Rhode Island: Prosecutors subpoena band in nightclub fire investigation

Members of the rock group Great White have been subpoenaed by prosecutors and said Tuesday they would appear before a grand jury investigating whether criminal charges should be filed in the nightclub fire that killed 97.

The grand jury is expected to convene today, law enforcement officials said on condition of anonymity.

Band publicist Byron Hontas said the musicians were cooperating with authorities and expected to testify next week.

Investigators are trying to determine who is to blame for the fire that was apparently sparked by the band’s pyrotechnics Thursday.

Flames swept through the West Warwick club, The Station, in a matter of minutes.

The band has said it received approval to use the special effects, but the club’s owners have denied giving permission

Washington, D.C.: Supreme Court agrees jury selection process biased

The Supreme Court ruled Tuesday that a black death row inmate deserved a new chance to press his claim that prosecutors stacked his jury with whites and death penalty supporters.

Thomas Miller-El said Dallas County prosecutors had a long history of excluding blacks from juries on the theory they were more likely to side with a black defendant.

“Irrespective of whether the evidence could prove sufficient to support a charge of systematic exclusion of African-Americans, it reveals that the culture of the District Attorney’s Office in the past was suffused with bias against African-Americans in jury selection,” Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote.

Kennedy was joined by Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist and Justices John Paul Stevens, Sandra Day O’Connor, Antonin Scalia, David Souter, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen Breyer.

Justice Clarence Thomas, the court’s only black member, dissented.

Washington, D.C.: Pentagon training staff about gas mask usage

The Pentagon began training employees Tuesday to use emergency gas masks being distributed to prepare for possible chemical or biological terror attacks.

About 120 Defense Department workers — some wearing Army fatigues, others civilian office attire — gathered in a Pentagon auditorium to get their new “emergency escape hoods” and practice putting on dummy versions of the gas masks.

By the end of the week, officials expect to be handing out 500 masks a day to the 24,000 Pentagon workers and stashing hundreds of the masks in high-traffic areas like cafeterias, said Col. Mandy Lopez of the Pentagon’s security agency.

About 80,000 masks will be available for Defense Department and other workers as well as visitors at the Pentagon and at other government office buildings throughout the Washington, D.C., area.

Everyone working in the Pentagon, from Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld to the lowliest reporter, should have a personal mask within a few months, officials said.