■ United States
Arnold flip-flops on casinos
California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger struck a bargain on Monday with five California Indian tribes that will provide the state with a quick cash infusion of $1 billion while permitting a sizable expansion of tribal gambling operations in the state. The deal is a sharp reversal for the governor, who last fall during his campaign demonized the tribes as a "special interest" that did not pay a fair share of its billions of dollars in gambling winnings to the state. The five tribes that signed new compacts with the state on Monday own something less than 20 percent of the slot machines now in operation at 50 Indian casinos around California. Under the new agreements, the tribes will be able to operate as many slot machines as the market will bear.
■ United States
Clinton book a doze
Reviews have been discouraging and conservatives are on the attack, but booksellers still hoped for the best as shoppers snapped up copies early yesterday of Bill Clinton's My Life, the year's most anticipated nonfiction book. Critics have so far deemed My Life about as interesting as Herbert Hoover. The New York Times' Michiko Kakutani, in a front-page review Sunday, panned Clinton's 957-page book as "sloppy, self-indulgent and often eye-crossingly dull."
■ United States
Airport switch grounds pilots
Two pilots who landed a Northwest Airlines flight at the wrong airport have been suspended from flying pending an investigation. NWA's Kurt Ebenhoch said Monday that the two pilots "have been held from service." The flight carrying 117 passengers to Rapid City, South Dakota, veered off-course Saturday and landed at nearby Ellsworth Air Force Base. The plane remained on the ground for three hours as the pilots told the Air Force what went wrong, and a new crew resumed the flight to Rapid City, 11km away. Air Force Lt. Christine Millette said the pilots reported that they were in contact with Rapid City controllers when they descended through a cloud, and the first runway the pilots saw was the one at Ellsworth, which is parallel to the Rapid City runway.
■ United States
Corpse noticed after 4 days
A man who was apparently pinned by a van he was working on lay dead in his driveway in Shepherdstown, West Virginia, for up to four days before a neighbor noticed him, police said. Allan Burfoot, 57, was found on Sunday morning, State Police Trooper H.D. Heil said. The parking brake wasn't on and the vehicle wasn't in gear, and it apparently rolled onto him as he worked on the vehicle. Checking messages on Burfoot's answering machine, investigators believe he was pinned as early as Wednesday, Heil said.
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