WASHINGTON — The Senate confirmed former Washington Gov. Gary Locke, 59, as commerce secretary Tuesday.
Locke has promised to focus on job creation and to closely oversee the 2010 census.
The Commerce Department has broad responsibilities, including the census, many aspects of international trade, oceans policy and weather forecasts. It is also overseeing the nation’s transition to digital TV.
Obama nominated Locke for the Commerce post last month, after his first two nominees withdrew. New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson faced questions about the awarding of state contracts and Republican Sen. Judd Gregg of New Hampshire changed his mind about working for the Democratic president.
Iraq pullout will be costly, report says
The removal of about 140,000 U.S. troops from Iraq by the end of 2011 will be a “massive and expensive effort” that is likely to increase rather than lower Iraq-related expenditures during the withdrawal and for several years after its completion, government investigators said in a report released Tuesday. The cost of equipment repairs and replacements, along with closing or turning over 283 U.S. military installations in Iraq, “will likely be significant,” the Government Accountability Office reported.
U.S. to assist Mexico with drug cartel fight at border
Hundreds of federal agents, along with high-tech surveillance gear and drug-sniffing dogs, are headed to the Southwest to help Mexico fight drug cartels and keep violence from spilling across the U.S.-Mexico border, Obama administration officials said Tuesday. The border security initiative, which expands on efforts begun during the Bush administration, is aimed at drug traffickers who have wreaked havoc in Mexico in recent years and are blamed for a spate of kidnappings and home invasions in some U.S. cities.
Pennsylvania: Grave may hold bodies of 57 Irish immigrants
Researchers may have discovered a mass grave in Duffy’s Cut for nearly five dozen 19th-century Irish immigrants who died of cholera weeks after traveling to Pennsylvania to build a railroad. Historians at Immaculata University have known for years about the 57 immigrants who died in August 1832 but could not find the grave. Human bones near the university were discovered last week, researchers announced Tuesday.
Czech Republic: Government falls
The Czech government collapsed Tuesday after losing a parliamentary no-confidence vote over its handling of the economic crisis. Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek said he could resign after his planned trip to Brussels on Wednesday. There has been no indication of whom President Vaclav Klaus might choose to form a new Cabinet.
Japan: Man was double A-bomb victim
A 93-year-old Japanese man has become the first person certified as a survivor of both U.S. atomic bombings at the end of World War II, officials said Tuesday. Tsutomu Yamaguchi was in Hiroshima on a business trip on Aug. 6, 1945, when a U.S. B-29 dropped an atomic bomb on the city. He suffered serious burns to his upper body and spent the night in the city. He then returned to his hometown of Nagasaki just in time for the second attack, city officials said.
Italy: Praying pilot convicted
A pilot who began praying instead of enacting emergency measures before a Tunisian charter flight plummeted into the sea and killed 16 people off Sicily in 2005 was convicted of manslaughter, news reports said Tuesday. The plane’s black box showed that the Tunisian pilot, Chefik Gharbi, lost control of the situation, ceded command of the plane to his co-pilot and began praying, the ANSA news agency reported.
Israel: Labor joins government
The Labor Party voted Tuesday to join the incoming government of Benjamin Netanyahu, lending a moderate voice to a coalition dominated by hard liners and easing concerns of a head-on confrontation with Washington over Mideast peacemaking.
From Herald news services
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