As Tropical Storm Fay hits Florida, residents take wait-and-see attitude about storm prep
KEY WEST, Fla. (AP) — Two years since a hurricane last lashed at Florida, many residents were taking a wait-and-see attitude Monday as a strengthening Tropical Storm Fay swept across the Florida Keys and bore down on the Gulf Coast.
While tourists caught the last flight out of town and headed out of the storm's path, residents in the carefree Florida Keys were putting up hurricane shutters and checking their generators, but not doing much more.
"We're not worried about it. We've seen this movie before," said 58-year-old Willie Dykes, who lives on a sailboat in Key West and was buying food, water and whiskey.
By midafternoon, heavy rains moving ahead of Fay's core were pelting the low-lying Keys island chain. Sustained winds of about 33 mph bent palm trees, and some gusts hit 51 mph.
The sixth named storm in the Atlantic hurricane season was expected to become a hurricane before curling up the state's western coast and hitting Florida's mainland sometime Tuesday.
—
McCain says Obama tried to legislate failure in Iraq for political gain, is not ready to lead
ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — John McCain told fellow veterans on Monday that his Democratic rival Barack Obama tried to legislate failure in Iraq and has refused to admit he erred when opposing the military increase there last year.
McCain said Obama placed his political self-interest ahead of his country's, a theme the Arizona Republican has often repeated. McCain told a friendly convention of the Veterans of Foreign Wars that Obama's positions have changed as his political ambitions grew.
"With less than three months to go before the election, a lot of people are still trying to square Sen. Obama's varying positions on the surge in Iraq. First, he opposed the surge and confidently predicted that it would fail. Then he tried to prevent funding for the troops who carried out the surge," McCain said.
"Not content to merely predict failure in Iraq, my opponent tried to legislate failure."
Obama has acknowledged the surge reduced violence in Iraq but says it has failed in its political goal of facilitating a reconciliation among contentious Iraqi factions. The Illinois Democrat proposes to withdrawn U.S. combat forces from Iraq within 16 months; McCain opposes any timetable for withdrawal.
—
Gov't destroyed early sample from anthrax suspect, feared it would be thrown out at trial
WASHINGTON (AP) — FBI scientists early on had — but destroyed — the unique strain of anthrax used in the deadly 2001 attacks that years later would lead them to Dr. Bruce Ivins, the government's top suspect who committed suicide three weeks ago.
FBI Assistant Director Vahid Majidi said Monday the initial anthrax sample that Ivins took from his Army lab in February 2002 and gave investigators did not meet court-ordered conditions for its preparation and collection.
In a briefing for reporters, Majidi said the sample kept at the FBI lab was destroyed because the bureau believed it might not have been allowed as evidence at trial.
"Looking at hindsight, obviously we would do things differently today," Majidi said.
The science that let investigators look for tiny genetic mutations in the kind of anthrax used in the attacks was only becoming available around 2004, Majidi said. Not until then did investigators trace strains of genetically-unique anthrax back to Ivins' biodefense lab at Fort Detrick, Md.
—
California mom to be tried on charges of fleeing Michigan prison 32 years ago
PLYMOUTH, Mich. (AP) — A California woman who escaped from a Michigan prison more than 30 years ago and remade her life as a suburban mother of three is "extremely uncomfortable" back behind bars and wants to move the case through the courts as quickly as possible, her attorney said Monday.
Susan LeFevre, 53, skipped her right to a preliminary examination, which will send her case to trial in Wayne County Circuit Court weeks earlier than anticipated.
In 1976, with the help of her grandfather, LeFevre climbed over a barbed-wire fence at a state prison after serving a year of a 10- to 20-year sentence for selling heroin. In April, she was arrested outside her home in an affluent area of San Diego.
LeFevre is back in Michigan serving at least 51/2 years on the drug charge before a chance at parole. But she also faces a separate escape charge. Defense attorney William Swor said he plans to fight it vigorously, although he declined to elaborate.
LeFevre has not been physically threatened, he said, but everyone knows her background at Scott Correctional Facility in Plymouth.
—
Survey: Many Americans believe God's help can revive dying patients, despite medical evidence
CHICAGO (AP) — When it comes to saving lives, God trumps doctors for many Americans. An eye-opening survey reveals widespread belief that divine intervention can revive dying patients. And, researchers said, doctors "need to be prepared to deal with families who are waiting for a miracle."
More than half of randomly surveyed adults — 57 percent — said God's intervention could save a family member even if physicians declared treatment would be futile. And nearly three-quarters said patients have a right to demand such treatment.
When asked to imagine their own relatives being gravely ill or injured, nearly 20 percent of doctors and other medical workers said God could reverse a hopeless outcome.
"Sensitivity to this belief will promote development of a trusting relationship" with patients and their families, according to researchers. That trust, they said, is needed to help doctors explain objective, overwhelming scientific evidence showing that continued treatment would be worthless.
Pat Loder, a Milford, Mich., woman whose two young children were killed in a 1991 car crash, said she clung to a belief that God would intervene when things looked hopeless.
—
Marriage of Donnie Wahlberg and his wife is over after nearly 9 years; pair file for divorce
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Donnie Wahlberg and his wife are calling it quits after nearly nine years of marriage. Wahlberg and his wife, Kim Fey Wahlberg, each filed for divorce last Wednesday in separate counties in the Los Angeles area, court records show.
Kim Wahlberg cited "irreconcilable differences" in her filings in Los Angeles Superior Court. Donnie Wahlberg's petition was filed in Ventura County.
The couple were married in August 1999 and separated earlier this year.
The move comes as Wahlberg, 39, prepares to tour with a reunited New Kids on the Block and appears on the big screen in "Righteous Kill," which will be released on Sept. 12.
The former couple have two sons, ages 15 and 7.
—
BACK TO SCHOOL: Schools get students walking with fuel prices up, economy down
PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) — Faced with soaring diesel fuel costs, school districts are forcing students to use the old-fashioned way to get to class: on their own two feet.
Many schools are eliminating or reducing bus service because fuel had jumped to $4.50 per gallon, 36 percent more than a year ago, and is busting budgets.
In California, districts are eliminating busing for thousands of students. Districts in Washington state, Idaho and Maryland and elsewhere are consolidating bus stops, canceling field trips and forcing students to walk longer distances to school to control costs.
Worried parents in Massachusetts have called WalkBoston, a nonprofit group that promotes walking, asking for help after their communities cut back on busing.
Health advocates long have encouraged students to walk, stressing the fitness benefits. But school and transportation officials say they fear that abruptly reducing bus service could lower attendance rates, increase traffic congestion or endanger students if they cannot walk on sidewalks and crosswalks.
"If you remove a school bus from the road, you're adding 40 to 50 cars in the morning and in the afternoon," said Bob Riley, spokesman for the American School Bus Council, which represents school transportation officials.
