New York City

Gambino doctors face prescription charges

Three physicians are accused of supplying Viagra and other prescription drugs so frequently to members of the Gambino crime family that one doctor joked he was part of the family.

Physicians Arlen Fleisher, Stephen Klass and George Shapiro were charged Thursday with illegally peddling pills in exchange for favors ranging from construction work to auto repairs.

The men were led into U.S. District Court in Manhattan in handcuffs before being freed on $50,000 bail each. If convicted, each could face up to 10 years in prison.

A criminal complaint by FBI Agent William P. Ready recounted snippets of secretly taped conversations between the doctors and a reputed Gambino member. In one, Klass allegedly referred to himself as the medical “consigliere,” or chief adviser, for the family.

Chicago

Suspect charged for defacing ‘Virgin Mary’

A man was arrested for allegedly scrawling “Big Lie” over a stain on an expressway underpass that some believed was an image of the Virgin Mary.

Authorities then painted over the stain because it had been defaced, police spokesman David Banks said Friday.

Authorities charged Victor Gonzalez, 37, of Chicago with criminal damage to state supported property, a misdemeanor. Witnesses had seen him painting on the image, Banks said.

A steady stream of the faithful and the curious, many carrying flowers and candles, had flocked to the emergency turnoff area under the Kennedy Expressway since last month. On Friday, some people gathered at the site and expressed sorrow.

The stain was likely the result of salt runoff, according to the Illinois Department of Transportation.

Maryland

Judge blocks district’s sexuality curriculum

A federal judge has blocked a county school system from instituting a new health curriculum that includes discussions of homosexuality and religion and a demonstration on how to use condoms.

U.S. District Judge Alexander Williams issued a temporary restraining order Thursday that prevents the Montgomery County school system in suburban Washington, D.C., from using the pilot program in six schools.

The program had been scheduled to begin Monday. During the 10-day restraining order, another hearing will be held on whether to extend it, the judge said.

But school Supt. Jerry D. Weast said in a statement after the ruling that he was suspending use of the curriculum for the rest of the school year and had ordered a review of its materials before deciding the future of the program.

Baylor appoints interim president

Waco, Texas — The regents of 14,000-student Baylor University named law school professor William D. Underwood as interim president of the world’s largest Baptist campus as of June 1.

He succeeds Robert B. Sloan Jr., president since 1995, who resigned in January to become university chancellor without administrative responsibilities after a faculty vote of no confidence.

Faculty opponents claimed Sloan threatened the school’s academic reputation by stressing religious beliefs over qualifications in hiring new professors and by requiring inclusion of religious ideas in teaching. He was also criticized over tuition hikes and a costly building program.

Washington, D.C.

Emily, Jacob again most popular baby names

A lot of kids must look up when teachers call out “Emily” or “Jacob” these days. Those were the most popular babies’ names last year — and have been every year since the 1990s.

Emma and Madison were second and third for girls, just like the year before. Michael and Joshua were No. 2 and 3 for boys, like the year before.

The biblical name Jacob, the most popular choice for boys for the sixth straight year, also was at the top in the first count of names given to twins. Parents like to pair it with Joshua.

Emily claimed the top spot among newborn girls for the ninth year in a row, according to the Social Security Administration’s tally for 2004, released Friday.

New to the top 10 are Isabella and William, both rising from 11th.

The top 10 for girls: Emily, Emma, Madison, Olivia, Hannah, Abigail, Isabella, Ashley, Samantha, Elizabeth.

For boys: Jacob, Michael, Joshua, Matthew, Ethan, Andrew, Daniel, William, Joseph, Christopher.

Washington, D.C.

U.N. ambassador nominee criticized

John Bolton, nominated to be U.N. ambassador, vastly overrated the military might of Syria and Cuba and had to be talked into toning down his assessments, a former senior intelligence official told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee staff Friday.

Robert Hutchings, who was responsible for coordinating American intelligence assessments in 2003, told the committee staff he thought Bolton was intent on drawing conclusions in public speeches that were “politicized” and exceeded U.S. intelligence on both countries.

In another interview, former Secretary of State Colin Powell’s chief of staff, Larry Wilkerson, questioned Bolton’s leadership skills and disputed the view that the undersecretary of state was brilliant.

Wilkerson told committee aides that Powell — who has not endorsed Bolton for the U.N. job — would “go down to the bowels of the building” to try to boost the morale of analysts who had clashed with Bolton. Bolton has been accused of berating subordinates who disagreed with his views.

