News For Wednesday Nov 19, 2008 News For Wednesday Nov 19, 2008

U.S. U.S.

GOP conservatives present rescue alternative - Added 7 weeks ago

A group of conservative Republicans in the House on Thursday proposed a financial rescue package of tax breaks and a new government-sponsored insurance program for mortgage-backed securities as an alternative to...

Officials: Ground zero transit hub redesign sought - Added 7 weeks ago

The World Trade Center site's owner is proposing to redesign part of its over-budget transit hub to save money and ensure the nearby Sept. 11 memorial would open before the 10th anniversary of the terrorist attacks, The...

Error-prone Detroit police crime lab shut down - Added 7 weeks ago

The Detroit police crime lab was shut down by the city's new mayor and police chief after an outside audit found errors in some evidence used to prosecute cases involving murder and other crimes, officials said...

Obituaries in the news - Added 7 weeks ago

Joel N. Bloom PHILADELPHIA (AP) _ Joel N. Bloom, former director and president of the Franklin Institute's science museum and planetarium, died Tuesday. He was 83. Bloom died following what his daughter, Margo, said...

Correction: Obama home-arrest story - Added 7 weeks ago

In a Sept. 23 story about Chicago police charging Omhari Sengstacke after he approached security barriers outside Barack Obama's home, The Associated Press misnamed the medal that his grandfather received. It was a...

Ark. man convicted of killing 3 boys takes stand - Added 7 weeks ago

A man who has spent nearly 15 years in prison after being convicted of killing three suburban Memphis boys took the stand for the first time Thursday, insisting that he was innocent and that his lawyers ignored his...

Judge: Free or retry ex-Panther in 1972 stabbing - Added 7 weeks ago

Louisiana has 120 days to dismiss charges or retry a former Black Panther whose conviction was overturned in a prison guard's 1972 death, a federal judge said Friday. U.S. District Judge James Brady's three-sentence...

New Pearl Harbor museum scheduled for 2010 - Added 7 weeks ago

A $33 million contract has been awarded for the construction of a new visitors center at the USS Arizona Memorial, which is getting nearly twice as many tourists as its facilities were designed to handle. The Navy on...

Army wins suit to move nerve agent waste across US - Added 7 weeks ago

The U.S. Army can finish shipping chemical waste from the destruction of a deadly nerve agent in Indiana to an incinerator in Texas, a judge has ruled. Most of the waste has already been sent to Texas. The last...

Bush, McCain, Obama have historic West Wing huddle - Added 7 weeks ago

President Bush, Barack Obama and John McCain were an unlikely trio at the White House on Thursday mulling a $700 billion bailout to end the U.S. financial market crisis. Wall Street held its breath. Would the...

Report: FDA lax in oversight of produce industry - Added 7 weeks ago

The Food and Drug Administration's efforts to combat food-borne illness are hampered by infrequent inspections, not enough staff and the failure to implement a program devoted to the safety of fresh produce, according...

NM GOP official quits over remarks about blacks - Added 7 weeks ago

The chairman of the Republican Party in New Mexico's most populous county resigned Thursday, nearly a week after saying "Hispanics consider themselves above blacks" and won't vote for Democratic presidential nominee...

Interrogator details pre-Abu Ghraib abuses - Added 7 weeks ago

A military interrogation expert, Air Force Col. Steven Kleinman, told Congress on Thursday that prior to the abuses at Abu Ghraib, he witnessed interrogations of Iraqi detainees that he considers violations of the...

House passes bill aimed at prepaid phone cards - Added 7 weeks ago

The House on Thursday moved to force companies that sell or distribute prepaid calling cards to describe any fees associated with the cards on packaging and in advertising. Declaring that the industry is "plagued by...

Mama's milk ice cream cone, anyone? - Added 7 weeks ago

Mooove over, Holsteins. PETA wants world-famous Ben & Jerry's Homemade Ice Cream to tap nursing moms, rather than cows, for the milk used in its ice cream. People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals is asking the...

Man hit by truck, then ticketed for jaywalking - Added 7 weeks ago

A man who was hit by a truck near the city's downtown was also slapped with a citation. Boise police ticketed Ebrahim Balah, 62, for jaywalking shortly after the accident Wednesday. Police said Balah suffered minor...

A face from ears: Palin is carved into cornfield - Added 7 weeks ago

An Ohio farmer would like to invite you to get lost inside the head of Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin. A 16-acre corn maze near the town of Whitehouse has been carved in Palin's likeness, complete...

