WEST

GUANTANAMO FREEDOM OF INFORMATION CLAIM DENIED

SAN JOSE, Calif. – A federal judge ruled that the military may keep secret nearly all information pertaining to the role and actions of the International Committee for the Red Cross at the American-run camp for prisoners of the war on terror at Guantanamo Bay. In a decision filed Tuesday in federal court at San Jose, Calif., Judge Jeremy Fogel rejected a lawsuit brought by a reporter for The New York Sun who sought the records under the Freedom of Information Act.

Judge Fogel found that many of the documents were covered by an obscure legal provision Congress passed in 2000 that allows certain federal agencies to withhold data that international organizations designate as confidential. He said the wording of the law allows the government to treat the records as secret, even when their contents have been widely disclosed.

“It appears disingenuous for the DoD to be claiming that this information is maintained in the strictest of confidence when it is all over the news,” he wrote. The judge said he was “troubled” by the disclosures but ultimately concluded that they were irrelevant under the law.

The reporter who requested the Guantanamo records, Josh Gerstein, said he was considering whether to appeal. “The judge essentially took the government’s word about what was releasable and what wasn’t and that defeats the whole purpose of judicial review,” he said.

A spokesman for the Justice Department declined to comment on the ruling.

– Staff Reporter of the Sun

SAME-SEX MARRIAGE DEBATE RETURNS

SAN FRANCISCO – Ten months after San Francisco’s mayor defiantly granted marriage licenses to thousands of gay couples, a judge began hearing arguments yesterday in a pair of lawsuits that seek to have California’s one-man, one-woman matrimony law declared unconstitutional. Superior Court Judge Richard Kramer’s courtroom is only the first stop in what is expected to be a yearlong odyssey that ultimately could reach the state’s highest court.

The consolidated cases were brought by the city of San Francisco and gay advocacy groups representing a dozen same-sex couples. They seek to put California on par with Massachusetts, the only state where gays can legally wed.

The state government maintains that the progress the state already has made in advancing gay rights is sufficient to ward off a constitutional challenge.

– Associated Press

WASHINGTON

NATIONAL FOREST MANAGEMENT RULES FINALIZED

Managers of the nation’s 155 national forests will have more discretion to approve logging and other commercial projects without lengthy environmental reviews under a new Bush administration initiative, The Associated Press has learned.

The long-awaited rules overhaul application of the landmark 1976 National Forest Management Act, which sets guidelines for managing 191 million acres of national forests and grasslands and protecting wildlife there.

Forest Service officials scheduled a conference call to announce the changes yesterday. The rules take effect following publication in the Federal Register, expected next week.

Environmentalists reacted with skepticism, saying the administration is catering to the timber and paper industries and weakening standards for protecting endangered or threatened species.

– Associated Press

NORTHEAST

SEARCH FOR MISSING FISHERMEN CALLED OFF

BOSTON – The Coast Guard called off its search yesterday for five fishermen lost at sea when their scallop boat Northern Edge capsized in cold, turbulent water off Nantucket.

Rescue teams searched an 1,850 square-mile area for more than 40 hours, several times longer than the eight hours a man can survive in the 47-degree water, said Coast Guard Captain David Spillman. One Northern Edge crewman survived after being grabbed from the frigid water by another scallop boat.

The five deaths sparked anger among fishermen, who said federal rules which cut fishing days and penalize fishermen who leave fishing grounds early force captains to fish in dangerous weather to take advantage of limited opportunities.

– Associated Press

MIDWEST

SNOWSTORM STRETCHES FROM NEW MEXICO TO OHIO

EVANSVILLE, Ind. – A foot or more of snow was possible in parts of Indiana and Ohio as a storm spanning the nation’s midsection arrived in the region yesterday, and motorists already were sliding off roads. Snow was falling from New Mexico, where some schools were closed, to the lower Great Lakes.

The snow marked the leading edge of bitterly cold air flowing southward. Highs only in the teens were forecast yesterday in the northern Texas Panhandle, where wind chills today could be as low as 15 below zero, said a spokesperson for the National Weather Service.

Eight inches of snow had fallen by late morning in the hilly terrain southwestern Indiana, where Evansville recorded only 7 inches all of last winter, and police reported numerous vehicles sliding off slippery roads.

In central Indiana, snow was more than 7 inches deep and county government offices were closed because of hazardous roads.

– Associated Press