Arrest for Smoking on Jetliner Leaves Connie Burning

--Singer Connie Francis said she was too busy reading a book to notice a “No Smoking” sign on a refueling Delta jetliner in Atlanta, where she was arrested for refusing to put out her cigarette. Francis, who was free on $1,100 bail after being booked for investigation of trespass and battery Tuesday, angrily threatened lawsuits against those involved in the Atlanta incident. The singer, appearing tired and displaying several broken fingernails at an airport news conference after arriving in Los Angeles, conceded that she smoked four cigarettes while the “No Smoking” light was on and kicked a police officer after she was removed from the plane. The flight, which originated in the Bahamas, was refueling in Atlanta on its way to Los Angeles, and the flight crew had asked all passengers to extinguish cigarettes, Delta spokesman Bill Berry said. Police were called when the singer refused to put out her cigarette, despite a personal request from the captain, and refused to leave the plane, Berry said. “I just kept relighting,” Francis, 48, said in Los Angeles. “I was thinking about my book.” A Feb. 12 hearing is scheduled in Atlanta, police said. Francis said in Atlanta after she was released that the pilots were “ticked off because I called them big jerks because they don’t say hello to people or answer questions by passengers, OK?” Francis has recorded such hits as “Where The Boys Are” and “Who’s Sorry Now,” which became the title of her autobiography.

--An Alaskan family has packed up and moved to Iowa--with a little help from the mailman. “They mailed everything, except the dog sled,” said Larry Dingman, a public affairs officer for the Postal Service. Actually, said new Iowan Lanna Scott, 38, moving by mail was the cheapest way, and they did too mail a dog sled. There were about 80 other boxes as well, much to the amazement of Waukee, Iowa, Postmaster Lyle Smith. “I started by sending winter clothes, then a ton of books we didn’t need. And then, well, it was the studded snow tires and then the ironing board,” explained Scott, formerly of Eagle River, Alaska. She moved to Waukee with her two children and a sister, Darlene Erickson, who had been living in Anchorage. Just one article was broken, and it has since been repaired, she said. Scott said she has no intention of moving anything for a long time. “I’m not even going to send one Christmas package,” she said.