New York

Poll: Clinton, Giuliani top presidential picks

While Democrat Hillary Rodham Clinton and Republican Rudolph Giuliani are their party’s top picks for the 2008 presidential nominations, both remain highly polarizing figures, according to a national poll released Friday.

Forty percent of Democrats polled said they favored Clinton, the New York senator, for the party’s nomination while 18 percent opted for Democratic Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts, the loser of the 2004 presidential race.

Fourteen percent wanted former Sen. John Edwards, Kerry’s 2004 running mate, according to the Marist College Institute for Public Opinion.

Giuliani, the former New York City mayor, was favored by 25 percent of Republican voters for the 2008 GOP nomination with Sen. John McCain of Arizona at 20 percent and Florida Gov. Jeb Bush at 10 percent.

While 72 percent of Democrats said they would like the former first lady to run for the White House in 2008, 76 percent of Republicans said they did not. Conversely, 71 percent of Republicans said Giuliani should run while 64 percent of Democrats said he should not.

Las Vegas

Senate Democrat calls Bush ‘a loser,’ apologizes

Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid called President Bush “a loser” during a civics discussion with a group of teenagers Friday at a high school.

“The man’s father is a wonderful human being,” Reid, D-Nev., told students at Del Sol High School when asked about the president’s policies. “I think this guy is a loser.”

Shortly after the event Reid called the White House to apologize, his spokeswoman Tessa Hafen said. Reid spoke with Bush adviser Karl Rove, asking him to convey the apology to Bush, who was traveling in Europe.

The Nevada Democrat expressed “regret for the comments, that it was inappropriate,” Hafen said. Reid was unavailable for comment.

Massachusetts

Ultraviolet light key to monarch navigation

Monarch butterflies making their annual migration from the eastern United States to winter residences in Mexico’s Sierra Madre range find their way by following a three-dimensional map made of rays of polarized ultraviolet light, according to a new study.

Though UV light is invisible to humans, to butterflies it appears as a grid in the sky that emanates from the sun, the researchers reported this week in the journal Neuron.

As the sun travels from east to west across the sky, so does the grid. To compensate, the butterflies use an internal clock that recalibrates the grid throughout the day so they can travel in a straight line, said Steven Reppert, a professor of neurobiology at the University of Massachusetts Medical School and co-author of the study.

Reppert and his colleagues knew the butterflies used polarized light to navigate, but they weren’t sure it was from the ultraviolet portion of the spectrum.

Florida

Suspect pleads not guilty in teen’s death

A sex offender charged in the slaying of a 13-year-old girl pleaded not guilty Friday, and prosecutors said they planned to seek the death penalty.

An attorney for David Lee Onstott entered the plea to charges of murder and attempted sexual battery.

Meanwhile, prosecutor Mark Ober filed court papers Friday saying he will seek the death penalty for Onstott if he is convicted of first-degree murder.

The massive weeklong search for Sarah Lunde captured the nation’s attention last month before her partially clothed body was found April 16 in an abandoned pond near her family’s mobile home in Ruskin. She was last seen April 9 after returning home from a church trip.

Authorities said Onstott, 36, confessed to strangling Sarah after showing up at the house looking for the girl’s mother, Kelly May, whom he had once dated. He allegedly told investigators he killed Sarah after the two got into an argument.

Miami

Judge denies damages in Elian Gonzalez raid

A federal judge Friday ruled against awarding damages to 13 people who were tear-gassed by immigration agents during the April 2000 raid to seize 6-year-old Elian Gonzalez.

U.S. District Judge K. Michael Moore issued a 19-page decision saying the demonstrators and bystanders failed to show enough credible evidence that federal officers’ use of force during the raid was “unreasonable under the circumstances.”

The 13 people had sued the government for $3.25 million, claiming they had lingering injuries after they were sprayed at close range while on their own property or behind barricades. Three neighbors testified that an agent gassed them without warning from 2 to 4 feet away as they stood alone in their fenced front yards.

But the judge agreed with the government’s argument that officers did not use excessive force and that the plaintiffs failed to show that they were sprayed at close range.

Atlanta

Investigation reopened in some child killings

A police chief has reopened an investigation into four of the child slayings that terrorized the Atlanta area more than two decades ago, saying he thinks the man suspected in most of the killings is innocent.

Altogether, 29 people — all of them black, most of them boys — were killed in the Atlanta area between 1979 and 1981.

Wayne Williams, 47, is serving a life sentence for the murders of two young men. After his conviction, authorities blamed him for 22 of the other slayings but never charged him.

Dekalb County Police Chief Louis Graham said he planned to take another look at the slayings of four boys between February and May 1981. Graham, who became chief last year, said he took an interest in revisiting the cases after looking through some old news clippings.