WASHINGTON

GOP SENATORS OFFER ALTERNATIVE LEGISLATION TO STEM CELL BILL

President Bush and his conservative Senate allies are trying to peel votes from a stem cell bill by offering alternative legislation that would instead fund promising but unproven studies, several senators said yesterday.

“I’m all for these alternative sources, not as a substitute, not as some way of stopping what we’re about to do,” Senator Harkin, a Democrat of Iowa, said Senate sponsor of a bill already passed by the House that would end Mr. Bush’s 2001 ban on federal funding for new human embryonic stem cell studies.

Several scientists testifying yesterday before the Labor, Health, and Human Services Appropriations subcommittee agreed that Mr. Harkin’s bill, co-sponsored by panel chairman, Senator Specter, a Republican of Pennsylvania, should be passed before even their own research receives federal funding.

“It’s a no-brainer,” one of the scientists working on a process by which embryonic stem cells are derived without destroying life, Robert Lanza, said. “I do not think we should keep the scientific community or the patient community waiting.”

– Associated Press

INVESTIGATORS URGED REPRIMAND OF FORMER GUANTANAMO BAY COMMANDER

A military investigation into FBI reports of prisoner abuse at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, recommended that the base’s former commander be reprimanded, but a top general rejected the recommendation, according to a congressional aide familiar with the probe’s findings.

Investigators recommended that an Army major general, Geoffrey Miller, be reprimanded for failing to oversee the interrogation of a high-value detainee, which was found to have been abusive, said the aide.

But General Bantz Craddock, commander of U.S. Southern Command, instead referred the matter to the Army’s inspector general, said the aide said, who described the still unreleased report on the condition of anonymity.

General Craddock concluded that General Miller did not violate any American laws or policies, the report said, according to the aide.

The investigation also found that interrogators violated the Geneva Convention and Army regulations three times at the base, the aide said.

– Associated Press

BOLTON COULD TAKE RECESS APPOINTMENT

While John Bolton’s nomination to be United Nations ambassador was the hottest issue in Congress a few months ago, it has virtually evaporated this summer. With neither the White House nor Senate Democrats showing any sign of yielding in their long-running dispute over documents related to Mr. Bolton’s State Department work, speculation is rife that Mr. Bolton is prepared to accept a recess appointment good through the end of 2006, despite warnings from some GOP senators that it would weaken his influence and effectiveness. Although the Senate has twice voted to sustain a filibuster against his nominee, Mr. Bush has refused to surrender the fight over Mr. Bolton. “The president continues to believe that John Bolton should receive an up-or-down vote, and he encourages the Senate to move forward on his nomination,” spokeswoman Erin Healy said yesterday.

An administration source who is close to Mr. Bolton said he is prepared to accept a recess appointment next month unless the administration and Senate Democrats can resolve differences that have held up the confirmation for four months.

“He’ll take the recess [appointment],” said the administration source who is familiar with Mr. Bolton’s thinking. “The president has made his selection and the president is asking the Senate to confirm the selection, and if the Senate refuses to do that, then most assuredly he will make a recess appointment.”

The president is constitutionally empowered to fill vacancies when the Senate is in recess effective through the final adjournment of the sitting Congress. The next recess, scheduled to last a month, starts July 30.

– The Washington Post

WEST

SEX OFFENDER TO BE CHARGED WITH THREE COUNTS OF MURDER IN IDAHO

COEUR D’ALENE, Idaho – A convicted sex offender, already facing kidnapping charges in the abduction of two Idaho children, will be charged with murder in the slayings of three people found dead at the children’s home, a prosecutor said yesterday. Joseph Edward Duncan III spent days stalking the home where three people were bludgeoned to death and two young children were abducted, according to court documents. He had spotted 8-year-old Shasta Groene playing in a bathing suit with her 9-year-old brother, Dylan, the documents say.

– Associated Press

SOUTH

DENNIS VICTIMS WITHOUT HEAT, POWER

GULF BREEZE, Fla. – Cathy Hart waited a half-hour in line for gas, and not wanting to waste what was in her tank, she kept the air conditioner off – a prescription for misery with the temperature approaching 90. Things were a little better at home. She at least has a generator to run a fan, and Hurricane Dennis spared her Gulf Breeze home, which was damaged 10 months ago by Hurricane Ivan. “At least there are no trees on my house,” Ms. Hart said. “I’ll be happy to be just cleaning up branches.” The outlook was improving for Ms. Hart and thousands of others yesterday along the storm-battered Gulf Coast, where signs of normal life were everywhere just two days after Dennis pummeled the region.