LOS ANGELES - John Mark Karr's relatives offered up the book and film rights to the family's story Wednesday in hopes of raising money for a high-powered attorney to defend Karr against charges that he killed 6-year-old JonBenet Ramsey.

"They're not looking for money for themselves," said Larry Garrison, a producer the family hired to represent them in media deals. "They're looking to support John's boys' college education and to make sure all legal fees are covered."

Karr remained in a Los Angeles jail Wednesday afternoon awaiting transfer to Colorado, where JonBenet was killed in her Boulder home in December 1996.

Garrison told The Associated Press that no money had changed hands yet with the Karrs, and he didn't want to go into details about the agreement. Karr's brother, Nate Karr, confirmed that Garrison is now representing the family.

Karr told reporters in Thailand last week that he was present when JonBenet died and that her death was an accident. He did not specifically say he killed her, and Boulder prosecutors have not disclosed their evidence against him.

His family has insisted Karr was in Georgia during the Christmas week that JonBenet was killed.

Georgia attorney Gary Harris, who had represented Karr's father and brother in recent days, has said the family found a photo from Christmas 1996 showing Karr's three sons at a dinner in Atlanta. Karr is not in the photo, but the family insists that if the boys were there, Karr would have been too.

"John Karr wasn't working," Harris said. "He couldn't afford to buy a MARTA (Atlanta public transportation) or bus ticket, much less plane fare to Colorado."

A family photo has been turned over to Boulder authorities, but Garrison could not say what it shows.

"I can tell you they proclaim his innocence," Garrison said. "They feel he was not there at the time, that some of the statements made by the press are absurd."

Harris told the AP on Wednesday that as far as the family knows, the only time Karr was ever in Colorado was in 2001 when his car broke down on a trip from Alabama to California with his then-wife and children. He said the family got the car fixed and moved on.

Harris said he thinks Karr claimed involvement in JonBenet's death because he is ill.

"Obviously, this guy has some mental problems," he said. "He obviously has some emotional problems. He's always had some."

Harris declined to be more specific but said he has no knowledge of Karr ever seeing a psychiatrist. He also noted that the family lost touch with Karr five years ago.

"We don't know what happened in the last five years because they hadn't talked to him," Harris said. "They thought he was dead."

A psychiatrist has met with Karr twice since he was brought to Los Angeles County's Twin Towers jail Sunday night after a flight from Thailand, said sheriff's Lt. George Vanecek. At the jail, deputies were looking in on Karr every 15 minutes.

Harris told the AP on Wednesday that, because of a difference of opinion, he no longer is representing Karr's father Wexford and brother Nate. He said he now represents only Michael Karr, another brother of John Karr, and his wife.

Harris would not disclose the reason for the split, but suggested it had something to do with Wexford and Nate Karr's desire to sell the family story.

"My clients are not seeking any book deals or anything of that nature," Harris said of Michael Karr and his wife. "I'll let you deduce what you want from that. My clients are not looking to make any money off of this."

Garrison, president of production company SilverCreek Entertainment, has sought movie and book rights in high-profile criminal cases before.

He co-authored a book on the disappearance of missing Alabama teenager Natalie Holloway. And in the murder case involving actor Robert Blake, a friend of victim Bonny Lee Bakley, Christina Scheier, gave rights to Garrison in 2002. He said Wednesday that a movie and book have not yet been completed.

He said any critics of his arrangement with the Karrs are off-base. He said his aim isn't to make money from the Ramsey case, but instead to get the truth out.

Karr agreed Tuesday not to fight extradition to Colorado. In a two-minute court appearance, his expression changed only once when he slowly closed his eyes as the judge recited the count of first-degree murder that Boulder prosecutors included in an arrest warrant.

Karr "has been portrayed by the media as of late as being mentally unstable, attention-seeking, unwell, mentally unwell. And he is none of those things," said attorney Jamie Harmon, who spoke with Karr in jail and attended Tuesday's hearing.

He "is anxious to have an opportunity to address the allegations against him, to be portrayed in a more accurate and complete way," Harmon said.

She described Karr as intelligent and unusual.

