News For Tuesday Jul 22, 2008 News For Tuesday Jul 22, 2008

U.S. U.S.

Report: Is data sharing stopping terrorists? - Added 6 weeks ago

Nearly seven years after 9/11, the government still can't measure how well an office created to improve information sharing on terrorism may be helping prevent attacks, congressional investigators say. The Information...

R.I. police say man had 0.491 blood alcohol level - Added 6 weeks ago

State police say they arrested a man early Tuesday whose blood alcohol level was 0.491 percent _ the highest ever recorded in Rhode Island for someone who wasn't dead. Stanley Kobierowski was taken to a hospital, put...

Retired policeman killed in gun battle with NYPD - Added 6 weeks ago

!!-- pobj:NYSTA501-0722081939 -->A retired police sergeant whose erratic behavior frightened his family into committing him to a psychiatric hospital fled the ward Tuesday and was killed by officers during a gun battle...

Accused driver in migrant crash pleads not guilty - Added 6 weeks ago

A Mexican citizen accused of driving a sport utility vehicle into a canal, killing six illegal immigrants, pleaded not guilty Tuesday to smuggling charges. Alejandro Toribio Gama, who his attorney said is probably a...

Sen. Collins: Navy scrapping stealth destroyer - Added 6 weeks ago

The Navy has decided to scrap its newest destroyer model after the first two are built in shipyards in Maine and Mississippi, Sen. Susan Collins said Tuesday. Collins, a Maine Republican, said Navy Secretary Donald...

Rosenberg testimony on verge of public release - Added 6 weeks ago

A judge signaled Tuesday that he would order the release in coming months of much of the secret testimony in the notorious espionage case against Julius and Ethel Rosenberg. But U.S. District Judge Alvin K. Hellerstein...

Audit: Michigan put children at risk in day care - Added 6 weeks ago

Michigan put thousands of lower-income children at risk by authorizing sex offenders and other criminals to provide day care over a period of more than two years, according to a state audit released Tuesday. The...

RI cops arrest man with 0.491 blood alcohol level - Added 6 weeks ago

State police say they arrested a man early Tuesday whose blood alcohol level was 0.491 percent _ the highest ever recorded in Rhode Island for someone who wasn't dead. Stanley Kobierowski was taken to a hospital, put...

Interior proposes lower royalties on oil shale - Added 6 weeks ago

The Bush administration on Tuesday proposed charging energy companies wanting to squeeze oil out of vast shale deposits in the West lower royalties than they pay for drilling on other federal lands, including offshore...

AP IMPACT: Traffic deaths fall as gas prices climb - Added 6 weeks ago

Rising prices at the gas pump appear to be having at least one positive effect: Traffic deaths around the country are plummeting, just as they did during the Arab oil embargo three decades ago. Researchers with the...

Rescue of mortgage giants could hit $25 billion - Added 6 weeks ago

A federal rescue of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac could cost taxpayers $25 billion, congressional budget experts said, as the House scheduled a Wednesday vote on legislation that would tap the mortgage giants' profits to...

1 'spam king' sentenced; another escapes - Added 6 weeks ago

There seems to be a lot of spam royalty out there: A Seattle man known as the "spam king" was sentenced to prison Tuesday, while federal officials said someone else with the same criminal nickname escaped from a prison...

Railroad to pay $102 million after Calif. wildfire - Added 6 weeks ago

Union Pacific Railroad Co. has agreed to pay $102 million for a huge California wildfire sparked by its workers in what federal officials described Tuesday as a precedent-setting case. U.S. Attorney McGregor Scott said...

Possible remains in burned house may be gunman's - Added 6 weeks ago

!!-- pobj:MOTG103-0722081221 -->!!-- pobj:MOTG104-0722081207 -->!!-- pobj:MOTG105-0722081218 -->Authorities on Tuesday recovered what they believe to be charred remains from the rubble of a burned house from which a...

NY priest pleads guilty to raping 3 teenage boys - Added 6 weeks ago

A Franciscan priest from New York pleaded guilty to raping three teenage boys during overnight trips to Boston in the 1970s and 1980s and was ordered Tuesday to serve time on probation. The Rev. Frank Genevieve avoided...

Former Rep. Duke Cunningham seeks clemency - Added 6 weeks ago

Former Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham, who is serving federal prison time for accepting millions of dollars in bribes, has asked President Bush to grant him clemency. The San Diego Republican has submitted a petition to...

