SOUTH

EXPERTS SAY FAULTY LEVEES CAUSED FLOODING

NEW ORLEANS – Louisiana’s top hurricane experts have rejected the official explanations for the floodwall collapses that inundated much of New Orleans, concluding that Hurricane Katrina’s storm surges were much smaller than authorities have suggested and that the city’s flood protection system should have kept most of the city dry.

The Army Corps of Engineers has said that Katrina was just too massive for a system that was not intended to protect the city from a storm greater than a Category 3 hurricane, and that the floodwall failures near Lake Pontchartrain were caused by extraordinary surges that overtopped the walls.

But with the help of complex computer models and stark visual evidence, scientists and engineers at Louisiana State University’s Hurricane Center have concluded that Katrina’s surges did not come close to overtopping those barriers. That would make faulty design, inadequate construction, or some combination of the two the likely cause of the breaching of the floodwalls along the 17th Street and London Avenue canals – and the flooding of most of New Orleans.

– The Washington Post

WAR ON TERROR

GOVERNMENT: TERROR SUSPECT FOUND QAEDA MEMBERS UNINSPIRED

ALEXANDRIA, Va. – A suspected terrorist accused of conspiring to assassinate President Bush said he proposed the plot but it wasn’t pursued, and he was frustrated that other members of his Al Qaeda cell lacked initiative, according to prosecutors.

A government motion unsealed this week by a federal judge reveals new details in the case against Ahmed Omar Abu Ali, 24, who is scheduled to go on trial next month.

Prosecutors say the Falls Church resident has admitted joining Al Qaeda while attending college in Saudi Arabia and that he discussed numerous terrorist plots, including plans to assassinate Bush and hijack airplanes. Mr. Abu Ali says he was tortured into giving a false confession by Saudi authorities and that American officials aided the torture. His lawyers are asking to have the confession tossed out.

The motion says Mr. Abu Ali was asked to research the location of American nuclear power sites for possible attack. The request was made by the second-highest ranking Al Qaeda operative in Saudi Arabia, Sultan Jubran Sultan al-Qahtani, according to the motion.

– Associated Press

HEALTH

STUDY: NEARLY $95B A YEAR SPENT ON MEDICAL RESEARCH

CHICAGO – Total U.S. spending on medical research has doubled in the past decade to nearly $95 billion a year, though whether the money is being well spent needs much better scrutiny, a study has found.

The report in today’s Journal of the American Medical Association comes amid heightened public attention to medical research because of liability lawsuits over the painkiller Vioxx, political debate over stem cell research, and the untapped potential of curing or preventing disease through mapping the human genome.

The study is part of a special issue of JAMA devoted to the state of American medical research. What emerges from the issue is a picture of an amorphous, mostly profit-driven system, where industry research focuses on existing drugs and lets discovery-stage research lag behind.

– Associated Press

NORTHEAST

EX-STATE SENATOR PLEADS GUILTY

BRIDGEPORT, Conn. – In the latest in a string of corruption cases in Connecticut, a former state senator pleaded guilty yesterday to felony charges of receiving a bribe, mail fraud, and tax evasion. State Senator Ernest Newton II acknowledged in federal court that he accepted a $5,000 bribe in exchange for helping the director of a job training agency secure a $100,000 grant.

As part of a plea agreement, Newton, 49, also admitted filing false tax returns and diverting $13,000 in campaign contributions for personal use.

His plea deal does not specify a sentence. Newton faces a maximum of 35 years in prison, but prosecutors have said they will ask for less time because he has accepted responsibility.

– Associated Press