ST. PAUL

State creates program to order Canadian drugs

Gov. Tim Pawlenty announced Thursday a new program that will allow state employees to obtain certain prescription drugs for free if they order the medication from a state-inspected Canadian pharmacy.

The program applies to 45 of the most popular name-brand medicines that do not have generic alternatives. State officials estimate savings of $1.4 million a year because the drugs can be purchased for less in Canada.

About 120,000 employees and their dependents would be eligible. The state would cover shipping fees, along with the $15 monthly co-payments that are required for each prescription if employees buy medicines from U.S. pharmacists.

The governor cautioned that the program carries risks, explaining he hoped it would not invite a government crackdown on drug imports.

WASHINGTON, D.C.

Scientists say crater may be extinction link

Millions of years before the dinosaurs vanished, an even bigger mass extinction wiped out more than 90 percent of species on Earth. Now scientists think they may have evidence of an impact crater that contributed to the “Great Dying.”

The Permian-Triassic Extinction took place 250 million years ago in a vastly different world from today. Scientists debated its cause for years.

The end of the dinosaurs 65 million years ago is widely thought to have been caused by a meteor impact off Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula.

A team led by Luann Becker of the University of California, Santa Barbara, reported in Thursday’s issue of the journal Science that a crater off the northwest coast of Australia shows evidence of a large meteor impact at the time of the early extinction.

WASHINGTON, D.C.

Senate approves special education bill

The Senate voted Thursday to make the first major changes in special education law in seven years, aiming to get help earlier to struggling children, give teachers more freedom to discipline students and reduce tensions between parents and schools.

The only main point of contention was over money, as senators overwhelmingly agreed to allow accelerated spending in coming years but rejected an attempt to made the increases mandatory.

The Senate voted 95-3 to renew and update the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, the 1975 law guaranteeing equal education to 6.7 million children with disabilities.

California

Private piloted rocket reaches edge of space

A piloted rocket released from a spider-like mother plane shot straight up into the Mojave Desert sky Thursday, climbing to 211,400 feet and becoming the first privately funded vehicle to reach the edge of space.

The SpaceShipOne rocket carried 62-year-old test pilot Mike Melvill to heights only a few NASA astronauts and Air Force pilots have ever reached.

The aviation milestone also propelled the aircraft’s designer, Burt Rutan, to the forefront in the race to win the $10 million Ansari X Prize, an unusual competition to spur development of commercial space flight.

Rutan’s team members called the trip the first private manned space flight, although the definition of where space begins varies considerably.

Wisconsin

High court strikes down Indian gaming compact

The state Supreme Court on Thursday struck down key portions of a gaming compact that allowed an American Indian tribe to run a casino with Las Vegas-style games such as craps and roulette.

But Gov. Jim Doyle insisted the 4-3 decision has no bearing on the Forest County Potawatomi tribe’s ability to offer those games because Indian gaming is a matter of federal law, not state law, and the federal Bureau of Indian Affairs already approved the deal.

The decision sets the stage for what could be a protracted legal battle over the compacts signed by 10 tribes to run 17 casinos in the state. It also puts into doubt the more than $200 million the tribes had agreed to give the state in the current two-year budget in exchange for the new gaming options.

Washington

Court-martial advised in terrorist spying case

A National Guardsman accused of trying to help al-Qaida by offering details on U.S. troop strength and tactics should be court-martialed, the officer overseeing a hearing in the case said Thursday.

Spc. Ryan G. Anderson, 26, a Muslim convert and member of the Washington Guard’s 81st Armor Brigade, was arrested in February and charged with four counts of trying to provide information to terrorists.

“These are serious criminal offenses that present a real and present danger to U.S. soldiers serving in Iraq,” Col. Patrick J. Reinert said.

Reinert’s recommendation will be given to the base commander at Fort Lewis, who will decide whether Anderson will face a court-martial. Military law says those convicted of trying to aid the enemy could face the death penalty.

Tennessee

Rice likens terrorists to 1963 church bombers

Condoleezza Rice said Thursday that terrorists today are driven by the same hatred that inspired Klansmen to bomb a church in 1963 in her hometown of Birmingham, Ala.

President Bush’s national security adviser spoke to about 10,000 people — including a small group of protesters — at Vanderbilt University’s Senior Class Day.

The bombing at the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church in Birmingham killed four girls, including her friend, 11-year-old Denise McNair, and was meant to instill fear, Rice said.

“Those terrorists failed because of the poverty of their visions — a vision of hate, inequality. … And they failed because of the courage and sacrifice of all who suffered and struggled for civil rights.”