SOUTH

HOSTAGE ASSISTED IN CAPTURE OF SHOOTING SUSPECT

ATLANTA – The hostage who helped end the 26-hour manhunt for a man accused of killing a judge and three others had long talks with her captor during the 13 hours she was held in her own apartment, police said yesterday.

Police wouldn’t release details about the woman, describing her only as a white female in her 20s to 30s, but they said they were impressed by the way she handled herself. “She acted very cool and levelheaded. We don’t normally see that in our profession,” said Gwinnett County Police Officer Darren Moloney. “It was an absolutely best-case scenario that happened, a complete opposite of what you expected to happen. We were prepared for the worst and got the best.”

Suspect Brian Nichols, 33, surrendered Saturday after waving a white towel to the heavily armed SWAT team that had gathered outside the woman’s apartment building. Nichols did not say anything when he was arrested but was “very calm, very compliant with officers’ directions to him in securing his arrest. He was very cooperative,” Gwinnett County Police Chief Charles Walters said yesterday.

Nichols allegedly overpowered a courthouse deputy escorting him to his rape trial Friday and took the deputy’s gun, then entered the courtroom where his trial was being held and killed the presiding judge and court reporter. He also is accused of killing a deputy who tried to stop him outside the courthouse and a federal agent during his flight from authorities.

– Associated Press

WASHINGTON

RICE RULES OUT RUN FOR THE PRESIDENCY

Secretary of State Rice yesterday ruled out running for president, responding to speculation fueled by a recent poll showing support for a Rice candidacy. Ms. Rice told The Washington Times last week, “I have never wanted to run for anything,” although she seemed to leave the door open to the possibility. She closed the door in appearances on Sunday talk shows, telling NBC’s “Meet the Press,” “I will not run for president of the United States.”

“I won’t run,” she told ABC’s “This Week.” “I won’t. How’s that? Is that categorical enough?”

In a poll conducted in February, 42% of voters said Ms. Rice should run for the White House.

The survey, conducted by the Siena College Research Institute and sponsored by Hearst Newspapers, found that 81% of people would vote for a woman for president; 53% thought Senator Clinton should try for the job.

– Associated Press

NORTHEAST

COURT TO CONSIDER BATTLE OVER DEAN PAPERS

MONTPELIER, Vt. – More than two years after he left the governor’s office to make his unsuccessful run for the presidency, the fight over public access to Howard Dean’s gubernatorial records is coming before the Vermont Supreme Court.

Today’s hearing is on the state’s appeal of a ruling that 86 boxes of records Dr. Dean sealed when he left office in 2003 are instead presumed to be open.

Superior Court Judge Alan Cook ordered Dr. Dean and the state to identify each of the hundreds of thousands of documents in the boxes and say why each should be covered by executive privilege.

Dr. Dean, Secretary of State Deborah Markowitz, and Attorney General William Sorrell had agreed in a memorandum of understanding when he left office in January 2003 that the records would be sealed for 10 years – the longest period any Vermont governor had asked that records be off limits.

Dr. Dean, newly elected chairman of the Democratic National Committee, told reporters in early 2003 that he sealed the records because “we didn’t want anything embarrassing appearing in the papers at a critical time in any future endeavor.” The Washington-based group Judicial Watch sued to gain access to the records, saying the state public records law grants no exemption for potential political embarrassment or a thwarting of ambition.

“Dean’s political aspirations and his desire to prevent anything from ruining them are not sound arguments for secreting such an enormous quantity of government documents from the public,” said Thomas Fitton, president of Judicial Watch. In briefs filed at the Supreme Court, the state argues that allowing governors to seal their records for a certain number of years after retirement is proper, and encourages governors not to destroy sensitive materials before sending papers to the archives.

– Associated Press