National and State News-Friday, May 11th

CAPITOL HILL (AP) - With the House having passed another limited Iraq war funding measure, concerned Iraqi government officials have been lobbying lawmakers from both parties. Senior Baghdad officials have been on Capitol Hill warning members that a U-S troop
withdrawal would be a disaster for Iraq.

CAMP PENDLETON, Calif. (AP) - There will be more testimony today in the biggest U-S criminal case involving civilian deaths in the Iraq war. An intelligence officer and an operations officer are scheduled to testify at a hearing for an officer charged with dereliction of duty for not investigating the killings of 24 Iraqis.

LONDON (AP) - The man most likely to succeed Tony Blair as Britain's prime minister now has the outgoing leader's full support. Blair today endorsed Gordon Brown to succeed him as leader
of the Labor Party. Blair announced his resignation yesterday. Brown currently manages Britain's economy, which has been growing.

AVALON, Calif. (AP) - Authorities say at least 400 people have been evacuated from California's resort island of Santa Catalina where a wildfire has burned at least four-thousand acres and several houses. Ferry boats continue to operate to the island to evacuate anyone who wants to go.

BLACKSBURG, Va. (AP) - What should be a day of celebration carries a very somber note as Virginia Tech seniors prepare for tonight's commencement. But some students say that while last month's massacre is something they'll never forget, it also won't define their memories.

PITTSBURGH (AP) - President Bush will deliver the commencement address today at Saint Vincent University in Latrobe. The school has a connection to the Bush. University president H.
James Towey served as director of the Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives from 2002 until last April. Towey defended Bush's visit at a forum on campus last month as
students spoke both for and against the president's visit. Some said the president doesn't reflect their values and shouldn't speak at the school. Others disagreed with the president but said that's precisely why they should let him speak at the school. Still others said they were honored that the president would address their graduation. Saint Vincent is a coed Catholic liberal arts college in Latrobe, about 35 miles east of Pittsburgh. It was founded in 1846.

WASHINGTON (AP) - The Bush administration is divvying up 445 (M) million dollars in grants to protect commuters, shipping ports, and transit systems from attacks. It's a ten-percent boost from last year. The Department of Homeland Security is devoting most of the
money to seaports and mass transit. Smaller amounts will help protect Amtrak, and bus services such as Greyhound and Trailways, as well as trucking and passenger ferry
services. In the annual up-and-down of anti-terror grants to major ports, New York and San Francisco did well, while Louisiana and Texas suffered setbacks. Allocations for transit and port security in Pennsylvania are up this year.

CAMDEN, N.J. (AP) - The six men accused of planning a terrorist attack on Fort Dix are due in federal court in Camden, New Jersey, today. Federal prosecutors plan to argue that the men held at a federal detention center in Philadelphia since their arrest Monday night pose a flight risk, and should be held without bail. None was born in the United States and three of them are in the country illegally. Lawyers for the men also say they don't expect bail to be set at
a level that their blue-collar clients can afford. The suspects were arrested as they allegedly were preparing to buy automatic weapons to use in an attack.

PHILADELPHIA (AP) - An expensive food fight over sugar substitutes will go to a jury today after a monthlong trial about the marketing slogan for Splenda. The Merisant Company, which makes Equal, accuses Splenda's marketers of misleading consumers and eroding Equal's sales with false advertising. A Merisant lawyer said in closing arguments yesterday (Thursday)
that Splenda's slogan -- "Made from sugar so it tastes like sugar" -- confused consumers into thinking the product contained sugar. Splenda uses sugar in the manufacturing process, but it's burned off and is not part of the final product. McNeil Nutritionals, which markets Splenda, says the sweetener is successful simply because consumers like the taste better.

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) - The state agriculture department says raw milk sold by a Berks County dairy might be contaminated with listeria, which can make people sick. Authorities say anyone who bought raw milk from Misty Meadow Farm in Bernville after April 16th should throw it out immediately. Agriculture Secretary Dennis Wolf says that during a routine
inspection of the dairy this week, a preliminary test revealed listeria in some raw milk samples.
Symptoms of listeriosis include fever, muscle aches, nausea or diarrhea. No illnesses have been reported as a result of the potential contamination.

