PALM BAY, Fla. -- Investigators searched Tuesday for one or more arsonists behind a string of stubborn wildfires that have destroyed or damaged more than 160 homes on Florida's Atlantic coast.

Though the high winds fueling the flames Monday had slowed significantly, officials worried about the flames spreading quickly in the dry conditions.

"We desperately need rain," said Palm Bay Fire Marshal Mike Couture. "We don't have any, and we're not projected to get any anytime soon."

All 18 schools in Palm Bay were closed Tuesday. Smoke and the proximity of the flames have caused the intermittent closure of major highways in the area, including a 34-mile section of Interstate 95 south of the fires that was closed again midmorning Tuesday.

"Flames are coming onto the interstate," Florida Highway Patrol Trooper Kim Miller said.

Authorities said they had "a majority" of the Palm Bay fires contained and were getting better control over the fires in Malabar, where firefighters slept in shifts on cots lined up in the volunteer fire station.

WASHINGTON -- The difference in death rates between highly educated and poorly educated people in the United States is very wide and growing wider, according to new research.

For Americans with less than a high school education, the risk of dying prematurely is on the increase -- rising most quickly for white women in that category. In contrast, the risk of premature death among college graduates is falling -- fastest of all for black men.

White high-school dropouts are four times more likely to die young than white college graduates, up from a three-fold difference in the early 1990s. Among blacks, the trend is similar but less dramatic.

The study, published online Tuesday, is the second this spring to reveal an ominous trend toward worsening health and earlier death in disadvantaged segments of the population, especially in certain groups of women.

"Socioeconomic disparity in mortality is pervasive and it continues to increase," said Ahmedin Jemal, an epidemiologist at the American Cancer Society who led the study.

A co-author, Robert Anderson, of the National Center for Health Statistics, believes that growing gap "says something about the overall health of our population. The haves seem to be doing quite well, and their mortality is going down. But those who don't have their resources are not doing so well."

DETROIT -- The embattled mayor of Detroit faced new and stronger pressure to resign Tuesday as City Council members put in motion a two-pronged process to boot him from office, something that has never been done in this old industrial city's history.

Responding to mounting public pressure to oust 37-year-old Kwame Kilpatrick, who was indicted in late March on charges of perjury and obstruction of justice, a slim majority of council members approved the procedure to impeach the mayor as well as ask Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm to remove him from office.

"I hope it moves us closer to getting this issue resolved, and the resolution would be for the mayor to leave office, one way or another. That's the bottom line," said Kenneth Cockrell, City Council president.

Kilpatrick has repeatedly said he has no intention of quitting, and Tuesday's votes seemed to change nothing. His deputy mayor on Tuesday dismissed the council's moves as "grandstanding."

SAN JACINTO, Calif. -- A man and woman opened fire on guards at an entrance to an American Indian reservation and fled into its hilly interior, where they were killed in a gun battle with sheriff's deputies and a SWAT team, authorities said Tuesday. It was the second deadly gunfight involving deputies on the reservation in five days.

The motive for the Monday night attack was unknown, said Riverside County Sheriff's Department spokesman Dennis Gutierrez.

The guards were unhurt, as were the officers involved in the shootout.

The gunfire began at a guard station on a road a few hundred yards from a casino operated by the Soboba Band of Luiseno Indians, who have a 3,170-acre reservation on the foothills of the San Jacinto Mountains about 70 miles southeast of Los Angeles.

One of the victims was identified as Joseph Arres, 36, of San Jacinto, Gutierrez said. The name of the woman had yet to be released.

At least one of the dead was a tribal member, said James Fletcher, superintendent for the federal Bureau of Indian Affairs' Southern California Agency. He would not say which one.

The weapons used were a Russian-made SKS rifle that is illegal in California and an AR-15 with a high-capacity drum, Gutierrez said.

The tribal security guards called 911.

Rebuilding unlikely in tornado-ravaged Okla. town

PICHER, Okla. -- No government money will be awarded for rebuilding any of the 114 homes leveled by a deadly tornado that tore through one of the nation's most polluted areas, state and federal officials said Tuesday on a tour of the region.

Saturday's tornado was responsible for seven deaths in Picher. The severe weather killed another 20 people in the Plains and the Southeast.

"It really is like a small nuclear bomb went off," Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said at a news conference. He was joined by David Paulison, administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, and Oklahoma Gov. Brad Henry.

The governor asked President Bush on Tuesday to provide a disaster declaration for Ottawa County, which would clear the way for federal assistance to individuals and businesses. Henry's request will be considered quickly, Paulison said.

The tornado struck the heart of a federal Superfund site, where a government buyout of homes is under way in an area beset with mine collapses, open shafts, acid water that stains Tar Creek orange and mountains of lead-contaminated waste. Local children have tested with dangerous levels of lead in their blood.

The Environmental Protection Agency has begun testing to determine whether the tornado scattered enough mining waste to raise lead levels in the air and soil in the 800-person town, which was once a thriving hub of 20,000 people.

The buyout will not prevent federal disaster aid from flowing to the area, Henry said, but the aid will help people relocate, not rebuild homes in the area.

DEARBORN, Mich. -- Jennifer Sharpe knows how to sell Girl Scout cookies. She sold them to friends. She sold them to strangers. She even convinced her orthodontist to buy the popular sweet treats.

And now, with 17,323 boxes sold under her name, the 15-year-old Dearborn girl is believed to have sold more cookies in a single season than anyone in the United States ever, according to Girl Scout officials.

And Wednesday, the Girl Scouts of Metro Detroit is honoring Jennifer for her record-breaking sales at a ceremony in Livonia, Mich.

"Make a goal, and don't give up on it. Keep working for it, and one of these days, you'll hit it," she advised aspiring sellers.

"When I was in third grade, the top seller was 10,176. ... I turned to my mother and said, 'That's going to be me one day,' and it took me seven years," she said.

Jennifer, a fan of the Thin Mints, used a retail-inspired strategy. She set up shop in the parking lot of Cherry Hill Presbyterian Church in Dearborn. She staffed that booth 3-7 p.m. Monday through Saturday. On Sundays, she sold cookies outside a local auto parts store from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m.

"When I was young, I knocked on doors," said Jennifer, in her 10th year of scouting. "Now that I'm older, I get too many rejections face to face. People don't want to buy from a 15-year-old. They want to buy from a cute little Brownie."