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Charges filed in clinic fires

 
Published Oct. 25, 1994|Updated Oct. 8, 2005

A woman already serving time for shooting an abortion doctor in Kansas has been charged with assaults on clinics in four other states.

Shelley Shannon of Oregon was charged with use of fire in the commission of a felony, interfering with commerce through violence and extortion, possession of a destructive device _ specifically, a jar of napalm _ and interstate travel in aid of racketeering.

In an indictment unsealed Monday, Shannon is accused of setting fire to eight clinics in California, Nevada, Oregon and Idaho in 1992-93. Authorities say she also injected the walls of the Nevada clinic and a ninth clinic in Chico, Calif., with foul-smelling butyric acid.

While setting fire to a clinic in Sacramento, Calif., Shannon was carrying a jar of napalm, authorities said.

Shannon, 38, is serving a 10-year prison term for shooting Dr. George R. Tiller outside his Wichita clinic in August 1993. He was wounded in both arms but returned to work the next day.

Houston: All signs go

HOUSTON _ Flood cleanup work is ahead of schedule, Coast Guard officials said Monday.

A major sign of progress: The Houston Ship Channel, originally feared shut down for weeks, reopened to traffic late Sunday.

"I feel pretty confident that by Wednesday we will have gotten the bulk of the oil up, or at least 95 percent," said Coast Guard Capt. Richard Ford, coordinator of the efforts to clean up 200,000 gallons of spilled fuel and oil.

The channel was closed a week ago because of flooding caused by torrential rains. The San Jacinto River, east of Houston, leads into the Houston Ship Channel _ one of the nation's busiest ports _ and empties into Galveston Bay.

Officials believe that swirling water or debris from the swollen river ruptured at least four pipelines Thursday, igniting fires.