People in the News

From The Associated Press

U.S. Rep. Julia Carson, the first black and first woman to represent Indianapolis in Congress, died Saturday, a family spokeswoman said. She was 69.

Carson died after a battle with lung cancer, spokeswoman Vanessa Summer said.

Carson’s death came three weeks after she announced she had been diagnosed with terminal lung cancer and followed years of health troubles. She said days later that she would not run next year for a seventh term representing the district that covers most of Indianapolis.

Officials in a Northern California school district might not think Tiggers are such wonderful things after agreeing to pay $95,000 in lawyers’ fees to five families who sued the school over its dress code.

Parents went to court after a student was disciplined for wearing socks with the “Winnie the Pooh” cartoon character Tigger on the first day of school last year. The settlement also says Redwood Middle School may no longer require students to wear only solid-color clothing.

The honeymoons are over for a 26-year-old woman who authorities in Miami say was married at least 10 times.

Eunice Lopez has been charged with bigamy, accused of marrying 10 men between 2002 and 2006 without divorcing any of them, federal immigration authorities say.

The Miami Herald reported Saturday that a records search by the newspaper found seven additional marriages under the bride’s name and birth date. Lopez arrived in South Florida from Cuba in 2002 and was a legal U.S. resident.

Franco Zeffirelli would like to make over what he called Pope Benedict XVI’s “cold” image and his “showy” clothes, an Italian newspaper reported Saturday, saying the film, stage and opera director offered his services in an interview.

Coming after the media-savvy Pope John Paul II, “Benedict XVI still has a cold way of communicating, little suited to what is happening around him,” Zeffirelli was quoted as telling the Turin daily La Stampa.

“Even his wardrobe needs to be revised,” the 84-year-old Zeffirelli was quoted as saying. “These are not times of high-tailored church wear.” Instead, his vestments should reflect “sobriety,” the director said. “The papal vestments have been done over to be too sumptuous and showy.”

John Paul II, often spontaneous and sometimes outdoorsy, had little use for fancy papal attire. But Benedict has taken to wearing some eye-stopping outfits in his public appearances, including a red velvet cape trimmed with ermine, a fur-trimmed stocking cap that some first mistook for a Santa Claus hat, and bright red Prada loafers.