Producers make new contract offer
Hollywood studios presented a new contract offer to striking film and TV writers Thursday that the studios said would pay writers millions of dollars extra for shows created for the Internet.
But writers said some of the proposals amounted to rollbacks and said studios should adopt their counteroffer.
The Writers Guild of America said it asked for a recess in the talks until Tuesday to consider its options, but it called on members to continue picketing today and Monday.
The producers said the new offer, dubbed the “New Economic Partnership,” included payments for work shown on the Internet, the key sticking points in the talks.
San Bernardino, Calif.
Rodney King shot on street corner
Rodney King, whose videotaped police beating in 1991 led to deadly rioting when the officers involved were acquitted, was shot on a street corner, but his wounds were not life-threatening, police said.
King, 42, was shot two or three times from a distance by birdshot fired from a shotgun. He then bicycled about 1 1/2 miles back to his home and called police. He was hit in the face, arms, back and torso, police said.
Authorities said when they arrived at the home, King and others appeared drunk and were largely uncooperative in providing information about the shooting.
King was taken to a hospital. His condition on Thursday was not immediately known.
Trotwood, Ohio
FBI investigating use of stun gun
The FBI is investigating whether a policeman violated a pregnant woman’s civil rights when he used a stun gun to subdue her, authorities in this Dayton suburb said Thursday.
The woman had gone to the police department Nov. 18 asking police to take custody of her 1-year-old son, but tried to leave with the child after the officer started asking her questions, said Michael Etter, Trotwood public safety director. He added that the woman wore a winter coat and did not tell the officer she was pregnant.
Etter said the officer feared the boy could have been harmed had the woman been allowed to leave with him. “I don’t think any of this would have happened had she cooperated with us,” he said.
Valreca Redden, 33, was arrested and taken to jail; Etter said charges of obstruction and resisting arrest are pending.
New York
Hagel excoriates White House
Sen. Chuck Hagel, of Nebraska, who has made a reputation as a go-to Republican for an anti-White House quote, may have outdone himself this week in an address before the Council on Foreign Relations in New York.
Hagel, who considered running for the GOP presidential nomination as an antiwar candidate, told the foreign policy experts that he would give the Bush administration “the lowest grade of any I’ve known.”
“I have to say this is one of the most arrogant, incompetent administrations I’ve ever seen or ever read about,” Hagel said.