Denver: Most air tankers cleared for firefighting duties

An order grounding much of the nation’s firefighting fleet of aging, heavy duty air tankers was lifted Saturday, two days after the second deadly crash since June in the middle of a busy wildfire season.

Still grounded pending results of federal investigations, however, were nine planes of the same types as those that crashed in June near Walker, Calif., and Thursday near Lyons, Colo., killing a total of five crew members.

A PB4Y-2 Privateer, a former Navy bomber that saw duty during World War II, came apart in the air Thursday while carrying a load of fire retardant to a blaze near the rugged Rocky Mountain National Park.

On Friday, the government ordered a 24-hour stand-down of 32 other tankers to allow inspections.

Washington: Democrats pan GOP on prescription benefits

Sen. Paul Wellstone, D-Minn., accused pharmaceutical companies and their political allies of trying to defeat legislation that would give older Americans a Medicare prescription drug benefit.

“They oppose allowing older Americans to come together to negotiate lower drug prices,” Wellstone said Saturday in the Democrats’ weekly radio address.

The Senate has been debating two competing plans to provide a Medicare prescription drug benefit.

Wellstone favors a Democratic plan that would require beneficiaries to pay a $25 monthly premium and a $10 copayment on generic drugs or a $40 copayment on brand-name drugs. Out-of-pocket expenditures would be capped at $4,000 a year.

The Bush administration and congressional Republicans have said the Democratic plan would require the government to increase taxes, cut all government programs or drain the Medicare trust fund early.

Virginia: Helicopter landing spurs shooting reaction

A man armed with an assault-style rifle opened fire on a helicopter landing in a residential neighborhood in Williamsburg, thinking the chopper was carrying terrorists, police said.

Pilot John S. Sutton landed his helicopter July 13 at the home of businessman John Peters to pick him up, police said.

John Chwaszczewski, a semiretired construction worker, became alarmed when he saw the chopper swoop down over his garage, about a block from Peters’ home.

“Maybe I overreacted, but I did feel this was terrorism at its utmost,” Chwaszczewski said. He told police before he was arrested that the shooting was “a natural reaction,” after having watched the events of Sept. 11.

Sutton was charged with recklessly operating an aircraft, a misdemeanor.

Chwaszczewski was charged with interfering with an aircraft, discharging a firearm, an AR-15 rifle, in a public place, reckless handling of a firearm and assaulting Sutton.

Chicago: Report links deaths to hospital infections

About 103,000 deaths were linked to hospital infections in 2000 a figure 14 percent higher than government estimates and nearly 75 percent of the deaths were preventable, the Chicago Tribune reported.

The national Centers for Disease Control and Prevention last year calculated 90,000 deaths in 2000 were linked to hospital infections, the fourth leading cause of death in the United States behind heart disease, cancer and strokes.

Many of the deaths were caused by unsanitary facilities, germ-laden instruments and unwashed hands, the newspaper said in early Sunday editions distributed Saturday.

According to the report, infection rates are soaring nationally, exacerbated by hospital cutbacks.