SEATTLE — The estate of Ric Weiland, a high school classmate of Microsoft Corp. founders Bill Gates and Paul Allen and one of the first five people to work at the software giant, has left $65 million to gay rights and HIV/AIDS organizations.
Weiland donated tens of millions to various organizations — from gay rights groups to environmental and education organizations — before he died in 2006. He committed suicide at age 53 after a long battle with depression.
In the latest bequest, the Pride Foundation said Sunday that Weiland’s estate had established a fund at the foundation that would give $46 million over the next eight years to 10 national gay rights and HIV/AIDS groups, including Lambda Legal; the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force; Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays, and amfAR, the Foundation for AIDS Research.
His estate also bequeathed $19 million directly to the Pride Foundation for scholarships and grants supporting the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender community in the Pacific Northwest.
California: Gas jumps 16 cents
The national average price for gasoline is 16 cents higher than it was two weeks ago, according to a new survey from Camarillo. According to the Lundberg Survey of 7,000 stations nationwide, the average price of self-serve regular gasoline on Friday was $3.10 a gallon, midgrade was $3.22 and premium was $3.33. Of the cities surveyed, the cheapest price was in Phoenix, where a gallon of regular cost $2.87, on average. The highest average price was in Honolulu at $3.37.
N.Y.: Ill woman dies on flight
An American Airlines passenger died after a flight attendant told her he couldn’t give her any oxygen and then tried to help her with faulty equipment, including an empty oxygen tank, a relative said. Carine Desir, 44, who was returning home to Brooklyn from Haiti on Friday, had heart disease and died of natural causes, medical examiner’s office spokeswoman Ellen Borakove said Sunday. Desir said she was having trouble breathing and asked for oxygen, but a flight attendant twice refused her request, her cousin, Antonio Oliver, said Sunday. Other passengers became agitated over the situation, he said, and the flight attendant, apparently after phone consultation with the cockpit, tried to administer oxygen from a portable tank and mask, but the tank was empty. A nurse that was onboard tried CPR to no avail, Oliver said. A “box,” possibly a defibrillator, also was applied but didn’t function effectively, he said.
Man, girlfriend battle while driving
A man fighting with his girlfriend clung to a car roof and punched her through the window as she drove more than a mile on a busy road, hitting several other cars, police said. Both were hurt in the brawl Saturday and were arrested, police Sgt. Manfredo Figueroa said. The Stony Point man, William Kremer, 37, apparently jumped onto the car and held on as girlfriend Stacey Sperrazza, 42, of Haverstraw, wove along with the car’s air bag inflated, police said. She eventually stopped the car and hit him with it, police said.
Pennsylvania: Bus flip hurts 41
A Greyhound bus flipped over in an interstate median north of Philadelphia early Sunday, injuring 41 people. The cause was under investigation. Most of the passengers were treated and released from hospitals, authorities said; two remained hospitalized in stable conditions.
Iran: Confirms using centrifuges
Iran said Sunday that it has started using new centrifuges that can churn out enriched uranium at more than double the rate of the machines that now form the backbone of the Islamic nation’s nuclear program. The announcement was the first official confirmation by Tehran after diplomats with the U.N.’s nuclear watchdog reported earlier this month that Iran was using 10 of the new IR-2 centrifuges.
Indonesia: Quake hits Sumatra
An earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 6.6 rattled Indonesia’s Sumatra island Sunday night, the U.S. Geological Survey said, sending frightened residents running from their homes. There were no immediate reports of damage or injuries, said an official at the Indonesian Meteorological and Geophysics Agency. The jolt, in the same area shaken by an 8.4 quake in September that killed 25 people, did not trigger a tsunami, national authorities said.
Russia: N. Koreans detain ship
North Korean authorities were holding a Russian cargo ship and the 25 people aboard Sunday after the vessel violated the sea border of the isolated country, a Russian diplomat said. North Korean coast guards detained the Lidia Demesh on Saturday after it approached the coastline while en route from Japan to the Russian port of Vladivostok with a cargo of automobiles, Russian media reported. The head of the Russian shipping company Kamchatmorflot said the ship’s food supplies would run out in five days, the Interfax news agency reported.
From Herald news services
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