Reagan Information Agency chief Charles Wick dies - Added 6 weeks ago

Charles Z. Wick, who as director of the U.S. Information Agency under Ronald Reagan expanded American broadcasts to Cuba and Russia but whose agency was accused of blacklisting liberals from a government program, has...

Manhattan Project reactor nears landmark status - Added 6 weeks ago

The National Park Service's advisory board on Tuesday recommended designating the world's first full-scale nuclear reactor, which produced plutonium for one of two bombs dropped on Japan during World War II, as a...

NY man earning $100K lived in company paint shed - Added 6 weeks ago

A New York state report says a maintenance man who earned $100,000 last year working at a psychiatric center has been living for free in a paint shed on company grounds and even had his mail delivered there. A report...

Legislation limits aviation inspector moves - Added 6 weeks ago

Federal aviation inspectors would have to wait two years before taking airline jobs where they deal with their old government boss under legislation passed by the House Tuesday. The legislation, passed 392-0, is...

Detroit mayor accused of texting additional women - Added 6 weeks ago

Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick is now charged with exchanging romantic text messages with additional women in the scandal that has him fighting allegations that he lied under oath about an intimate relationship with his...

Workers dive into lake as bridge slips at casino - Added 6 weeks ago

An enclosed walkway being attached to a floating casino on Lake Michigan slipped Tuesday as it was being attached, sending seven construction workers into the water, authorities said. After the workers fell, nine other...

Oil market bill's future dim despite big vote - Added 6 weeks ago

The Senate voted 94-0 Tuesday to move ahead on legislation to curb speculation in oil markets. But any hope of bipartisanship to pass the bill is likely a mirage. The Senate bill would require the Commodity Futures...

Bush administration opposes tobacco regulation - Added 6 weeks ago

The Bush administration strongly opposes legislation to give federal health authorities the power to regulate tobacco products, a top official said in a letter to Congress obtained by The Associated Press on Tuesday. ...

About half of pension sponsors have frozen plans - Added 6 weeks ago

About half of employers with defined-benefit pension plans have frozen one or more of those plans, putting the retirement incomes of millions at risk, according to a government report made public Tuesday. The...

Sharpton's lawyers say feds have dropped tax probe - Added 6 weeks ago

Federal prosecutors have decided not to seek criminal charges against the Rev. Al Sharpton over his chronic tax problems, his lawyers said Tuesday. The investigation was disbanded only after the government received a...

Romanian pleads guilty in Conn. over phishing scam - Added 6 weeks ago

One of 38 people charged in a global crime ring that allegedly stole personal information from unsuspecting Internet users pleaded guilty Tuesday to a federal fraud charge. Ovidiu-Ionut Nicola-Roman, 22, of Craiova,...

Man finds second long python in Maine in a week - Added 6 weeks ago

A man is having trouble sleeping since he found a python snake about 9 feet long under the engine of his pickup truck. Harley Burgess's shocking discovery Saturday is the second of its kind in less than a week in Maine....

FEMA seeks immunity from suits over trailer fumes - Added 6 weeks ago

The Federal Emergency Management Agency is requesting immunity from lawsuits filed on behalf of Gulf Coast hurricane victims who claim they were exposed to dangerous fumes while living in government-issued trailers. On...

Lawmaker wants no guns at airports, cites Ga. law - Added 6 weeks ago

The chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee says he might pursue new gun restrictions in response to a recently enacted Georgia law that could allow people to carry concealed firearms in parts of the Atlanta...

Bush urges Congress to OK Colombia trade pact - Added 6 weeks ago

President Bush on Tuesday seasoned his call to Congress to pass a free trade pact with Colombia with a little Latino music. The White House event was billed as a celebration of July 20, 1810, the day Colombia declared...

Off-road group says Smokey Bear is unfair - Added 6 weeks ago

A group that advocates motorized recreation is asking the Forest Service to withdraw a public service ad featuring Smokey Bear. The group says the ad sends the wrong message that riders operating off-road vehicles in a...

Fla. sheriff's deputy killed during standoff - Added 6 weeks ago

A man who fatally shot a sheriff's deputy Tuesday had been ordered by a court to undergo a mental evaluation and had twice left a hospital before barricading himself in a home and triggering a shootout with police,...

3 killed in Indy shootings during abduction, chase - Added 6 weeks ago

A man killed his ex-wife's boyfriend early Tuesday, then abducted her and her 13-year-old daughter before fatally shooting the woman and himself in his car as the police pursued it, authorities said. Carl Wills, 44,...

