National Roundup

North Carolina
Southwest jet hit by bird safely returns to NC
RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — A Southwest Airlines spokeswoman says a jet carrying 124 people struck a bird shortly after departing for Chicago from a North Carolina airport but safely returned without injuries.
Southwest’s Whitney Eichinger told The Associated Press that its Boeing 737 reported the bird strike shortly after departure from Raleigh-Durham International Airport about 6 p.m. Monday and immediately returned.
She says the plane, with a five-person crew, shut down the affected engine before Flight 220 landed safely back at Raleigh-Durham and taxied to the gate.
“We re-accommodated all of the passengers onto other aircraft to Chicago,” Eichinger said by phone from Dallas, the Texas headquarters of Southwest.
She says the jetliner, which was destined for Chicago Midway International, has since been taken out of service for inspection and any necessary repairs.

California
First cars cross Bay Bridge’s new repaired span
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — There was little fanfare, but the gleaming white and newly built $6.4-billion eastern span of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge reopened to the public as vehicles began crossing it after more than a decade of construction delays.Part old and part new, part permanent and part temporary, the hybridized bridge opened late Monday night in time for Tuesday’s morning commute. The opening followed a five-day closure for the entire bridge.
Drivers began lining up their cars hours earlier in an attempt to be among the first on the new span, and CHP officers led a line of vehicles across at about 10:15 p.m. several hours before the estimated opening time and the expected commuter crunch of the beginning of the work week on Tuesday.
The new span replaces a structure that was damaged during the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake. It is designed to withstand the strongest earthquake estimated by seismologists to occur at the site over a 1,500-year period.

Illinois
2 accused of  trying to take ivy at Wrigley Field
CHICAGO (AP) — Chicago police say two men who allegedly broke into Wrigley Field to try to take ivy are facing misdemeanor charges.
Officers were called to the ballpark just before 4 a.m. Sunday. Police say the men had allegedly entered the park by going through a barred window. Security guards at the field spotted them on a surveillance camera and called police.
Cubs spokesman Julian Green tells the Chicago Sun-Times that the men allegedly wanted to take some ivy from the outfield walls.
Chicago police say both men, in their 20s, are from Pennsylvania. They were each charged with one misdemeanor count of criminal trespass.
Authorities say nothing was stolen or damaged.

Texas
Police: Fleeing Texas man’s boss got him to stop
HOUSTON (AP) — Texas authorities say they dialed a man’s boss for assistance in persuading his employee to end a 70-mile high-speed chase.
Police say Lionel Rodriguez took off when officers stopped him for a traffic violation in Willis, 45 miles north of Houston.
They say Rodriguez fled at speeds exceeding 100 mph until he was stopped near Pearland, a southeastern Houston suburb.
Rodriguez had called the police dispatcher, told them that he was a wanted felon and that he wanted police to kill him.
The dispatcher made a three-way call with the suspect’s boss who persuaded him to stop.
Records show Rodriguez was booked into the Montgomery County Jail, the county where the chase began.

New Jersey
Massive U.S. flag flies over bridge for Labor Day
FORT LEE, N.J. (AP) — The largest free-flying American flag in the world is now flying over the George Washington Bridge in honor of Labor Day.
The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey unfurled the flag Monday under the upper arch of the bridge’s New Jersey tower. It’s meant to honor working men and women across the country.
The flag is 90 feet long by 60 feet wide, with stripes measuring about 5 feet wide and stars about 4 feet in diameter.
The Port Authority says the flag will be flown from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday.

Arizona
MDA fundraiser on ABC raises $59.6 million
TUCSON, Ariz. (AP) — The Muscular Dystrophy Association’s nationally broadcast 48th annual telethon and related fundraising efforts have raised about a million dollars more than last year with $59.6 million in contributions over the Labor Day weekend.
The two-hour “MDA Show of Strength” aired Sunday on ABC. MDA President and CEO Steven M. Derks says the money raised will go toward treatment of muscular dystrophy and related diseases, and funding of research to find a cure.
A release from the association said the total amount raised came from pledges during the show and through midnight Monday, as well as money raised by MDA sponsors.
Celebrities such as “American Idol” host Ryan Seacrest and “Brady Bunch” mom Florence Henderson were part of the show’s lineup this year, along with the Backstreet Boys, singer Paula Abdul and other entertainers.
The telethon was the third since comedian Jerry Lewis’s 45-year role as host ended. Kelli Park, a spokeswoman for the Tucson, Ariz.-based MDA, says the 2012 telethon raised $58.7 million last year.

Massachusetts
UMass students feast on 15,000-pound fruit salad
AMHERST, Mass. (AP) — In what’s become an annual tradition, the University of Massachusetts celebrated the start of the new academic year with a delicious, healthy, record-breaking dish.
About 500 students and staff at the Amherst campus on Monday sliced, diced, pitted and peeled 150 varieties of fruit to create a salad weighing more than 15,000 pounds. The salad was mixed in a 15-foot diameter swimming pool.
It included 20 varieties of apples weighing more than 3,600 pounds; 19 varieties of melon weighing more than 2,500 pounds; peaches, bananas, oranges and berries as well as more exotic fruits including quince, passion fruit and rambutan.
A Guinness World Records representative certified the record.
UMass in recent years has started the semester with record-breaking seafood stews and stir fries.