NATIONAL BRIEFS

CALIFORNIA: New 'Carmageddon' threat

"Carmageddon II," the sequel, is coming to one of the nation's most crowded freeways, and authorities are hoping its subtitle won't be "The Traffic Strikes Back." Transportation officials hope to see during the last weekend of September a rerun of last year's two-day closing, when hundreds of thousands of motorists dodged doomsday predictions by staying away until the busy, 10-mile stretch of Interstate 405 reopened. Businesses and residents prepare to avoid the roadway that must close again so work can be completed on a bridge. At Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center, just outside the Carmageddon zone, as many as 300 doctors, nurses and other staff members will be housed in dorms at nearby hotels so nobody will have trouble getting to work. Patients, including women in the latter stages of pregnancy, are being encouraged to check in before the freeway closes Saturday.

CONNECTICUT: Nazi's papers up for auction

Love letters, school papers and dramatic works of college-age Joseph Goebbels reveal a romantic young man beginning to show signs of anti-Semitism and controlling behavior, according to an auction house selling the prewar writings of Adolf Hitler's propaganda chief. Alexander Historical Auctions plans to sell the collection Sept. 27 in Stamford. "It sums up the formative years of the number two man in the Third Reich . . . responsible for motivating the masses in Germany to back Hitler," said Bill Panagopulos, the firm's president. "There's a lot of information if somebody wants to dig into the mind of this man who grew into a lunatic." The sale sparked concerns by a leader of a Holocaust survivors group who criticized the auction house's sale last year of the journals of death camp doctor Josef Mengele.

WASHINGTON STATE: 6 quickly caught in jail escape

Six boys escaped from a juvenile detention center after knocking out a female staff member, but all were captured a few hours later early Sunday in nearby woods. The King County Sheriff's department responded to the escape late Saturday from Echo Glen Children's Center in Snoqualmie, 25 miles east Seattle. The six, from 15 to 17 years old, were in jail for such offenses as assault, firearms possession and burglary.