News
The News in 2 Minutes
From The Associated Press
Boy admits double shooting in video
ST. JOHNS, Ariz.—An 8-year-old boy accused in the deaths of his father and another man gave police conflicting accounts about the shootings, at one point saying, “I wasn’t shooting any guns” before admitting to firing at least two shots at each of the men.
Sitting in an oversized chair, his feet dangling above the floor, the boy told law enforcement officials in an hourlong police video released Tuesday that he found the bodies of his father, Vincent Romero, 29, and Timothy Romans, 39, when he returned home from school.
“I was thinking, ‘What the heck is going on?’” the boy said in the video released to The Associated Press and other media. “’Who did this? Why would anyone do this?’”
The boy eventually admits to having pulled the trigger Nov. 5. As the video wraps up, he buries his head in his jacket.
“I’m going to go to juvie,” the boy says after an officer asks what he’s thinking.
Big 3 carmakers beg for $25 billion
WASHINGTON—Detroit’s Big Three automakers pleaded with a reluctant Congress Tuesday for a $25 billion lifeline to save the once-proud titans of U.S. industry, pointedly warning of a national economic catastrophe should they collapse.
Millions of layoffs would follow their demise, they said, as damaging effects rippled across an already-faltering economy.
But the new rescue plan appeared stalled on Capitol Hill, opposed by the Bush administration and Republicans in Congress who don’t want to dip into the Treasury Department’s $700 billion financial bailout program to come up with the $25 billion in loans.
Rank and file Republicans and Democrats from states heavily impacted by the auto industry worked behind the scenes trying to hammer out a compromise that could speed some aid to the automakers before year’s end. But it was an uphill fight.
Stevens loses Alaska Senate race
ANCHORAGE, Alaska—Sen. Ted Stevens, the longest serving Republican in Senate history, narrowly lost his re-election bid Tuesday, marking the downfall of a Washington political power and Alaska icon who couldn’t survive a conviction on federal corruption charges. His defeat to Anchorage Mayor Mark Begich moves Senate Democrats closer to a filibuster-proof 60-vote majority.
Stevens’ ouster on his 85th birthday marks an abrupt realignment in Alaska politics and will alter the power structure in the Senate, where he has served since the days of the Johnson administration while holding seats on some of the most influential committees in Congress.
The crotchety octogenarian built like a birch sapling likes to encourage comparisons with the Incredible Hulk, but he occupies an outsized place in Alaska history. His involvement in politics dates to the days before Alaska statehood, and he is esteemed for his ability to secure billions of dollars in federal aid for transportation and military projects. The Anchorage airport bears his name; in Alaska, it’s simply “Uncle Ted.”
Tuesday’s tally of just over 24,000 absentee and other ballots gave Begich 146,286, or 47.56 percent, to 143,912, or 46.76 percent, for Stevens.
Doctors transplant windpipe with stem cells
LONDON—Doctors have given a woman a new windpipe with tissue grown from her own stem cells, eliminating the need for anti-rejection drugs.
“This technique has great promise,” said Dr. Eric Genden, who did a similar transplant in 2005 at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York. That operation used both donor and recipient tissue. Only a handful of windpipe, or trachea, transplants have ever been done.
If successful, the procedure could become a new standard of treatment, said Genden, who was not involved in the research.
The results were published online Wednesday in the medical journal, The Lancet.
The transplant was given to Claudia Castillo, a 30-year-old Colombian mother of two living in Barcelona, suffered from tuberculosis for years. After a severe collapse of her left lung in March, Castillo needed regular hospital visits to clear her airways and was unable to take care of her children.
Clinton being vetted for secretary of state
CHICAGO—Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton has engaged three prominent lawyers to help President-elect Barack Obama vet her candidacy for secretary of state even as some insiders criticized the pick and advisers to the former first lady said she was weighing whether to take the job if Obama offered it.
Attorneys Cheryl Mills, David Kendall and Robert Barnett are working with the Obama transition team to review information about the Clintons’ background and finances, including Bill Clinton’s post-presidential business deals and relationships with foreign governments. All three represented the Clintons on legal matters in the White House, including President Clinton’s dalliance with intern Monica Lewinsky that led to his impeachment in 1998.
Officials knowledgeable about the vetting said it has gone smoothly and that both Clintons were cooperating fully.
