New York City

State fires workers in starving children case

Officials took swift action Monday on the latest scandal engulfing New Jersey’s child welfare agency, but they conceded that the shocking discovery of four emaciated adoptees in their suburban home revealed monitoring and oversight problems.

Although state caseworkers reportedly visited the victims’ home 38 times in the past two years, most recently in June, they reported nothing amiss to their supervisors, officials said. The lead caseworker, whom officials would not identify, has since resigned, and nine other agency employees were fired Monday.

Authorities said the victims — ages 9, 10, 14 and 19 — had allegedly been starved by their parents, Raymond and Victoria Jackson, who adopted them several years ago through the state’s Division of Youth and Family Services. The four collectively weighed 136 pounds, and Bruce, 19, stood only 4 feet tall, police officers reported.

Washington, D.C.

Opposition dropped to Leavitt as EPA chief

Senate Democrats, facing an overwhelming vote against them, dropped their opposition Monday to Utah Gov. Mike Leavitt as head of the Environmental Protection Agency.

Minutes before the Senate was to have had a procedural vote that would have ordered an up-or-down decision soon on Leavitt’s confirmation, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., said the White House had satisfied her demands.

Clinton and the Senate’s three Democratic presidential contenders — Joseph Lieberman of Connecticut, John Kerry of Massachusetts and John Edwards of North Carolina — led an effort for weeks to block a vote on Leavitt, protesting Bush administration environmental policies.

Senators now plan to vote on Leavitt’s nomination today after an hour’s debate.

Washington, D.C.

NIH questions grants on sex, AIDS research

Spurred by complaints from a conservative group, the National Institutes of Health is questioning government-funded researchers about the value of their projects on AIDS and sexual practices.

Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., said telephone calls from NIH to the scientists were “sending a dangerous message” that research is being subverted to an ideological agenda.

NIH spokesman John Burklow said his agency simply was responding to a request from Republican lawmakers who were given a list — compiled by the Washington-based Traditional Values Coalition — of 157 researchers with NIH grants. Their projects include studying subjects such as teenagers’ sexual activity and sex and drug use among truckers.

Burklow said officials were trying to put the research into the context of the agency’s “scientific mission.”