JAMESTOWN, Va. (AP) - The National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration office at the Chesapeake Bay has floated its first "smart buoy." The buoy collects data from the bay and transmits it to the Internet. The device was placed in the John Smith Waterway just off
Jamestown, Virginia. It collects "chemical, optical and physical observations" and transmits it wirelessly in real time. The data will be available at buoybay-dot-org. That Web site goes live today when the John Smith Chesapeake National Historic Trail is inaugurated as part of the Jamestown 400th anniversary celebration. Two more buoys will be launched and activated later this year -- one where the Potomac River meets the Bay, and the other on the
Patapsco River at the Bay near Baltimore.

WARREN, Pa. (AP) - A Warren County man accused of fatally shooting his wife during an argument claims he was temporarily insane at the time of the shooting. Attorneys for 53-year-old Christian Iverson have told a judge their client is pleading not guilty and intends to claim diminished mental capacity. Iverson is charged with criminal homicide in the February 20th
death of 44-year-old Patricia Iverson in Brokenstraw Township. Police say when state troopers arrived at the Iversons' home, they found Patricia Iverson's body slumped against a bed with a
gunshot wound to her neck. Police allege Iverson told them an argument led to a physical
altercation on the bed and he shot her. Iverson will undergo a psychiatric evaluation before his trial.

UNIONTOWN, Pa. (AP) - A Fayette County man accused of fatally shooting his estranged wife's lover in 2005 has been convicted of voluntary manslaughter. Fayette County District Attorney Nancy Vernon had asked jurors to return yesterday with a first-degree murder
conviction against 50-year-old Raymond "Mike" Prinkey of Normalville. Authorities say Prinkey shot 50-year-old James Cononico on October 19th, 2005, at Lori Prinkey's apartment in Connellsville. He testified he became enraged when he found out his wife was having a relationship with Cononico after she moved out of their home. Cononico was an inmate at the state prison in Somerset, where Lori Prinkey had worked. She was dismissed from the job because of the relationship, though she said it did not begin until after he was released.

NEW YORK (AP) - The N-F-L Network will appeal a judge's ruling that Comcast, the nation's largest cable television operator, can distribute the channel separate from its digital package.
A New York judge ruled last week that Philadelphia-based Comcast can place the N-F-L Network on a less-popular niche level that has far fewer viewers than the digital level.
The N-F-L sued Comcast in October after the cable company said it was putting the network on a sports tier with about 750,000 viewers. Previously, it had been on a digital tier seen by more than seven million people. Comcast said it was making the move because it didn't want to
charge customers extra money for N-F-L programming they might not want. But the N-F-L would earn significantly less money with the loss of viewers.

PHILADELPHIA (AP) - Philadelphia Mayor John Street won't be on the ballot in Tuesday's Democratic primary. But a former city councilman is trying to ride anti-corruption and anti-Street sentiment into City Hall. Michael Nutter, Street's longtime nemesis, has spent months
attacking the two-term incumbent. He's pointed to the city's soaring homicide rate and the corruption investigation that has seen several of Street's friends and aides sent to prison.
Now, according to an independent poll, Nutter finds himself slightly ahead in the five-man mayor's race. Nutter appears to be in the lead over millionaire businessman Tom Knox, followed by Congressmen Chaka Fattah and Bob Brady, and state Representative Dwight Evans. The winner will be the heavy favorite in the November election. Street can't run again because of a two-term limit.

TAMPA, Fla. (AP) - Repeated deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan have left state National Guards without nearly half of their required equipment. Some governors are loudly questioning whether they will be able to handle the next hurricane, wildfire or terrorist attack at home.
Kansas Governor Kathleen Sebelius complained that shortages of equipment and well-trained personnel slowed Guard response to the killer tornadoes that ravaged her state. California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger says a lot of equipment has gone to Iraq but doesn't come back when the Guard units do. In Pennsylvania, Major General Jessica Wright says some
equipment is up to 50 years old, but that the Guard is still prepared to respond to a crisis.
But, she says, it would really better if Guardsmen had more modern equipment.

LEWISBERRY, Pa. (AP) - Educators say the state's program to equip high school classrooms with laptop computers is working well so far. More than 100 high schools across Pennsylvania have bought laptops for English, math, science and social studies classes through the 20 (m) million-dollar "Classrooms for the Future" grant program. Governor Ed Rendell says the initiative will better prepare students to use technology in college and at work, and he is
pushing state lawmakers to increase the funding to 90 (m) million dollars next year.
But a spokesman for Senate Republican Leader Dominic Pileggi questions whether the state can afford the proposed expansion and if the program is effective.