Boy admits double shooting in video
ST. JOHNS, Ariz.—An 8-year-old boy accused in the deaths of his father and another man gave police conflicting accounts about the shootings, at one point saying, “I wasn’t shooting any guns” before admitting to firing at least two shots at each of the men.
Sitting in an oversized chair, his feet dangling above the floor, the boy told law enforcement officials in an hourlong police video released Tuesday that he found the bodies of his father, Vincent Romero, 29, and Timothy Romans, 39, when he returned home from school.
“I was thinking, ‘What the heck is going on?’” the boy said in the video released to The Associated Press and other media. “’Who did this? Why would anyone do this?’”
The boy eventually admits to having pulled the trigger Nov. 5. As the video wraps up, he buries his head in his jacket.
“I’m going to go to juvie,” the boy says after an officer asks what he’s thinking.
Big 3 carmakers beg for $25 billion
WASHINGTON—Detroit’s Big Three automakers pleaded with a reluctant Congress Tuesday for a $25 billion lifeline to save the once-proud titans of U.S. industry, pointedly warning of a national economic catastrophe should they collapse.
Millions of layoffs would follow their demise, they said, as damaging effects rippled across an already-faltering economy.
But the new rescue plan appeared stalled on Capitol Hill, opposed by the Bush administration and Republicans in Congress who don’t want to dip into the Treasury Department’s $700 billion financial bailout program to come up with the $25 billion in loans.
Rank and file Republicans and Democrats from states heavily impacted by the auto industry worked behind the scenes trying to hammer out a compromise that could speed some aid to the automakers before year’s end. But it was an uphill fight.
Stevens loses Alaska Senate race
ANCHORAGE, Alaska—Sen. Ted Stevens, the longest serving Republican in Senate history, narrowly lost his re-election bid Tuesday, marking the downfall of a Washington political power and Alaska icon who couldn’t survive a conviction on federal corruption charges. His defeat to Anchorage Mayor Mark Begich moves Senate Democrats closer to a filibuster-proof 60-vote majority.
Stevens’ ouster on his 85th birthday marks an abrupt realignment in Alaska politics and will alter the power structure in the Senate, where he has served since the days of the Johnson administration while holding seats on some of the most influential committees in Congress.
The crotchety octogenarian built like a birch sapling likes to encourage comparisons with the Incredible Hulk, but he occupies an outsized place in Alaska history. His involvement in politics dates to the days before Alaska statehood, and he is esteemed for his ability to secure billions of dollars in federal aid for transportation and military projects. The Anchorage airport bears his name; in Alaska, it’s simply “Uncle Ted.”
Tuesday’s tally of just over 24,000 absentee and other ballots gave Begich 146,286, or 47.56 percent, to 143,912, or 46.76 percent, for Stevens.
Doctors transplant windpipe with stem cells
LONDON—Doctors have given a woman a new windpipe with tissue grown from her own stem cells, eliminating the need for anti-rejection drugs.
“This technique has great promise,” said Dr. Eric Genden, who did a similar transplant in 2005 at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York. That operation used both donor and recipient tissue. Only a handful of windpipe, or trachea, transplants have ever been done.
If successful, the procedure could become a new standard of treatment, said Genden, who was not involved in the research.
The results were published online Wednesday in the medical journal, The Lancet.
The transplant was given to Claudia Castillo, a 30-year-old Colombian mother of two living in Barcelona, suffered from tuberculosis for years. After a severe collapse of her left lung in March, Castillo needed regular hospital visits to clear her airways and was unable to take care of her children.
Clinton being vetted for secretary of state
CHICAGO—Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton has engaged three prominent lawyers to help President-elect Barack Obama vet her candidacy for secretary of state even as some insiders criticized the pick and advisers to the former first lady said she was weighing whether to take the job if Obama offered it.
Attorneys Cheryl Mills, David Kendall and Robert Barnett are working with the Obama transition team to review information about the Clintons’ background and finances, including Bill Clinton’s post-presidential business deals and relationships with foreign governments. All three represented the Clintons on legal matters in the White House, including President Clinton’s dalliance with intern Monica Lewinsky that led to his impeachment in 1998.
Officials knowledgeable about the vetting said it has gone smoothly and that both Clintons were cooperating fully.
Copyright © 2010 - Green Valley News and Sun