The News in 2 Minutes

From The Associated Press

Gun-control groups fear top activist was NRA spy

PHILADELPHIA—A gun-control activist who championed the cause for more than a decade and served on the boards of two anti-violence groups is suspected of working as a paid spy for the National Rifle Association, and now those organizations are expelling her and sweeping their offices for bugs.

The suggestion that Mary Lou McFate was a double agent is contained in a deposition filed as part of a contract dispute involving a security firm. The muckraking magazine Mother Jones, in a story last week, was the first to report on McFate’s alleged dual identity.

The NRA refused to comment to the magazine and did not respond to calls Tuesday from The Associated Press. Nor did McFate.

The 62-year-old former flight attendant and sex counselor from Sarasota, Fla., is not new to the world of informants.

She infiltrated an animal-rights group in the late 1980s at the request of U.S. Surgical, and befriended an activist who was later convicted in a pipe bomb attack against the medical-supply business, U.S. Surgical acknowledged in news reports at the time. U.S. Surgical had come under fire for using dogs for research and training.

McFate resurfaced in Pennsylvania and has since spent years as an unpaid board member of CeaseFirePA and an organization called States United to Prevent Gun Violence. She also twice pushed unsuccessfully to join the board of the nation’s largest gun-control group, the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence.

Morgan Stanley hired by U.S. on Fannie, Freddie

WASHINGTON D.C.—The Treasury Department said Tuesday it had hired investment firm Morgan Stanley to help the government assess the risks facing mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

For $95,000 to cover the company’s expenses, Morgan Stanley will assess the state of the mortgage market and give the government a financial profile of the two firms. The two mortgage firms received a promise of support from the federal government as part of a sweeping housing rescue bill passed by Congress and signed into law by President Bush last week.

Treasury spokeswoman Brookly McLaughlin said the contract would help ensure the Treasury Department had good advice to decide how to support the two mortgage firms, which together own or guarantee half of all U.S. mortgages.

While Congress gave Treasury the authority to extend an unlimited amount of loans to the two companies, Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson has stressed that the new authority is a back-up measure that will not be used unless market conditions worsen.

The contract will run until Jan. 17, three days before the next president is sworn into office. McLaughlin said that was a consideration in determining how long the contract would last.

Scientists say Mars soil similar to Chile desert

LOS ANGELES—Scientists operating the Phoenix spacecraft say the Martian soil near the north pole landing site is similar to what can be found in the Chile desert on Earth.

The lander recently detected an ingredient of rocket fuel in soil samples taken from the surface of the red planet.

Scientists said Tuesday the chemical, perchlorate, is found naturally in Chile’s Atacama Desert, where extreme microbes live. They say its presence on Mars is neither good nor bad for potential life.

NASA is trying to rule out the possibility that the chemical may have gotten there through contamination.

MDs urged to end prostate screening in elderly men

NEW YORK—Doctors should stop routine prostate cancer screening of men over age 75 because there is more evidence of harm than benefit, a federal task force advised on a hotly debated topic.

The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force, which made the recommendation, reported finding evidence that the benefits of treatment based on routine screening of this age group “are small to none.” However, treatment often causes “moderate-to-substantial harms,” including erectile dysfunction and bladder control and bowel problems, the task force said.

The new guidance is the first update by the task force on prostate cancer screening since 2002. Its last report concluded there was insufficient evidence to recommend prostate screening for men of all ages.