Nation digest 10/23/01

Leading indicators drop 0.5 percent

NEW YORK -- A key gauge of future economic activity posted its biggest decline in nearly six years last month as the terrorist attacks damaged already shaky business conditions.

The Conference Board reported Monday that its Index of Leading Economic Indicators fell 0.5 percent to 109.2 in September, meeting analysts' expectations. The reading follows a 0.1 drop in August.

"It just confirms what we know has been the fallout from the terrorist attacks," said Gary Thayer, chief economist of A.G. Edwards & Sons Inc. in St. Louis.

The decrease in the monthly index is the largest since January 1996.

FBI: Crime down again, but decreases smaller

WASHINGTON -- Serious crime in America fell slightly in 2000, marking the nation's ninth straight year of lower crime, the FBI reported Monday. The murder rate fell to its lowest point in 35 years.

But the overall dip in crime reported to police in 2000 was also the smallest year-to-year decline in nine years, suggesting that long-term declines in the number of murders, robberies and other crimes may be bottoming out.

The number of forcible rapes increased from the first time in eight years.

The FBI reported 11.6 million serious crimes in 2000, a 0.2 percent drop in the number of such crimes from 1999.

Boy accidentally hangs self in Halloween hayride

SPARTA, Mich. -- A 14-year-old boy trying to make his role in a haunted hayride scarier accidentally hanged himself in front of a group of people who thought he was acting.

Caleb Rebh's post at the ride at Alpine Ridge Farms included a skeleton hanging by a noose in a nearby tree.

Caleb put the noose around his neck but when he let go of the rope, he apparently was not heavy enough to prevent the branch from whipping back up and choking him, said his mother, Kathy Rebh.

When he started scrambling to get the double-knotted rope off his neck, fellow workers seemed to think he was acting, she said.

"I think he thought he was safe because his feet were touching the ground," Kathy Rebh said.

Hayride employees and participants tried to resuscitate Caleb, but he was pronounced dead at the scene.

Simpson denies reaching into car to grab glasses

MIAMI -- O.J. Simpson took the stand at his road-rage trial Monday and calmly denied reaching into another man's car to grab his eyeglasses, portraying the other driver as a hothead who instigated the episode.

The other driver "was a guy that needed decaf coffee," the former football star said.

Simpson, 54, could get up to 16 years in prison if convicted of auto burglary and battery for last year's dispute in the men's suburban Miami neighborhood. Police said the argument began after Simpson rolled through a stop sign.

Florida House votes to cut pay of lawmakers

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. -- Florida lawmakers voted to cut their own pay Monday at a special session called to carve more than $1 billion from a state budget undercut by a dwindling economy.

The House voted 104-7 to eliminate the cost-of-living pay increase they got July 1, saying it sent an important symbol that lawmakers will share in some of pain as nearly every state service, from education to health care for the poor, comes in for cuts.

The bill now goes to the Senate.

-- From wire reports