Washington, D.C.

Lawmakers join protest of veterans’ benefit cuts

Senior Republicans on the House Veterans’ Affairs Committee have joined Democrats and veterans groups in a chorus of protest against proposals being considered by the Bush administration to shrink the number of military personnel who qualify for disability benefits.

Changes in the definition of service-connected disability “could have far-reaching and unintended consequences for millions of service members and veterans,” wrote the committee chairman, Rep. Christopher Smith, R-N.J., and three of the panel’s subcommittee chairmen.

The Senate’s top Democrats, Minority Leader Tom Daschle of South Dakota and Whip Harry Reid of Nevada, also weighed in on the issue Friday, telling President Bush in a letter that it was “outrageous to pit one group of disabled veterans against another.”

Daschle said the proposals, if retroactive, could disqualify about 1.5 million veterans.

Washington, D.C.

FDA approves new class of antibiotics

A new type of antibiotic has been approved by the Food and Drug Administration for the treatment of complicated skin infections that affect millions of patients each year.

The chemical name of the new drug is daptomycin. It will be marketed under the brand name Cubicin by Cubist Pharmaceuticals Inc. of Lexington, Mass.

The drug is to be given by injection. It is approved for the treatment of serious infections, usually among hospitalized patients, that involve the skin. These could include abscesses, post-surgical skin wound infections and skin ulcers.

Cubicin is the first of a new class of antibiotics and is part of a continuing effort by industry and government to develop drugs that are more effective against antibiotic-resistant bacteria.

Texas

Federal panel rejects redistricting suit

A three-judge federal appeals panel Friday dismissed a lawsuit filed by Democrats in the Texas Senate who had hoped to derail a new round of Republican-led congressional redistricting.

The Democrats said they would appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.

They had argued that Senate rule changes by Republicans to further their redistricting effort violated federal law. The judges, who listened to two hours of arguments Thursday in Laredo, dismissed those claims.

Florida

Inmate suit alleges torture by prison guards

Twenty-two inmates sued the state of Florida Friday, saying it allowed prison guards to torture them in their cells by spraying them with pepper spray and tear gas.

In their federal lawsuit filed in Fort Myers, the inmates said the use of chemical agents by prison guards had skyrocketed. They claim the practice violates the ban on cruel and unusual punishment in the Eighth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.

The lawsuit seeks class-action status.

California

Explosion kills worker at aerospace plant

A contract worker at a San Jose aerospace manufacturing plant was killed in an explosion while performing maintenance Friday, a plant official said. No one else was injured.

The worker had been upgrading equipment that mixes rocket propellant, said Patrick Louden, a spokesman for Pratt & Whitney Space Propulsion. He characterized the incident as a small explosion but said there was no fire and the company was not aware of any damage to the facility.

Louden said the victim was an employee of Jenson Mechanical Inc., which is based in nearby Union City, but he did not release the worker’s name.