Parents sentenced for torturing toddler

FLORENCE € Foster parents who battering a 3-year-old to death have been sentenced to 17 years in prison for a beating a doctor likened to torture.

Joquitta and Cleveland Palmer pleaded no contest in December to charges of second-degree murder in the November 1993 death of TaJuana Davidson, who had been whipped with tree branches. They also pleaded guilty to attempted child abuse.

They were sentenced Wednesday to the maximum term without possibility of early release.

Ski resorts reopen across Arizona

FLAGSTAFF € The Arizona Snowbowl, its slopes blanketed with 21/2 feet of new powder, reopened yesterday, much to the delight of frustrated skiers and the resort's operators.

And Sunrise Park in the White Mountains, Arizona's largest ski resort, announced it will reopen its runs on Sunrise Mountain tomorrow.

Ski Valley on Mount Lemmon reopened Wednesday morning wtih up to 28 inches of snow on the ground.

One of the driest winters on record to date had limited skiing this season to just four days at Snowbowl.

O.J. continues media campaign

LOS ANGELES € O.J. Simpson resumed his media campaign yesterday, contending Faye Resnick lied and suggesting that Brian ''Kato'' Kaelin was only trying to tell plaintiff attorneys what they wanted to hear.

In a phone call to radio station KJLH-FM, Simpson called Resnick a ''flat-out liar'' during her deposition testimony and accused her of playing down her cocaine problems.

"No lawyer in their right mind would call Faye Resnick to the stand," Simpson said.

Also yesterday, a judge in Santa Monica scheduled the trial in the wrongful death suit pending against Simpson to begin in September, rather than April as originally planned.

Simpson refused to discuss the evidence in the murder case yesterday.