Nation/World Briefly: RNC staffer fired over risque-party payment
Published 7:04 am Wednesday, March 31, 2010
WASHINGTON — A night out at a risque West Hollywood nightclub was an “after-hours nonofficial get together” that followed a meeting of young Republican donors and should not have been paid for with party money, a top Republican National Committee chief of staff Ken McKay said in a memo released Tuesday.
Allison Meyers, an RNC finance department staffer, was fired Monday over the Jan. 31 incident, according to a GOP source with knowledge of the incident.
On Monday, the RNC acknowledged it was investigating the use of committee money to pay for a night out the Voyeur West Hollywood. The club features bondage and sadomasochistic “scenes,” according to its owner.
Party officials did not know of the purpose of the reimbursement to the donor, Southern California businessman Erik Brown, who paid the nearly $2,000 tab, McKay’s memo said.
Obama signs final health bill
President Barack Obama signed into law the budget reconciliation bill to overhaul health care Tuesday and, with the same pen strokes, achieved a far-reaching change in the way most Americas help pay the cost of a college education. After years of controversy over a college-loan system in which the government and the private sector were major players, the new law — which came as a rider on the final piece of health legislation — ends the role of private banks as “middle men,” cuts program costs, and channels the extra money to the neediest students.
Iranian scientist defects to U.S.
An Iranian nuclear scientist, Shahram Amiri, who had been reported missing since last summer,. has defected to the U.S. and is assisting the CIA in its efforts to undermine Iran’s nuclear program, ABC News reported Tuesday. Separately, President Barack Obama said Tuesday he hopes international sanctions against Iran for pursuing its nuclear ambitions will be in place “within weeks,” not months. Iran maintains that its nuclear research is for peaceful purposes and not to develop weapons.
FDA allegedly snuffed safety concerns of medical imaging
A former Food and Drug Administration scientist said Tuesday his job was eliminated after he raised concerns about the risks of radiation exposure from high-grade medical scanning. Dr. Julian Nicholas said he objected to exposing otherwise healthy patients to the cancer risks of radiation for routine colon cancer screening.. The FDA announced an effort to improve scanning safety in February after California hospitals reported hundreds of acute radiation overdoses last year, with many patients reporting lost hair and skin redness.
California: Death for serial killer with Washington state ties
A judge in Santa Ana on Tuesday sentenced serial killer Rodney Alcala to death before hearing emotional testimony from the families of four women and a 12-year-old girl he strangled in the 1970s. Alcala showed little emotion when his sentence was announced and kept his head down afterward as families took their turn condemning the 66-year-old amateur photographer. After the verdict, authorities released more than 100 photos Alcala had of young women and girls, at least some of which were found in a Shoreline storage locker, in hopes of linking him to other unsolved murders around the country. Authorities in Washington state are now trying to determine if Alcala may have killed here.
Afghanistan: No. 1 for hash production
Afghanistan is not only the world’s largest supplier of opium, it is also the global leader in hashish production, the United Nations said today. The U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime said it estimates that 24,700 to 59,300 acres of cannabis are grown in Afghanistan every year and that this is used to make an estimated 1,500 to 3,500 tons of hashish annually. Hashish is the resin produced from cannabis.
China: Water leaks reported before coal mine flooded
Relatives of 153 trapped miners briefly turned violent Tuesday as relatives surged the mine’s office grounds and smashed a window amid revelations that warning signs of the flood went unheeded. Rescue workers at the Wangjialing Coal Mine in were tunneling and laying pipes to drain away water as efforts reached a third day with no communication with those trapped. The Beijing News reported Tuesday that the water leaks were so bad that before the accident, workers asked for pumps to clear some of the pooled water.
From Herald news services
