Peninsula Daily News for Thursday, September 29, 2011
Second Front Page
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Briefly: Nation Man allegedly planned to blow up D.C. sites
Tuesday by a hunter who said he killed the bear when it came to his bait station alone on the evening of Sept. 16. The hunter told Rogers he would not have deliberately shot BOSTON — A Massachusetts Hope and didn’t know she was the same bear. However, Rogers man was arrested Wednesday and accused of plotting an assault said the hunter also did not on the Pentagon and U.S. Capitol express remorse. Rogers said he’s confident the using remote-controlled aircraft bear was Hope because every armed with explosives — the latother female bear known to be in est of several terrorism cases to that area near Ely in northeastspring from federal sting operaern Minnesota where Hope and tions. Rezwan Ferdaus was arrested her family roamed has been in Framingham after undercover accounted for, including Hope’s radio-collared mother, Lily, who at federal agents delivered materione point bedded down just 165 als he had allegedly requested, yards away from the bait site. including grenades, six machine Hope was not collared or othguns and what he believed was erwise marked or tagged. 24 pounds of C-4 explosive. Federal officials said the pubMaine highway lic was never in danger from the explosives, which it said were AUGUSTA, Maine — If you always under control and closely drive along Interstate 95 in the monitored. nation’s far northeastern corner, According to a federal affida“it’s trees, trees, trees” for mile vit, Ferdaus, 26, of Ashland, after mile, says one motorist. So became convinced that America why not set the cruise control was evil through jihadi websites on 75 mph? and videos, and began planning That’s what a lot of drivers “jihad” against the U.S. in early have been doing for years, but 2010. now it’s legal on one lonesome stretch, making Maine the only Internet bear dead state east of the Mississippi MINNEAPOLIS — A Minne- River where drivers aren’t breaking the law by driving 75 sota black bear who became a mph. worldwide star when her birth The new law authorizing the was broadcast over the Internet higher limit went on the books is presumed dead after a hunter Wednesday, though it actually came forward to report that he takes effect when new signs had shot the animal without replace the old 65 mph ones knowing it was her, a researcher next Tuesday. said Tuesday. The trees, bogs, potato fields Researchers last saw the yearand mountain vistas all might ling bear named Hope on look a little blurrier at 75 mph, Sept. 14. Lynn Rogers, senior but drivers also will burn more researcher at the North American Bear Center and its affiliated fuel and risk more destructive Wildlife Research Institute in Ely, accidents. The Associated Press Minn., said he was contacted
Briefly: World
The Associated Press
Cross-eyed opossum Heidi sits in its interim enclosure, in the zoo in Leipzig, Germany, in December 2010. from suffering and pain.” Heidi first attracted attention at the end of last year after she was featured on a local television report about the nocturnal enclosure where she spent her final days. A clip of the report went viral, giving rise to a fan page on Facebook that attracted more than 332,000 admirers from across the globe.
Internet opossum dies U.S. fugitive married BERLIN — Facebook friends and fans across the Twittersphere are mourning the loss of Heidi — the cross-eyed German opossum whose cute but confused countenance warmed hearts around the world. The Leipzig, Germany, zoo said Wednesday that the marsupial had been listless and unable to move for several weeks. A decision was made to put the 31⁄2-year-old animal to sleep following repeated attempts to treat her. “We carried out every possible test and treatment,” zoo director Joerg Junhold said in a statement. “We made the final decision . . . to relieve the animal
Ruling would weigh in on appeal striking down mandate By Mark Sherman
The Associated Press
WASHINGTON — Raising prospects for a major electionyear ruling, the Obama administration launched its Supreme Court defense of its landmark health care overhaul Wednesday, appealing what it called a “fundamentally flawed” appeals court decision that declared the law’s central provision unconstitutional. Destined from the start for a high court showdown, the health care law affecting virtually every American seems sure to figure prominently in President Barack Obama’s campaign for re-election next year. Republican contenders are already assailing it in virtually every debate and speech. The administration formally appealed a ruling by the federal appeals court in Atlanta that struck down the law’s core requirement that individuals buy health insurance or pay a penalty beginning in 2014. At the same time, however, the winners in that appellate case, 26 states and the National Federation of Independent Business, also asked for high court review Wednesday, saying the entire law,
and not just the individual insurance mandate, should be struck down. The Supreme Court almost always weighs in when a lower court has struck down all or part of a federal law, to say nothing of one that aims to extend insurance coverage to more than 30 million Americans.
Timing is bigger question The bigger question had been the timing. The administration’s filing makes it more likely that the case will be heard and decided in the term that begins next week. Repeating arguments it has made in courts across the country in response to many challenges to the law, the administration said Congress was well within its constitutional power to enact the insurance requirement. Disagreeing with that, the 26 states and business group said in their filings that the justices should act before the 2012 presidential election because of uncertainty over costs and requirements. On the issue of timing, their cause got an unexpected boost from retired Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens, who said
voters would be better off if they knew the law’s fate before casting their ballots next year. The 91-year-old Stevens said in an Associated Press interview that the justices would not shy away from deciding the case in the middle of a presidential campaign and would be doing the country a service. “It would be better to have that known about than be speculated as a part of the political argument,” Stevens said in his Supreme Court office overlooking the Capitol. Although the Atlanta appeals court struck down the individual insurance requirement, it upheld the rest of the law. The states and the business group said that would still impose huge new costs. In another challenge to the same law, the federal appeals court in Cincinnati sided with the administration. The law would extend health coverage mainly through subsidies to purchase private insurance and an expansion of Medicaid. The states object to the Medicaid expansion and a provision forcing them to cover their employees’ health care at a level set by the government. The individual insurance mandate “indisputably served as the centerpiece of the delicate compromise that produced” the law, according to the states, with Florida taking the lead.
