Briefs: FAA offers reassurance

Air traffic control errors like the one that almost caused two airliners to collide near Chicago this week remain extremely rare and staffing levels are adequate despite controllers' complaints of fatigue and overwork, a Federal Aviation Administration spokeswoman said Friday. The reassurance comes just ahead of the start of the holiday travel season and at a time when even the White House has publicly acknowledged the worsening problem of air congestion. "These incidents are very, very rare," said FAA spokeswoman Elizabeth Isham Cory, responding to questions about the near-collision Tuesday night between a United Express plane and a Midwest Airlines plane over northern Indiana. FAA air traffic controllers handled nearly 50 million flights in 2005, the last full year for which the agency provided statistics, and committed only about 1,500 errors -- one for every 33,000 flights -- she said.

Molester takes plea deal

An 18-year-old Chicago man has been sentenced to seven years in prison after he admitted to molesting two young girls in Schaumburg this summer. Curtis Lee Barfield, of the 4300 block of West 14th Street, pleaded guilty to one count of aggravated criminal sexual abuse and one count of criminal sexual assault, officials with the Cook County state's attorney's office said. Another 40 counts of various sex charges were dropped, according to court records. Authorities have said Barfield molested the two girls, ages 5 and 7, while helping baby-sit. The incident occurred overnight between April 7 and 8 at a home in Schaumburg, police said. One of the mothers contacted police after her daughter complained about feeling pain, authorities have said. Barfield also will be receiving sex offender counseling.

Murderer gets 50 years

A man who participated in a murder ordered by a former Chicago police officer has been sentenced to 50 years in prison. John Brown was convicted of first-degree murder last month in the 2004 killing of a former limousine dispatcher at a South Side funeral home. Prosecutors alleged Edward Leak hired Brown and Alfred Marley to ambush Fred Hamilton, who was shot when he stopped to change a flat tire in February 2004. Hamilton was a driver for Leak's family's funeral home business. Authorities said months before his death, Hamilton made an anonymous call to police to report that Leak was involved in insurance fraud. Prosecutors say Leak, who also was convicted of first-degree murder last month, ordered the murder of Hamilton, a business partner, to collect on a $500,000 insurance policy.

Melrose Park soldier killed

Army Spc. Ashley Sietsema, 20, of Melrose Park was the second Illinoisan killed Monday in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom. Sietsmema was killed in a vehicle accident in Kuwait. Also on Monday, Army Sgt. Joseph M. Vanek, 22, of Elmhurst was killed in an attack by enemy forces. The two deaths pushed the Illinois death toll from U.S. efforts in Iraq to 135, including 24 this year.