Charge dropped against man accused of passing gas - Added 7 weeks ago

A West Virginia man accused of passing gas and fanning it toward a police officer no longer faces a battery charge. The Kanawha County prosecutor's office requested that the charge be dropped against 34-year-old Jose...

Razor recalls PowerWing scooters, Dirt Quads - Added 7 weeks ago

About 103,000 Chinese-made Razor PowerWing scooters were recalled Thursday after four people received cuts that required tendon surgery. The Consumer Product Safety Commission said some of the company's PowerWing...

Mo. treasurer: Conflicts bar aid for ethanol plant - Added 7 weeks ago

The Missouri treasurer's office rejected financial incentives Thursday for an $82 million ethanol plant whose investors include the governor's brother, a congressman's wife and a state lawmaker. Treasurer Sarah...

Clinton confab discusses poverty, climate change - Added 7 weeks ago

Global warming and poverty are intertwined because the world's poorest people are the ones hardest hit by changes in the climate, and solutions for both problems need to be found, panelists said Thursday at the second...

Indian PM meets Bush as Congress weighs nuke deal - Added 7 weeks ago

President Bush and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh expressed hope Thursday that Congress will approve a landmark agreement on civilian nuclear cooperation whose passage is in doubt. In remarks to reporters at the...

Ky. voters can sport Barack buttons, McCain caps - Added 7 weeks ago

Whether it's Barack buttons or McCain caps, Kentucky election officials say campaign paraphernalia can be worn by voters to the polls on Election Day. The state took the unusual step of instructing workers about proper...

Police: Severed foot was bear's paw, not child's - Added 7 weeks ago

Authorities in Alabama say a severed foot brought home by a family dog belongs to a bear _ and not a child as they first thought. Police in Russellville spent two days searching surrounding wooded areas for a small...

Product recalls: toy police cars, pumpkin seeds - Added 7 weeks ago

The following recalls have been announced: _ About 3,000 toy police cars, made in China and imported by TCB Imports, because the product's red paint has high levels of lead, which is toxic if ingested by children. No...

Bono says Africa could become breadbasket - Added 7 weeks ago

Bono says Africa has the potential to become a major food producer rather than the epicenter of much of the world's starvation. Speaking Thursday at the launch of the Irish Hunger Commission Report, the Irish rock...

Neighbors defend Texan accused of murdering teen - Added 7 weeks ago

!!-- pobj:TXLAR101-0923080915 -->!!-- pobj:TXLAR102-0923080931 -->The trial of a man accused of executing a teen who broke into his home with friends looking for snacks has many in this border city outraged. Not because...

Tax breaks in the House: battle with Senate awaits - Added 7 weeks ago

The House on Thursday introduced a $57 billion measure to extend and expand tax breaks, putting it on a collision course with the Senate. The upper chamber moved its own version of the tax bill earlier this week. At...

Bush's father joins president at bill-signing - Added 7 weeks ago

With his father looking on, President Bush on Thursday signed legislation expanding the protections afforded by the landmark Americans with Disabilities Act to those who can use medication or other devices to treat...

Mississippi campus buzzes for debate, if it comes - Added 7 weeks ago

The streets in this college town are blocked. Parking is a pain. Any average Joe who thinks he's getting into the auditorium for Friday night's scheduled presidential debate is sadly mistaken. The University of...

Bush meets with Middle Eastern leaders - Added 7 weeks ago

In separate meetings with Middle East leaders Thursday, President Bush applauded Lebanon's efforts to forge a national reconciliation and told Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas that the administration has not given up...

9 siblings among 11 kids abandoned under Neb. law - Added 7 weeks ago

Nine siblings are among 11 children as old as 17 who were left at Omaha hospitals Wednesday under Nebraska's unique and new safe haven law, which allows caregivers to abandon babies and teenagers alike at hospitals...

Cops: Biker gang masquerades as Christian ministry - Added 7 weeks ago

!!-- pobj:CAANR103-0925080930 -->!!-- pobj:CAANR102-0925080930 -->!!-- pobj:CAANR101-0925080930 -->!!-- pobj:CAANR503-0806081349 -->In more than 25 years at the helm of his biker-inspired Christian ministry, Phillip...

