Alabama

Retired judges to hear commandments appeal

Seven retired judges, including a former governor, were selected randomly in a lottery Monday to hear Roy Moore’s appeal of his ouster as chief justice in his Ten Commandments monument case.

The drawing came just hours after all eight Supreme Court justices disqualified themselves from hearing the appeal because of their earlier involvement in the monument case.

Moore was ousted by the Court of the Judiciary on Nov. 13 for refusing to obey a federal judge’s order to remove his 5,300-pound Ten Commandments monument from the rotunda of the state judicial building. The eight justices had the monument moved to a storage room in August after Moore refused to do so.

To pick a replacement court for Moore’s appeal, the names of all of the state’s retired circuit, district and appeals court judges were placed in a box and the seven names were drawn by Supreme Court Clerk Bob Esdale.

Florida

Limbaugh seeks hearing on medical records

Rush Limbaugh on Monday asked a court in West Palm Beach to hear his claim that investigators violated his privacy by seizing his medical records and asked that the records not be released.

The conservative radio host cannot be treated for his medical conditions because the state seized his charts and files last month and intimidated his doctors, the court petition said.

Prosecutors have said they are investigating whether Limbaugh obtained and used prescription painkillers illegally. Typically, such records would not be released until a criminal investigation ends and charges are filed.

Limbaugh’s attorney, Roy Black, has accused the State Attorney’s Office of having political motives for its investigation. Black did not return a phone call late Monday.

Texas

‘Scream’ painting linked to volcanic eruption

The blood-red sky that appears to frighten the tormented figure in Edvard Munch’s famous painting “The Scream” was probably caused by the faraway eruption of the volcano Krakatoa, a team of researchers has concluded after analyzing the background location in Oslo, Norway, along with the artist’s journals and reports of “Krakatoa twilights.”

The massive eruption, in what is now Indonesia, occurred in 1883 and sent dust and gases high into the atmosphere, causing twilights to glow red around the world. The team found that Oslo newspapers reported the red sky was very visible at the time.

The work was not painted until 1893, a decade after the eruption. But the team from Texas State University in San Marcos found journal entries by Munch alluding to the remarkably red sky he once saw in Oslo, when he “felt a great, unending scream piercing through nature.”

The research was reported in Sky & Telescope magazine.

Pennsylvania

Appropriation granted for Flight 93 memorial

Congress has appropriated $298,000 toward the creation of a memorial to the people killed when hijacked Flight 93 crashed in western Pennsylvania on Sept. 11, 2001.

All 40 passengers and crew aboard the San Francisco-bound United flight were killed. The passengers apparently fought the four hijackers for control of the aircraft after learning of the attacks at the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

A design is to be completed by 2005.

Last week, a coal company agreed to sell 800 acres to a nonprofit group working to preserve land for the memorial. Others have donated smaller parcels at the crash site some 60 miles southeast of Pittsburgh.