NEW YORK -- The National Park Service is considering reopening Lady Liberty's crown for the first time since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, according to documents a congressman released on July Fourth.

Liberty Island was closed after the terrorist attacks. The statue's base, pedestal and lower observation deck reopened in August 2004, after a $20 million effort to enhance fire safety.

But the crown and its interior observation deck, which soar about 265 feet above New York Harbor, remained closed because the Park Service said there was no way to evacuate them safely in an emergency. The narrow spiral staircase that leads up to the crown doesn't comply with fire and building codes.

Visitors are now limited to the statue's 154-foot-tall pedestal.

MILWAUKEE -- At least one person fired a gun into a crowd in a street early Friday, killing four people and sending panicked revelers running for cover, police said.

Two women, ages 23 and 27, and two men, ages 24 and 28, were killed at about 2:30 a.m. on the city's north side, police spokeswoman Anne E. Schwartz said.

Two people were injured, including Sylvia Ware, who was returning home from celebrating her 35th birthday at a nightclub.

She pulled up in front of her house and saw 10 to 20 people outside. She heard gunshots and ducked in her car. The window shattered and she felt something hit her upper back.

"I'm like, 'Oh my God. My back is burning; I'm hit! I'm hit!' " she said. "Then I crawled out the car and I was like, 'Someone please help me, I'm hit!' I got as far as the middle of the street and then I fainted. The next thing you know I woke up in the ambulance."

As she was crawling, she saw two friends -- a man and woman -- lying lifeless in the street.

"I just can't believe it," she said. "I've never been in any type of situation like this before. I never seen no one die in front of me before. I just feel totally different today, like, 'Wow.' "

More than 100 people were on the street when shots were fired, some possibly from a party, Schwartz said.

"We know a number of people were in the street when all of a sudden someone came out and started shooting," Schwartz said. "We are not clear how many shooters there were, if there was somebody in the crowd who shot back. Those things are still under investigation."

BIG SUR, Calif. -- A pair of out-of-control wildfires roared along California's central coast Friday, chewing through opposite ends of a parched forest and threatening a total of more than 4,500 homes.

While flames from the stubborn fire in the northern flank of the Los Padres National Forest inched closer to Big Sur's historic vacation retreats, state emergency officials said hot winds had caused a newer blaze 200 miles south in Santa Barbara County to double in size overnight.

Residents of more than 1,700 homes in and around the city of Goleta were ordered to evacuate, joining an equal number of people who were told to leave Big Sur days earlier.

Driven by wind gusts as high as 40 mph, the Santa Barbara County fire was so fierce early Friday that firefighters at one point took shelter in about 70 homes they were trying to defend, said Capt. Eli Iskow of the county fire department.

"Hundreds of firefighters were in place around hundreds of structures," Iskow said. "I think we saved every one of those structures in that area."

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. -- People lined up to be sworn in as new U.S. citizens were unwitting witnesses Friday to a constitutional object lesson at President Bush's expense on the grounds of Thomas Jefferson's Monticello.

Protesters interrupted Bush's brief welcoming speech several times with calls for his impeachment, and the president calmly responded at one point: "To my fellow citizens to be, we believe in free speech in the United States of America."

On his final Fourth of July as president, Bush said he was honored to be present for the naturalization ceremony, saying "I'll be proud to call you a fellow American."

The last six Fourth of July holidays have taken place amid continuing violence in Iraq. Bush's addition of 28,000 U.S. troops last year in Iraq helped foster a measure of stability in what is now the sixth summer of the war, however.

Some 150 or so demonstrators, from a variety of groups opposing Bush's policies on the war in Iraq, also rallied along the path of the president's motorcade to Monticello. Bush mentioned neither the war in Iraq nor the battle against terrorism in his speech, other than to say that "we pay tribute to the brave men and women who wear the uniform."

MIAMI -- The call girl involved in a scandal that brought down New York's former governor has dropped a lawsuit claiming "Girls Gone Wild" founder Joe Francis exploited her image and name on the Internet.

Ashley Dupre voluntarily dismissed the $10 million federal lawsuit, according to court documents filed Thursday. She said she was only 17 when she signed a binding contract giving permission to appear in the "Girls Gone Wild" video.

Telephone calls and e-mails to Dupre's lawyer and publicist were not immediately returned Friday.

In a statement issued through a spokesman Francis said he feels "vindicated" and added, "I'm having a terrific July Fourth."