Nor’easter dumps snow

Winterlike: Snow- laden trees hang over a road in Hinesburg, Vt. A storm fed by Hurricane Wilma dumped rain and up to 20 inches of wet snow from New England to West Virginia, knocking out power to tens of thousands, closing schools and elevating rivers.

Fetus survives attack; adoption underway

A Pittsburgh woman who was attacked in an alleged attempt to steal her fetus had planned an adoption, and her newborn son is now with his adoptive parents, their lawyer said. The boywas born by emergency Caesarean section after the attack Oct. 12 on Valerie Oskin. She and the babywere released from a hospital lastw eek. Oskin had previously arranged to give up the baby, and his adoptive parents are keeping him during the adoption proceedings, said Jack Steiner, who represents the couple. Oskin, 30, declined to comment. Her neighbor Peggy Jo Conner, 38, has been jailed on charges of attempted homicide, kidnapping and aggravated assault on an unborn child.

UCLA corpse-donation program to reopen

A corpse donation program at the University of California, Los Angeles, will reopen soon with new controls ordered as the result of a body- selling scandal. Superior Court Commissioner Bruce Mitchell said he will lift a restraining order in the next couple of days to allowthe willed body program to resume. Donors’ relatives 2 led lawsuits in 1996 claiming the program illegally disposed of thousands of donated bodies.

The program was closed last year after its director, Henry Reid, and another man were arrested in connection with the alleged sale for pro 2 t of hundreds of donated body parts to pharmaceutical companies and other corporations that use them for purposes from collagen to knee replacements. UCLA has denied wrongdoing.

N. J. school crossing guard killed in crash

A crossing guard was struck and killed in front of a high school by another crossing guard on his way to work, police in Park Ridge, N. J., said. Estelle Reynolds, 81, was killed Tuesday after being struck in a crosswalk by a vehicle driven by Marvin Hodgdon, 70. He was on his way to his job in nearby Hillsdale. Hodgdon told police he didn’ts ee Reynolds, who was wearing highvisibility safety gear in front of Park Ridge High School, police Chief Richard Oppenheimer said. Crisis counselors were made available to some students who witnessed the accident.

Gull leaves watchers ‘ weak in the knees’

A black- tailed gull, normally found around the seas of Japan or along China’s northeast coast, has turned up in Vermont on the shores of Lake Champlain. “ This bird has never been seen in Vermont, and it’s extraordinarily rare in the U.S.,” naturalist Bryan Pfeiffer said. Pfeiffer speculated the bird was thrown off course by a storm, migrated in the wrong direction or hitched a ride on a ship. There are only 20 to 25 records of sightings in North America, most in Alaska. The gull, spotted 12 miles south of Burlington last week, has drawn bird- watchers from Delaware, Massachusetts, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Ontario. “ If you’re a bird- watcher this makes youweak in the knees,” Pfeiffer said.