"He is a different sort of person than most of us walking around on the face of the planet, and that differentness has been construed in the media as wrong or somehow unbalanced," she said. "And I don't find that to be true at all."

On Wednesday, Quientana Ray, who married Karr when she was 13, told ABC's "Good Morning America" in a recorded interview that Karr was controlling and used to tell her about fantasies he had about little girls.

"I was drugged and things were done to me without me having any idea," said Ray, who left Karr after a few months and has since remarried.

Her parents, Melissa and Larry Shotts of Hamilton, Ala., said they also discovered letters Karr wrote to their daughter that were signed "S.B.T.C." - the same initials found on a ransom note in the Ramseys' home. They did not show the letters during the interview and it wasn't clear if they still had them.

In addition to first-degree murder, the counts against Karr in a sealed probable-cause arrest warrant include felony murder, first-degree kidnapping, second-degree kidnapping and sexual assault on a child.

Associated Press Writers Harry R. Weber in Atlanta, Jocelyn Gecker and Christina Almeida in Los Angeles, David Kravets in San Francisco, and Jon Sarche and Chase Squires in Denver contributed to this report.

Tropical Storm Debby weakens in the eastern Atlantic

MIAMI (AP) - Tropical Storm Debby weakened off the coast of the Cape Verde islands in the eastern Atlantic on Wednesday, and posed no immediate threat to land, forecasters said.

At 5 p.m. EDT, the storm's top sustained winds had slowed to about 45 mph from about 50 mph earlier in the day, well below the 74 mph threshold for a hurricane. Slow strengthening was forecast for Thursday.

The fourth named storm of the 2006 Atlantic hurricane season was centered about 610 miles west-northwest of the Cape Verde islands, which are about 350 miles off the African coast. Debby was moving northwest at about 20 mph, the National Hurricane Center said.

"We are forecasting it to become a hurricane in about four days, but we do see some factors that could prevent that," senior hurricane specialist Richard Pasch said.

There were hopeful signs that the storm would stay out at sea and not reach the U.S., senior hurricane specialist James Franklin said.

In the Pacific Ocean, Hurricane Ioke passed near Johnston Island, part of the isolated Johnston Atoll, a wildlife refuge and U.S. military facility, according to the weather service's Central Pacific Hurricane Center in Honolulu.

At 5 p.m. EDT, Ioke was centered about 130 miles northwest of the island, or about 890 miles west-southwest of Honolulu. It was moving toward the northwest at about 7 mph with a maximum sustained wind speed near 105 mph. Little change in strength was forecast for the next day.

Johnston Atoll has been used by the U.S. military for weapons tests and as the site of a chemical weapons disposal plant. During the 1950s, nuclear warheads were detonated high above the islands. The chemical disposal unit was shut down and its military personnel removed in June 2004, according to the Web site of the Air Force's 15th Airlift Wing.

On the Net:

National Hurricane Center: http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/

Central Pacific Hurricane Center: http://www.prh.noaa.gov/cphc/

Relatives mourn, searchers comb site after Russian passenger jet crashes in Ukraine

SUKHA BALKA, Ukraine (AP) - Investigators focused Wednesday on weather conditions, including lightning and turbulence, as the possible cause of the crash of a Russian jetliner in a swampy field in eastern Ukraine, killing all 170 people aboard.

Stunned relatives mourned the victims of the third airline catastrophe this year in the former Soviet Union, raising new concerns about the state of the Russian aviation industry.

Searchers found the two flight recorders amid the blackened debris of the Pulkovo Airlines Tu-154 jetliner, Transport Minister Mykola Rudkovsky said. The discovery raised hopes that authorities would also soon determine what sent the aircraft into its doomed dive Tuesday.

Experts ruled out terrorism and officials have focused on weather conditions.

Rudkovsky said that weather had been severe at the time. The storm brought heavy wind and rain to the Donetsk region, 400 miles southeast of Kiev, temporarily knocking out power to some residents and turning the sky so dark that street lights automatically switched on.

Other officials suggested the plane might have been struck by lightning, or hit strong turbulence, causing the 39-year-old pilot to lose control.

