Urban News

(NEW YORK) -- Officials at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in Upper Manhattan say they are determined that it will be "business as usual" for previously scheduled Christmas services in spite of Tuesday's fire in the massive building. The New York Times says that the fire -- which went to five alarms -- started in the cathedral's gift shop in the building's north transept.

Nearly 200 firefighters worked to stop the fire from spreading in the nation's largest church.

The exact cause of the fire has yet to be determined. There was water and smoke damage to the "worship" parts of the cathedral. Officials say they will work day and night to make the building presentable for upcoming services. Technically the building, the largest Gothic cathedral in the world, is unfinished. Work was halted during World War II and some exposed steel beams are still visible in one area.

(SAN FRANCISCO) -- The Assessor of San Francisco, Doris Ward, is the focus of an FBI probe into possible wrongdoing. According to the Chronicle, Ward is denying allegations that she awarded a $48,750-a-year contract to a political consultant who suggested that "fewer dollars would be spent (on Ward's future campaigns)" if the contract was not approved.

The publication says that in a June memo, veteran political consultant Claude Everhart suggested that she "utilize public resources" for Ward's re-election bid next year by hiring him as a consultant to work on PR for her. The import reportedly was that although Everhart wanted to manage her 2002 campaign, he thought it would be best if he were "in place, on the payroll" in the months leading up to next November.

Everhart was awarded the lucrative PR contract a week after making the suggestion. The hiring was done without competitive bidding.

(PHILADELPHIA) -- A judge's decision Tuesday in the highly publicized murder case of Mumia Abu-Jamal has re-ignited the debate about the death penalty and opened old wounds in Philadelphia. In his decision, court records show that U.S. District Judge William Yohn cited "problems with the jury" during Abu-Jamal's original trial when he was convicted of the 1981 killing of a policeman.

Yohn ordered a review of the original trial transcripts and a new sentencing hearing held within six months. The committee could change the sentence or return the former Black Panther leader to death row.

Meanwhile, the wife of the slain policeman told CBS Radio that Christmas is a poor time for the judge to act. It was 20 years ago this Christmas that her husband was killed.

(OAKLAND, Calif) -- Officials of the Oakland Raiders NFL team say they do next expect their fans to become as boisterous as were fans in Cleveland, just days ago, when they threw hundreds of plastic bottles onto the playing field after a play went against the team.

The team's executive assistant, Al LoCasale, told Oakland media Tuesday that although Raiders fans are "noisy, gregarious and enthusiastic," they behave within boundaries. The team executive would not answer reporters' questions about a possible beefing up of security for the games for the remainder of the season.

Oakland, like many other NFL teams, made major changes in the way it conducts security and what may and may not be brought into stadiums in the wake of the 9/11 attacks.

Meanwhile, Cleveland officials are still wincing from the bottle-throwing antics of their fans, shown on national TV.