In the news
Posted on Friday, May 9, 2008
URL: http://www.nwanews.com/adg/National/225121/
Lance Armstrong, a seven-time Tour de France winner and testicular cancer survivor, appeared before a Senate panel with Elizabeth Edwards, the wife of former Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards who is battling a recurrence of breast cancer, and told Congress, “It’s time for our country to refocus and relaunch a comprehensive war on this disease.”
Gov. Tim Pawlenty, a Minnesota Republican, signed into law a $ 38 million compensation package for the victims of the Aug. 1 failure of the Interstate 35 West bridge in Minneapolis, which killed 13 people and hurt 145. Josephus Haynes, 41, was in critical but stable condition at a Denver hospital after Haynes, in handcuffs and shackles for a court appearance on a misdemeanor assault charge, jumped headfirst through a closed window in a third-floor courtroom, shattering the glass, and plunging to the ground.
Gary Dourdan, 41, who plays crime-scene investigator Warrick Brown on CBS’ CSI, has been charged with felony possession of heroin, cocaine and ecstasy stemming from his April arrest in Palm Springs, Calif., prosecutors said. Carl Hunter, 73, a construction firm owner from Metairie, La., who lost two homes in Hurricane Katrina, has claimed a Powerball prize of $ 97 million, or a lump sum of $ 33. 9 million after taxes, on a ticket he bought in January and said he waited four months to claim his prize so he could finish his outstanding contracts.
Vic Kohring, a former Alaska state Republican legislator who was convicted in November of accepting at least $ 2, 600 in bribes to push legislation for a major natural-gas pipeline, has been sentenced to 1 3 / 2 years in federal prison. Keron Lamont Wilkins, 30, was charged in Cary, N. C., with one felony count of bigamy after Chaka Miles Wilkins and Shannetta Dawn Stone, 32, of Richmond, Va., both of whom say they are married to Wilkins, teamed up to turn him over to police in a case that got stranger after his arrest when Jenean Baker, 34, of Atlanta came forward and said she, too, was married to Wilkins. Sergio Witz Rodriguez, a Mexican poet, said he would not pay a $ 5 fine for desecrating the country’s flag by writing a poem about using it to wipe up urine and excrement.
Abu Qatada, a radical Muslim cleric who was jailed in 2002 over accusations that he played a key role in raising money for extremist groups and provided spiritual advice to militants planning terror attacks, has been granted bail by a British immigration appeals commission, although he will only be allowed outside his house for two hours a day.