Minneapolis

MySpace.com has sidestepped the regulatory clutches of states with a multipronged plan to protect its social networking site from bullies and sexual predators. An accord reached with attorneys general from 49 states promises much in the name of making it more difficult for strangers to contact underage MySpace users. Steps include better monitoring of content, improved age-verification software and creating a closed "high school" section for users under 18. Other measures include extra staff on the lookout for inappropriate content, and increased monitoring of discussion groups and photos.

MINNEAPOLIS -- American-made lipstick contains "surprisingly high levels of lead," according to new product test results released yesterday by the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics. The lead tests were conducted by an independent laboratory last month on red lipsticks bought in Minneapolis, Boston, Hartford and San Francisco. Its findings include: Sixty-one percent of the 33 brand-name lipsticks tested contained detectable levels of lead, with levels ranging from 0.03 to 0.65 parts per million (ppm)

Clinton will return $850,000, aides say WASHINGTON -- Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's presidential campaign said yesterday that it will return $850,000 in donations gathered by Democratic fundraiser Norman Hsu, who is accused of violating election laws and is under federal investigation. The New York senator previously had planned to give to charity $23,000 she received from Hsu for her presidential and senatorial campaigns and her political action committee, HillPac. About 260 donors will receive refunds this week totaling about $850,000 from the campaign, Clinton spokesman Howard Wolfson said.

The Interstate 35W bridge collapse in Minneapolis this month demonstrated what blogs do best - and what they do worst. Within minutes of the disaster on the Mississippi River, bloggers were conveying vivid descriptions of the tragedy on personal blogs. Thousands of photos were posted on picture-sharing sites like Flickr, critical information was quickly available about blood donor sites and ride-sharing networks and the massive surge of news coverage and video was being organized and catalogued.

MINNEAPOLIS -- As U.S. Navy divers combed the gnarled wreckage of the collapsed Interstate 35W bridge yesterday, federal agents used a robot submarine, a helicopter equipped with cameras, and detailed images being captured from scanners onshore to search for the missing. But by rush hour - five days after the late-afternoon collapse - the exhaustive and minute search still yielded no word on the fate of the eight people believed to have perished. Seven previously hidden vehicles were found in the Mississippi River and amid the rubble yesterday, authorities said.

War wastes funds as our bridges age My heart goes out to the families of the victims of Minneapolis' tragic bridge collapse ("Deadly Collapse," Aug. 2). According to engineers, there are nearly 150,000 more bridges in the United States which are experiencing various degrees of structural deterioration, mainly as a result of age and the unforeseen increases in traffic stress being placed on them. A recent report from the Federal Highway Administration estimates that it would cost us $188 billion to repair and rehabilitate all the structurally deficient and functionally obsolete bridges in the country.

MINNEAPOLIS -- Divers scoured treacherous waters yesterday searching for victims of a deadly bridge collapse, stopping for a brief period when a rainstorm sent twisted metal, glass and debris whirling dangerously in the Mississippi River. Police released an official list yesterday of eight people missing, matching estimates that had been lowered from the hours immediately after the Interstate 35W bridge collapse Wednesday evening. In releasing the list, police cautioned that the number could still rise, saying it's possible that some victims have not been reported missing.

MINNEAPOLIS -- The couple were having their typical after-work conversation Wednesday. Sherry Engebretsen, a financial director, told her husband, Ron, that she had had a long day of meetings. He said they should talk about it later, when she got home. She said, "OK, I'll see you in a few minutes." That was about 5:45 p.m., and Sherry Engebretsen was on her way to the Interstate 35W bridge over the Mississippi River. When she had not arrived home by the time dinner would usually be on the table, her daughter Jessica said she "just started calling and calling and calling" her mother's cell phone.

MINNEAPOLIS -- The day after the devastating crash of a busy Minneapolis bridge into the Mississippi River delivered neither answers nor relief. Clutching snapshots of their loved ones and offering the license plate numbers of their relatives' vehicles, families of the 20 to 30 presumed dead grappled with uncertainty of when the missing would be found. The fate of the dead was decided in an instant, but the bodies might take days to recover. "It's the not knowing that eats you up," said Dorothy Svendsen, whose son Greg Jolstad, a construction worker on the bridge, is among those missing and presumed dead.

The year 1967 was a watershed of sorts for bridge failure. The Silver Bridge in West Virginia collapsed unexpectedly that year, killing 46, and the disaster led engineers to place much more emphasis on what they called redundancy. Simply put, redundancy means that if one part fails, the whole bridge won't go down. The lesson came too late, though, for the builders of the Interstate 35 bridge in Minneapolis, which was opened that same year, and which failed catastrophically during the Wednesday evening rush hour.