Mykola Kulbida, head of Ukraine's meteorology center, was quoted by the Kommersant newspaper as saying that strong cumulonimbus clouds reached as high as 42,000 to 47,000 feet, which meant planes would have no alternative but to pass through them.

The plane had been flying from Anapa - a holiday destination on the Black Sea - to St. Petersburg, Russia, when it disappeared from radar screens after making at least three distress calls. Ukrainian officials said the pilot had asked to make an emergency landing, and received permission to change course by about 12 miles to escape the storm.

Some officials said there were reports of a fire on board, although others denied that.

Fragments of the plane were found scattered around rolling fields and a small forest near the village of Sukha Balka, north of Donetsk. Emergency officials said the remains of 170 victims had been found, and they predicted that DNA testing would likely be needed to make identifications.

Nearly 200 relatives were headed to the site to help in the process and Orthodox priests were to hold a service Thursday.

In St. Petersburg, grieving relatives gathered at the airport in silence broken only by occasional outbursts of weeping. The list of passengers, many of whom were from St. Petersburg, appeared to include many families; the list included 45 children aged 12 and under.

One man who would not give his name said his girlfriend's parents, from the Arctic city of Norilsk, were on the plane.

"In Norilsk, people dream about their vacation in the south all year," he said. "They live for this dream."

Preliminary information indicated there were also five foreigners - two from Germany, one from France, one from the Netherlands and one from Finland.

The crash was the third major incident this year involving the aviation industry of the former Soviet Union. All but Russia's largest airlines rely heavily on Soviet-designed Tupolev, Ilyushin and Antonov aircraft. Many are aging.

Oleg Panteleyev, an independent aviation expert, told The Associated Press that it appeared "the plane started falling in an uncontrolled way then passed the point where the crew could have done something to prevent the crash."

Russian training pilot Vladimir Biryukov, meanwhile, told Russian TV that air currents might have pushed the plane into an angle where the pilots lost control.

Pulkovo Airlines said the captain was a very experienced pilot who had flown nearly 12,000 hours.

Ukraine declared a day of mourning Wednesday, and scaled back celebrations Thursday to mark the 15th anniversary of its independence. Thursday will also be a day of mourning in Russia.

Associated Press Writer Irina Titova contributed to this report from St. Petersburg, Russia, Natasha Lisova in Kiev, Ukraine and Maria Danilova in Moscow, Russia.

Missouri couple in sextuplets hoax plead guilty to stealing from community, get probation

INDEPENDENCE, Mo. (AP) - A Missouri couple pleaded guilty Wednesday to stealing from their community by faking the birth of sextuplets in order to tap their neighbors' generosity.

Sarah and Kris Everson were sentenced to four years on probation after their pleas to charges of felony stealing by deceit. They also must repay about $3,700 to their victims and perform 40 hours of community service.

Assistant Jackson County prosecutor Tammy Dickinson said she was satisfied with a plea agreement that let the couple avoid prison time.

The Eversons, of the Kansas City suburb of Grain Valley, could have faced seven years in prison and a $5,000 fine. They refused to comment extensively after the hearing.

"We already made our apologies," Sarah Everson said.

But later Wednesday, she told The Associated Press: "Now that I have these papers that say we're on probation and not going to jail, I'll be able to get a job," said Sarah Everson, 45. "It's not over until all of this is over, until we're off probation and have paid it back. We're homeless; we have to get jobs."

Community leaders in Grain Valley said the Eversons came to them in March, claiming that Sarah Everson had delivered six critically ill babies and that they needed assistance. The couple claimed the births had been kept secret by a court order because a family member was out to kill them.

Within days of the story appearing in the local paper, The Examiner, the couple were barraged by questions from the media. They eventually admitted the entire tale was a lie.

Police Chief Aaron Ambrose said the couple took in money and other gifts through a bank account, a post office box and their own Web site. Employees at the plant where Kris Everson, 35, worked gave the couple up to $2,400, according to court papers.

On Wednesday, Sarah Everson said the couple had been kicked out of their home recently and were living in their truck. She said her husband was working day-labor jobs, making about $30 a day and that she was unemployed.

She said they will try to make their restitution payments, which the judge set at $50 a month each.

