News For Wednesday Aug 20, 2008 News For Wednesday Aug 20, 2008

U.S. U.S.

Bush defends terror war in speech to veterans - Added 4 minutes ago

President Bush is defending his line-in-the-sand approach to the fight against Islamic terrorism, following presidential rivals John McCain and Barack Obama in a speech to a major veterans group. His address Wednesday...

Situation still 'fragile' in Grand Canyon village - Added 18 minutes ago

Crews were waiting for floodwaters to recede so they can begin restoring washed-out trails and footbridges to a remote village near the Grand Canyon hit by flooding, authorities said. Some evacuated residents of the...

Tropical Storm Fay stays on Florida's coast - Added 27 minutes ago

Tropical Storm Fay continued its erratic path Wednesday, moving north along the Florida coast but not going out over the Atlantic Ocean, where many had feared it could strengthen and curve back toward the state as a...

Study finds minorities more likely to be paddled - Added 36 minutes ago

Paddlings, swats, licks. A quarter of a million schoolchildren got them last year _ and blacks, American Indians and kids with disabilities got a disproportionate share of the punishment, according to a study by a human...

Killer of 11 train passengers faces sentencing - Added 1 hour ago

A man who killed 11 people by causing a commuter rail disaster in Glendale faces sentencing, one month after a jury recommended he serve life in prison without the possibility of parole. During the penalty phase of...

Web site educates about hiring war vets - Added 1 hour ago

They survived war, but for some Iraq and Afghanistan veterans going to work back home isn't easy, either. An estimated 300,000 from the two wars have returned home with mental health problems, so-called invisible...

Beebe: No rush to replace slain Ark. party leader - Added 1 hour ago

Arkansas Gov. Mike Beebe said he won't recommend a replacement for slain state Democratic Party Chairman Bill Gwatney before delegates gather in Denver next week for the Democratic National Convention. "It's important...

Pa pilot says he's on watch list, sues to save job - Added 1 hour ago

!!-- pobj:PAHAP101-0819080150 -->A commercial airline pilot and convert to Islam who says his name is on the U.S. government's secret terrorist watch list has fought back, filing a federal lawsuit against the Homeland...

EPA plans to cite 5 Midwest states for pollution - Added 2 hours ago

Federal officials accuse five Midwest states of violating a new pollution standard for tiny soot particles that can cause respiratory distress in children and the elderly. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said...

Park Service drops Little Bighorn center expansion - Added 2 hours ago

The National Park Service has dropped its plan to expand the visitor center at Little Bighorn Battlefield, saying the $1.1 million project would have blemished historic Last Stand Hill. The expansion had been slated...

Sen. Stevens wants trial by day, campaign by night - Added 3 hours ago

If Sen. Ted Stevens has his way, he'll soon be spending his days on trial for corruption charges and his evenings and weekends campaigning for re-election. To manage such a schedule, Stevens needs to persuade a judge...

Researcher says bigfoot just a rubber gorilla suit - Added 5 hours ago

Turns out Bigfoot was just a rubber suit. Two researchers on a quest to prove the existence of Bigfoot say that the carcass encased in a block of ice _ handed over to them for an undisclosed sum by two men who claimed...

Bush: New Orleans still struggling after Katrina - Added 6 hours ago

President Bush says he sees "hopeful signs of progress" in New Orleans three years after Hurricane Katrina's devastation, while acknowledging the city is still struggling to recover. Bush travels to New Orleans and...

Today in History - Aug. 20 - Added 6 hours ago

Today is Wednesday, Aug. 20, the 233rd day of 2008. There are 133 days left in the year. Today's Highlight in History: On Aug. 20, 1940, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill paid tribute to the Royal Air Force,...

NC man dies after waiting 22 hours at hospital - Added 6 hours ago

A mental patient died after workers at a North Carolina hospital left him in a chair for 22 hours without feeding him or helping him use the bathroom, said federal officials who have threatened to cut off the facility's...

Calif. says green cars need more noise pollution - Added 6 hours ago

Electric and hybrid vehicles may be better for the environment, but the California Legislature says they're bad for the blind. It has passed a bill to ensure that the vehicles make enough noise to be heard by visually...

Armed 85-year-old woman makes intruder call cops - Added 7 hours ago

An 85-year-old woman boldly went for her gun and busted a would-be burglar inside her home, then forced him to call police while she kept him in her sights, police said. "I just walked right on past him to the bedroom...

