WASHINGTON — A federal judge agreed Friday to let the Bush administration keep secret the lists of visitors to the White House until an appeals court decides whether the documents are public records. The U.S. District judge granted the White House request five days after ordering the Secret Service to turn over the records to a liberal watchdog group that sought them under the Freedom of Information Act. The logs being sought by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington relate to White House visits regarding nine conservative religious commentators, including James Dobson, Gary Bauer and the late Rev. Jerry Falwell.
@3. Headline Briefs 14 no:Air force finds more F-15 flaws
Air Force inspectors have discovered major structural flaws in eight older-model Boeing F-15 fighters, sparking a new round of examinations that could ground all of the older jets into January or beyond, senior Air Force officials said. The Air Force’s 442 F-15A through F-15D planes, the mainstay of the nation’s air-to-air combat force for 30 years, have been grounded since November, shortly after one of the airplanes broke into large chunks and crashed in rural Missouri. Since then, officials have found cracks in support beams behind the cockpits of eight other F-15s, and they fear that similar problems could exist in others.
California: Huge inmate release
In what may be the largest early release of inmates in U.S. history, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s administration is proposing to open the prison gates next year for some 22,000 low-risk offenders. According to details of a budget proposal made available to The Sacramento Bee, the administration will ask the Legislature to authorize the release of certain nonserious, nonviolent, nonsex offenders who are in the final 20 months of their terms. The proposal would cut the prison population by 22,159 inmates and save the cash-strapped state more than $780 million through June 30, 2010.
West Virginia: Body discovered
Investigators found a body in a crawl space Friday that police believe is that of a missing Marshall University student. Forensic investigators found the body at 5 p.m. in a laundry room in the basement of the missing woman’s apartment building, the Huntington Police Department said. The body has not been identified, but indications are that it is the body of 21-year-old Leah Hickman, missing since Dec. 14, the department said.
Colorado: Sister beaten to death
A teenage girl and her boyfriend made brief court appearances Friday on charges of beating the girl’s 7-year-old half-sister to death while imitating moves from the “Mortal Kombat” video game. Both face charges of fatal child abuse in the Dec. 6 death of Zoe Garcia and are being prosecuted as adults. They could face 16 to 48 years in prison if convicted. An arrest warrant affidavit said the teens kicked, karate-chopped and body-slammed Zoe at a home in Johnstown, near Denver.
Italy: Mold taints Leonardo work
Leonardo da Vinci’s Codex Atlanticus, the largest collection of drawings and writings by the Renaissance master, has been infiltrated by mold, officials said Friday. The extent of any damage is not yet known to the roughly 1,120-page Codex containing his drawings and writings from 1478 to 1519 on topics such as flying machines, weapons, mathematics and botany. But officials say any conservation measures will be very expensive and there are no funds for the work.
Saudi Arabia: Terrorism suspects
Police arrested a group of men planning to attack holy sites around Mecca during the just-completed annual Muslim pilgrimage, the Saudi Interior Ministry said Friday. “Security forces have foiled a plot to carry out a terror attack on holy sites outside Mecca with the aim of confounding security forces,” an Interior Ministry spokesman said. He gave no further details on the number or identity of those arrested, but Saudi-owned satellite television station Al-Arabiya described them as Saudis.
El Salvador: Iraq troops may stay
The national legislature has given Salvadoran President Tony Saca the go-ahead to extend troop deployments to Iraq until the end of 2008. In a vote around midnight Thursday, lawmakers approved the petition from Saca. Lawmakers cited the United Nations decision to extend a multinational humanitarian troop presence in the country for another year. El Salvador, the only Latin American country with troops in Iraq, has been sending contingents of 280 soldiers since 2003.
Guatemala: 698-pound man dies
A man who weighed 698 pounds died Friday of heart failure after undergoing an operation to remove 80 percent of his stomach in a desperate effort to reduce his weight. Carlos Marroquin, 47, was so heavy at the time of Thursday’s operation that hospital workers used a forklift to place him on the operating table, the surgeon who participated in the procedure said. “He had two heart attacks in 20 minutes; there was nothing we could have done for him,” he said. He said Marroquin’s heart and kidneys had begun failing even before the procedure.
From Herald news services
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