New brain damage law cleared for challenge

A judge Friday rejected an effort by Gov. Jeb Bush to dismiss a challenge to the law that allowed him to order that a severely brain-damaged woman be kept alive over her husband’s objections.

Bush’s attorneys now have until Monday evening to file arguments defending the law, quickly passed and signed last month so that Terri Schiavo’s feeding tube could be reinserted six days after her husband, Michael Schiavo, had it removed.

Michael Schiavo and the American Civil Liberties Union have sued Bush, saying the law infringes on Terri Schiavo’s right to privacy and the separation of power provisions of the Florida Constitution.

The governor’s attorneys had argued that the lawsuit should have been filed in Tallahassee, where the law was enacted. Circuit Court Judge W. Douglas Baird rejected that argument Friday.

Terri Schiavo suffered brain damage in 1990, when her heart stopped due to a chemical imbalance.

O’Donnell says she was victim of ‘coup d’etat’

Rosie O’Donnell said she was deceived by her publisher about how her magazine would be run and was the victim of a “coup d’etat.”

O’Donnell, finishing her testimony Friday at the breach-of-contract trial, said she entered the joint venture with publisher Gruner+Jahr USA believing she controlled the editorial content and staff of Rosie magazine.

But she said that was no longer true by the end of summer 2002. In e-mails shown as evidence at the trial in Manhattan’s state Supreme Court, O’Donnell said she would control the magazine’s editorial content or she would shut it down.

The entertainer said problems began July 10, 2002, when editor-in-chief Susan Toepfer chose a cover photo and fought O’Donnell over whether to use it.

Union members charged with fires at theaters

Seven members of a movie projectionists union and two associates were charged Friday with trying to settle labor disputes by setting fires and carrying out beatings at theaters in 10 states.

Federal prosecutors said the crimes were intended to scare officials of three major theater chains into giving in. In two cases, theater managers were beaten — with a pipe in one case, with a bat in another.

The 15 fires and other crimes took place from New York to Texas, and blazes were started with moviegoers in the theaters, forcing evacuations.

Four defendants — including Albin C. Brenkus, 48, business manager of Chicago-based Local 110 of the movie projectionists union — were arrested early Friday by federal agents.

Seven attacks were in Illinois, with others in Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Texas and Wisconsin.

The incidents occurred at theaters owned by Kansas City, Mo.-based AMC Entertainment, Cinemark U.S.A. and Loews Cineplex Entertainment.