Ohio

DNA identification leads to serial rapist’s plea

It was on Christmas night that Candy Brewer heard a knock on her apartment door. As she opened the door with the safety chain still on, a stranger burst in, pushed her down and raped her as her 2-year-old son lay asleep beside her.

Brewer was attacked by Robert N. Patton Jr., who raped at least 37 women — 13 of them in the 2 1/2 years that a DNA sample that could have identified him sat in storage, waiting to be entered into a crime database. Federal funding to test felons’ blood samples had run out five weeks before Patton’s sample was taken.

Patton, 42, pleaded guilty this week, a day into the first of an expected four trials, admitting even to 43 offenses that had been dropped because they were too old. On Wednesday, he was sentenced to 68 years in prison and fined $2.5 million for 135 counts of rape, kidnapping and burglary.

Patton’s attacks began in 1987, but the case had been cold until last June when a backlog of 11,000 blood samples collected from criminals over three years was entered into a database.

Maryland

Cholesterol drug could be sold over the counter

Vast numbers of people would take a cholesterol drug if it were offered over the counter even though they don’t meet the medical criteria, federal health advisers were told Thursday.

The cholesterol drug Mevacor has long been available by prescription. Drug companies are now asking the Food and Drug Administration for permission to sell a low-dose version directly to consumers for the first time.

The advisory committee that is meeting through today will make a recommendation to the FDA, which usually follows its panels’ advice.

Allowing over-the-counter sales for Mevacor would put a new sort of medication on drugstore shelves. Unlike treatments for coughs, colds and allergies, Mevacor is meant to prevent a disease, rather than treat existing symptoms.

Washington, D.C.

ATV company fined for reporting violations

Polaris Industries Inc. has agreed to pay nearly $1 million to settle allegations it belatedly reported defects and hazards on some of its all-terrain vehicles, the first such penalty involving ATVs, the government announced Thursday.

The defects were linked to dozens of accidents and at least 25 injuries from December 1998 to February 2001, including burns, torn muscles, scrapes and bruises, according to the Consumer Product Safety Commission.

Two investigations found that Polaris, based in Medina, Minn., allegedly made engineering changes to certain ATV models after receiving injury and accident reports, but before informing the government of any problems, as federal law requires.

Polaris denied any wrongdoing but agreed to the $950,000 settlement to avoid continuing legal costs.

Washington, D.C.

Bush pollution proposal labeled less effective

The Bush administration’s “Clear Skies” proposal to curb air pollution from power plants would reduce air pollution less than the current Clean Air Act rules, according to a preliminary report by the National Academy of Sciences released Thursday.

The 18-member panel’s initial assessment of proposals to regulate aging coal-fired power plants represents the latest salvo in the ongoing battle over how best to clean up the nation’s air.

The President’s “Clear Skies” bill would set up a cap-and-trade program that aims to cut sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxide and mercury pollution from utilities by 70 percent sometime after 2018.

The Senate will have hearings on the plan in two weeks.

St. Louis

Study: Anti-convulsant drugs may slow aging

Some anti-seizure medications make roundworms live longer, Washington University scientists have discovered.

Until now, the only proven method of extending life was drastic calorie cutting or mimicking its effects. But drugs that stop seizures in people also slowed aging in laboratory worms, Washington University geneticist Kerry Kornfeld and his colleagues found.

The results of the new study, published today in the journal Science, could indicate that several mechanisms regulate aging — and drugs may already exist to slow the process.

The scientists tried 19 drugs and found one, ethosuximide — commonly called Zarontin — that added an average of three days to the worms’ lives. That’s an increase of 17 percent in life span. Worms usually live about two weeks.

Texas

Soldier doesn’t testify in Abu Ghraib case

The defense for Spc. Charles Graner Jr. rested its case Thursday without the accused ringleader of abuses at the Abu Ghraib prison taking the stand.

The jury of four Army officers and six senior enlisted men was expected to begin deliberating after closing arguments today at Fort Hood.

Graner’s lawyers had indicated earlier that Graner would probably be the final witness, and that he would offer his version of what occurred in a scandal that stirred outrage against the United States around the world.

But defense lawyer Guy Womack said the other witnesses provided all of the evidence necessary to make the case that military and civilian intelligence agents controlled Abu Ghraib and ordered Graner to soften up detainees for questioning.

Graner, a 36-year-old reservist from Uniontown, Pa., is the first soldier to be tried on charges arising from the Abu Ghraib scandal. They include conspiracy, assault and committing indecent acts. He could get 17 1/2 years in a military prison.

California

Probe set to land on Saturn’s moon

Today’s weather advisory: a chance of thunderstorms and methane showers through orange-colored smog, and a low of 294 degrees below zero.

Life on Titan, Saturn’s gargantuan moon, would not be enticing even if it were supportable. But scientists think some of life’s earliest precursors may yet be found on the mysterious orb when a space probe operated by the European Space Agency descends to its surface early today.

After a seven-year voyage, courtesy of NASA’s Cassini spacecraft, the Huygens probe began its free fall toward Titan on Christmas Eve. Today the saucer-shaped probe will plunge through 790 miles of Titan’s nitrogen-rich atmosphere.

Bonnie Buratti, a Cassini science team member at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., said scientists hoped to answer some key questions about the moon’s appearance and composition.

California

Authorities end search for mudslide victims

Authorities ended the search Thursday for victims of the deadly mudslide and warned residents not to return to La Conchita because of the danger of another collapse.