One of three Mexican fishermen rescued after being lost at sea for nine months had completed survival course

MEXICO CITY (AP) - One of three Mexican fishermen who say they spent nine months adrift on the Pacific Ocean completed a survival course a year ago that recommended drinking the blood of sea animals to stay alive if trapped out at sea, Mexican authorities said Wednesday.

Salvador Ordonez apparently practiced what he learned, National Merchant Marine Capt. Francisco Ramirez told The Associated Press in a telephone interview.

Ramirez said when he heard the rescued fishermen were from the Pacific coast town of San Blas, where he teaches the two-day course "Survival of Human Life at Sea" at least three times a year, he looked in his student files and found Ordonez's name.

"It made me so happy because I wanted to believe that I had contributed in a tiny way to this man saving himself," Ramirez said. "It looks like the knowledge we gave him in our institute was useful in some way."

Ordonez was the only one on his boat who has said he drank animals' blood while their boat drifted thousands of miles (kilometers) away from Mexico's Pacific Coast before they were rescued Aug. 9 by a Taiwanese fishing vessel off the Marshall Islands.

"I drank it as if it was a soft drink," Ordonez told the Mexican newspaper El Universal. "At first my stomach hurt, but the next day I felt better and spent the day fishing in the sun."

Ordonez, Jesus Vidana, and Lucio Rendon say they left San Blas with two other fishermen on Oct. 28 on a shark-fishing trip.

The three survivors said heavy winds carried them out to sea, where they apparently survived for nine months by catching and eating raw fish and sea birds and drinking rainwater.

Two others companions died, after refusing to eat raw food, the survivors said.

The government has said it would investigate the deaths and other aspects of the survivors' account.

Mexican news media have cast doubt on the men's account of their odyssey, suggesting they might be drug smugglers who made up the story to avoid prosecution. There are no records of their departure, and some relatives initially said they had been gone for only three months.

Mexican Attorney General Daniel Cabeza de Vaca said Wednesday that so far there is no evidence that the fishermen were smuggling drugs, but he said officials would continue to look into the case because their hometown considered to be in a drug trafficking zone.

"But as long as we have no hard evidence against these people, or some kind of concrete, formal accusation, for us they are simply shipwrecked fishermen who were rescued," Cabeza de Vaca said.

Nayarit Gov. Ney Gonzalez said San Blas' mayor is preparing a welcoming ceremony for the men, who are in Hawaii and are expected to return on Friday to Mexico, where they are considered by some as folk heroes.

"I'm sure the town of San Blas will recognize them as the personalities they are," Gonzalez said.

Ramirez said he plans to invite Ordonez out to eat the next time he is in San Blas so he can hear his fascinating story firsthand.

Lone survivor of Sago Mine disaster, families of 2 victims file suits against companies

CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) - The lone survivor of the Sago Mine disaster and the families of two victims filed lawsuits Wednesday against the mine owner and five other companies.

All three lawsuits accuse International Coal Group and a subsidiary of negligence in the operation of the mine. The suits allege that unsafe working conditions led to the Jan. 2 explosion.

Twelve men died in the blast and prolonged entrapment at the coal mine near Buckhannon, while survivor Randal McCloy Jr. was severely injured.

The lawsuits were filed in Kanawha County Circuit Court by McCloy and his wife Anna; Judy Bennett, widow of miner Alva Bennett; and Lily Bennett, widow of miner James Bennett.

Each suit seeks unspecified compensatory and punitive damages.

Besides targeting ICG and its subsidiary, Wolf Run Mining, the suits accuse a number of mine suppliers of failing to provide proper safety equipment. Named were Burrell Mining Products Inc., Raleigh Mine and Industrial Supply Inc., GMS Mine Repair and CSE Corp.

The lawsuits filed by the Bennett families also seek an injunction to force ICG and Wolf Run to implement the recommendations of an independent investigation commissioned by Gov. Joe Manchin.

Illinois prison inmate charged with sending threatening letter to President Bush

EAST ST. LOUIS, Ill. (AP) - An Illinois prison inmate has been charged with sending a threatening letter to President Bush.

Tony Stafford, a 37-year-old inmate at Menard Correctional Center, was indicted Friday on a federal felony charge of "depositing for conveyance" at least one letter threatening to harm or kill the president.