Man rescued from narrow gas well shaft in Texas - Added 6 weeks ago

A worker fell 40 feet into a narrow storage hole at a natural gas drilling site Tuesday and was trapped for three hours before being rescued, officials said. The man was hospitalized with scrapes and bruises and was...

Saying goodbye to a found but fallen Mich. soldier - Added 6 weeks ago

!!-- pobj:MICO103-0722081220 -->!!-- pobj:MICO104-0722081237 -->!!-- pobj:MICO101-0722081122 -->Colleagues of a soldier captured by insurgents in Iraq more than a year ago saluted his casket Tuesday and carried it to a...

Bush says Wall Street has hangover, must sober up - Added 6 weeks ago

President Bush, in an unguarded moment, said Wall Street "got drunk and now it's got a hangover." He made the comment at a political fundraiser in Houston last Friday after asking members of the audience to turn off...

Woman runs sword into foot during Wiccan ceremony - Added 6 weeks ago

A woman accidentally stabbed herself in the foot with a 3-foot-long sword while performing a Wiccan good luck ritual at a central Indiana cemetery. Katherine Gunther, 36, of Lebanon, pierced her left foot with the...

US officials to return seized artifacts to Ecuador - Added 6 weeks ago

U.S. Customs and Border Protection authorities have seized four pre-Columbian artifacts originally from Ecuador and returned them to the government of the South American nation. A ceramic bowl and vessel, a stone ax...

Texas oilman: Clear path for wind power - Added 6 weeks ago

Texas oilman T. Boone Pickens asked Congress on Tuesday to "clear the path" for his plan to boost use of wind and natural gas for U.S. energy needs. Pickens has been on a $58 million publicity tour to promote his plan...

Air Force must regain public's trust, nominees say - Added 6 weeks ago

!!-- AUDIO:08227045,08227044 -->The two men nominated to replace the ousted Air Force leadership said Tuesday they'll work to restore trust and confidence in the beleaguered service, under fire for poor handling of its...

Transgender Ga. woman claims she was wrongly fired - Added 6 weeks ago

A former state employee claimed Tuesday in a federal lawsuit that top Georgia legislative officials fired her because she said she would come to work dressed as a female as she prepared for a sex-change procedure to...

Police seek man after device left near a Wal-Mart - Added 6 weeks ago

Police are trying to find a man suspected of leaving an explosive device outside a Wal-Mart store in Boone, North Carolina, that was disabled by a bomb squad. Police told The Winston-Salem Journal on Tuesday that a...

Bystanders help man after wind scatters his cash - Added 6 weeks ago

A dozen bystanders rushed in to help a 70-year-old man after he stumbled leaving a Southern California bank, causing thousands of dollars to scatter in the wind. Ludwig Geier says hundreds of bills were "gone in no...

Wayward porcupine saved on interstate with shovel - Added 6 weeks ago

A porcupine that wandered onto the eastbound lanes of Interstate 90 in Spokane and found itself trapped has been rescued by a Washington state transportation worker with a very long-handled shovel. Washington State...

Suspected thieves run out of gas at Goodwill store - Added 6 weeks ago

Three men suspected of stealing from a Goodwill store in Cookeville ran out of gas before making it out of the parking lot, police say. Officers said they found a truck stalled in the parking lot after someone called...

Suspected bomb turns out to be string cheese - Added 6 weeks ago

A piece of string cheese made to look like a bomb forced the temporary closure of a Centerville grocery store. Police were called to Dick's Market over the weekend for a report that a someone had left a device covered...

Democrats to revisit 'don't ask, don't tell' - Added 6 weeks ago

Democrats are convening the first congressional hearing on the military's "don't ask, don't tell" policy since its enactment 15 years ago. But they acknowledge there's no chance of repealing it this year. Indeed their...

Vets returning to campus life seek help adjusting - Added 6 weeks ago

Returning home after three tours of duty in Afghanistan, Derek Blumke was eager to return to college. But the Air Force veteran felt unwelcome at the University of Michigan as he tried alone to manage the transition...

EPA postpones decision on ethanol requirements - Added 6 weeks ago

The Environmental Protection Agency on Tuesday put off a decision on Texas' request to temporarily waive ethanol requirements for gasoline. EPA Administrator Stephen Johnson said the agency needed more time to review...