Nation in brief: Stagehands settle with producers

Broadway stagehands and theater producers reached a tentative agreement Wednesday night to end a strike and almost immediately return to the stage most of the two dozen plays and musicals that have been shut down for more than two weeks.

The settlement came after two days of marathon, all-night sessions and months of negotiation between Local 1 and the League of American Theatres and Producers.

Most shows were expected to resume performances today, the league said.

Negotiations had moved slowly Wednesday as both sides struggled with what apparently was the last hangup, the issue of wages – how much to pay stagehands in return for a reduction in what the producers say were onerous work rules that required them to hire more stagehands than are needed.

Tulsa, Okla.

Roberts says God told him to quit

Richard Roberts told students at Oral Roberts University Wednesday that he did not want to resign as president of the scandal-plagued evangelical school, but that he did so because God insisted.

God told him on Thanksgiving that he should resign the next day, Roberts told students in the university’s chapel.

“Every ounce of my flesh said ‘no’ ” to the idea, Roberts said, but he prayed over the decision with his wife and his father, Oral Roberts, and decided to step down.

After submitting his resignation, Roberts said, for the “first time in 60 days peace came into my heart.”

Bolingbrook, Ill.

Ex-officer denies relative’s claim

A relative of former police officer Drew Peterson reportedly helped him move a large, heavy container out of his suburban home the day his wife vanished, an allegation that sparked a furious denial from Peterson’s attorney.

Peterson and his stepbrother removed the container from an upstairs bedroom and put it in his sport utility vehicle, according to media reports that cited anonymous sources close to the investigation into Stacy Peterson’s disappearance last month.

The stepbrother, Thomas Morphey, later became distraught after learning that Stacy Peterson was missing and tried to kill himself, the Herald News of Joliet reported Wednesday.

Authorities say Drew Peterson is a suspect in his fourth wife’s disappearance.

Peterson, 53, has denied wrongdoing, saying he believes the 23-year-old Peterson left him for another man and is alive.

Peterson’s attorney, Joel Brodsky, denied that anyone helped Peterson move a container from the home and claimed the stepbrother has a history of mental problems.

“I don’t know what world Thomas Morphey is living in, our world, his world or if he’s veering back and forth between the real world and whatever fantasy world he’s living in,” Brodsky told the Associated Press.