The death toll stood at 10 in the beach community devastated by Monday’s torrent of dirt and trees, and everyone on the list of missing people had been found. Thirteen homes were destroyed and 18 damaged.

“The La Conchita community is a geologically hazardous area,” Sheriff Bob Brooks said. “It has been historically, it is today, and it will remain so. We do not recommend that people return to this area or the people who stay here remain here.”

The town of about 260 people was evacuated Monday.

Authorities planned to meet with residents today to discuss a specific plan for their return.

Brooks said the remaining pile of mud and debris might never be moved, even though some homes remained buried. Geologists warned that moving the mound could bring more mudslides.

New York City

Banks publish data on Nazi victims’ accounts

Records of more than 3,000 World War II-era Swiss bank accounts were published Thursday online in an effort to return millions of dollars to Nazi victims or their descendants.

Survivors and heirs now have six months to file claims to the accounts, which were opened before or during the Nazi era and were once held by Credit Suisse, UBS AG and other Swiss banks.

The names were published under a settlement reached in June between the banks and Nazi victims. The banks’ refusal to release the records had angered Holocaust survivors and infuriated a federal judge overseeing the case.

The list was posted to the tribunal’s Web site, www.crt-ii.org, for searches by people hoping to recover family assets.

Washington, D.C.

Education secretary seeks payment probe

Education Secretary Rod Paige directed his agency Thursday to begin a speedy investigation into its public relations contract with a prominent black media commentator after leaders of a Senate committee asked for records of the department’s publicity deals.

At the same time, a Federal Communications Commission member asked that his agency investigate whether the commentator, Armstrong Williams, broke the law by failing to disclose that the Bush administration paid him $240,000 to plug its education policies to minority audiences.

Williams has apologized for a mistake in judgment but says he has broken no law.

Detroit

Parks had dementia before lawsuit filing

Rosa Parks had a progressive form of dementia at least two years before her attorney filed a $5 billion lawsuit in August on her behalf claiming Parks was defamed and humiliated by the sale of CDs that bear her name, medical records show.

The records, released by a federal judge Wednesday, further raise concerns by some of Parks’ family members about the motives behind the litigation and that the civil rights icon may not have known about that lawsuit — and would not have agreed to it if she were lucid at the time it was filed.

Parks’ attorney, Gregory Reed, first filed suit against the hip-hop duo OutKast in 1999, claiming they used Parks’ name in the title of a song on their CD “Aquemini” without her permission. OutKast was later dropped from the suit, which is still pending in federal court.

Texas

Mass e-mailer slapped with civil lawsuit

Seeking to shut down a University of Texas student listed as the fourth-worst sender of spam e-mail in the world, the Texas attorney general on Thursday filed a civil lawsuit against the man potentially seeking nearly $500 million in damages.

The action, the first effort by the state of Texas targeting a purveyor of unsolicited commercial e-mails, comes as state and federal officials are suddenly stepping up enforcement of a year-old federal anti-spam law.

Thursday’s lawsuit against Ryan Pitylak, a 22-year-old University of Texas junior majoring in philosophy, follows a Chicago Tribune investigation of Pitylak published last July that Texas Atty. Gen. Greg Abbott said influenced him to pursue the case.

Washington, D.C.

FBI computer overhaul hits another snag

A $170 million computer overhaul intended to give FBI agents and analysts an instantaneous and paperless way to manage criminal and terrorism cases is headed back to the drawing board, probably at a much steeper cost to taxpayers.

The FBI hopes to salvage some parts of the project, known as Virtual Case File. But officials acknowledged Thursday that it is possible the entire system, designed by Science Applications International Corp. of San Diego, is so inadequate and outdated that one will have to be built from scratch.

After the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, FBI Director Robert Mueller made improvement of the agency’s computer systems a priority. Members of Congress and the independent 9-11 commission said the overhaul was critical to enabling the FBI and intelligence agencies such as the CIA to “connect the dots” in preventing attacks.

Alaska

Oil spotted 50 miles from wrecked freighter

Fuel oil from the Selendang Ayu has reached a fishing community 50 miles from the wreckage of the grounded freighter, prompting new concerns about the effect of last month’s spill in the Bering Sea.

State environmental workers found as many as two dozen clumps of oil — some measuring 2 feet in diameter — along a quarter-mile stretch of Captain’s Bay at the southern end of Dutch Harbor, a community of 4,000 on Unalaska Island. It’s the first time the oil has reached such a populated area.

Since the oil was reported to the state Wednesday, the agency has been trying to assess the threat to the local water table and area seafood processing plants, Pearson said.

The 738-foot Selendang Ayu broke apart Dec. 8 off Unalaska Island.

Chicago

Lutheran report on gays suggests few changes

Trying to walk a line that will preserve unity, a panel recommended Thursday that the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America officially maintain its positions against same-sex blessing ceremonies and gay and lesbian ministers in relationships but tolerate dissenters.

Both conservatives and gay and lesbian groups were disappointed. Conservatives say the recommendations — to be considered by church leaders at their August meeting — condone defiance of church doctrine; gay supporters say they reinforce discrimination.

Many fear the issue will divide the church, one of the nation’s largest Protestant bodies with 5 million members.

Evangelical Lutheran Church policy bans gay and lesbian clergy involved with partners, but allows those who are celibate.