Washington

Governor’s race recount goes to Democrat

The head of the state Democratic Party said late Tuesday in Olympia that recount results from King County gave Democrat Christine Gregoire an eight-vote victory in the closest governor’s race in state history.

Neither King County nor the Republican party could confirm the hand recount results on Tuesday night. But if the Democrats’ analysis is correct, it’s a stunning reversal in the gubernatorial race, which has been hotly contested ever since Election Day.

Republican Dino Rossi won the first count by 261 votes and won a machine recount by 42 votes, out of 2.9 million ballots cast. The hand recount did not include the 700-plus ballots cast in heavily Democratic King County that could widen any Gregoire lead if the state Supreme Court allows them to be counted.

“We’re confident Christine Gregoire has been elected the governor of the state of Washington,” Democratic Chairman Paul Berendt said. “I believe Dino Rossi should concede.”

The Rossi camp has said that if it lost the third count it might challenge the election in court, and Republicans were already preparing for a possible legal challenge. Gregoire had promised to concede if she lost the recount.

Florida

Delta 4 rocket falls short on first flight

The maiden flight of Boeing’s new Delta 4 heavy-lift rocket stranded a dummy satellite in the wrong orbit on Tuesday when the booster’s first stage failed to perform as expected.

The giant 23-story rocket rumbled off Cape Canaveral’s seaside launch pad 37B at 3:50 p.m. CST and began a spectacular climb through clear blue skies. About six hours later, however, Air Force officials confirmed the mission fell short of delivering its 6.7-ton payload into the proper orbit 22,000 miles above Earth.

For reasons that remain unclear, Delta 4’s first stage did not reach the right altitude during its five-and-a-half minute firing. To compensate, the rocket’s second stage burned longer than planned. That left the second stage without enough fuel when it restarted later to insert the satellite into its final orbit.

Dallas

City to pay fine for gorilla escape

The city of Dallas will reluctantly pay a $10,000 fine levied by the U.S. Department of Agriculture for the March escape of a gorilla from the Dallas Zoo, Mayor Laura Miller said.

The fine was one reviewed by the City Council during a closed session on Monday. Afterward, Miller said the city disagreed with the fine, but would pay it to avoid a protracted dispute with the USDA, which regulates the nation’s zoos.

In August, the USDA notified the city that it would be fined because it failed to safely confine Jabari, a 13-year-old gorilla. City attorneys in October responded that the zoo enclosure had effectively contained gorillas “for over a decade,” during which time repeated USDA inspections found no safety violations.

Miller said after Monday’s meeting that the city’s message to the USDA would be, “We did nothing wrong and you refuse to accept that, and you’re threatening us that we have bigger problems ahead if we don’t pay the $10,000.

“So, I think we’re going to pay it.”

Washington, D.C.

Two top executives at Fannie Mae ousted

The chief executive and top financial officer at mortgage giant Fannie Mae were forced out of the company on Tuesday as the nation’s second largest financial institution struggled to deal with revelations of serious problems with financial reporting.

Chief executive Franklin Raines said in a statement issued late Tuesday that he had decided to resign because of his pledge to hold himself accountable if regulators determined the existence of accounting errors.

Recent revelations from government investigators could result in Fannie Mae being forced to restate $9 billion or more in earnings over the past four years.

Industry and congressional sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Fannie Mae’s board had been pressured to ask for the resignations of both Raines and chief financial officer Timothy Howard by the company’s chief regulator, the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight.