Idaho

Cat survives impromptu joyride on car roof

Torri Hutchinson’s cat might just have one fewer life to live.

Hutchinson was driving along Interstate 15 one day recently when a motorist kept trying to get her attention and pointing to the roof of her car.

She said she was wary of the man, but wondered if perhaps her ski rack might have come loose.

She pulled over to the side, but kept her doors locked and the motor running.

The man pulled up behind her. Hutchinson rolled down her window to hear the man frantically shouting, “Your cat! Your cat!”

He reached for the roof of her car and handed the shocked Hutchinson her orange tabby.

She had driven about 10 miles with the cat on top of the car, and didn’t even notice the feline when she stopped for gas.

Hutchinson said Cuddle Bug, or C.B. for short, had climbed into the back of her car as she was getting ready to leave. She put him out, but he must have jumped on the roof while she wasn’t looking, she said. Hutchinson is pictured above with C.B. outside their Inkom, Idaho, home.

Washington, D.C.

Limits suggested for child gene therapy

Federal health advisers recommended Friday that gene therapy treatments for children with a severe immune deficiency be restricted to those who have no alternative.

The Food and Drug Administration convened the panel after a 3-year-old French boy became the third child to develop cancer after receiving gene therapy for treatment for X-linked severe combined immunodeficiency, or X-SCID. The FDA had asked U.S. researchers doing similar work to put it on hold.

Doctors and scientists on the advisory panel said they didn’t want to hold up the therapy for children who have already failed to respond to bone marrow transplants, an alternative treatment. But they noted the number of such children — who under Friday’s recommendation still would be able to have experimental gene therapy — is very small.

Phoenix

Lawmakers propose restrictions on illegals

Four months after residents voted to deny some government benefits to illegal immigrants, advocates for limiting immigration are pressing lawmakers to enact even more restrictions on those who sneak into the country.

Opponents question whether the proposed changes — this time to education — would do much to stem the flood of illegal immigration in Arizona, the busiest illegal entry point on the nation’s southern border.

But both sides of the debate say the federal government hasn’t done enough to fulfill its responsibility to enforce laws already on the books; in response, Arizona lawmakers have proposed several bills this year to address the issue.

The latest proposal, which would not be put to a public vote, would require the state to check the immigration status of the parents of students before they can enroll in primary and secondary schools.

Similar citizenship checks would have to be made on applicants for adult education classes. The proposal also would deny state housing assistance to illegal immigrants.

New Jersey

Two suspects charged in slaying of family

The upstairs neighbor of an Egyptian Christian family found slain in January in its home was charged with another man Friday in the killings, and authorities said the motive was robbery, not religious fanaticism, as some had feared.

Edward McDonald, 25, who rented a second-floor apartment above Hossam Armanious and his family, pleaded not guilty to four counts of murder, as did Hamilton Sanchez, 30. Both men were ordered held on $10 million bail.

“I didn’t kill nobody, man,” Sanchez said as he was led from the courtroom.

Armanious, a 47-year-old Coptic Christian, his wife and their two daughters, ages 8 and 15, were found bound and gagged with puncture wounds to their throats.

Hudson County Prosecutor Edward DeFazio said the killings took place during a robbery by the two men, who owed someone a large sum of money.

Authorities said thousands of dollars were withdrawn from Armanious’ bank account using his ATM card in the days after the slayings.

Atlanta

Delta pilot suspended after drunken arrest

Delta Air Lines said it had suspended a pilot arrested by German police who suspected he was drunk as he prepared for a flight.

The first officer, whom Delta declined to identify, was one of three pilots scheduled to make the Monday morning flight from Frankfurt to Atlanta.

The pilot was given a blood-alcohol test and faces possible charges of dangerous interference in air transport, according to news reports.

Delta said the flight, which had 156 passengers on board, was delayed about two hours. Such international flights normally require a third pilot as a reserve. But the Boeing 767 took off with one captain and one first officer by changing its destination to Boston to keep the flight time below the Federal Aviation Administration’s eight-hour cap. The flight continued to Atlanta after changing crews.

New Jersey

Bush continues pitch for Social Security plan

President Bush kept pitching his Social Security overhaul Friday, undaunted by Democratic opposition, frayed Republican support and less-than-enthusiastic backing from the public.

“I’m going to keep telling people we’ve got a problem until it sinks in, because we’ve got one,” Bush said, underscoring estimates that say Social Security will begin paying out more than it collects in taxes as early as 2018.

Bush’s visits to New Jersey and South Bend, Ind., began a two-month blitz in which he and other administration officials are visiting 29 states. The road trip ended a week in which the administration lost momentum on the president’s call to revamp the government’s 70-year-old retirement system.

To counter Bush’s nationwide swing, Democratic senators planned their own “fix it, don’t nix it” forums in four cities over two days.

Washington, D.C.

Budget analyst raises Medicare cost estimate

Congress’ nonpartisan budget analyst added new fuel to the Medicare debate late Friday with new, higher cost estimates for a prescription drug program that has already drawn fire for its soaring price tag.

In a letter to lawmakers, the Congressional Budget Office said its estimate for the drug benefits for the 10-year period ending in 2015 had grown by $54 billion since January. No cumulative 10-year total was provided, but a separate budget office letter used figures that indicated a total over that period of $849 billion.

Significantly, though, that number omitted savings expected to accompany the new program. As a result, the new congressional estimate was not directly comparable to the $724 billion projection the Bush administration released last month, which factored in those savings.

Tennessee

Flight attendant pleads guilty to bomb threat

An off-duty flight attendant accused of leaving a bomb note on an airplane has pleaded guilty to intentionally interfering with a flight crew, federal prosecutors said Friday.

Prosecutor Debra T. Phillips said Gay Wilson accepted a plea agreement that was filed Friday in federal court in Nashville.

Wilson, who has been jailed since the May 27 incident, could receive more than five years in prison at sentencing, set for May 13.

Wilson was traveling on an American Airlines flight with 129 passengers from Dallas to Boston when, in Nashville airspace, she went to the bathroom and claimed she found a bomb note, authorities said.

The note read: “There is a bomb on board this flt to Boston in cargo. Live Sadaam!”

Two fighter jets escorted the airplane to Nashville International Airport, where it was evacuated. Authorities didn’t find a bomb on the aircraft.

The defendant, who was 37 at the time of the incident, returned to Dallas the next day and eventually admitted writing the note, authorities said.

Washington, D.C.

Prison abuse scandal documents released

Videos from Iraq compiled by a Florida National Guardsman and called “Ramadi Madness” appeared to show one soldier kicking a wounded, cuffed prisoner and another striking a detainee with a rifle butt, yet Army investigators found no cause to charge anyone with abuse, according to Army documents released Friday.

The videos were described in 1,200 pages of documents released Friday by the Army in response to a lawsuit by the American Civil Liberties Union, which is seeking information on prisoner abuse in Iraq. Previously, the military had been providing the documents to the ACLU, which in turn has made them public, but on Friday provided copies to the news media as well.

Army officials said the documents summarized 13 investigations, none of which resulted in abuse charges. A number were closed due to insufficient evidence. The Army has so far released the results of 129 investigations to the ACLU.