It was unclear Wednesday whether the note reached the White House.

According to the indictment made public Tuesday, Stafford wrote between Jan. 1 and March 7: "If you were to find a bullet waiting for you once you looked out of the white house how would that feel while you were looking out your window."

"This is your first and last warning from me and the National Socialist Movement of Freedom. So bombs away," authorities say Stafford wrote.

Messages left with the Secret Service seeking further details were not immediately returned.

If convicted, Stafford faces up to five years in federal prison and $250,000 in fines. He is serving four years for theft, officials said.

Vacationing police officer beaten by 3 men at New Jersey shore in suspected hate crime

SEA ISLE CITY, N.J. (AP) - A vacationing police officer was beaten with a baseball bat at the New Jersey shore in what authorities called a hate crime, and three men - including a university lacrosse player - have been charged.

The three young men, all white, were charged in Tuesday's beating of the officer from Cheltenham, Pa., who is black. The officer was treated at a hospital and released.

Jarreau Francis, 25, was walking in Sea Isle City with two white colleagues at 3 a.m. when he was attacked. One or more suspects beat him in the head with the bat, made racial slurs and threatened him, police said.

"They didn't know he was an off-duty police officer. Just the fact that he was black was the target of this whole incident here," Sea Isle Police Detective Jon Gansert told WCAU-TV.

A second officer was struck while trying to intervene, officials said. The suspects ran but were quickly arrested.

Vince J. Giordano, 21, of Moorestown, N.J., a lacrosse player for the University of Delaware, was charged with aggravated assault, possession of a weapon and bias intimidation. Charged with the same counts were Keith Hoffman, 23, of Folcroft, Pa.; and Thomas Russo, 21, of Lansdowne, Pa.

All three were released after posting bail.

Giordano declined to comment, as did the university. It was unclear Wednesday whether the other two suspects had lawyers.

Mich. woman pleads guilty to polygamy; already in prison for trying to defraud another husband

MOUNT CLEMENS, Mich. (AP) - A suburban Detroit woman who authorities say made a habit of marrying men and draining their finances pleaded guilty Wednesday to polygamy.

Kyle McConnell admitted to a Macomb Circuit Court judge that she knowingly wed Doug Rice while she already was married. Her sentencing hearing was set for Sept. 23.

McConnell, 46, is currently serving a sentence of 22 months to 10 years in prison for trying to defraud another husband, Richard McConnell. Prosecutors said she passed bad checks written to Richard McConnell and his family that were drawn on the bank account of yet another man, Len Battaglia, whom she had married at some point.

Her lawyer argued that she couldn't be charged with polygamy for the September 2005 marriage to Rice because her marriage to Richard McConnell was invalid - she was already married to Battaglia when she married McConnell, defense attorney Robert McClellan said.

Authorities say Kyle McConnell may have had 15 husbands at one time or another, though it's unclear how many overlapped.

She could face up to four years in prison when she is sentenced.

Woman admits stealing $2.3 million from employer to buy lottery tickets

RIVERHEAD, N.Y. (AP) - A former bookkeeper for a doctor's office pleaded guilty Wednesday to stealing more than $2.3 million from her employer to buy lottery tickets.

Annie Donnelly, 38, of Farmingville spent as much as $6,000 a day playing lotto and scratch-off lottery games, prosecutors said. She faces four to 12 years in prison for stealing the money from her employers, Great South Bay Surgical Associates.

Donnelly, who is being held in lieu of $150,000 bail, also will have to repay the money. She is charged with second-degree grand larceny.

"She obviously had a gambling problem," said Donna Planty, assistant district attorney. "She appeared to be caught up in the high of winning."

Investigators believe Donnelly may have won jackpots of $5,000 or even $25,000, but never enough to cover the amount stolen overall, Planty said.

Defense attorney George Vlachos declined to speak with reporters. A telephone call to the employer was not immediately returned.

Planty said that between June 2002 and November 2005, Donnelly wrote company checks for cash, petty cash, or checks payable to herself and falsely listed them as payments to vendors associated with the medical office.

She used the money to "feed her pathological addiction," said Suffolk County District Attorney Thomas Spota.

