In other news ...

October 1, 1996
Web posted at: 9:30 p.m. EDT

Phase one halfway finished in Simpson jury screening

SANTA MONICA, California (CNN) -- The judge in O.J. Simpson's wrongful death civil trial has gone more than halfway in reaching his goal to create a pool of 100 acceptable jurors before the second phase of jury selection. So far, after more than two weeks of interviews, 62 potential jurors have been kept.

Two people who made Judge Hiroshi Fujisaki's cut Tuesday broke a commonly-accepted racial stereotype, that African-Americans typically believe Simpson was innocent of the 1994 double murder, and whites believe him guilty.

One, an African-American man, said he concluded that Simpson was "probably guilty" of the murders. The other was a white woman who says she doubts the significance of the DNA evidence in the criminal trial.

FBI drops 24-hour watch on Olympic bombing suspect

ATLANTA (CNN) -- CNN has learned that FBI officials in Washington have ordered the Olympic bombing task force in Atlanta to drop its round-the-clock surveillance of Richard Jewell. Jewell, a security guard during the Olympics, was named as a suspect in the July 21 Centennial Park bombing but has yet to be charged with any wrongdoing.

Sources say the surveillance operation was scaled back not because of the protests of Jewell's attorneys, but because it "got counterproductive." Agents have also been told to return much of the property seized when they searched his mother's apartment and two other locations, including Walt Disney tapes and his mother's Tupperware.

But sources tell CNN that the FBI has not dropped Jewell as a suspect. "We haven't been given any indication of a change in his status," says Lin Wood, one of Jewell's attorneys. Law enforcement sources say he could take himself off the suspect list if he passed a lie detector test.

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Lead paint found on old playgrounds

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The government said Tuesday it has found dangerous levels of lead paint on the nation's playgrounds, 18 years after it was banned to protect children.

The Consumer Product Safety Commission tested paint from 26 playgrounds in 13 different cities. Of those, 16 playgrounds in 11 cities were painted with lead- based paint. Swallowing lead paint chips and dust can stunt a young child's mental development.

The commission said the problem is not with new playgrounds, but with old ones that were either never cleaned up after the 1978 law was passed, or that have been touched up with industrial paint, which often contains lead. Lead paint is dangerous only if it is chipping or peeling off its surface.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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