IN BRIEF

TILLMAN MONUMENT

Hometown honors Army Ranger, NFL star

A monument honoring Pat Tillman has been unveiled in his hometown, and the people who knew the former U.S. Army Ranger and NFL star gathered around the stone memorial to share stories and remember the kid they knew.

On Saturday, the New Almaden, Calif., townspeople who watched Tillman grow up remembered him not as a hero or the subject of a political controversy, but as a joking, vibrant and popular young man.

"That's what he would want people to be aware of. Not the celebrity of it, but he was part of the neighborhood and a kid that people had seen," said Peggy Melbourne, who worked at Tillman's high school.

After the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, Tillman became a national symbol of patriotism after leaving his life as a player for the Arizona Cardinals for the military. Tillman was killed by friendly fire on April 22, 2004, in Afghanistan, not by enemy fire, as the military initially claimed.

NUDE CARPENTER

Judge clears man of exposure charge

A carpenter caught hammering nails and sawing wood in the nude has been found by a judge to be not guilty of indecent exposure.

Alameda County Superior Court Judge Julie Conger ruled Thursday that although Percy Honniball of Oakland, Calif., was naked, he was not acting lewdly or seeking sexual gratification.

Honniball, 51, was arrested last year after he was spotted building cabinets in the buff at a home where he had been hired to work.