Minnesota: Plane damage hampers Wellstone investigation

The chief federal investigator into the plane crash that killed Sen. Paul Wellstone said Monday that extensive damage to the aircraft has blocked any quick answer into whether de-icing equipment was operating properly.

The National Transportation Safety Board is trying to determine why the twin-engine aircraft crashed and burned Friday morning about 2 1/2 miles from the Eveleth-Virginia Municipal Airport. One question is whether ice built up on the plane, which would have affected flight.

The crash killed Wellstone and his wife, Sheila, both 58; their daughter, Marcia Markuson, 33; three campaign staffers and two pilots.

A public memorial for all the victims is scheduled for this evening.

Illinois: Governor to consider each clemency case

Illinois’ marathon death penalty clemency hearings drew to an end Monday after more than two weeks of gruesome accounts and tearful pleas by victims’ families.

The hearings for 142 inmates have prompted criticism of Gov. George Ryan, who imposed a moratorium on executions nearly three years ago. The governor maintained that problems with the capital punishment system in Illinois justified any pain the hearings might cause.

The Illinois Prisoner Review Board will meet this week in Chicago to discuss and vote on each clemency request, then forward its recommendations to the governor. Ryan said he would make a decision on the recommendations before leaving office in January.

Washington, D.C.: Korean War soldiers’ remains believed found

Remains believed to be those of 11 American soldiers missing in action from the Korean War will be flown to a military identification laboratory in Hawaii, U.S. officials said Monday.

The remains were recovered this month by U.S. specialists searching two areas of North Korea where U.S. forces took heavy losses during November-December 1950 after Chinese forces entered the war.

The 11 sets of remains will be flown today to Yokota Air Base, Japan, for a formal U.N. Command repatriation ceremony and then to the Army’s Central Identification Laboratory for positive identification.

Pentagon officials said five of the 11 were found near the Chosin Reservoir, where soldiers of the Army’s 7th Infantry Division fought fierce battles with Chinese troops. The other six were found in separate searches in Unsan County, about 60 miles north of Pyongyang, the North Korean capital. Unsan County was the site of battles between Chinese forces and the Army’s 1st Cavalry and 25th Infantry Divisions.

Florida: Spread of West Nile through blood confirmed

Federal officials confirmed Monday for the first time that the West Nile virus can be transmitted through blood transfusions, underscoring the need for a test to screen donated blood for the potentially deadly virus.

Experimental tests may be ready as early as next summer, but in the meantime, the Food and Drug Administration is urging blood banks to question donors more thoroughly and quickly remove suspected blood from their shelves.

The topic of West Nile drew a large crowd Monday at the annual meeting of the American Association of Blood Banks, being conducted this week in Orlando.

To date, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta has nailed down blood transfusions as the cause of six cases of West Nile encephalitis. Another 27 cases remain under investigation.

West Nile is a mosquito-borne disease that usually is passed to humans through bites from infected insects.