NATION IN BRIEF

Pirate radio’s drug tips off air after raid

Federal Communications Commission officials and deputies from the sheriff’s gang unit in Orange County, Fla., busted a pirate radio station they said was broadcasting information on where to buy drugs. Authorities said the “Street Heat” broadcast included live advertisements for criminal gangs and discussions of where to buy drugs and find prostitutes. Balthazard Senat and Christopher Robert Roth were arrested Friday and charged with unauthorized transmission and possession of cannabis with intent to deliver. Officials said Roth was a DJ for the radio station.

Search called off for pilot in crash

The U.S. Coast Guard suspended its search for a pilot whose small rented plane crashed off the San Diego County, Calif., coast. The single-engine Cessna 172 was being flown by Stone Froberg, 71, of San Diego, who was believed to be the only occupant of the plane. Three Coast Guard vessels searched an area about 25 miles off the coast and about halfway between Oceanside and San Clemente Island, Petty Officer 1st Class Allyson Conroy said. A helicopter also was used in the search.

Harvey eulogized in his own words

The son of radio legend Paul Harvey used his father’s words for the eulogy at a public funeral service in Chicago, the city from which he launched his national news and commentary show. “A great tree has fallen,” said Paul Harvey Jr., quoting his father’s send-off for President Franklin Roosevelt. “An empty place has opened up against the sky.” The broadcaster died March 1 in Phoenix, where he had a winter home, less than year after the death of his wife of nearly 68 years, Lynne Harvey. He was 90.

Elephant tips over stairway at circus

Indianapolis fire officials said a dozen children and an adult suffered minor injuries when a circus elephant knocked over a portable stairway at the Indiana State Fairgrounds. Indianapolis Fire Department spokeswoman Rita Reith said none of the injured needed to go to a hospital after the incident, which occurred at the Murat Shrine Circus.

Anthrax lawsuit can go forward

A federal appeals court ruling in Atlanta will allow the widow of an anthrax victim to continue a $50 million lawsuit claiming that the federal government was ultimately responsible for her husband’s death. Maureen Stevens’ husband, Robert, was a photo editor who was exposed to anthrax mailed to the Boca Raton, Fla., office of American Media Inc., a supermarket tabloid publisher, in 2001. He was the first of five people killed and 17 others who were sickened in a series of similar attacks. A U.S. District Court judge in Florida refused to dismiss Stevens’ suit against the federal government and Battelle Memorial Institute, a private laboratory. The government appealed to the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta. Friday’s ruling sends the case back to U.S. District Court in West Palm Beach.

Barbara Bush’s surgery successful

Former first lady Barbara Bush was moved out of the intensive care unit of the Houston, Texas, hospital where she had successful heart surgery. The wife of former President George H.W. Bush had surgery Thursday to replace her aortic valve at Methodist Hospital. Hospital spokeswoman Gale Smith said Barbara Bush, 83, was up walking and in good spirits.