Nation Briefly

Senate committee delays questioning of Gonzales

WASHINGTON – The Senate Judiciary Committee postponed today’s questioning of Attorney General Alberto Gonzales on the firings of eight federal prosecutors, saying the proceedings would be inappropriate in light of the Virginia Tech shootings.

Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy made the decision Monday to postpone the long-awaited hearing that has been considered Gonzales’ last chance to quiet a controversy that has prompted calls in both parties for his resignation.

Leahy said the hearing had been rescheduled for Thursday. He said he made the decision after conferring with Gonzales and the committee’s senior Republican, Sen. Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania. “All three of us agree,” he said.

Natural Balance pet food recalled

Natural Balance Pet Foods recalled two kinds of pet food after receiving reports of animals vomiting and experiencing kidney problems, the Food and Drug Administration said Monday. The recall includes all date codes of Venison &Brown Rice Dry Dog Food and Venison &Green Pea Dry Cat Food. The company does not know the cause of the problem, but said it is focused on one particular lot.

The family of a Marine who committed suicide after returning from Iraq “respectfully disagree” with a report that cleared a veteran’s hospital, but they don’t plan to sue or seek another investigation, a family friend said. Jonathan Schulze’s family has maintained he told St. Cloud VA Medical Center staff twice that he was suicidal in the days before he hanged himself Jan. 16, but that he was turned away. A report by the Department of Veterans Affairs earlier this month concluded there was no evidence of that, and that the record was in fact “diametrically opposed” to the family’s claims.

Several hundred students and teachers were evacuated Monday from two buildings at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville after a bomb scare hours after shootings at Virginia Tech, officials said. The hoax was not believed to be connected to the slayings in Virginia, a UT Knoxville spokesman said.

High winds toppled a flagpole onto a kindergartner during recess at a Ferndale elementary school Monday, killing the girl, a school spokeswoman said. The accident happened in an interior courtyard at Roosevelt Primary School in Detroit’s northern suburbs. The principal and two teachers remained with the 5-year-old girl, who was later pronounced dead at a hospital. “We stayed with her to make sure she felt supported and secure,” said principal Dina Krause.

A sport utility vehicle carrying suspected illegal immigrants rolled several times in southeastern Utah on Monday, killing eight men and injuring seven others. Federal immigration agents were investigating it as a possible case of human trafficking, said a spokesman for the Utah Department of Public Safety. The driver fled the scene and was found hiding in the desert about two miles away, said Lt. Todd Peterson of the Utah Highway Patrol.