Georgia: Voters oust two House incumbents

Five-term Rep. Cynthia McKinney, who stunned even fellow Democrats by criticizing the Bush administration after Sept. 11, was ousted in Georgia’s primary Tuesday by a political unknown. Republican Bob Barr of Georgia was also bounced out of Congress by a fellow incumbent.

McKinney lost to Denise Majette, a Yale-educated former judge who had never run a congressional campaign before. With 75 percent of precincts reporting, Majette had 55,029 votes, or 60 percent; McKinney had 37,016 votes, or 40 percent.

Even before she won, the diminutive Majette was dancing at campaign headquarters. Standing on a platform so she could see over the podium, she told supporters: “I may only be 5-foot-1, but tonight I am 10 feet tall.”

Barr, the strident maverick who led the House impeachment of President Clinton, lost to soft-spoken Rep. John Linder. With 89 percent of precincts reporting, Linder had 51,418 votes, or 67 percent. Barr had 25,515 votes, or 33 percent.

Colorado: Federal judge blocks oil exploration plans

A federal judge on Tuesday temporarily blocked plans to begin exploring for oil in a national monument in southwestern Colorado, saying it poses a substantial threat of irreparable harm.

U.S. District Judge Lewis Babcock’s ruling in Denver gives four environmental groups a chance to seek a permanent end to the oil exploration set to begin next week in a section of the Canyons of the Ancients National Monument.

A hearing on a preliminary injunction against the U.S. Bureau of Land Management, which oversees the monument, was scheduled for Aug. 27.

Former President Clinton created the Canyons of the Ancients National Monument in 2000. The Interior Department has said the area has the highest known density of archaeological sites in the country, more than 20,000. The remnants include cliff dwellings and rock carvings dating thousands of years.

The land also has an abundance of oil and gas.

New Jersey: Racial profiling claims settled for $250,000

The state has agreed to pay $250,000 to settle claims by three minority motorists who said they were pulled over and searched by state troopers because of their race.

New Jersey did not admit wrongdoing as part of the settlement announced Tuesday in Trenton.

Thomas White, 71, Fred Hamiel, 43, and Tyrone Hamilton, 36, all from Pennsylvania, said between 1997 and 1999 they were pulled over and sometimes searched because of their race.

In 1998, then-Atty. Gen. Peter Verniero admitted troopers engaged in racial profiling after four minorities were shot at by two troopers on the New Jersey Turnpike.

Since then, New Jersey has paid $12.95 million in damages to the shooting victims and another $5 million to black and Hispanic officers who say they were victims of discrimination.

Florida: Sperm donor has no parental rights

A man who donated his sperm and fathered twin boys has no parental rights to visit or contact the children, a Florida appeals court has ruled.

Danny Lucas had sued Lori Lamaritata, asking for a larger role in their boys’ lives than was outlined in the sperm donor contract they signed in 1994, which outlined visitation rights.

The 2nd District Court of Appeals in Lakeland said Friday that the visitation agreement was “not enforceable.”

Florida law says sperm and egg donors must “relinquish all maternal or paternal rights and obligations with respect to the donation or the resulting children,” the court said.