Milestones Feb. 17, 2003

DROPPED. By the GENERAL ACCOUNTING OFFICE, Congress's investigative arm; its lawsuit, filed last year, over Vice President Dick Cheney's refusal to turn over records, including names of advisers, of his policy-shaping energy task force, insisting that they needed to remain confidential; in Washington. A major victory for the Bush Administration, the GAO's decision not to appeal a recent loss in federal district court was prompted, the agency said, by the "significant time and resources over several years" that the case would have required.

ARRESTED. COURTNEY LOVE, 38, rock-star widow of Kurt Cobain; for verbally abusing the cabin crew on a flight from Los Angeles to London; in London. After British police released her with a warning, Love said the event had been exaggerated, and explained, "My daughter always said I had a potty mouth."

DIED. RICHARD NELSON, 77, the radio operator and youngest crew member on the Enola Gay, the B-29 Superfortress that dropped the atom bomb on Hiroshima; in Riverside, Calif. Nelson, who later said he had no regrets about participating in the historic mission, reported the effects of the attack that killed more than 80,000 in a brief coded message to President Truman: "Results excellent."

--DIED. MONGO SANTAMARIA, 80, Cuban-born percussionist who fused American jazz, funk and R. and B. with Afro-Cuban sounds in such standards as Afro Blue, made famous by John Coltrane, and a popular 1963 rendition of Herbie Hancock's Watermelon Man; following a stroke; in Miami. A veteran of the Tito Puente Orchestra, Santamaria recorded albums ranging from salsa and contemporary soul to congo-driven percussion and chanting.

--DIED. JEROME HINES, 81, bass vocalist who sang at the Metropolitan Opera for 41 years--longer than any other performer--playing 45 characters in 39 operas, including the title role in Mussorgsky's Boris Godunov; in New York City. Known for doggedly researching the psychological background of his characters, he gave 868 performances at the Met before retiring in 1987.

DIED. LOU HARRISON, 85, influential innovator of classical music, characterized by what composer Ned Rorem called "infectiously beautiful" melody; of an apparent heart attack, while traveling to a festival of his music; in Lafayette, Ind. Celebrated for promoting the gamelan--an Indonesian percussion orchestra--in the U.S., Harrison relied on everything from Korean court music to medieval dance melodies in composing symphonies, operas, choral pieces and instrumental suites.

DIED. LARRY LESUEUR, 93, Peabody Award--winning CBS correspondent who was part of the elite group, called Murrow's Boys, hired by Edward R. Murrow to cover Europe during World War II; in Washington. Vividly illuminating the horror with intimate details, like the look on a soldier's face, LeSueur covered the blitz by German bombers in London and wrote the book Twelve Months That Changed the World about his time at the Russian front. On Aug. 25, 1944, he gave Americans the first radio report on the liberation of Paris.