Tree surgeons help free biplane crew

East Windsor, Conn.

A 1930s biplane glided to a crash landing in the tops of a stand of trees Sunday, stranding the pilot and his passenger amid the branches for several hours.

No one was injured, said Michael Koczera, manager of the Skylark Airpark.

The single-engine de Havilland Tiger Moth apparently lost power about 200 feet from the runway after taking off from the airport, said Jim Peters of the Federal Aviation Administration.

Koczera said the plane came to rest in the trees above 50 feet above the ground.

"When he ran out of airspace, he landed on top of a tree," Koczera said. "We're not talking about a big airplane. It's a fabric [covered] plane, probably weighs about 1,000 pounds."

A tree surgeon joined the crew of a Coast Guard helicopter and members of the local fire department in rescuing the stranded aviators, Koczera said.

"The tree person was able to climb the tree and set up some kind of a pulley arrangement where they could remove the people by rope and tackle," Koczera said.

Baltimore

Contract approved for NAACP leader

The NAACP's national board of directors has approved a three-year contract for new President Ben Jealous, the youngest leader in the civil-rights organization's history.

The board voted 35-2, with one abstention, to approve the contract Saturday. Chairman Julian Bond says the two dissenting votes were protesting procedure, not Jealous.

Jealous, 35, who was elected in May, will attend his first board meeting as president of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People in Baltimore on Oct. 18.

Jealous takes over from interim President Dennis Hayes, who has been leading the group since Bruce Gordon left in March 2007 after clashing with the board.

Modesto, Calif.

Man tries to cut off arm to save himself

Police say a man tried to cut off his own arm at a Modesto restaurant 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 that 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.

Los Angeles

SEIU exec on leave amid accusations

The executive vice president of the Service Employees International Union has stepped aside while under investigation for allegations she paid thousands of dollars in union funds to a former boyfriend, the Los Angeles Times reported Sunday.

Annelle Grajeda is the third major SEIU official to be placed on leave in recent months amid allegations of financial misspending. Grajeda was also president of the SEIU's state council for California and president of the Los Angeles local representing 77,000 county workers.

She is on leave from all three positions, the SEIU said.

Grajeda was "very confident" she would be exonerated, she told the Times on Saturday.

The SEIU said that it has demanded that her ex-boyfriend, former Los Angeles chapter President Alejandro Stephens, return money he received from the local and the state council.

He was paid nearly $89,000 in consulting fees and "disbursements for official business" by those entities last year, according to the union's financial filings with the U.S. Labor Department.

East St. Louis, Ill.

1 ER reopens after chemical exposure

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.

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 — mostly Ro-Corp. workers — remained hospitalized Sunday.

SSM DePaul Health Center in reopened its emergency department Sunday after quarantining it the previous night.

Parts of St. Anthony's Medical Center ER remained closed.

Seattle Times news services