WASHINGTON

SENATOR MARTINEZ’S OFFICE SOURCE OF SCHIAVO POLITICS MEMO

A one page unsigned memo that became part of the debate preceding Congress’s vote ordering a federal court review of the Theresa Schiavo case originated in Florida Republican Senator Martinez’s office, Mr. Martinez said yesterday.

The memo – first reported by ABC News on March 18 – said the fight over removing Schiavo’s feeding tube “is a great political issue … and a tough issue for Democrats.”

“This is an important moral issue and the pro-life base will be excited that the Senate is debating this important issue,” said the memo, which was described at the time as being circulated among Senate Republicans.

Mr. Martinez said in a written statement he discovered yesterday that the memo had been written by an aide in his office. “It is with profound disappointment and regret that I learned today that a senior member of my staff was unilaterally responsible for this document,” Mr. Martinez said.

He said he accepted the resignation of the staffer who drafted and circulated the memo.

– Associated Press

HEARING ON BOLTON’S NOMINATION POSTPONED

Senate Democrats complained yesterday that the Bush administration has refused their requests for more information about John Bolton, the president’s nominee for American ambassador to the United Nations.

The Senate Foreign Relations Committee postponed a hearing, scheduled for today, to consider the Bolton nomination because several panel members were attending Pope John Paul II’s funeral, a committee spokesman said. The hearing was rescheduled for Monday. In a letter signed yesterday, all the Democrats on the committee asked Chairman Lugar, a Republican of Indiana, to wait to reschedule the hearing until they receive background material they say they need before Mr. Bolton comes before the committee. Democrats said the administration also spurned their requests for some witnesses to appear before the committee.

White House spokesman David Almacy said last night, “We have made both individuals and documents available and we will continue to work with them.” Democratic officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, would provide no details on what records Democrats wanted to see and people they wanted to interview.

– Associated Press

YUSHCHENKO ASKS CONGRESS FOR ECONOMIC HELP

President Yushchenko asked Congress to help Ukraine, the former Soviet republic, make democratic progress by supporting its entrance into international organizations including NATO and ending Cold War-era trade restrictions.

“Please make this step toward Ukraine. Please tear down this wall,” he said yesterday, echoing President Reagan’s 1989 call for President Gorbachev to reunite Germany. Mr. Yushchenko, addressing a joint meeting of Congress, said American support is crucial to put his country in “the forefront of prosperous democracies.”

Speaking through an interpreter, Mr. Yushchenko said his three-day American visit was meant to ring in a new era of relations between Ukraine and America.

“We seek a new atmosphere of trust, frankness and partnership,” Mr. Yushchenko said. “The time has come to make real steps toward each other.”

In that vein, he sought American support for a host of initiatives. He asked America to back his country’s entrance into the European Union, the World Trade Organization, and NATO, which he said would spur democratic progress and economic reforms.

– Associated Press

SOUTH

VIOLENT THUNDERSTORMS ROLL THROUGH THE SOUTH

BRANDON, Miss. – Lines of violent thunderstorms rolled through the South yesterday, blowing apart mobile homes, snapping dozens of trees and power lines, and ripping the roof off a school while classes were in session. A tornado touched down in Mississippi during an hours-long storm siege. There were no immediate reports of deaths, but officials said at least eight people were injured, including one in critical condition. Governor Barbour, a Republican, declared a state of emergency in storm-damaged areas.

The hardest-hit section of Mississippi was rural Rankin County, southeast of Jackson. At least 17 homes were destroyed in the county and 15 others had major damage, said Amy Carruth, a Mississippi Emergency Management Agency spokeswoman in Brandon. Along one street, it appeared that only one house escaped without major damage. Splintered pine trees and snapped power lines littered streets. Pink insulation, wood fragments, and other debris dangled from the remaining trees. Several vehicles were smashed by fallen trees. Another tornado destroyed about eight homes and damaged about a dozen other houses, barns, and workshops near Heflin in northwest Louisiana. Storm watches and warnings also were posted for sections of Alabama and the Florida Panhandle, the weather service said.

– Associated Press

WOMAN HELD BY FUGITIVE HEADS HOME

NACOGDOCHES, Texas – Her husband at her side, her children just hours away, Bobbi Parker headed home to Oklahoma yesterday for the first time since she vanished along with an inmate after a prison break 11 years ago. Ms. Parker, the wife of an assistant warden, disappeared with fugitive killer Randolph Dial in 1994 during his escape from an Oklahoma prison. Dial was arrested Monday, and authorities believe he kept Ms. Parker from escaping all those years by threatening to hurt her family.

“Our indications are from our initial investigation that she was in fact kidnapped and held against her will,” Oklahoma City FBI spokesman Gary Johnson said yesterday. Ms. Parker, 42, spent Tuesday night with her husband, Randy Parker, who was an assistant warden when Dial escaped and is now warden of a different prison. Nacogdoches County Justice of the Peace Donna Clayton witnessed their reunion earlier Tuesday. A tip generated by the TV show “America’s Most Wanted” led law enforcement to Dial, who was arrested at a mobile home in Campti, a tiny community near the Louisiana border.

– Associated Press