NATIONAL BRIEFS

COLORADO: Wildfire ousts 300 from town,/H4>

Two homes were destroyed and all 300 residents of the town of Eckley were forced to evacuate Sunday in a wildfire in Yuma County in the northeast, authorities said. Mike McCaleb, emergency manager in neighboring Washington County, said the blaze started about 1:15 p.m. Sunday south of Yuma, and firefighters battled low visibility and gusty winds. The fire is estimated at 10 miles long and a mile and a half wide, he said. Yuma County Sheriff Chad Day said an automated phone system was used to notify residents in an area 14 miles wide and 16 miles long. Three firefighters were being treated for minor injuries.

NEW JERSEY: An alternate juror disagrees

An alternate juror in the trial of Dharun Ravi, the former Rutgers University student convicted in a webcam spying episode that ended in his gay roommate's suicide, said he disagrees with the verdict. James Downey told the newspaper The Record that he wouldn't have voted to convict Ravi on any charges related to allegations that his actions were motivated by anti-gay bias. Prosecutors said Ravi set up his webcam in his dorm room and watched Tyler Clementi kissing another man, then tweeted about it and tried to catch Clementi in the act again two days later. As an alternate, the Woodbridge Township resident heard all the testimony but did not participate in deliberations. The jury, in returning its verdict Friday, was unanimous in finding Ravi guilty of all 15 charges, including invasion of privacy and anti-gay intimidation.

MASSACHUSETTS: Senate rivals trade jibes

The hotly contested U.S. Senate race between a former Obama consumer advocate and the Republican who won the late Ted Kennedy's seat took a comedic turn Sunday at one of the state's rites of political passage: South Boston's St. Patrick's Day Breakfast. Elizabeth Warren, a Harvard professor, said she's often asked why she wants to serve in the Senate, given that it's "filled with enormous egos" and "nothing gets done." "I always say, 'Hey, I worked at Harvard. I'll feel right at home.' " Sen. Scott Brown joked that he recently counseled Warren that "people view you as an elite." Warren, he said, replied, "I bet you a bottle of Dom Pérignon that's not true."