Coroner: Tenn. fire victims died of smoke, burns - Added 7 hours ago

The medical examiner has ruled that the seven people killed in a Memphis house fire Saturday died from smoke inhalation and burns. The Shelby County Medical Examiner's office said Tuesday that the victims still haven't...

Virtual fence construction in Arizona put on hold - Added 8 hours ago

Construction on "virtual fence" projects scheduled along Arizona's border with Mexico is on hold indefinitely because the Interior Department hasn't signed off on use of its lands, federal officials said Tuesday. ...

Obituaries in the news - Added 8 hours ago

John Brandl MINNEAPOLIS (AP) _ John Brandl, a former federal health official and state legislator and a public policy expert, has died. He was 70. Brandl died Monday at his son's home in Minnetrista after battling...

Jury sees tape of sole survivor in Idaho slayings - Added 8 hours ago

Jurors on Tuesday watched a police interview of an 8-year-old girl that was videotaped soon after she was rescued from a convicted pedophile who she said raped her and forced her to watch him torture, molest and kill...

Searchers locate all missing Grand Canyon hikers - Added 8 hours ago

Rescue crews have located a handful of hikers who were missing after floods tore through a remote part of the Grand Canyon, authorities said Tuesday. The 11 people from two families were tracked down in the canyon...

Police: Man says he grew pot in a cost-saving move - Added 9 hours ago

A Tyler man accused of growing marijuana in an alleged cost-saving move is jailed on felony possession charges. Bond is $15,000 for 55-year-old John Daniel Miller III, who remained in the Smith County Jail late Tuesday....

NYC to pay $2 million to arrested war protesters - Added 9 hours ago

The city has agreed to pay $2 million to settle a lawsuit claiming 52 Iraq war activists were unjustly arrested, lawyers announced Tuesday. The activists were arrested in April 2003 outside the Manhattan offices of a...

Corpse kept upright for 3-day wake in Puerto Rico - Added 9 hours ago

A Puerto Rican man has been granted his wish to remain standing _ even in death. A funeral home used a special embalming treatment to keep the corpse of 24-year-old Angel Pantoja Medina standing upright for his...

Wisconsin couple each win $350,000 in lottery - Added 9 hours ago

This couple won't have to argue about how to spend their lottery winnings. That's because the Mount Horeb husband and wife each won their own $350,000 jackpots in this weekend's SuperCash state lottery. Lottery...

Girl from polygamist group ordered into state care - Added 10 hours ago

!!-- pobj:TXSAN101TXSAN101-0818081331 -->!!-- pobj:TXSAN103-0818081331 -->!!-- pobj:TXSAN104-0818081331 -->A 14-year-old girl allegedly married to jailed polygamist sect leader Warren Jeffs with her parents' blessing at...

SC father accused of killing teenager at party - Added 10 hours ago

A South Carolina man shot an unarmed teenager to death after a scuffle at a weekend party thrown by his children, then shot two teens involved in a retaliatory shooting at his home, authorities said Tuesday. Francis...

Governors in NY, NJ oppose airport slot auctions - Added 10 hours ago

The governors of New York and New Jersey asked federal officials Tuesday to abandon a planned auction of prime takeoff and landing slots at New York City-area airports, arguing that it could result in higher ticket...

Tenn. trooper accused of snooping on media, musician - Added 10 hours ago

A Tennessee state trooper was suspended Tuesday after investigators said he used his position to conduct 182 background checks _ at least some of them unauthorized _ on people including two journalists and a country...

US military deaths in Afghanistan region at 507 - Added 10 hours ago

As of Tuesday, Aug. 19, 2008, at least 507 members of the U.S. military had died in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Uzbekistan as a result of the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan in late 2001, according to the Defense Department....

US dismisses Russian claims of genocide by Georgia - Added 10 hours ago

A U.S. official on Tuesday dismissed as ridiculous claims by Russia that Georgia committed genocide during fighting this month in two breakaway Georgian regions. Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Matthew Bryza also...

Court hears arguments in WWII land dispute - Added 10 hours ago

An attorney for hundreds of Kentucky families forced to sell their farms to the Army during World War II argued in federal court Tuesday that government agents bullied them into accepting bad deals in the wake of Pearl...

