Nation digest 11/07/01

Ex-LA mayor enters race for California governor

LOS ANGELES -- Former Mayor Richard Riordan entered the governor's race Tuesday, joining the field of Republicans seeking the nomination to unseat Democrat Gray Davis.

"I'm running for governor for a very simple reason -- I love California," Riordan, 71, said at rally after being introduced by Arnold Schwarz-enegger.

A poll last month showed Riordan roughly even with Davis but ahead of his two likely GOP rivals in the March primary.

Riordan was mayor of the nation's second-largest city for eight years until term limits prevented him from seeking a third term this year.

Audit finds uranium, plutonium records faulty

WASHINGTON -- The Energy Department and Nuclear Regulatory Commission are not keeping an accurate inventory of nuclear materials loaned out for domestic research, investigators say.

An audit by the Energy Department's inspector general between April and August found that 119 locations handling government-owned enriched uranium, plutonium and other nuclear materials had returned more to the department than had been loaned out or leased.

While finding no evidence of materials being diverted or misused, the inaccurate records could undermine its ability to detect stolen or lost materials, said Gregory H. Friedman, the department's inspector general.

Laid-off workers asked to return signing bonuses

SAN JOSE, Calif. -- John Schuett got laid off from a Silicon Valley telecom firm -- and was asked to repay $1,250 of a signing bonus because he didn't stay at the firm a full year.

Schuett got a $2,500 signing bonus when he joined San Jose-based Valiant Networks. He lost his job in October after six months.

Soon after, the company sent a letter threatening to send a collection agency after him if he didn't return half the bonus.

"I'm furious," said Schuett.

Valiant Chief Financial Officer John Zavoli said the troubled firm is just sticking to agreements employees signed. The firm has cut about 90 jobs, or 75 percent of its work force, in a series of layoffs.

Most employees have agreed to pay the bonuses back, he said.

Aurora borealis show reaches into Alabama

The Northern Lights appeared with rare intensity in skies across the United States Monday, treating onlookers as far south as Georgia and Alabama to a shimmering display of blue, red and green.

The streaks, also known as the aurora borealis, are rarely seen south of Canada.

Monday's display began around 7:50 p.m., prompting alarmed calls to law enforcement authorities.

Sonoma County, Calif., emergency dispatcher Randy Muelheim said some callers thought it might be "a terrorist thing."

The broad blue and green spiked band was tinged with brilliant red areas.

The Northern Lights occur when charged particles streaming away from the sun interact with different gases in Earth's atmosphere.

Two admit they faked Viking inscription

KENSINGTON, Minn. -- Two people say they are the ones who carved inscriptions on a 2,200-pound rock -- not a band of Vikings who supposedly explored the state in 1363.

When the rock was found six months ago near Kensington, it revived a 103-year-old controversy about claims that Norsemen traveled in Minnesota.

Discoverers touted the stone as "new evidence" of the authenticity of the original Kensington Runestone, uncovered in 1898 by a farmer who said he found it wrapped in the roots of a tree.

Now Kari Ellen Gade and Jana Schulman have come forward admitting the new rock was their work.

In 1985, Gade and Schulman, along with three other students in a seminar on runic inscriptions, carved the rock "for fun" and to cast doubt on the validity of the original runestone, they said.

-- From wire reports