WASHINGTON

CONSERVATIVE GROUP TO OPPOSE ROBERTS

A conservative group in Virginia said yesterday it would oppose Supreme Court nominee John Roberts’s confirmation because of his work helping overturn a Colorado referendum on gays.

The stance by Public Advocate of the United States, which describes itself as a profamily organization, puts it in opposition to conservative groups that have endorsed Judge Roberts. A number of liberal groups oppose President Bush’s nominee.

“The move comes as a result of Roberts’s support for the radical homosexual lobby in the 1996 Supreme Court case Romer v. Evans, which overturned a pro-family law passed by the citizens of Colorado in an appalling act of judicial activism,” the group said in a news release. It planned a news conference for today in front of the Supreme Court.

The group’s president, Eugene Delgaudio, had said last week that if “Judge Roberts did provide advice on how to overturn this pro-family measure overwhelmingly supported by the people of Colorado, then Public Advocate calls on President Bush to withdraw his nomination of Judge Roberts immediately.”

– Associated Press

EPA PROPOSES RADIATION EXPOSURE LIMITS FOR 1 MILLION YEARS

Conceding there’s no way to know what life will be like in a million years, the Environmental Protection Agency nevertheless proposed limits yesterday on how much radiation a person should be exposed to from a nuclear waste dump in that distant time. The proposal would limit exposure near the proposed Yucca Mountain facility in Nevada to 15 millirems a year for 10,000 years into the future, but then increase the allowable level to 350 millirems for up to 1 million years.

That higher level is more than three times what is allowed from nuclear facilities today by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. A standard chest X-ray is about 10 millirems. Asked if there was any way to assure such a standard would be relevant or be met that far in the future, the EPA’s Jeffrey Holmstead replied, “That’s a pretty darn good question. …We do the best job given all the science we have.”

The radiation exposure issue has threatened to cripple the government’s plans to bury 77,000 tons of highly radioactive waste – mostly used reactor fuel rods now at commercial power plants – beneath a volcanic ridge at Yucca Mountain in the Nevada desert 90 miles from Las Vegas.

– Associated Press

OFFICIALS MONITORED 9/11 HIJACKERS A YEAR BEFORE THE ATTACKS

Ringleader Mohammed Atta and three other hijackers were identified by defense intelligence officials more than a year before the September 11, 2001, attacks, but information about possible Al Qaeda connections never was sent to law enforcement, Rep. Curt Weldon said yesterday.

Mr. Weldon, a Republican of Pennsylvania and vice chairman of the House Armed Services and Homeland Security committees, said the hijackers were identified in 1999 by a classified military intelligence unit known as “Able Danger,” which determined they could be members of an Al Qaeda cell.

Mr. Weldon said that in September 2000 the unit recommended that its information on the hijackers be given to the FBI “so they could bring that cell in and take out the terrorists,” Mr. Weldon said in an interview.

However, Mr. Weldon said Pentagon lawyers rejected the recommendation because they said Atta and the others were in the country legally. He did not provide details on how the intelligence officials first identified the future hijackers and determined they might be part of a cell.

– Associated Press

SOUTH

OFFICER KILLED IN TENNESSEE COURTHOUSE SHOOTING, INMATE ESCAPES

KINGSTON, Tenn. – An inmate considered to be “extremely violent” escaped yesterday after his wife gunned down and killed a guard who was escorting the shackled prisoner outside a courthouse, authorities said.

The bloody escape set off an extensive search for George and Jennifer Hyatte. Helicopters circled over this eastern Tennessee town and schools – open for student registration – were locked down. The Ford Explorer in which the couple fled was later found abandoned with blood on the driver’s side, and officers think the wife may have been wounded during the attack, Police Chief Jim Washam said. Authorities believe the pair later switched from the SUV to a van.

George Hyatte, serving a 35-year sentence on robbery and assault convictions, “is extremely violent, and he has no care or concern on what he does to anyone,” said Sheriff’s Department spokesman Jeff Knight. Jennifer Hyatte is a nurse who had been fired from her job at a prison in Tiptonville because of her relationship with George Hyatte, Corrections Department spokeswoman Amanda Sluss said. Chief Washam said authorities were preparing murder charges against the couple.

– Associated Press

MIDWEST

MAN GETS 27 YEARS FOR OHIO SHOOTINGS

COLUMBUS, Ohio – A mentally ill man pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter and 10 other charges yesterday in a series of Ohio highway shootings and was sentenced to 27 years in prison.

Charles McCoy Jr., 29, had admitted firing the shots over five months in 2003 and 2004 but pleaded innocent by reason of insanity to murder and 23 other counts. His death penalty trial ended in a mistrial.

McCoy cried as he began to read a statement apologizing to victims, and his attorney took over. He also cried as victims told the judge how they had been affected by the shootings. “I’m sorry for not taking my medication and putting you and everyone through this,” the statement read.

McCoy, of Columbus, told psychiatrists that he threw wood and bags of concrete mix off highway overpasses and shot at cars to quiet voices in his head that called him a “wimp.” The only person hit by a bullet, Gail Knisley, 62, was killed November 25, 2003, while a friend was driving her to a doctor’s appointment.

– Associated Press

WEST

DEAL IS REACHED FOR ART WITH NAZI TIES

As the result of an out-of-court settlement, San Francisco-area resident Thomas Bennigson will receive $6.5 million from Marilynn Alsdorf of Chicago for a Pablo Picasso painting reportedly stolen by the Nazis from Mr. Bennigson’s grandmother years before Alsdorf acquired it in 1975.

Additionally, as part of a previous agreement contingent on the settlement, Mr. Bennigson will receive a lesser sum from Stephen Hahn — the art dealer who sold the painting to Ms. Alsdorf and her late husband, James. According to Mr. Bennigson’s attorney, E. Randol Schoenberg, Mr. Bennigson also may receive some funds from Los Angeles-based art dealer David Tunkl, who was planning to exhibit and sell the painting for Ms. Alsdorf in 2002 when he was notified that the Art Loss Register in London had determined that it had been stolen during the Nazi regime.

The settlement ends a protracted legal battle over Picasso’s 1922 oil “Femme en blanc.”The dispute began in 2002, when Mr. Bennigson sued to have the painting returned to him.

– Los Angeles Times