World / Nation Today in History By The Associated Press Today is Saturday, Aug. 3, the 215th day of 2013. There are 150 days left in the year. Today’s Highlight in History: On August 3, 1863, the first thoroughbred horse races took place at the Saratoga Race Course in Saratoga Springs, N.Y. On this date: In 1492, Christopher Columbus set sail from Palos, Spain, on a voyage that took him to the present-day Americas. In 1807, former Vice President Aaron Burr went on trial before a federal court in Richmond, Va., charged with treason. (He was acquitted less than a month later.) In 1914, Germany declared war on France at the onset of World War I. In 1936, Jesse Owens of the United States won the first of his four gold medals at the Berlin Olympics as he took the 100-meter sprint. In 1943, Gen. George S. Patton slapped a private at an army hospital in Sicily, accusing him of cowardice. (Patton was later ordered by Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower to apologize for this and a second, similar episode.) In 1949, the National Basketball Association was formed as a merger of the Basketball Association of America and the National Basketball League. In 1958, the nuclear-powered submarine USS Nautilus became the first vessel to cross the North Pole underwater. In 1966, comedian Lenny Bruce, 40, was found dead in his Los Angeles home. In 1972, the U.S. Senate ratified the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty between the United States and the Soviet Union. (The U.S. unilaterally withdrew from the treaty in 2002.) In 1981, U.S. air traffic controllers went on strike, despite a warning from President Ronald Reagan they would be fired, which they were. In 1988, the Soviet Union released Mathias Rust (muhTEE’-uhs rust), the young West German pilot who had landed a light plane near Moscow’s Red Square in May 1987. In 1993, the Senate voted 96-3 to confirm U.S. Supreme Court nominee Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Ten years ago: The Episcopal Church’s House of Deputies further paved the way for the Rev. V. Gene Robinson to become the church’s first openly gay elected bishop, approving him on a 128-63 vote. Annika Sorenstam completed a career Grand Slam at the Women’s British Open, beating Se Ri Pak by a stroke in a head-to-head showdown. Hank Stram, Marcus Allen, James Lofton, Elvin Bethea and Joe DeLamielleure were inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Five years ago: Nobel Prize-winning Russian author Alexander Solzhenitsyn died near Moscow at age 89. Al-Qaida confirmed the death of a top commander (Abu Khabab al-Masri), apparently in a U.S. airstrike in Pakistan; he was accused of training the suicide bombers who’d killed 17 American sailors on the USS Cole in 2000. At least 145 people were killed in a stampede of pilgrims at a remote mountaintop Hindu temple in India.
Out of the Blue
There’s a shark at the door NANTUCKET, Mass. (AP) — A cleaning crew has found an unexpected mess after arriving at Sea Dog Brew Pub on Nantucket: a 5-foot-long shark blocking the door. Pub manager Jimmy Agnew says he doesn’t know why anyone would have dumped the sea creature there. Nantucket’s public works department hauled the dead shark away after its discovery around 7 a.m. Thursday. But Agnew said the pub fielded calls and questions all day long after word got out about the land shark. He said a comedian whose band performs at the pub also posted a series of jokes about it on Facebook. One suggested the shark went to Sea Dog “to meet his chums.”
