Maryland: Young sniper suspect has federal hearing

The 17-year-old sniper suspect appeared before a federal judge for a closed juvenile hearing Monday.

Federal charges have also apparently been brought against John Malvo, but authorities will not say so because he is a juvenile. Federal prosecutors filed charges against John Muhammad, 41, last week under weapons and extortion laws that could bring the death penalty.

Malvo had a closed detention hearing in front of a U.S. Magistrate Judge James K. Bredar in Baltimore. Guards stood outside the courtroom and the windows of the doors were covered with paper during the two-hour hearing.

Court clerk Felicia Cannon said Malvo was ordered detained, and the orders and records were sealed.

Last week, Bredar rejected a request by several news organization, including The Associated Press, to make Malvo’s hearing public.

Muhammad is scheduled to appear today at a detention hearing in federal court in Greenbelt.

Seattle: Atheist says Scouts gave him the boot

An Eagle Scout who has earned 37 merit badges said Monday he has been kicked out of the Boy Scouts for refusing to declare a belief in a higher power.

Darrell Lambert said he was told of the decision earlier in the day by the Chief Seattle Council, the Scouts’ regional governing body.

“Am I bitter? No. Disappointed? Yeah,” he said. “We’re in the 21st century. Our country was founded on religious freedom, and the Boy Scouts of America are still discriminating.”

Lambert said he plans to appeal the decision within the Scouting council within the required 60 days.

On membership applications, Boy Scouts and adult leaders must say they recognize a higher power, although not necessarily a religious one.

As a private organization, the Boy Scouts can bar anyone it chooses from membership. The organization’s ban on gay leaders was upheld by the Supreme Court in 2000.

Los Angeles: Jewish militant leader declared brain dead

Jewish Defense League leader Irv Rubin, jailed for allegedly plotting to bomb a mosque and an Arab-American congressman’s office, was hospitalized Monday after trying to kill himself, a U.S. Marshal’s Service spokesman said.

Rubin, 57, used a razor blade in the 6 a.m. suicide attempt, and was in critical condition after undergoing surgery at an undisclosed hospital, spokesman Bill Woolsey said. By late afternoon, he was described by defense lawyer Peter Morris as “brain dead and on life support” at Los Angeles County-USC Medical Center.

Rubin’s wife and two sons had been called to his bedside.

Rubin had been scheduled to appear in court Monday for a hearing in his case. He and a second member of the militant group were arrested last year and were awaiting trial.

California: Galileo to end mission flying past Jupiter

NASA’s Galileo spacecraft was set to make its last flyby of one of Jupiter’s moons early today, marking the likely end of the science-gathering part of its 13-year mission.

Galileo was on course to fly within 99 miles of Amalthea, a brilliant red, egg-shaped moon.

About an hour later, the spacecraft was to make its closest-ever approach to Jupiter during the 34 orbits it has made of the giant planet since 1995. It was to pass within 44,500 miles of the tops of the brilliant clouds that shroud the planet.

Flight controllers at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory do not expect to learn how well Galileo fared until later today, said Eilene Theilig, Galileo project manager at JPL in Pasadena.