Pakistani leader: Only flares fired at choppers - Added 7 weeks ago

Pakistan's new leader said Thursday his military fired only "flares" at U.S. helicopters that he claimed strayed across the border from Afghanistan leading to an exchange of fire between American and Pakistani ground...

House panel says Democrats messed up 2007 vote - Added 7 weeks ago

Democrats messed up. Republicans were robbed. It took a special House committee more than a year of investigating, at a cost of $500,000, to validate GOP claims that majority Democrats made the wrong call on a...

17 officers disciplined in nuke mistake - Added 7 weeks ago

The Air Force and Army have disciplined 17 senior officers, including the three-star general in charge of logistics, for poor oversight in connection with the mistaken shipment of fuses for nuclear warheads to Taiwan. ...

Seniors get eviction notices after tree protest - Added 7 weeks ago

Two elderly women who tied themselves to a crab apple tree to protest its removal say they're being evicted from their senior housing complex. Lee Perrone, 74, and Pat Henry, 65, were protesting the Shrewsbury Housing...

Condemned man seeks retrial after judge-DA affair - Added 7 weeks ago

Lawyers for a death row inmate whose execution was blocked asked Texas' highest criminal court Thursday to grant him a new trial because the judge and prosecutor in his case were having an affair. "The truth was...

Court: Relatives who assist in suicide can inherit - Added 7 weeks ago

The wife and daughter of a man who committed suicide can inherit his estate even if they assisted him in the act, a state appeals court ruled Thursday. State law prohibits anyone who "intentionally kills" another from...

Calif. lawmakers get free gasoline - Added 7 weeks ago

California lawmakers enjoy a perk not available to their colleagues in any other state: unchecked use of gasoline charge cards that stick taxpayers with the bill. Through the first seven months of the year, California...

Pa. Marine sues Rep. Murtha over Haditha comments - Added 7 weeks ago

A former Marine sued Rep. John Murtha for slander on Thursday, saying the congressman damaged his reputation by saying he and his comrades killed women and children "in cold blood" in Haditha, Iraq, in November 2005. ...

Web post inflames post-shooting emotions in Wash. - Added 7 weeks ago

A Washington state man who wrote on a newspaper Web site that he was going to shoot up a shopping mall says he was just making a point after a mentally disturbed man went on a shooting spree. But prosecutors say he was...

GAO: Risk of runway collision still high - Added 7 weeks ago

The rate of close calls on airport runways is up over last year and the risk of a collision is high, a government investigator said Thursday. Gerald Dillingham, the Government Accountability Office's top expert on...

Correction: New Citizens story - Added 7 weeks ago

In a Sept. 20 story about a naturalization ceremony, The Associated Press erroneously attributed a quote from a new U.S. citizen. Ivonne Artica, not Kelly Chase, said: "I've never been moved to vote before, but this is...

Correction: Nancy Hicks Maynard obituary - Added 7 weeks ago

In obituaries Sept. 21 and Sept. 22 for Nancy Hicks Maynard, The Associated Press misstated her age in 1968 when she became the first black woman reporter for The New York Times. Maynard was 21, not 23, according to the...

Purr-fect ending to battle over Hemingway's cats - Added 7 weeks ago

The famed six-toed cats at Ernest Hemingway's island home aren't going anywhere. The Ernest Hemingway Home and Museum announced Thursday it reached an agreement with the federal government that lets the 50 or so cats...

Hot dogs outside Philly ballpark cause bomb scare - Added 7 weeks ago

After a bomb scare at the Philadelphia Phillies' ballpark, authorities pointed the finger at a fuzzy green suspect _ The Phillie Phanatic. Hours before the Phillies-Atlanta Braves' game on Wednesday night, a film crew...

Teen OK after being impaled by deer antlers - Added 7 weeks ago

A 16-year-old teenager is recovering after falling and impaling himself on a set of deer antlers in Carter Lake, Iowa. Todd Reynolds' grandmother said the teen was climbing through a window in her home Wednesday after...

Pa. high court says newspaper can protect source - Added 7 weeks ago

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled that a newspaper reporter does not need to reveal the identity of a confidential source used in a story about a grand jury investigation into alleged prison brutality. The 4-1...

Spitzer gives mag thoughts on NYC, not on scandal - Added 7 weeks ago

In his first public remarks since resigning in disgrace, former Gov. Eliot Spitzer answered e-mail questions that had nothing to do with his sudden fall in a prostitution scandal. Spitzer gave Time Out New York tidbits...