Court says EPA air pollution rule is illegal - Added 10 hours ago

A Bush administration rule barring states and local governments from requiring more air pollution monitoring is illegal, a federal appeals court ruled Tuesday. In a 2-1 decision, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the...

A few continue to stand by embattled Detroit mayor - Added 10 hours ago

!!-- pobj:MICO102-0130081547 -->A few hours before Kwame Kilpatrick's televised apology for the scandal over his exchange of sexual text messages with a top aide, the Rev. Horace Sheffield III led a few dozen very vocal...

More charges filed in Iowa plant immigration raid - Added 10 hours ago

A supervisor arrested after a large immigration raid at an Iowa meatpacking plant was hit with new charges Tuesday including conspiring to hire illegal immigrants. Juan Carlos Guerrero-Espinoza is expected to plead...

States throw out costly electronic voting machines - Added 11 hours ago

The demise of touch-screen voting has produced a graveyard of expensive corpses: Warehouses stacked with thousands of carefully wrapped voting machines that have been shelved because of doubts about vanishing votes and...

Minor wreck turns into deadly trauma in Florida - Added 11 hours ago

A Florida man was arrested after allegedly going on a violent rampage after a minor fender-bender, slashing and stabbing the occupants of a car, then running over and killing a woman who had been riding in another...

'Boomerang' Fay gains strength over Florida - Added 11 hours ago

Tropical Storm Fay rolled ashore in southwestern Florida on Tuesday without much fanfare, but stubbornly hung around like an unwelcome houseguest, gaining power and threatening _ once again _ to become a hurricane. The...

NJ congressman in Georgia to help trapped sisters - Added 11 hours ago

A New Jersey congressman has arrived in the Republic of Georgia in an effort to bring home two young girls stuck overseas since the conflict with Russia began. The office of Rep. Christopher H. Smith says he landed in...

Texas' No. 2 politician stays mum on his wealth - Added 11 hours ago

!!-- pobj:AT101-0813081419 -->He's said to be the richest man in Texas politics, but the disclosures Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst has filed to the state Ethics Commission have only the barest details. Nowhere does it say...

Father, son charged in oil spill in Pa. forest - Added 11 hours ago

A father and son are accused of intentionally releasing thousands of gallons of oil into two Pennsylvania streams in the Allegheny National Forest, killing an unknown number of fish, reptiles and amphibians. Police...

2 NYPD officers accused of assaulting motorist - Added 11 hours ago

Two off-duty New York police officers were charged with gang assault after being accused of kicking, punching and pistol-whipping a man whose open car door was blocking their lane of traffic. Kollen Robinson, 24, and...

NYC boy, 5, dies after falling down elevator shaft - Added 12 hours ago

Police say a 5-year-old New York City boy plunged 10 stories to his death after he jumped from an elevator that got stuck between floors with its doors open. Police say the boy lived on the 11th floor and was riding...

Flooding recedes in South Texas after foot of rain - Added 12 hours ago

Flooding receded Tuesday in southern Texas and main highways reopened after a deluge of as much as 13 inches of rain, as the drenching weather shifted to the northern end of the state and Oklahoma. Torrential rain...

Suspected Fort Dix plotters seek delay in trial - Added 12 hours ago

The five men accused of plotting an attack on soldiers at Fort Dix want their trial postponed because a key expert witness, an Army reservist, is being called to active duty in Iraq. According to defense lawyers,...

50 years after Okla. sit-in, participants honored - Added 13 hours ago

Portwood Williams didn't know what kind of reception the children in his car would receive when they sat down at a segregated lunch counter in downtown Oklahoma City to order some soft drinks. "I didn't care," Williams...

Disgraced Dallas Press Club promises real judges - Added 13 hours ago

Stung and embarrassed by revelations that its prestigious journalism contest was probably rigged, the Press Club of Dallas is promising changes when it brings back the Katie Awards this year. And this time, contest...

FBI: Pa. student hoped to breed sex slave society - Added 13 hours ago

A Pennsylvania medical student told a classmate he was trying to recruit a New Zealand woman and her 4-year-old daughter to start a society of sex slaves that would live on a farm or island, the FBI said. The FBI said...

55 men netted in 8-month Calif. child porn probe - Added 13 hours ago

Authorities say a California sheriff's deputy and an attorney were among 55 men charged with possessing child pornography after an eight-month investigation. The U.S. attorney's office in Los Angeles says the suspects...