GLENS FALLS, N.Y. — Almost a month after a special election in a heavily Republican congressional district, the Democratic candidate claimed victory Friday when his GOP opponent conceded in a race that focused attention on President Barack Obama’s stimulus plan. After the March 31 election in New York’s 20th District, Democrat Scott Murphy and Republican Jim Tedisco were separated by a handful of votes with thousands of absentee ballots to be counted. For nearly four weeks, the lead flipped back and forth but Murphy’s advantage started to grow this week and was more than 400 votes on Thursday.
D.C.: Small plane scare
A small plane strayed into restricted air space near the U.S. Capitol on Friday, forcing officials to place the White House in temporary lock down and take steps to evacuate the U.S. Capitol. The episode was over within minutes as two F-16 fighter jets and two Coast Guard helicopters were dispatched to intercept the plane and escort it to Maryland, the Federal Aviation Administration said. The airport’s owner said a technical problem on the Cessna 180 caused the plane to enter restricted air space.
Tennessee: Fewer Baptists
Southern Baptist churches baptized fewer people in 2008 for the fourth year in a row to reach the lowest level since 1987, and membership in the country’s largest Protestant denomination fell slightly as well. Baptisms dropped just over one percent to 342,198 last year, compared with 345,941 in 2007, according to an annual report released Thursday by LifeWay Christian Resources. Total membership of Southern Baptist churches was 16,228,438 last year, down nearly 38,400 from 2007.
Pennsylvania: Tourism test
In a courtroom just a block from Independence Hall — the heart of Philadelphia’s tourist district — a judge is weighing whether an ordinance to test and license local tour guides violates the First Amendment. The U.S. District judge who heard arguments Friday, said it’s clear that both sides in the litigation want the city’s guides to be trustworthy and accurate. The question is whether the city is muzzling free speech by requiring guides to take an exam first.
New Mexico: Mustang bonus
A federal agency is hoping older wild mustangs rounded up from the range will find new homes with a program that will offer stipends to owners who adopt them. Wild horse populations have boomed across the West, putting pressure on the range. The U.S. Bureau of Land Management has had a hard time finding buyers. With the new program, anyone who adopts a wild horse 4 years or older will be eligible for a $500 stipend at the end of their first year with the animal.
Colorado: Prison food flap
Oklahoma City bombing conspirator Terry Nichols has lost a round in his lawsuit seeking more whole grains and fresh food in his diet at a federal prison in Colorado. A federal judge in Denver on Thursday denied Nichols’ request for a preliminary injunction. The judge said Nichols didn’t show that he faces immediate and irreparable injury. Nichols contends his diet consists of “unhealthy dead and refined foods” and is causing him physical problems. He also says the food violates his religious beliefs.
Australia: Nail-gun killing
Australian police appealed to the public Friday for help in solving the gruesome killing of a Chinese man who was shot 34 times in the head and neck with a nail gun before being dumped in a river. Chen Liu’s badly decomposed body was found in Sydney on Nov. 1, about two weeks after a friend reported him missing, but police have yet to say whether they’ve identified any suspects. State police on Friday asked the public to provide any information they may have about the case, releasing graphic X-ray images of the 27-year-old’s skull to highlight the brutality of the crime.
Czech Republic: Duke arrest
Former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke was detained by police in the Czech Republic on Friday on suspicion of denying the Holocaust. A police spokesman said the action was taken because Duke does that in his book “My Awakening,” which is punishable by up to three years in Czech prisons. Duke traveled to the republic to promote the book’s Czech translation of the book at the invitation of neo-Nazis.
From Herald news services
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