ALBANY, N.Y. – Gov. Eliot Spitzer signed legislation Monday moving New York’s presidential primary to Feb. 5, further setting the stage for a mid-winter political showdown.
Feb. 5 primaries or caucuses are already scheduled in Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Delaware, Missouri, New Jersey, Oklahoma and Utah, according the National Association of Secretaries of State.
A dozen more states are considering such moves, setting the stage for what is quickly becoming known as “Super-Duper Tuesday” just 22 days after the leadoff Iowa caucuses.
Alabama: Sentence in church fire
Two former college students were sentenced in Birmingham on Monday to eight years each in federal prison for a rash of rural church fires that began as a prank during a night of drinking. Russell Lee DeBusk Jr., 20, who wasn’t involved in all the fires and was sentenced to seven years, said the three decided to break into a single church on Feb. 3, 2006, and set plastic plants on fire during a night of cruising the countryside and drinking. “A snowball effect happened as we proceeded to set four more churches on fire,” said DeBusk. Three days later, Matthew Cloyd, 21, and Benjamin Moseley, 20, set four more fires in a bid to throw agents off their trail.
The remains of 10 U.S. airmen, missing in action since a World War II mission over New Guinea, have been identified and will be returned to their families for burial, the Pentagon said Monday. The airmen were identified as: 2nd Lt. Raymond A. Cooley, Leary, Texas; 2nd Lt. Dudley R. Ives, Ingleside, Texas; 2nd Lt. George E. Archer, Cushing, Okla.; 2nd Lt. Donald F. Grady, Harrisburg, Pa.; Tech. Sgt. Richard R. Sargent, North Girard, Pa.; Tech. Sgt. Steve Zayac, Cleveland; Staff Sgt. Joseph M. King, Detroit, Mich.; Staff Sgt. Thomas G. Knight, Brookfield, Ill.; Staff Sgt. Norman L. Nell, Tarkio, Mo.; and Staff Sgt. Blair W. Smith, Nu Mine, Pa.
A former employee of an accounting firm employee shot and killed a woman and wounded two men Monday at the Troy building where he worked, then led officers on a 30-mile chase that reached speeds of 120 mph before his capture, police said. Anthony LaCalamita III, 38, had been fired last week from Gordon Advisors.
Former first lady Betty Ford was released from a hospital where she underwent surgery last week, her office in Rancho Mirage said in a statement Monday. The statement did not say when Mrs. Ford, who turned 89 on Sunday, was released from Eisenhower Medical Center. The Ford office has not disclosed the nature of the surgery.
A case of mistaken identity was blamed for a Texas man’s conviction in a 1982 rape, and on Monday a judge in Dallas recommended he be exonerated based on new DNA evidence. James Curtis Giles, 53, has spent nearly half of his life – including 10 years in prison and 14 years on the sex offender registry – trying to prove he was not one of three men implicated in the case.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service on Monday recommended upgrading the manatee’s status from endangered to threatened, a move that indicates the animal has rebounded from the brink of extinction. The Fish and Wildlife Service released its five-year review of manatee populations in Florida and Puerto Rico and found that the species no longer fits the criteria to be deemed endangered.
From Herald news services
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