New York

Hillary Clinton denies 2004 speculation

A drop in President Bush’s poll numbers has increased speculation about New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton jumping into the 2004 Democratic presidential race — a notion the former first lady rejected Friday.

“I am absolutely ruling it out,” Clinton said during a visit to the New York State Fair in Syracuse, N.Y.

Fueling the speculation has been talk of a fall visit to Iowa, site of the nomination’s kickoff caucuses Jan. 19, but no confirmation yet from her staff on whether Clinton will go.

Virginia

Transfusion mix-up fatal to surgery patient

A woman who swapped beds with another patient in their hospital room so she could be closer to the window died after receiving the wrong type of blood during surgery.

In preparation for colon surgery last month, a technician at Inova Fairfax Hospital in Falls Church mistakenly took a blood sample from the woman’s roommate, hospital officials said.

Hospital spokeswoman Beth Visioli said Friday the woman had switched beds, but the death was the result of human error by a hospital employee. The technician did not follow the hospital’s established procedures for identifying patients, which requires examining each patient’s wristband and having the patient state his or her name.

The technician resigned.

Washington, D.C.

Sunday is deadline for do-not-call list

Consumers have until Sunday to add their phone numbers to the 41.7 million already on a list to block telemarketing calls starting Oct. 1.

K. Dane Snowden, chief of the Federal Communications Commission’s consumer and government affairs bureau, said those who signed up for the do-not-call list after this weekend likely would have to wait until early next year before calls were blocked.

Officials expect the list to contain up to 60 million phone numbers by the end of the year.

Consumers can register for the do-not-call list by calling (888) 382-1222 or visiting www.donotcall.gov.

Minnesota

Suspect who claimed to be dead now in jail

A man whose obituary said he died last month has been arrested.

Robert Michael Mathison, of Stillwater, was due in Washington County District Court to face charges including assault stemming from a June case in which he faked a heart attack upon arrest, police said.

Mathison was being held Friday in the Washington County Jail with bail set at $10,000. Authorities said they were continuing their investigation, but County Atty. Doug Johnson said Friday he did not expect to file additional charges.

The death notice ran July 15 in the St. Paul Pioneer Press. The same day, a fax was sent to the court in care of the assigning judge from someone claiming to be Mathison’s attorney, the newspaper reported Thursday.

Washington, D.C.

EPA won’t regulate greenhouse gases

The Environmental Protection Agency this week said it lacked authority to regulate carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases from motor vehicles.

The agency denied a petition by the International Center for Technology Assessment, a technology watchdog group, and other organizations to impose new controls on vehicles’ greenhouse gas emissions blamed for contributing to global warming.

Agency officials, reversing a stance from the Clinton administration, said Thursday they lacked authority to regulate greenhouse gases that scientists widely believe are contributing to global climate change.

Washington, D.C.

Employee proposed ‘scrub’ of NASA site

NASA braced quickly for the intense investigation into the Columbia disaster, according to newly disclosed e-mails that include one proposal by a midlevel employee at headquarters for a “complete scrub” of the agency’s safety office Web site to remove outdated or wrong information.

The employee, Wilson Harkins, warned that such information could become “chum in the water to reporters and congressmen.”

“We wouldn’t want to be sucker punched by someone based on something we have posted,” Harkins wrote.

National Aeronautics and Space Administration records show that 18 routine documents were added to the Web site since the Feb. 1 shuttle accident and none was removed.

Spokeswoman Melissa Motichek said Harkins was trying to make sure the site was accurate and up-to-date.

San Francisco

Venture capital firm bans university funds

A prominent Silicon Valley venture capital firm has barred the University of California from investing in its latest fund, seeking to shield its closely guarded books from public scrutiny.

Sequoia Capital — which has helped launch high-tech bellwethers Oracle Corp., Cisco Systems, Yahoo! Inc. and Google — notified the university of its decision Wednesday. The Menlo Park-based firm, which manages about $1.6 billion, also asked the university to sell its holdings in Sequoia’s other funds.

Because their funds are privately held, venture capitalists have the option to turn away investors.

Sequoia’s action stems from a recent push to gain greater access to the closely held books of venture capitalists.

Newspapers and other organizations have been suing publicly controlled institutions, such as universities, to obtain the results of their investments in privately held venture capital firms.