Chicago

City employees charged in heroin investigation

Eight people, including two employees of Chicago’s scandal-ridden water department, were arrested Wednesday on heroin-trafficking charges.

The water department is already awash in charges of bribery and other corruption.

George A. Prado, 47, a water department hoisting engineer, was charged as the mastermind of the heroin-selling ring. His brother-in-law, Anthony C. Ritacco, 45, and water department worker Michael D. Hart, 39, were charged with being members of the ring.

Ritacco is a seasonal cement mixer for the city transportation department.

U.S. Atty. Patrick Fitzgerald said water department workers “were engaging in this kind of conduct during weekdays, during workdays, when they should not have been.”

One of those charged was arrested Wednesday in New York; seven were arrested in Chicago. A ninth defendant, described as a drug courier, was taken into custody a week ago.

Washington, D.C.

Saudis deny creating nuclear program

Saudi Arabia is seeking to permanently lower international scrutiny of its lone nuclear reactor, but a top Saudi official said Wednesday the request was not a prelude to development of nuclear weapons.

“We have no desire to acquire any type of weapon of mass destruction, period,” Saudi foreign policy adviser Adel al-Jubeir said.

The Saudi request this spring set off alarm bells at the International Atomic Energy Agency and within the Bush administration, which has accused neighboring Iran of using its civilian nuclear program as a cover to develop weapons that could be used against Israel or other U.S. allies in the Middle East.

He also said reports, some based on U.S. intelligence, that Saudi Arabia has sought possible nuclear weapons help from Pakistan are “not correct.”

New York

Survey: ‘Questionable’ research common

It’s not the stuff of headlines, like fraud. But more mundane misbehavior by scientists is common enough that it may pose an even greater threat to the integrity of science, a new report asserts.

One-third of scientists surveyed said that within the previous three years, they’d engaged in at least one practice that would probably get them into trouble, the report said. Examples included circumventing minor aspects of rules for doing research on people and overlooking a colleague’s use of flawed data or questionable interpretation of data.

Such behaviors are “primarily flying below the radar screen right now,” said Brian C. Martinson of the HealthPartners Research Foundation in Minneapolis, who presents the survey results with colleagues in a commentary in today’s Nature.

Miami

Former pilots convicted of being drunk in cockpit

Two former America West pilots were convicted Wednesday of being drunk in the cockpit the morning after an all-night drinking binge at a sports bar.

The pilots face a minimum of probation and a maximum of five years in prison after being found guilty of operating an aircraft while drunk.

Defendants Thomas Cloyd, 47, and Christopher Hughes, 44, were arrested July 1, 2002, as their Phoenix-bound jet was being pushed back from its gate at Miami International Airport.

The pilots had 14 beers between them the night before the flight, closing out their $122 bar tab at about 4:40 a.m. – roughly six hours before their flight was to depart. Hours later, they registered blood-alcohol levels above Florida’s 0.08 legal limit.

Philadelphia

District to require black history course

In what could be a unique move nationally, the Philadelphia School District will require every high school student to take a separate course in black history to graduate, beginning with this September’s freshman class.

Both national and local officials said yesterday that they knew of no other district requiring such a course, particularly one focused on black history, for graduation.

The School Reform Commission voted unanimously in February to offer courses in both areas at every high school, and said it would consider making one or both courses a graduation requirement.

Wednesday, district officials confirmed that they would mandate a combined African and African-American history course in the 185,000-student district, which is about two-thirds black. The course becomes one of four required social studies courses.