Ex-postman charged with hiding mail

A retired postal worker was charged Monday with hiding about 20,000pieces of mail, most of it advertising, that was found in March,1994. John A. Roberts, 60, a former Chicago resident who lives inNalcrest, Fla., allegedly left the mail, some of it dating to 1979,in a South Side residence when he retired in 1992. People cleaningthe home found the mail and discarded it in an alley, where it wasdiscovered.Art scam convict to pay $1 millionThe owner of an Elmhurst company who pleaded guilty to overchargingthe federal government for wall art was sentenced Monday to beconfined to his home for six months and ordered to pay $1 million inrestitution. Daniel Mazzie, 70, of Oak Brook, owner of June MazzieEnterprises, also was sentenced to 800 hours of community servicewhile on probation for five years. He also must donate $20,000 peryear for five years to charity.Woman sentenced in bomb threatA 26-year-old woman who phoned in a bomb threat to Royal JordanianAirlines, forcing a Chicago-bound plane from Jordan to make anemergency landing in Iceland in 1995, was sentenced to homeconfinement for six months Monday. Wafa Mustafa of Oak Lawn said shemade the threat because she wanted to keep her sister'smother-in-law, who was on the plane, from visiting.Guard unit's Bosnia tour called offA Springfield-based Illinois National Guard unit originally orderedto serve in Bosnia will not be activated by the Army after all, statemilitary officials learned Tuesday. In late November, the Armyactivated the 232nd Corps Support Battalion for a Bosnia tour of upto 270 days. "The message we got was very basic, just that they nolonger needed the 232nd," said Capt. Rona Pierce, a spokeswoman forthe Illinois Department of Military Affairs. Another Army NationalGuard unit in Morrisonville, N.C., received similar orders, she said.The change in plans does not affect the activation of 125 members ofthe Chicago-based 933rd Military Police, Pierce said. That unit isscheduled to be deployed to Germany next month for up to 270 days.School funding teleconferenceSchool funding in Illinois will be the topic of a satellitevideoconference and broadcast organized for today at Governors StatueUniversity in University Park. Panelists will review a tax study bythe Metropolitan Planning Council with a goal of suggesting ways theLegislature could make school funding fairer. The conference willbe shown at 8:30 p.m. Friday on WYCC-Channel 20. Organizers hope theevent will draw participants from around the state and lead to asummit early next year to develop legislative initiatives.Mom sues attacker in hate crimeA Chicago man who was convicted of a hate crime last year forbeating up his 10-year-old African-American neighbor while using aracial epithet was sued Monday by the boy's mother. The lawsuit byMadeline Stockdale seeks at least $130,000 in damages from GlennWellons, 40, of 4863 W. Homer. Wellons was sentenced to three yearsin prison for attacking Stockdale's son, Jason, who had been throwingsnowballs in the alley with friends.