National Desk

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The New York Sun

WASHINGTON


SENATORS FEAR REBUILT LEVEES INSUFFICIENT


Repairs to New Orleans’s levees may be insufficient to protect residents moving back to the devastated city if another hurricane comes before the tropical storm season ends this month, experts and engineers said yesterday.


Dozens of breaches continue to mar the city’s levee system, including a large seep at the Industrial Canal last week, according to engineering experts who have examined the flood walls. Repairs have gotten better in recent days, the experts told a Senate panel investigating flood wall failures after Hurricane Katrina. But the initial rebuilding process was done with little or no engineering guidance and perhaps substandard materials, they said.


– Associated Press


WHITE HOUSE DEFLECTS QUESTIONS ON PRE-WAR INTELLIGENCE


The White House sought to deflect politically charged questions yesterday about President Bush’s use of pre-war intelligence in Iraq, saying Democrats, too, had concluded Saddam Hussein was a threat.


The White House press secretary, Scott McClellan, said the Clinton administration and fellow Democrats “used the intelligence to come to the same conclusion that Saddam Hussein and his regime were a threat.”


Mr. McClellan made his comments one day after Senate Democrats sprung a surprise, forcing a rare closed-door session to dramatize their charge that Mr. Bush relied on faulty intelligence in the run-up to war and congressional Republicans have failed to sufficiently investigate.


– Associated Press


ALITO’S CONFIRMATION ROAD MADE SMOOTHER The 14 centrists who averted a Senate breakdown over judicial nominees last spring are showing signs of splintering on President Bush’s latest nominee for the Supreme Court.


That is weakening the hand of Democrats opposed to Judge Samuel Alito and enhancing his prospects for confirmation.


The unity of the seven Democrats and the seven Republicans in the “Gang of 14” was all that halted a major filibuster fight between Majority Leader Frist of Tennessee and Minority Leader Reid of Nevada earlier this year over Mr. Bush’s nominees.


The early defection of two of the group’s Republicans, Senator DeWine of Ohio and Senator Graham of South Carolina, will give the GOP the upper hand if Democrats decide to attempt a filibuster of Judge Alito, the New Jersey jurist nominated Monday to replace Justice O’Connor.


– Associated Press


PRINCE CHARLES AND CAMILLA WELCOMED AT WHITE HOUSE


With smiles and handshakes, President Bush and his wife, Laura, quietly welcomed Prince Charles and his wife, Camilla, to the White House yesterday as the royal couple made a low-key entrance to the nation’s capital.


The day’s main event was the White House dinner, a black-tie affair attended by Washington’s political, academic, and business elite. The president, who is known to prefer early nights, has hosted only five formal White House dinners for world leaders since taking office in 2001.


– Associated Press


SOUTH


NEW JUDGE IN DELAY CASE COULD BE NAMED FRIDAY


AUSTIN, Texas – A new judge for Rep. Tom DeLay’s criminal trial could be named by Friday, replacing a jurist who was removed from the case at Mr. DeLay’s urging.


Administrative Judge B.B. Schraub said he will pick from a field of retired judges from outside Austin’s Travis County, where Mr. DeLay, a Republican, was indicted on charges relating to a campaign finance scheme. State District Judge Bob Perkins was removed from the case Tuesday after Mr. DeLay’s attorneys argued that Judge Perkins’s contributions to Democratic candidates and groups could create an impression of partiality.


– Associated Press


PRESS NEWS


BROWN TO LEAVE


CNN Aaron Brown, once one of CNN’s most prominent anchors, is leaving the network after a shake-up that gives his prime-time slot to rising star Anderson Cooper and expands it to two hours.


Mr. Cooper’s old 7 p.m. show will be filled by an expanded version of “The Situation Room” with Wolf Blitzer, the late afternoon program attracting attention for its arresting use of multiple video screens.


With Mr. Brown left without a time slot, “we mutually looked at the lay of the land and came to this conclusion” that he would leave, CNN’s president, Jon Klein, said. Mr. Brown was vacationing this week, according to the network. A telephone call to his agent seeking comment was not immediately returned.


Mr. Klein said the switch was done to build CNN’s schedule around what he considers its hottest personality, Mr. Cooper, and hottest new show, “The Situation Room.” Mr. Cooper, 38, has been gathering momentum all year peaked with his on-the-scene coverage of Hurricane Katrina, Mr. Klein said.


– Associated Press


NORTHEAST


VERMONT ADOPTS NEW RULES TO CUT CO2 EMISSIONS


MONTPELIER, Vt. – Vermont has become the first of several Northeastern states expected to adopt new rules that seek to cut emissions of greenhouse gasses from cars by improving their gas mileage.


Final approval yesterday by the Legislature’s Administrative Rules Committee means that for the 2009 model year, cars sold in Vermont will need to adhere to strict new rules that seek to reduce emissions from the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide by increasing fuel efficiency.


The federal Clean Air Act allows for two sets of rules governing emissions from cars sold in America: the California standard and the less strict federal standard.


– Associated Press


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