Sidney Daily News, Saturday, August 3, 2013
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Law requires cord blood from some teen moms Emily Wagster Pettus Associated Press
JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — If a girl younger than 16 gives birth and won’t name the father, a new Mississippi law — likely the first of its kind in the country — says authorities must collect umbilical cord blood and run DNA tests to prove paternity as a step toward prosecuting statutory rape cases. Supporters say the law is intended to chip away at Mississippi’s teen pregnancy rate, which has long been one of the highest in the nation. But critics say that though the procedure is painless, it invades the medical privacy of the mother, father and baby. And questions abound: At roughly $1,000 a pop, who will pay for the DNA tests in the country’s poorest state? Even after test results arrive, can prosecutors compel a potential father to submit his own DNA and possibly implicate himself in a crime? How long will the state keep the DNA on file? Republican Gov. Phil Bryant says the DNA tests could lead to prosecution of grown men who have sex with underage girls. “It is to stop children from being raped,” said Bryant, who started his career as a deputy sheriff in the 1970s. “One of the things that go on in this state that’s always haunted me when I was a law-enforcement officer is seeing the 14- and 15-year-old girl that is raped by the neighbor next door and down the street.” But Bear Atwood, legal director for the American Civil Liberties Union of Mississippi, said it’s an invasion of privacy to collect cord blood without consent of the mother, father and baby. She also said that an underage girl who doesn’t want to reveal the identity of her baby’s father might skip prenatal care: “Will she decide not to have the baby in a hospital where she can have a safe, happy, healthy delivery?” The law took effect July 1 but hasn’t been used yet. Cord blood samples would have to be taken immediately after birth, and the state medical examiner is setting administrative rules for how
the blood will be collected and stored. Megan Comlossy, health policy associate for the National Conference of State Legislatures, said she thinks Mississippi is the first state to enact a law authorizing the collection of blood from the umbilical cord — a painless procedure — to determine paternity. Bryant’s staff says the idea for the law came from public meetings conducted by the governor’s teen pregnancy prevention task force — a group that focuses mostly on promoting abstinence. Statistics put the state’s teen pregnancy rate among the highest in the country. In 2011 — the most recent year for which statistics are available — there were 50.2 live births in Mississippi per 1,000 females ages 15-19, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The nationwide rate was 31.3. And more than half Mississippi’s 82 counties reported at least one pregnancy by a 10- to 14-year-old girl in 2011, according to an Associated Press analysis of state statistics. The governor’s staff also said it heard disheartening information from Chancery Judge Janace Harvey Goree, whose district covers four counties in central Mississippi. In an interview with the AP, Goree said she was disturbed to learn that several middle school girls had become pregnant in recent years in Holmes County, where she lives. In the poor, mostly rural county, middle school and high school students are on the same campus in some places. “Most often, it is not middle school boys that are getting the middle school girls pregnant,” Goree said. As a chancery judge, Goree oversees child support cases. “When you’re seeking child support quite often in these situations, they don’t identify the father and so quite often you don’t know until way down the road that the person who is the father is a relative or the boyfriend … of someone else in the household,” she said. The governor said he worked with Attorney General Jim Hood, a Democrat, on the
AP Photo|Rogelio V. Solis
Gov. Phil Bryant, shown in this taken Thursday during a media sitdown at the Neshoba County Fair in Philadelphia, Miss., says a new state law that says authorities must collect umbilical cord blood and run DNA tests to prove paternity if a girl younger than 16 gives birth in Mississippi and won’t name the father, could lead to prosecution of grown men who have sex with underage girls, preventing predators from victimizing others.
cord blood bill. The final version passed the Senate unanimously and the House 98-17. The issue of cost received little debate. The bill’s main sponsor, Republican state Rep. Andy Gipson, said the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that DNA left on objects, such as saliva on a disposable cup, can be tested as evidence in a criminal case. He said he thinks umbilical cord blood fits that description. “We’re not taking blood from the baby,” Gipson said. “We’re not taking blood from the mother. We’re taking blood that is discarded … literally discarded.” Gipson said he doesn’t believe a man who fathers a child with an underage girl should have a reasonable expectation of privacy. “Most cases would involve a suspect who is pretty well identified,” he said. Democratic state Rep. Adrienne Wooten voted against the bill, saying it will mostly hurt poor women and could lead a prosecution “fishing expedition to find out who the father is.” “I think that that is totally outside the boundaries of what we as a Legislature should be doing,” said Wooten, who, like Gipson, is an attorney. “We already have laws that deal with statutory rape.” The attorney general’s office
doesn’t keep statistics on the number of cases that district attorneys pursue in Mississippi under the state’s longstanding statuary rape law, spokeswoman Jan Schaefer said. “A lot of DAs and judges don’t want to take these cases on,” Bryant said. “Oftentimes, the female doesn’t want to press charges or the parents do not want to. So, we’ve just got to stop this.” The new law says it’s reasonable to think a sex crime has been committed against a minor if the baby’s mother won’t identify the father; if she lists him as unknown, older than 21 or deceased; or if the identified father disputes paternity. The law says health care workers and facilities cannot face civil or criminal penalties for collecting cord blood, and failure to collect is a misdemeanor offense. The law doesn’t address whether the mother can refuse blood collection or what would happen to her if she does. Goree said she supports using the law to prosecute older men but is concerned it could be against teenage boys. “It’s a different problem than a 13-year-old impregnated by a 21-year-old or a 30-year-old,” she said. For the bigger age gap, Goree said, “I have no sympathy.” Follow Emily Wagster Pettus on Twitter: http:// twitter.com/EWagsterPettus.
