Letter to the editor earns 81-year-old Pa. man a visit from Secret Service agents

By: Associated Press Wire Reports | Sunday, January 21, 2007 8:20 PM PST ∞

BETHLEHEM, Pa. (AP) -- An elderly man who wrote in a letter to the editor about Saddam Hussein's execution that "they hanged the wrong man" got a visit from Secret Service agents concerned he was threatening President Bush.

The letter by Dan Tilli, 81, was published in Monday's edition of The Express-Times of Easton, Pa. It ended with the line, "I still believe they hanged the wrong man."

Tilli said the statement was not a threat. "I didn't say who -- I could've meant (Osama) bin Laden," he said Friday.

Two Secret Service agents questioned Tilli at his Bethlehem apartment Thursday, briefly searching the place and taking pictures of him, he said.

The Secret Service confirmed the encounter. Bob Slama, special agent in charge of the Secret Service's Philadelphia office, said it was the agency's duty to investigate.

The agents almost immediately decided Tilli was not a threat, Slama said

"We have no further interest in Dan," he said.

Tilli said the agents appeared more relaxed when he dug out a scrapbook containing more than 200 letters that he has written over the years, almost all on political topics.

"He said, 'Keep writing, but just don't make no threats,"' Tilli said of one of the agents.

It wasn't Tilli's first run-in with the federal government over his letter writing. Two FBI agents from Allentown showed up at his home last year about a letter he wrote advocating a civil war to unseat Bush, he said.

Laser pointer causes Miracle Mile office fire

LOS ANGELES (AP) ---- A hand-held laser pointer caused a fire at a Miracle Mile high rise that caused $200,000 in damage, a fire official said.

The blaze at the 17-story office building at 6200 Wilshire Blvd. began just after 10 a.m. Saturday, said Los Angeles city fire spokesperson Brian Humphrey.

The laser device had been laid on an examination table in a 12th floor dermatologist's office, Humphrey said. The device ignited surrounding furnishings, sparking the fire.

The fire was extinguished by the building's sprinkler system, Humphrey said. Firefighters mopped up about 3 inches of water.

There were no reports of injuries.

Shelby Cobra sells for $5.5M at Arizona classic car auction

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. (AP) ---- An 800-horsepower Shelby Cobra, once the personal car of the racing veteran who developed the iconic sports car, has sold for $5.5 million at auction, a record for an American car.

The sale of the 1966 Shelby Cobra "Super Snake" brought a packed house to its feet Saturday at the Barrett-Jackson Collector Car Auction after a pair of bidders drove the price up.

Carroll Shelby, 84, who created the Cobra in the '60s using Ford engines and a British sport car chassis, said he built the Super Snake ---- with twin superchargers on a 427 cubic inch V-8 ---- and drove it for years.

"It's a special car. It would do just over three seconds to 60 (mph), 40 years ago," Shelby told the crowd before the sale.

"I killed a buzzard with it," he said. "Nasty, nasty."

The car had a twin, built for comedian Bill Cosby, but that car was destroyed in an accident while being driven by another owner, according to the Barrett-Jackson Web site.

Barrett-Jackson said the $5.5 million price tag for the Cobra was not an overall world record car price, since others have sold at auction for more than $11 million. However, it is a world record for American cars, said Steve Davis, Barrett-Jackson president.

The winning bidder was car collector Ron Pratt of suburban Chandler. Last year, he paid $4.32 million for the Futureliner, one of 12 futuristic buses used for shows in the 1940s and '50s by General Motors.

New Orleans housing authority tries to clear protesters, residents from projects deemed unsafe

NEW ORLEANS (AP) ---- The city's public housing agency plans to ask a judge to bar anyone from entering projects without permission and will file claims against some who are trying to avert the buildings' demolition.

Attorneys for the Housing Authority of New Orleans e-mailed notice of their plans on Saturday to an attorney for tenants of the St. Bernard Housing Development. A handful of residents there joined hundreds of protesters for a Martin Luther King Jr. Day cleanup of the development.

The agency plans to file illegal entry and property damage claims and ask U.S. District Judge Ivan L.R. Lemelle to keep anyone from going into any of the city's housing projects without approval, according to the notice.

Rachel Wisdom, an attorney for housing authority, referred a request for comment to agency spokesman Adonis Expose, who does not have a listed number in New Orleans.

Bill Quigley, a lawyer for the tenants, said the cleanup has continued since Jan. 15 and did not believe a judge would stop people from cleaning their own apartments.

"I really think maybe HUD and HANO are afraid that the residents are showing that all these apartments are livable," he said.

The housing authority and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, which has run New Orleans' public housing since 2002, say damage from Hurricane Katrina has left thousands of apartments in housing projects unsafe. The agencies have approved plans to demolish the city's four largest public housing complexes and other smaller sites.

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