Washington, D.C.

Gephardt to receive Teamsters endorsement

The Teamsters union plans to endorse Democrat Dick Gephardt for president, union officials say, giving the Missouri congressman a crucial political boost at a time when his weak fund raising has prompted questions about the viability of his candidacy.

The coveted endorsement by the 1.4 million-member union is expected to follow today’s conference call vote of 22 Teamsters vice presidents, sources in the union said Thursday. It would be the most high-profile endorsement so far in the race among nine Democrats to challenge President Bush in 2004.

The Gephardt endorsement is a slap to the Bush White House, which has tried to chip away at organized labor’s solid support for the Democratic Party.

Washington, D.C.

USDA change to add frozen pizza options

Pizza lovers may soon see a broader variety of vegetable, cheese and sauce topping frozen pizzas that have meat.

The Agriculture Department’s Food Safety and Inspection Service said Thursday it was loosening the ingredient requirements for meat pizzas. The agency is charged with enforcing standards that restrict how much meat, fat and water go into making frozen pizzas that are topped with sausage, pepperoni, hamburger, chicken or other meats.

Starting in October, frozen pizza makers can put just 2 percent cooked meat or 3 percent raw meat on top, instead of the 12 percent cooked or 15 percent raw that are currently required.

For consumers, this means they will see new frozen pizzas offering less meat but more vegetables, sauce, cheese or other toppings, said Steven Cohen, a spokesman for the American Frozen Food Institute.

Tennessee

Survey: Support grows for First Amendment

Support for the First Amendment is on the rise and many Americans want more information about how the government is fighting the war on terrorism, a survey released today shows.

The nationwide telephone poll of 1,000 adults found that 19 percent of respondents strongly agreed that the First Amendment went too far in the rights it guaranteed. That number was down sharply from the 41 percent found on last year’s survey, conducted nine months after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

Nearly half of those questioned thought they had too little access to information about the government’s war on terrorism, according to the annual survey commissioned by the Nashville-based First Amendment Center and American Journalism Review magazine.

San Antonio

Conjoined twins survive abdominal surgery

Surgeons successfully repaired a defect in the abdominal area of 5-day-old conjoined twins who share a heart and liver.

Doctors had been concerned that Wednesday’s surgery might be too much for Brynleigh and Victoria Smith, who were born about five weeks early and together weigh just under 8 pounds.

“Now they just need to rest and grow,” Dr. Cindy Schultz, a neonatal fellow at Wilford Hall Medical Center at Lackland Air Force Base. The were in critical but stable condition.

The pair, born July 25, cannot be separated because of the complexities of their shared six-chamber heart, doctors have said.

The girls remained on ventilators, but doctors were trying to slowly wean them from breathing support.

“We just keep getting more and more good news,” said mother Dawn Smith, 27.

Iowa

Charges announced in dead immigrant case

Four men were charged Thursday with smuggling 11 immigrants whose badly decomposed bodies were found last fall in a railcar at a grain elevator in Iowa.

Federal prosecutors announced the 27-count indictment — the first charges to result from the smuggling deaths — Thursday at a news conference in front of a grain car.

The charges came nearly nine months after workers cleaning railcars in Denison, about 50 miles southeast of Sioux City, found the bodies. They had been trapped in the railcar for at least four months, and the bodies were so decayed that they could not be identified until May.

Prosecutors said Juan Fernando Licea-Cedillo, 26, Rogelio Hernandez Ramos, 38, Guillermo Madrigal Ballisteros, 45, and Arnulfo Flores, 33, were charged with conspiring to transport illegal immigrants for financial gain where death resulted. If convicted, each could face the death penalty or life in prison.