News
in a few
Pledge • A
federal judge declared the reciting of
the Pledge of Allegiance in public schools
unconstitutional Wednesday in a case
brought by the same atheist whose previous
battle against the words “under
God” was rejected by the U.S. Supreme
Court on procedural grounds. U.S. District
Judge Lawrence Karlton ruled the pledge’s
reference to one nation “under
God” violates school children’s
right to be “free from a coercive
requirement to affirm God.”
Charges • The
arrest of two nursing-home owners in
the deaths of 34 people marked the beginning
of what prosecutors said Wednesday is
a large-scale investigation into whether
New Orleans-area hospitals and other
institutions neglected their patients
during Hurricane Katrina’s onslaught.
The Louisiana attorney general’s
office said all of its investigators
have been pulled from other tasks to
work on the Medicaid Fraud Unit, the
team whose work led to homicide charges
against the nursing-home owners in Chalmette
Tuesday.
Storm • Hurricane Ophelia crept up the North
Carolina coast Wednesday with high wind, driving rain and pounding surf that
washed away a barrier island street, cut off electricity to thousands and
threatened widespread flooding. The storm had sustained wind of 85 mph Wednesday
afternoon, up from 75 mph early in the morning, the National Hurricane Center
said.
Hearing • Supreme Court nominee John Roberts
assured senators Wednesday he would be guided by the law, not personal beliefs,
on right-to-die cases. He also told the lawmakers that Congress can counter
the court’s decisions. Democrats see his approval this month as almost
a certainty.
Legislation • Senate Republicans on Wednesday
scuttled an attempt by Sen. Hillary Clinton to establish an independent,
bipartisan panel patterned after the 9/11 Commission to investigate what
went wrong with federal, state and local governments’ response to Hurricane
Katrina. The New York Democrat’s bid to establish the panel—which
would have also made recommendations on how to improve the government’s
disaster response apparatus—failed to win the two-thirds majority needed
to overcome procedural hurdles.
Change • A truck carrying tons of quarters caught
fire Tuesday and spilled most of them on an Alabama highway, where workers
used heavy equipment, shovels and buckets to scoop up the singed coins. The
driver said the truck carried 39,000 pounds of new Kansas quarters, part
of the U.S. Mint’s state coin series, which were worth some $800,000,
said Police Chief Michael Putnam. |
