in coach on all domestic flights starting Sunday.

US Airways spokesman Morgan Durrant said the move to cut the free packets of pretzels and such was needed to save money in a time of high fuel costs. He said the airline will continue providing free soft drinks.

The move comes a week after American Airlines said it would start charging passengers $15 extra each way to check a bag and shortly after other major carriers said they would start charging $25 each way to check a second bag.

Newton, Mass.

Trolley driver dies in rush-hour wreck

A commuter trolley crowded with rush-hour passengers slammed into the back of a second trolley near a station in suburban Newton on Wednesday night, a crash that caused the two, two-car trolleys to derail, threw commuters from their seats and killed the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA) operator driving the second train.

The father of the operator identified her as Terrese Edmonds, 24, of South Boston, who had been on the job since August. Late Wednesday, workers were trying to extricate the body from the wreckage.

There were "multiple injuries" in the accident, said Joe Pesaturo, an MBTA spokesman. Officials did not know what caused the accident.

The Boston area crash came just hours after an elevated train derailed in Chicago, sending several people to hospitals in a wreck that officials blamed on operator error.

Washington

U.S. gene guru is quitting job

Dr. Francis Collins, who became the public face for a watershed science project — unraveling the human genetic code — is resigning as the government's gene guru, effective Aug. 1.

Collins, 58, who took over the National Human Genome Research Institute at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in 1993 and guided the Human Genome Project to completion in 2003, said he has a book project in mind but no other immediate plans.

"I am not leaving because of any problems or disagreements with NIH leadership," Collins said, echoing what NIH insiders conveyed privately.

The folksy geneticist helped translate the complexities of DNA into everyday vernacular, once famously calling the human genome or genetic code the "book of human life."

He may be better known by some for his 2007 best-selling book about his belief in both God and science.

Also

Contract deal: The American Federation of Television and Radio Artists announced a contract deal with producers on Wednesday that left the larger Screen Actors Guild as the last major Hollywood union without a new labor agreement. The current contracts of both actors unions are set to expire June 30.

Temporary AG: Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland appointed Nancy Hardin Rogers, dean of The Ohio State University Law School, as a temporary replacement for the state attorney general who resigned amid a sex-related scandal involving his office. Strickland said Rogers has no plans to run in November to permanently replace former Attorney General Marc Dann, a Democrat.

Seattle Times news services