NAACP president urges clemency

Sacramento, Calif. Calling death row inmate Stanley “Tookie” Williams a “secret weapon” for helping black men stay out of gangs, the head of the NAACP traveled across California on Tuesday to rally support for clemency for the convicted killer.

Bruce Gordon, president and chief executive of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, said executing Williams on Dec. 13 would be a mistake.

Williams, co-founder of the murderous Crips gang in Los Angeles, was convicted of killing four people in two 1979 robberies. He has professed his innocence.

In more than two decades on death row at San Quentin Prison, he has renounced his past and written children’s books about the dangers of gang life.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger will hear arguments Thursday on whether Williams’ death sentence should be reduced to life without parole.

Noted attorney Edward Masry dies

Los Angeles Edward L. Masry, the crusty personal-injury lawyer portrayed by Albert Finney in the Oscar-winning movie “Erin Brockovich,” has died at 73.

Masry, who practiced law for more than 40 years, died of complications of diabetes Monday, said his son, Louis Masry.

Masry and Erin Brockovich, his legal assistant, gained fame when they won a $333 million settlement on behalf of more than 600 residents of the town of Hinkley against Pacific Gas & Electric.

More hurricanes predicted for years

Fort Collins, Colo. Next year’s hurricane season is likely to be busier than average but not up to this year’s ruinous, record-setting pace, one of the nation’s top hurricane forecasters said Tuesday.

William Gray of Colorado State University predicted 17 named storms in 2006, almost double the long-term average, and said nine of them could become hurricanes – five of them major hurricanes, with winds of at least 111 mph.

“Enhanced major hurricane activity is likely to continue in the Atlantic basin for the next 15 to 20 years,” Gray said in his first extended forecast for 2006.