Washington, D.C.: Bush hopes to enhance child vaccine program

It would be easier for some children to get free vaccines under the budget President Bush will present to Congress next month.

The plan also recommends building a stockpile of childhood vaccines to help get through periodic shortages.

Altogether, the administration will ask Congress for about $175 million for 2004, officials said Friday. The stockpile of vaccines will be built over four years, with a total estimated cost of $707 million.

The first piece of the vaccine initiative would make improvements to the Vaccine for Children program, which finances routine inoculations for 1.6 million of the 4 million children born each year.

The program covers four groups: children in Medicaid, the health insurance program for the poor; American Indians and Alaskan natives; children without health insurance; and children who are underinsured, meaning their insurance plans do not cover vaccines.

Virginia: Man shot to death while using gun to beat dog

A man trying to beat his dog to death with a gun was fatally wounded when it apparently went off accidentally, police said.

Raymond Poore Jr., 43, called his wife at work Thursday and told her that their dog had bitten him and he intended to kill the animal, Winchester police Capt. David Sobonya said.

The wife came home about 6 p.m. and found her husband unconscious, with a number of dog bites and scratches. Emergency medical personnel discovered that Poore had been shot. He was pronounced dead at Winchester Medical Center.

Sobonya said Poore must have beaten the 30-pound shar-pei with the gun that went off. He said the stock of the weapon, a combination rifle and shotgun, was broken and there appeared to be blood and dog hair on it.

The dog was in the custody of an animal control officer. Sobonya had no information on how badly it was injured.

Washington, D.C.: Pentagon’s design saved lives, experts say

The Pentagon was designed as a solidly built warehouse, and when the building was targeted by terrorists, that saved lives.

The use of reinforced structural steel and other elements engineered into the building more than 60 years ago paid off on Sept. 11, 2001, according to an analysis Thursday by the American Society of Civil Engineers.

Although the attack killed 189 people, including 125 in the building, experts contend the toll could have been much higher if the collapse of floors and resulting fire damage had been more widespread.

Within the first second after impact, the American Airlines Boeing 757 penetrated 310 feet into the Pentagon’s west wing corridors at 530 miles per hour.

While the Pentagon has served as the nation’s military headquarters since the end of World War II, the 6.6 million square foot structure was initially designed for document and records storage.

Florida: NASA teacher program nominees abundant

Just three days after putting out a nationwide call for teachers interested in becoming astronauts, NASA said Friday it had already received more than 1,000 nominations.

Most of those doing the nominating, via the Internet, have been youngsters. A few had ulterior motives for sending their teachers into orbit.

“Because we all hate him and want him to leave, please take him,” one student wrote.

NASA Administrator Sean O’Keefe launched the program Tuesday with the help of Barbara Morgan, a former Idaho schoolteacher who will fly to the international space station in November. She was the backup for Christa McAuliffe, who was killed in the Challenger accident in 1986.

NASA plans to hire three to six teachers for its next astronaut class. The recruits will have to quit their teaching jobs, move to Houston and become full-fledged members of the astronaut corps.