WEST

SCHWARZENEGGER ABANDONS PENSION OVERHAUL

SACRAMENTO, Calif. – Under pressure from firefighters and police officers, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger yesterday backed off, for now, his plan to privatize California’s public employee pension system.

The Republican said “misconceptions” among firefighters and police officers that privatization would strip them of death and disability benefits had come to dominate the issue.

A poll released yesterday by San Jose State University showed Mr. Schwarzenegger’s job approval rating dipping below 50 percent for the first time since he took office.

Poll director Phil Trounstine called Mr. Schwarzenegger’s retreat an attempt “to get the hornets back in the nest, since the pension reform part of his proposals was probably what most stirred up the nurses, teachers, and cops.”

Over the past few weeks, Mr. Schwarzenegger has waged a campaign to put privatization on the ballot during a special election next fall. But yesterday, he said he would wait until the June 2006 election if lawmakers did not craft a compromise measure in the coming months.

The move followed days of meetings with police and fire chiefs and survivors of firefighters and police officers killed in the line of duty, all of whom expressed concerns that the ballot language opened the possibility that the employees would lose death and disability payments.

– Associated Press

FORMER NEVERLAND GUARD SAYS HE SAW JACKSON MOLEST BOY IN 1990s

SANTA MARIA, Calif. – A former security guard at Michael Jackson’s Neverland ranch told a lurid story yesterday about seeing the singer kiss, fondle and perform oral sex on a boy who later received a financial settlement from the pop star.

A former Jackson maid also testified that she saw him inappropriately touch actor Macaulay Culkin and three other boys. The testimony is part of a prosecution attempt to show that the current molestation allegations against Jackson are part of a pattern of inappropriate sexual contact with little boys dating back more than a decade. The former security guard, Ralph Chacon, was attacked by Mr. Jackson’s lawyer as making the whole thing up “to get even.” Defense attorney Thomas Mesereau Jr. accused Mr. Chacon of having tried to “extort” $16 million from Mr. Jackson in a lawsuit and lengthy trial that he and the maid lost, forcing Mr. Chacon into bankruptcy.

In questioning by District Attorney Tom Sneddon, Mr. Chacon told of looking through a window one night at Jackson’s pool house in late 1992 or early 1993 and seeing him perform oral sex on a 10-year-old boy. Mr. Chacon said he saw Mr. Jackson engage in activities he described as “passionate” after the singer and the boy took a dip in an outdoor Jacuzzi and showered.

– Associated Press

MONTANA, ONCE MARLBORO COUNTRY, PASSES SMOKING BAN

Montana, which has served as Marlboro Country in magazine ads depicting rugged cowboys puffing on cigarettes while riding a fence line, is about to outlaw smoking just about everywhere but the great outdoors.

The state Legislature voted yesterday to ban smoking in all enclosed public places, including bars and restaurants. The Senate approved the measure 40-10 yesterday. It passed the House last month.

Gov. Brian Schweitzer, a Democrat, said he will sign it. Montana would become one of just 10 states to ban smoking on such a widespread scale. California, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Idaho, Maine, Massachusetts, New York, and Rhode Island have similar laws. “The need to breathe smoke-free air has priority over the desire to smoke,” the measure reads.

Beginning October 1, the ban will apply to nearly all enclosed places open to the public, including restaurants, stores, office buildings, schools, and public transportation. Montana’s 1,700 bars will have until 2009 to comply – a compromise adopted for the benefit of tavern owners.

– Associated Press

WASHINGTON

JUDGE: PENTAGON CAN GIVE ANTHRAX SHOTS

WASHINGTON – The Pentagon can resume giving anthrax vaccinations, but only to troops who volunteer for them, said a federal judge who had banned the shots amid safety questions.

Citing a law passed last year, U.S. District Court Judge Emmet Sullivan partially lifted his October ban on the vaccination program, also plagued over its six years by manufacturing problems and troop protests.

Judge Sullivan in October ordered the Pentagon to halt its anthrax shots, saying the Food and Drug Administration had acted improperly when it allowed the experimental vaccine for use against inhalation anthrax.

But he ordered in a ruling Wednesday that shots can be restarted on a voluntary basis under a new law that allows unapproved drugs in cases of declared emergencies. In enacting the Project BioShield Act of 2004, “Congress appears to have authorized the use of unapproved drugs or the unapproved use of approved drugs” when health and defense officials declare a military emergency or the potential for a military emergency, Judge Sullivan wrote in the ruling.

– Associated Press

EDUCATION

EDUCATION SECRETARY OFFERS FLEXIBILITY ON NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND

MOUNT VERNON, Va. – Education Secretary Margaret Spellings came into her job promising to deal with horror stories from states about the No Child Left Behind law. Now state leaders say she appears to be delivering on the promise – with a catch.

Ms. Spellings pledged yesterday to take a more sensible approach to enforcing the law, starting with allowing many more children with disabilities to be held to different academic standards. The flexibility isn’t open to all states, only to those that prove they are committed to President Bush’s education law, mainly by raising test scores.

“States that understand this new way of doing things will be gratified,” Ms. Spellings told state school chiefs and other education leaders invited to hear her announcement. Ms. Spellings arranged the gathering at George Washington’s estate in Virginia as a symbolic reminder of a meeting there three years ago, when the state school chiefs celebrated Mr. Bush’s new education law. This time, they came to hear the new education secretary outline her prove-it-first terms for cooperation.

She will favor states that don’t challenge principal points of the law – yearly testing of students in reading and math in grades three to eight, and public reporting of scores for all major groups of students. She wants proof that states are raising achievement.

– Associated Press