New Mexico

Four more on leave at Los Alamos lab

Four more Los Alamos National Laboratory workers have been put on paid leave in a widening probe into two missing computer disks containing classified information, officials said Wednesday.

Lab Director Pete Nanos’ latest action brings to 23 the number of employees suspended in the wake of a security and safety scandal that has brought a halt to classified work and cast doubt on the future of the 61-year-old lab.

Beyond announcing the latest suspensions, Nanos was mostly tight-lipped on the probe into the missing disks. The disks were discovered missing July 7, prompting a halt a week later to nearly all work at the facility.

The FBI since has been called in, but Nanos declined to comment on its role.

Florida

Judge’s fake resignation ends hostage standoff

A judge pretended to resign on live television Wednesday to end a standoff in which a gunman held an attorney hostage and threatened to set off a bomb in a high rise.

Duval County Judge Sharon Tanner, who authorities said had handled a case involving the gunman, gave the bogus resignation on camera as local stations in Jacksonville were covering the hostage incident live. Her resignation was among the gunman’s demands.

The attorney, Christopher Hazelip, was freed unharmed, and the gunman, identified as John M. Knight, 45, surrendered shortly after the judge’s televised resignation.

New Orleans

Judge bars telephone at sham abortion clinic

A man accused of running a sham abortion clinic and tricking women in order to keep them from getting abortions was ordered Wednesday to disconnect his phone and stop giving advice.

U.S. District Judge Stanwood Duval granted a preliminary injunction in a lawsuit against William A. Graham, who was accused of listing the business phone of his Causeway Center for Women under “Abortion Services” and making misleading statements aimed at delaying women until it was too late for them to get legal abortions.

The lawsuit accused Graham of pretending to refer women to abortion providers at bargain prices, then telling them their appointments had been postponed. Louisiana law allows abortions only during the first 24 weeks of pregnancy.