NATIONAL BRIEFS

PENNSYLVANIA: WWII cable up for auction

Chief Yeoman Robert W. York was clutching a piece of history as he hurried to find his boss aboard the USS Holland, trolling the Pacific days after the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. It was a dispatch from President Harry S. Truman's navy secretary, dated Aug. 15, 1945, that read: "All hands of the United States Navy, Marine Corps and Coast Guard may take satisfaction in the conclusion of the war against Japan." York kept that 8-inch-by-6.5-inch piece of paper in a shoe box for the next six decades. He died in February at age 91. Now his son, Bob York, 65, is auctioning it off on the 67th anniversary of V-J Day.

NEW JERSEY: Daredevil's feat at beach

Like anyone taking a walk on the beach, Nik Wallenda found sand Thursday in places he didn't want it. It was on the tightrope he traversed some 100 feet over the beach at Atlantic City. "It felt really slippery," he said. So slippery that he considered doing the 1,300-foot walk barefoot. Ultimately, he kept on the buckskin and suede shoes his mother made him, and he completed the walk without any real difficulties. For Wallenda, a member of the seventh generation of the famous daredevil family that's been putting on shows for two centuries, it was another in a long line of death-defying feats. In June, he walked farther, and higher up, over Niagara Falls. Local officials estimated that 150,000 people saw him make the half-hour stroll in person.

TEXAS: Further testing for pilot

The JetBlue Airways pilot who disrupted a flight from Kennedy Airport to Las Vegas, leaving the cockpit and yelling about religion and terrorists, has had a psychotic episode in a prison medical facility in North Carolina and requires further mental evaluation, a judge said. Clayton Osbon, charged with interference with a flight crew, was found not guilty by reason of insanity. U.S. District Judge Mary Lou Robinson in Amarillo extended the evaluation period to Oct. 15.