Daredevil engineers rappel down Washington Monument By Ben Nuckols
The Associated Press
Car bomb in S. Russia kills 8, wounds 6 MOSCOW — Investigators said a powerful car bomb killed eight people, including an 11-year-old girl and a police officer, in Russia’s volatile Dagestan province. The Investigative Committee, Russia’s top investigative body, said the explosive that was planted in a car parked at a road crossing in the central Levashinsky district also wounded six more police officers Wednesday. Dagestan, a multiethnic, predominantly Muslim republic, is plagued by near-daily violence. It is part of the restive Caucasus region that has been destabilized by an Islamist insurgency that has spread across the region following two separatist wars in Chechnya.
Obama appeals health care setback to court
ALMOCAGEME, Portugal — He lived the sweet life for decades. But nobody knew he was on the run. After breaking out of a New Jersey prison 41 years ago, George Wright settled in a picturesque seaside town in Portugal. He married a local woman, raised two children and grew old in a pretty house on a cobbled street next to a stunning beach. Locals knew him as Jorge Santos, a friendly man from Africa who did odd jobs and spoke fluent Portuguese. He kept his true identity secret: convicted murderer, prison escapee and accused hijacker. The Associated Press
WASHINGTON — In what looked like a scene from a Hollywood action movie, an elite team of professionals rappelled down the Washington Monument on Wednesday — not to carry out a covert mission but to inspect the damage done to the 555-foot marble obelisk by last month’s earthquake. As tourists squinted at the tiny figures, two men and two women climbed from a hatch and observation windows at the top of the monument and slowly began lowering themselves with ropes and harnesses down its pyramidshaped cap, where a large, inchwide crack was located and where they expected to find the most damage.
Nerve-wracking From the ground, their movements appeared methodical and deliberate, but it was still enough to make family members and gawkers nervous. “It’s kind of freaky. I’m terrified of heights. I’ll bet everything looks all swirly up there,” said Brandon Guy, 14, of Windsor, Calif. Engineers said the 1884 landmark is structurally sound but that they need to catalog every defect so they can determine how long it will take to repair it and reopen it to the public. To carry that out, they called in a “difficult-access team” of specialists certified in both architectural engineering and climbing. The team was supervised by a park ranger with extensive mountaineering experience in the Denali National Park in Alaska, home to North America’s highest peak. During the daredevil inspec-
Quick Read
The Associated Press
A team of engineers, from left, Dan Gach, Emma Cardini, center and Katie Francis, harnessed to ropes, inspect the exterior Wednesday of the Washington Monument for damage caused by last month’s earthquake. tion, which is expected to last several days, the intrepid climbers will work their way up and down the sides of the entire monument, snap photos with a digital camera and tap the stones with a soft mallet, listening for indica-
tions of damage. They have masonry tools to remove loose stone or mortar. Each is also carrying a two-way radio and an iPad loaded with data from the 1999 restoration of the monument.
. . . more news to start your day
Nation: George Tech students take ‘T’ on signs
Nation: Copper theft for wedding nets $18, cops say
Nation: Smugglers hand off drugs through fence
World: Mexican president orders forces to Veracruz
THIS COLLEGE PRANK is brought to you by the letter ‘T’ and the students at Georgia Tech. The letter “T” is disappearing from signs all over campus, costing the school more than $100,000 in repairs. Officials at the school in Atlanta are asking students to knock it off. Undergraduate President Elle Creel told Fox 5 Atlanta that the tradition of stealing the “T” off Tech Tower began in the 1960s. But this new ritual involves taking a “T” from everything from stadium signs to book return bins in front of the campus library. Student Katie Simmons said many buildings have been defaced.
POLICE SAID A western Pennsylvania couple desperate for money to pay for their wedding netted just $18 for the stolen copper wire they cut from more than a dozen utility poles. North Sewickley police said 23-yearold Joseph Russell and 24-year-old April Cater cut down the wires Aug.9, four days before their wedding. Russell said he was desperate for money because he’d just lost his job and lost a $1,000 deposit after his reception hall abruptly closed down. Sgt. Jeff Bezce said the couple clearly expected to get more money than they got from the scrap where they sold the copper.
A NEW TYPE of border fence is apparently forcing drug smugglers to change the way they move their cargo from Mexico to the U.S. The Nogales International reported that Arizona law enforcement officers noticed that some bundles of marijuana they seized were oddly shaped. Lt. Gerry Castillo of the Santa Cruz County Metro Task Force said investigators first thought the 48 pounds of marijuana wrapped in thin tubular packages had been prepared for easy transport through a tunnel. But they weren’t dirty. That’s when investigators realized the packages had likely been passed between the new border fence’s bars.
MEXICAN PRESIDENT FELIPE Calderon is sending troops and federal police to a Gulf coast state where gunmen last week dumped 35 bound, seminude, tortured bodies on a busy avenue in front of horrified motorists. Federal security spokesman Alejandra Sota said the federal forces will reinforce operational and intelligence work in the state of Veracruz. She didn’t say how many troops and officers are being sent. Sota said Veracruz’s government has asked federal prosecutors to take over the body-dumping investigation. Authorities have said the victims were linked to the Zetas drug cartel.