California: Scott Peterson’s lawyer decries ‘voodoo’ tactics

Scott Peterson appeared at a court hearing Monday in which his lawyer argued that arrest and search warrant records be sealed, saying elements of “a voodoolike investigation” could harm his client’s defense on charges of killing his wife, Laci Peterson, and their unborn son.

Mark Geragos said he hadn’t seen the records, but suggested they could include references to “psychics and voice stress analyzers, all of which are totally inadmissible. If any of these things make their way into applications for search warrants and arrest warrants,” he said, it would be prejudicial to Peterson.

Geragos made the remarks during one of two hearings in Stanislaus County Superior Court in Modesto.

In one, a judge kept the records sealed pending a higher court ruling, while another judge refused to recuse himself from the case.

Washington, D.C.: Sept. 11 commission names research staff

The independent commission reviewing the Sept. 11 attacks has assembled a 53-person staff that includes historians, former federal prosecutors, intelligence analysts, government researchers and a Navy lieutenant seriously burned in the strike on the Pentagon.

They will collaborate on a report, due next May, on the causes of and response to the Sept. 11, 2001, airline hijackings that killed thousands at the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and in southwestern Pennsylvania.

The National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States has divided the staff into nine teams to reflect key topics of inquiry. They include intelligence, diplomacy, aviation, the flow of assets to terrorist organizations and the U.S. government’s response on the day of the attacks.

Rhode Island: Death toll from fire at nightclub hits 100

The death toll from the fire that swept through a Rhode Island nightclub has risen to 100.

Pamela Gruttadauria, 33, died Sunday night at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, hospital officials said. She had been in critical condition since the Feb. 20 blaze at The Station in West Warwick.

Nearly 200 other patrons of the club were injured in the fire sparked by a band’s pyrotechnic display. Five remain hospitalized, one in critical condition.

Before Gruttadauria, no one injured in the fire had died since March 6, when a 39-year-old man lost his battle for life.

Her death came as workers were preparing to demolish the ruins of The Station.

Workers were on the site with bulldozers Monday. The Station’s foundation will be collapsed and the site covered with fill in order to make the area safe, town officials said.

Washington, D.C.: States to receive smallpox funding

The Bush administration said Monday it was immediately sending $100 million to states to help them run their smallpox vaccination programs.

The money was included in legislation providing compensation for people who are injured by the vaccine, which carries rare but serious risks.

The vaccination program has lagged in many states. Federal and state officials had anticipated vaccinating about 450,000 health workers in the first month of the program. After three months, just 34,541 nationally had received the inoculation.

States, which are in the midst of budget crises, have complained they do not have enough money to administer the vaccination programs, prepare for other bioterrorism threats, confront unexpected problems like SARS and run their basic public health programs.

The smallpox money is in addition to $1.4 billion in general bioterrorism preparedness funding for the coming year.