WASHINGTON

GOVERNMENT ISSUES CLEANUP GUIDELINES FOR “DIRTY BOMB” ATTACK

The government issued cleanup standards yesterday for a “dirty bomb” terrorist attack that would in some cases be far less rigorous than what is required for Superfund sites, nuclear power plants, and nuclear waste dumps. After such an attack, long-term radiation exposure could remain at levels that would be expected to produce cancers in one of every four people who return to the contaminated sites, anti-nuclear watchdog groups said after analyzing the new federal guidelines.

The guidelines issued by the Homeland Security Department say the impact from detonating a crude nuclear device or a dirty bomb could vary widely, from contaminating a small area, such as a single building or city block, to conceivably many square miles. So, it said, cleanup requirements also could vary widely.

– Associated Press

FORMER MAYOR BARRY ROBBED

District of Columbia Council Member Marion Barry yesterday urged the two young men who he said robbed him at gunpoint in his own kitchen Monday night to turn themselves in, but pledged he would ask authorities not to prosecute them. The former mayor described the robbery during a lengthy press news conference, saying it was a “horrific experience to face a gun.”

– The Washington Post

SOUTHWEST

FIRE CREWS FIGHTING TO CONTAIN GRASS FIRES ACROSS 3 STATES

SHAMROCK, Okla. – Firefighters chased a grass fire hop-scotching across a northeast Oklahoma town yesterday, while officials in Texas and New Mexico kept tabs on the wind and several massive wildfires their crews were fighting to contain. In Shamrock, the suspected arson fire destroyed an abandoned schoolhouse, a home and other buildings as it raced through the town of about 100 residents. It took an air tanker repeatedly dropping fire retardant to put down the blaze.

In the past week and a half, grass fires have burned more than 600,000 acres across Oklahoma, Texas and New Mexico.

– Associated Press

NORTHEAST

GAY ACTIVISTS SUE TO PROTECT GAY MARRIAGE IN MASSACHUSETTS

BOSTON – Gay rights activists sued yesterday in an effort to block a proposed constitutional amendment that would put an end to same-sex marriage in Massachusetts. The lawsuit, filed by Gay and Lesbian Advocates & Defenders, challenges a September ruling by state Attorney General Tom Reilly that found the amendment drive was legal.

That ruling allowed backers of the amendment to begin collecting signatures. They gathered more than 120,000 – well above the 65,000 needed to get the measure on the 2008 ballot.

GLAD’s legal director, Gary Buseck, said the Massachusetts Constitution bars any citizen-initiated amendment that “relates to the reversal of a judicial decision.” Mr. Reilly should have blocked the question from going forward on those grounds, Mr. Buseck said. The proposed amendment is designed “squarely and solely” to reverse the landmark 2003 decision by Massachusetts’ high court that legalized gay marriage, Mr. Buseck said.

A Reilly spokesman defended the decision.

– Associated Press

HEALTH

STUDY: LOW-FAT, HIGH-CARB DIET LED TO ONLY MODERATE WEIGHT LOSS

CHICAGO – Older women who ate less fat and more carbohydrates lost about 2 pounds over seven years, a large study showed. While one obesity expert called the results disappointing, the lead author of the research said it refutes claims by promoters of the Atkins and Zone diets that low-fat diets are partly behind America’s obesity epidemic. “It will help people to understand that the weight gain we’re seeing in this country is not caused by the lower-fat diets,” a study author, Barbara V. Howard, of a nonprofit research group, MedStar Research Institute, said.

The study, appearing in today’s Journal of the American Medical Association, included more than 48,000 women, ages 50 to 79. They were followed for an average of seven years and six months.

– Associated Press