What happens next to Italy’s celebrity convict? Frances D’emilio Associated Press
ROME (AP) — Now that Silvio Berlusconi’s tax fraud conviction and four-year prison sentence have been upheld by Italy’s highest court, key questions remain about what will happen next to the former Italian premier. At his age, how much of that sentence will he actually have to serve? Will he do that in prison or at one of his villas? Will he be barred from leaving Italy and lose his Senate seat? Here are some answers. Q: When will the cell bars slam behind him? A: Berlusconi is highly unlikely to do a day behind bars, and that’s not because he is one of the country’s richest men. That’s because of Italian law. For example, his four-year prison sentence is automatically reduced to one year because of a law mandating that three years be shaved off sentences to reduce prison overcrowding. Berlusconi has long worked hard to appear younger, including eyelid tightening and hair transplants. But he will turn 77 in September, and most Italian convicts 70 or older are eligible to serve their sentences at home. First-time offenders with relatively short sentences are eligible to avoid prison by doing social services such as picking up litter in a park or serving meals at homes for the elderly. Berlusconi will be given this option. The billionaire media mogul has several homes in Italy: a sprawling seaside estate on Sardinia’s Emerald Coast, a villa near Milan where he used to hold his infamous “bunga bunga suppers” with young women, and a rented palazzo in Rome a short stroll away from the office where he served as premier three times. Berlusconi will decide wheth-
er to do social services or stay at home. If he makes the latter choice, judicial officials would help decide which dwelling to confine him in. Q: When does he start serving his sentence? A: It will take weeks for Berlusconi to be formally notified of his options since judicial offices are on vacation now. And when he is, he’ll have a month to make up his mind. That means he is unlikely to start serving his sentence until mid-October at the earliest. If he opts to do social services, it could take months to find an approved organization that would accept him. Q. Berlusconi is fond of jetting away for the weekend with officials such as Russian leader Vladimir Putin. How will Italian authorities stop him from leaving the country? A. Italian convicts serving their sentences at home are required to sign in at a local police station on a regular basis. Electronic leg bracelets aren’t being used in Italy. Convicts’ passports are seized. The former premier also has a diplomatic passport, but foreign ministry officials said it expired a few months ago. That means he won’t be able to leave the country. Q. Can Berlusconi remain a politician? A. Thursday’s high court ruling upheld a ban on his holding or running for public office. A lower court had meted out a five-year ban, but the high court ruled that the wrong law had been applied in determining the length of the ban and ordered another court to recalculate it, using a law stipulating that bans can last from one to three years. Q. So when can he be a senator again or run for a fourth term as premier? A. Berlusconi remains a senator for now. It will take months, maybe more, for a Milan court
AP Photo|Riccardo De Luca
Italian former Premier Silvio Berlusconi waves to reporters as he leaves after attending a meeting with the People of Freedom party’s lawmakers at the Lower Chamber in Rome, Friday. Italy’s former premier, Silvio Berlusconi, for the first time in decades of criminal prosecutions related to his media empire was definitively convicted of tax fraud and sentenced to prison by the nation’s highest court, Judge Antonio Esposito, in reading the court’s decision Thursday, declared Berlusconi’s conviction and four-year prison term “irrevocable.”
to decide the length of his ban from public office. Then the Senate must be officially notified. After that, a parliamentary commission will discuss what to do and hold a public hearing which Berlusconi and his lawyer can attend. After that, the full Senate votes. If the Senate votes to defy the ban, the Cassation Court can challenge that, taking the question of which power prevails — legislative or judicial — to Italy’s constitutional court. Whatever happens, a recent law bars anyone with a prison
term of more than two years from ever running in an election for a seat in Parliament. So if Berlusconi loses his seat, he won’t ever be elected for another one. Q. How about a special pardon? A. On Friday, Berlusconi met with some leaders of his party, and they said they intend to press President Giorgio Napolitano — who as head of state has the power to issue pardons — to do so for Berlusconi. But they have not formally made such a request yet.