Washington, D.C.

First intelligence chief approved, sworn in

John Negroponte won easy approval by the Senate on Thursday to become the first national intelligence director, a job created last year to better coordinate U.S. spy agencies following the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks and other intelligence blunders.

Negroponte, 65, has said this was his “most challenging assignment” in more than 40 years of government service. The Senate voted 98-2 to give the former Iraq ambassador the job.

He now oversees the intelligence agencies that were criticized in report after report for failures leading up to the 9-11 attacks, and for its prewar intelligence on Iraq.

Boston

Four convicted in death of homeless woman

Four men were found guilty of murder Thursday in the 2001 gang-related stabbing and beating death of a 21-year-old homeless woman who hung around Harvard Square.

A jury took less than a day to convict Harold Parker, 31, Scott Davenport, 31, Ismael Vasquez, 27, and his 23-year-old brother, Luis.

All face mandatory life terms at their sentencing, scheduled for today.

The Vasquez brothers and Parker led a gang that victim Io Nachtwey had been recruited to join. Davenport, a heroin addict, was with the men that night.

Witnesses said the men drove Nachtwey to a bridge above the Charles River, where she was held down, stabbed a dozen times and hit in the head. The men then rolled her body into the river.

The murder was meant to send a message to a rebellious faction within the gang, prosecutors said. A witness said Nachtwey was chosen in part because her boyfriend had led a revolt in the gang.

Washington, D.C.

Senate seeks to end Cisneros probe money

The Senate agreed Thursday to cut off money to the decadelong investigation of former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Henry Cisneros that has cost nearly $21 million.

Legislation that provides money for U.S. operations in Iraq and Afghanistan includes an amendment sponsored by Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., to stop spending by June 1 on the probe led by independent counsel David Barrett.

A report by the Government Accountability Office, Congress’ investigative arm, shows Barrett spent $1.26 million during the six months ending Sept. 30, 2004. The largest expenses were for salaries, benefits and contracted services. Dorgan’s amendment would require a detailed report on spending by July.

Cisneros admitted in 1999 that, when being considered for a Cabinet job, he lied to the FBI about how much he paid a former mistress. Cisneros, housing secretary in 1993-96, pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor and was fined $10,000.

President Clinton pardoned Cisneros in January 2001.

Indianapolis

Scientists uncover why some kernels don’t pop

Eat your way to the bottom of almost any bag of popcorn and there they are: the rock-hard, jaw-rattling unpopped kernels known as old maids.

The nuisance kernels have kept many a dentist busy, but their days could be numbered: Scientists say they now know why some popcorn kernels resist popping into puffy white globes.

It’s long been known that popcorn kernels must have a precise moisture level in their starchy center — about 15 percent — to explode. But Purdue University researchers found the key to a kernel’s explosive success lies in the composition of its hull.

It turns out there is an optimal hull structure that allows kernels to explode, and leaky hulls prevent the moisture pressure buildup needed for kernels to pop.

“They’re sort of like little pressure vessels that explode when the pressure reaches a certain point,” said Bruce Hamaker, a Purdue professor of food chemistry. “But if too much moisture escapes, it loses its ability to pop and just sits there.”

Washington, D.C.

Battle looms in Senate over judicial nominees

The Senate moved closer Thursday to a constitutional confrontation over how to choose federal judges when a committee approved two of President Bush’s controversial judicial nominees.

In the coming days, Republican leaders are expected to decide whether to bring one of those nominees up for a floor vote. Members of both parties say scheduling a vote would trigger a parliamentary battle so potentially explosive that it has become known as the “nuclear option.”

Democrats plan to filibuster the nominees. Republicans say they would retaliate by trying to change the rules of the Senate to bar use of the filibuster to oppose judicial nominations.

On Thursday, the Senate Judiciary Committee voted strictly along party lines to approve the nominations of Janice Rogers Brown, a California Supreme Court justice, and Priscilla Owen, a member of the Texas Supreme Court, to the federal appellate bench. All 10 committee Republicans voted for the pair; all eight Democrats on the panel voted against them.

Washington, D.C.

Traffic death rate reaches record low

The highway fatality rate sank to a record low last year, the government estimated Thursday, but the administration and auto safety advocates bemoaned an increase in the total number of traffic deaths and urged a national focus on seat belt use.

The number of deaths of motorcyclists and drivers and passengers in sport utility vehicles and large trucks increased. Alcohol-related fatalities were projected to decline for the second straight year.

Overall, 42,800 people died on the nation’s highways in 2004, up from 42,643 in 2003, according to projections by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

The fatality rate dropped even as the total number of traffic deaths crept up because more drivers were on the road.

The fatality rate slid from 1.48 deaths per 100 million vehicle miles traveled in 2003 to 1.46 deaths in 2004. It was the lowest annual rate since records were first kept in 1966, when the rate was 5.50 deaths.

Pittsburgh

Sales of dogfighting video draw prison term

A man was sentenced Thursday to more than three years in federal prison for selling mail-order videos of fighting pit bulls, after becoming the first person convicted at trial under a 6-year-old animal-cruelty law.

Robert Stevens, 64, of Pittsville, Va., is appealing his conviction and 37-month sentence, which public defender Michael Novara called “inappropriate and unreasonable.”

Stevens was convicted in January of three counts of selling depictions of animal cruelty.

He never denied selling tapes like “Pick-A-Winna,” on which he described dogfighting like a sportscaster calling a boxing match. Stevens claimed not to know selling the videos was illegal.

Prosecutor Stephen Kaufman noted the tapes were advertised in a publication he called the leading underground dogfighting magazine in the country.

The animal-cruelty law was signed in 1999 by President Clinton. Novara has argued the law is overly broad and violates Stevens’ right to freedom of expression.

He was charged in Pittsburgh because the videos were sold to Pennsylvania State Police and U.S. Department of Agriculture agents.

Los Angeles

Air marshal files suit over speech restrictions

A federal air marshal Thursday sued Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff to block government rules that prevent him from speaking out about possible security lapses.

The federal complaint, filed in Riverside by the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California, claims the rules infringe on Frank Terreri’s free speech rights.

Terreri, 38, objects to policies he thinks threaten aviation security, lawyers said. Among his concerns are visible flight check-in procedures and a formal dress code that could compromise marshals’ undercover status, and news stories approved by federal administrators about training and tactics.

Restrictions imposed in August 2002 prohibit airline security agents from criticizing other Federal Air Marshal Service employees, speaking publicly and releasing information about the agency, the lawsuit said.