WASHINGTON – Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., opened the door to a 2008 presidential campaign Sunday, saying he has begun to consider a possible candidacy and will make a decision after the November elections.
“Given the responses that I’ve been getting over the last several months, I have thought about the possibility, but I have not thought about it with the seriousness and depth that I think is required,” Obama said on NBC’s “Meet The Press.” “After November 7th, I’ll sit down and consider it, and if at some point, I change my mind, I will make a public announcement and everybody will be able to go at me.”
Until Sunday, Obama, one of the brightest stars in the party since electrifying the 2004 Democratic National Convention with his keynote address, had said he planned to serve out the full six years of his Senate term, which would have ruled out a presidential or vice presidential campaign in 2008.
Denver: Amnesia victim identified
An amnesia victim who had been searching for his identity for more than a month was identified Sunday as a 40-year-old man from Olympia. Denver police confirmed Jeff Ingram’s identity after his fiancee, Penny Hansen of Olympia, recognized him from news reports. Ingram left his home Sept. 6 to visit his mother in Canada, but he never made a scheduled stop that evening at his fiancee’s mother’s house in Bellingham, according to the Thurston County Sheriff’s Office. Ingram has said he found himself in Denver on Sept. 10 and walked around for six hours asking people for help. He ended up at a hospital, and police have said he was suffering from amnesia.
New York: Bones may be from 9/11
Searchers found more bones believed to belong to Sept. 11 World Trade Center attack victims Sunday in manholes and utility areas, areas that were apparently overlooked years ago. Deputy Mayor Ed Skyler, who is overseeing the recovery effort, also said that search officials had identified 12 additional underground areas that will be examined in coming days. Utility and city officials have excavated about five underground areas, yielding more than 100 pieces of human remains, since construction workers discovered bones earlier in the week in a manhole excavated as part of work on a transit hub.
Judge bans teacher from the U.S.
A former school teacher convicted of having sex with a 15-year-old student has been ordered by a judge to leave the United States for the next three years, returning only to meet with his probation officer. Malcolm Watson, 35, agreed to the sentence to avoid as much as a year in jail after pleading guilty to endangering a child and third-degree sexual abuse – both misdemeanors. Watson, a former teacher at the Buffalo Seminary, is a U.S. citizen who already lives in Fort Erie, Ontario, with his Canadian wife and three children. He was arrested in April after a mall security guard noticed the pair sitting in a parked car for two hours. Erie County District Attorney Frank Clark called the plea deal “a little dicey” but said the girl’s family was happy with it.
Florida: Woman killed at biker fest
A woman was struck and killed by a drag racing motorcyclist, the fourth fatality involving motorcycles during Daytona Beach’s annual Biketoberfest festival, police said. Nora Cardona, 39, of Coconut Creek, was crossing the street with her husband about 11 a.m. Saturday when she was hit by a speeding motorcycle and dragged 162 feet, Daytona Beach police said.
Indiana: New saint draws a crowd
For the faithful, it was a celebration a century in the making to revere a nun-turned-saint from Indiana. Hundreds flocked to St. Mary-of-the-Woods College outside Terre Haute on the 166th anniversary of Mother Theodore Guerin’s arrival in the frontier woods, one week after Pope Benedict XVI named Guerin a saint along with three others during services in Rome.
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