WASHINGTON — The U.S. military announced plans Tuesday to withdraw 3,500 American soldiers from Iaq as part of the Pentagon’s overall reduction in troop strength following last year’s “surge” of about 30,000 troops.
Washington plans to trim forces in Iraq to about 140,000 soldiers by the summer from a peak of about 170,000 in October, at the height of the troop buildup in Baghdad and surrounding areas.
The departing soldiers, part of the 3rd Heavy Brigade Combat Team, will redeploy to Fort Benning, Ga., the military said.
Separately, lawmakers said Tuesday that a new war spending bill proposed by House Democrats would prohibit using U.S. aid to rebuild towns or equip security forces in Iraq unless Baghdad matches every dollar spent. The $195 billion measure could be voted on as early as Thursday.
@3. Headline News Briefs 14 no:EPA may not rid drinking water of rocket fuel
An EPA official said Tuesday there’s a “distinct possibility” the agency won’t take action to rid drinking water of a toxic rocket fuel ingredient that has contaminated public water supplies around the country. Benjamin Grumbles, assistant administrator for water at the Environmental Protection Agency, told a Senate hearing that EPA is aware that perchlorate is widespread and poses health risks. But he said that after years of study, EPA has yet to determine whether regulating perchlorate in drinking water would do much good.
@3. Headline News Briefs 14 no:Passenger rights bill hits dead end
Major legislation to make airlines come up with a plan to provide adequate food, water and restroom facilities in the event of a significant delay faltered in the Senate on Tuesday, possibly dooming the bill. The Senate stopped debate on legislation to fund and overhaul the nation’s aviation system after most Republicans, saying they were barred from freely offering amendments, joined to block an effort to move the bill forward.
@3. Headline News Briefs 14 no:Teachers see pitfalls of tenure
More than half of teachers believe it’s too difficult to weed out ineffective teachers who have tenure, and nearly half say they personally know such a teacher, according to a survey released Tuesday evening by the Education Sector, a nonpartisan think tank. About 70 percent of 1,000 teachers participating in the survey said receiving tenure was just a formality that has little to do with teacher quality.
@3. Headline News Briefs 14 no:Special counsel’s office raided
Federal agents raided the office and home of U.S. Special Counsel Scott Bloch on Tuesday while investigating whether the nation’s top protector of whistle-blowers destroyed evidence potentially showing he retaliated against his own staff. A group of current and former Office of Special Counsel workers filed a complaint against Bloch in 2005, accusing him of retaliating against those who opposed his policies with intimidation and involuntary transfers.
Georgia: Lethal injections back with first execution
A Georgia man was executed in Jackson on Tuesday, the first inmate put to death since the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of lethal injections. William Earl Lynd, 53, was sentenced to die for kidnapping and shooting his live-in girlfriend, Ginger Moore, 26, in 1988. After he buried Moore’s body in a shallow grave near a south Georgia farm, authorities said Lynd fled to Ohio, where he shot and killed another woman who had stopped along the side of the road to help him.
Virginia: D.C.-area sniper seeks to end appeals
Washington, D.C.-area sniper John Allen Muhammad is asking prosecutors in a letter to help him end legal appeals of his conviction and death sentence “so that you can murder this innocent black man.” Muhammad and his teenage accomplice, Lee Boyd Malvo, were convicted in 2003 of a random killing rampage that left 10 people dead in Maryland, Virginia and the District of Columbia over a three-week span in October 2002. Muhammad was sentenced to death, and Malvo was sentenced to life in prison.
Brazil: Rancher acquitted of ordering U.S. nun’s killing
An Amazon rancher convicted of ordering the 2005 killing of American nun Dorothy Stang was acquitted Tuesday in retrial. Vitalmiro Moura is one of two ranchers who allegedly ordered the killing of the 73-year-old. Moura had been convicted and sentenced to 30 years for the crime, but Brazil requires retrials for first offenders sentenced to more than 20 years. The jury did convict Rayfran Neves das Sales, who had confessed to fatally shooting Stang, saying he acted alone, contradicting his previous testimony. Prosecutors said he had been offered $25,000 to kill the nun after she fought to preserve a patch of jungle that ranchers wanted to raze for logging and cattle ranching.
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