The average check was for less than $3,000, and Donnelly wrote them in oddly numbered amounts to avoid being caught, prosecutors said. She also would "move money around" to different accounts to elude discovery.

In the first year Donnelly stole $41,261. Each year, the thefts increased, with nearly $1.4 million stolen in 2005.

More students taking school bus because of high gas prices, other factors

ATLANTA (AP) - Most weekday afternoons, Patricia Israel waits in her front yard for the school bus to drop off her 6-year-old twin sons.

The boys beg to ride the bus every day, which Israel said is fine with her. She sees it as environmentally sound transportation that reduces traffic on the streets and at the school.

It also saves money on gas for her sport utility vehicle. "We're looking at getting a hybrid," Israel said. "Every time I fill up the gas tank, it's like $75."

With gas prices hovering around $3 per gallon, more parents are sending their kids to school on the bus this fall, and school districts across the nation have noticed the increase in ridership.

"The more the prices go up, the less riders get to school on their own and they go with our buses," said Doug Geller, assistant director of transportation for the Clark County School District in Las Vegas.

In Las Vegas, ridership has risen to about 45 percent of the district's more than 320,000 students. The system opens an average of 10 new schools a year, sprinkling bus stops throughout the surrounding neighborhoods, Geller said.

In the fast-growing Phoenix suburbs, bus ridership is skyrocketing as districts grow by thousands of students each year. Gas prices help attract riders, but heavy road construction and new air-conditioning in buses have also contributed to the increase, said Dianne Bowers with Gilbert Public Schools, southeast of Phoenix.

Some schools are doing more to encourage bus riders.

Janette Shealy, a teacher in the fast-growing Atlanta suburb of Alpharetta, Ga., said her school sends letters to parents about the environmental advantages of the bus system and sponsors a "bus ridership week" each semester when bus riders get candy and prizes.

"We try to just create an awareness of the fact that car vapors impact the quality of our air - the fewer vehicles on the road the better," Shealy said. "Plus, you're never tardy when you ride the bus."

At the Atlanta school where Israel's twins attend, Principal Sidney Baker said he has noticed fewer cars waiting outside the school in the afternoon since classes started last week. He said he encourages parents to put their children on the bus because it eases traffic congestion and makes the school grounds safer during the morning drop-off and afternoon pick-up times.

While gas prices play into some parents' decisions, most are swayed by "a lot more important reasons," said Lisa Malice, education chairwoman for the Georgia PTA. Some drive their children to school to spare them a long bus ride.

"One parent told me she likes to spend a little extra time with her kids in the morning," Malice said. "When the bus is picking them up 50 minutes before school starts and dropping off half an hour before school starts, it doesn't make much sense for the kids to get up that early."

Many parents simply like the convenience of not having to fight traffic, especially parents who work far from their child's school.

"Gas really is so expensive," said Mary Lynn Jones, a stay-at-home mom who has four of her five children riding the bus to an elementary school in northern Atlanta. "It's just so much easier."

On the Net:

Clark County School District, Nevada: www.interact.k12.nv.us/

Gilbert Public Schools, Arizona: www.gilbert.k12.az.us/

Fulton County Schools, Georgia: www.fultonschools.org/

Georgia PTA: www.georgiapta.org/

Injured woman drowns after rescue boat capsizes Connecticut River

CHARLESTOWN, N.H. (AP) - A rescue boat taking an injured woman to an ambulance capsized in a river, trapping the woman beneath the overturned boat, where she drowned, authorities said.

Virginia Yates, 60, of Rockingham, Vt., had slipped on a dock Tuesday afternoon and was being taken to a hospital for treatment, said Sgt. Craig Morrocco of the Fish and Game Department.

A fire and rescue crew from Cornish, N.H., brought a new flat-bottomed airboat and strapped her onto a backboard.

But as the boat headed to a waiting ambulance, it started taking on water and capsized, Morrocco said.

"Emergency services personnel were unable to recover Miss Yates until some time later," said Marc Hathaway, Sullivan County attorney.

None of the fire and rescue crew members were reported injured.

The accident will be investigated by the New Hampshire Marine Patrol, Morrocco said.