Washington, D.C.

Senate approves ban on prepackaged news

The Senate passed a measure Thursday that would stop government agencies from using taxpayer funds to disguise video news releases as real news, putting the brakes on a product Democrats call propaganda.

Senators voted 98-0 to attach the measure, sponsored by Sen. Robert Byrd, D-W.Va., to the $80.6 billion emergency spending bill to fund the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Under it, taxpayer funds would be prohibited from being used for prepackaged news stories unless those stories contain “clear notification within the text or audio of the prepackaged news” that discloses it was prepared or funded by a federal agency.

That way, said Appropriations Committee Chairman Thad Cochran, R-Miss., the authors of the packages cannot be held liable for news outlets that do not disclose the funding source on their own.

The amendment writes into law a Government Accountability Office opinion that said the Bush administration had violated rules against “publicity and propaganda” with releases from several agencies.

Virginia

Doctor gets 25 years for drug trafficking

A prominent pain-management doctor who prescribed high doses of drugs such as morphine and OxyContin to patients across the country was sentenced Thursday to 25 years in prison.

William E. Hurwitz, 59, whose pain clinic drew patients from more than 39 states, was convicted in December of drug trafficking resulting in the death of a patient, along with charges including health care fraud and illegal drug distribution.

Hurwitz frequently prescribed 100 tablets or more of OxyContin for his patients as they developed tolerance to lesser doses, and at least one patient apparently received a prescription for 1,600 pills a day. An FBI agent’s affidavit indicated 21 percent of Hurwitz’s patients had criminal records.

Hurwitz, who is appealing the conviction, also prescribed massive amounts of opiates for legitimate patients seeking relief from chronic pain.

Florida

NASA fuels shuttle, tank passes test

NASA fueled a space shuttle for the first time in more than two years Thursday, and Discovery’s redesigned external tank aced the crucial prelaunch test.

The 154-foot, rust-colored tank underwent major modifications after the February 2003 Columbia disaster, which was caused by a chunk of insulating foam that fell off the tank during liftoff and gashed the shuttle’s wing.

“From our standpoint, we’d say we got an ‘A,'” said Neil Otte, chief engineer of the tank project. “It performed exactly as we expected it to perform.”

Discovery is scheduled to blast off no earlier than May 15 on a flight to the international space station. It will be the first shuttle mission since the Columbia tragedy.

NASA plans to reassess the launch date soon, in light of all the delays in getting Discovery to the pad.

Washington, D.C.

Bush orders revamp of border passport plan

President Bush has ordered State Department and immigration officials to find a less onerous way to secure the United States’ borders than to require U.S. citizens to show passports or some other specialized documents when re-entering the country from Mexico or Canada.

Bush announced his order during an appearance Thursday at the American Society of Newspaper Editors convention.

The president indicated he was caught off-guard when officials at the Department of Homeland Security and the State Department came out with the plan last week and said it would be implemented by 2008.

“When I first read that in the newspaper,” Bush said, “I said, ‘What’s going on here?’ I thought there was a better way to expedite legal flow of traffic and people.”

Georgia

Teen, ex-girlfriend admit to killing grandparents

A 15-year-old girl and her ex-girlfriend pleaded guilty Thursday to stabbing her grandparents to death last summer so the young couple could be together.

Holly Harvey told the judge that while she was knifing her 73-year-old grandmother, “my eyes were closed the whole time.”

Harvey pleaded guilty to two counts of malice murder and was sentenced to two consecutive life sentences. She will not be eligible for parole for 20 years. Sandy Ketchum, 16, was sentenced to three life terms, to be served concurrently.

Shortly after the teens’ court hearings, authorities arrested a man and charged him with murder for allegedly giving the girls crack and marijuana that they smoked the day of the killings.

Sarah Collier and her husband, Carl Collier, 74, each were stabbed numerous times Aug. 2 inside the couple’s house outside Atlanta.

As part of her plea, Harvey detailed how she killed the couple.

Washington, D.C.

White House plans to break up Amtrak

The Bush administration proposed Thursday that Amtrak be dismantled and replaced by regional, intercity rail lines run by the states.

Under the proposal, the federal government would no longer help pay the cost of operating national rail service. It would share maintenance costs with the states, which would have the option of contracting with private companies to operate trains on their routes.

On its face, the plan would seem to spell the end for some of the service currently provided by Amtrak, particularly long-distance lines in remote, rural areas where ridership is sparse and federal subsidies are critical.

Although the Bush administration had pushed two years ago to break up Amtrak, it has in the past few months ratcheted up the pressure. For the first time, the White House announced this year that it would seek to eliminate subsidies for Amtrak in the next fiscal year, acknowledging the cut, were it to be carried out, would force the rail line into bankruptcy.

An Amtrak route runs through Lawrence, Kan.

Chicago

Lethal injection may cause pain, study says

Death row inmates who die by lethal injection may commonly experience acute pain, according to a study published Thursday in The Lancet, a prominent British medical journal.

The finding stands in contrast to the public’s perception that most executions are painless and seems likely to spur further challenges to the death penalty, though some experts questioned the researchers’ methods.

Poorly trained corrections staff may not mix or administer drugs properly and end up giving too little anesthetic to inmates being executed, according to the report, prepared by physicians at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine in Florida.

Anesthetics are meant to induce a deep, sleeplike state where prisoners can’t feel the effects of subsequent drugs that cause paralysis and stop their hearts. But the study suggests that in as many as four out of 10 cases, doses appear to be much lower than recommended, allowing the condemned to remain conscious but unable to react as they die.

Washington, D.C.

Senate committee OKs intelligence nominees

The nomination of the nation’s first national intelligence director, John Negroponte, was approved Thursday by the Senate Intelligence Committee, clearing the way for the full Senate to consider President Bush’s pick.

The closed-door vote means the former Iraq ambassador and longtime diplomat could be in his new job this month. Negroponte’s nomination has generated little controversy in Congress.

As part of an overhaul of intelligence agencies last year, lawmakers approved the creation of a national intelligence director, which the Sept. 11 commission had recommended.

The director is supposed to bring together the country’s 15 spy agencies to improve coordination against threats that have evolved since the end of the Cold War.

The Senate committee also approved the nomination of Negroponte’s deputy, Michael Hayden, now the head of the National Security Agency. The panel did not release details of the votes.

Washington, D.C.

New law will make disaster grants tax-free

Congress passed legislation Thursday, just ahead of the tax filing deadline, that would prevent the government from taxing federal grants given to people whose homes were hit by floods, hurricanes or other natural disasters.

The House approved the measure by voice vote, a day after the Senate passed an identical bill with broad bipartisan support.

President Bush was expected to sign the measure into law today, when taxes are due.

Lawmakers from states hit by recent flooding and last year’s string of hurricanes sought to clarify the tax-free status of grants from the Federal Emergency Management Agency that are used to help people relocate or rebuild homes.

In June, the Internal Revenue Service decided for the first time that such grants would be taxable under current law. Previously, those grants had not been taxed because they were assumed to be tax-exempt.

Under the legislation, the IRS will not tax federal disaster mitigation payments for any previous tax years.