New Jersey

Two held in kidnapping of senator’s wife

Two men suspected of kidnapping a senator’s wife in Virginia and forcing her to withdraw money at knifepoint were captured in New Jersey after they stumbled into an undercover drug-surveillance operation.

Police in Carteret spotted the suspects’ stolen car late Wednesday in a known drug trafficking area after Virginia police put out an alert for the vehicle, Carteret Police Chief John Pieczyski said.

Kathleen Gregg, wife of Sen. Judd Gregg, R-N.H., managed to escape unharmed after her ordeal Tuesday, and police said there was no indication the kidnappers knew she was a senator’s wife. Some of her jewelry was found in the suspects’ car, authorities said Thursday.

Fairfax, Va., police identified the suspects as Michael Pierre, 26, of Upper Marlboro, Md., and Christopher Forbes, 31, no fixed address. Forbes was hospitalized in good condition; Pierre was jailed.

Tennessee

Report: Ex-UT president may have violated law

Former University of Tennessee President John Shumaker, ousted amid a probe of his spending, lied to investigators and may have broken the law, a report released Thursday said.

Shumaker, who resigned under fire in August, made several “misrepresentations” about his travel and expenditures and instructed his secretary to alter his calendar to try to hide what he had done, according to the state comptroller’s report.

Auditors concluded Shumaker took personal trips that were purported to be business trips and tried to conceal an affair with a former colleague with whom he shared a hotel room at a conference in San Antonio.

Information in the report was forwarded to the state Attorney General’s Office and the prosecutor in Knox County, where the university is based.

Virginia

Counselors sentenced for roles in camp fights

Four counselors at a 4-H summer camp were sentenced to community service Thursday on charges they organized bare-knuckle fights between campers, charged admission and let the spectators bet on the winners.

Three teenage counselors, whose names were withheld because they are juveniles, pleaded no contest in juvenile court to assault and disorderly conduct. Judge David A. Melesco sentenced two of them to 100 hours of community service. The third was ordered to perform 40 hours.

A fourth counselor, 20-year-old Joe Cocke, also was sentenced to 40 hours of community service.

Prosecutor Cliff Hapgood said campers were dragged or pushed into fights and prodded to hit each other during the five-day camp in June.

Hapgood said more than a dozen boys between ages 10 to 12 were forced to defend themselves at least once. Campers who wanted to watch were charged $1. Hapgood said the counselors pocketed the money.

Washington, D.C.

U.S. will soon require registration for foods

Virtually every food product in the United States will soon have to be registered along with its supplier as part of the fight against terrorism.

Figuring that the best way to protect the nation’s food supply is to keep better tabs on it, the government is requiring some 400,000 facilities in the United States to register themselves and their products with the Food and Drug Administration.

In addition, anyone importing food from abroad will have to give regulators notice before its arrival: two hours for food shipments coming across the border by truck, four hours if aboard planes or trains, and eight hours if by ship.

The regulations will take effect Dec. 12.

Philadelphia

FBI won’t confirm object of bug devices

Mayor John F. Street tried to get his re-election campaign back on track Thursday after FBI bugging devices were discovered in his office, insisting that he has done nothing wrong and that prosecutors have assured him he is not the target of an investigation.

He and other politicians called on the FBI to say who is being investigated — something the bureau refused to do for the third straight day.

The devices were found Tuesday by police conducting a routine sweep of Street’s City Hall office suite.

Federal officials are known to be investigating the city’s dealings with private companies.

Atlanta

CDC: Smoking rate drops among black men

For the first time, the smoking rate among black men in the United States has dipped to nearly that among white men — a victory federal officials Thursday attributed in part to a decades-old change in attitudes.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said 27.7 percent of black men smoked in 2001, compared with 25.4 percent of white men. A decade before, the rates were 35 percent and 27 percent, respectively.

The smoking rate for black women has been lower than that of white women since 1993; in 2001, nearly 23 percent of white women smoked, compared with less than 18 percent of black women.

Overall, the U.S. smoking rate — 22.8 percent in 2001, the latest data available — has dropped from a quarter of adults in 1993.