Specter's cancer is back, scan reveals

Senator Arlen Specter's cancer has returned. The five-term Pennsylvania Republican said in a statement released by his office yesterday that he was diagnosed with an early recurrence of Hodgkin's disease, which is a cancer of the lymph system. Specter, 78, underwent treatment for the same type of cancer in 2005 and was given a clean bill of health. The statement said that the cancer was revealed in a medical scan but that he has no symptoms. "I consider this just another bump on the road to a successful recovery from Hodgkin's, from which I've been symptom-free for three years," Specter said. (AP)

COLONIAL BEACH - The governors of Virginia and Maryland pledged yesterday to make a drastic cut in the Chesapeake Bay harvest of blue crabs, citing new data that show the struggling species continues to be heavily overfished. Appearing on the banks of the Potomac River downstream of Washington, Governors Timothy M. Kaine of Virginia and Martin O'Malley of Maryland said they had instructed state regulators to reduce the number of female blue crabs caught this year by 34 percent. The Chesapeake's watermen have said this kind of cut could destroy the livelihoods of longtime crabbers. (Washington Post)

ELDORADO - State officials yesterday defended their decision to suddenly separate mothers from many of the children taken in a raid on a polygamist ranch in West Texas. Marleigh Meisner, Texas Children's Protective Services spokeswoman, said the separation was made Monday after they decided that children are more truthful in interviews about possible abuse if their parents are not around. When state troopers and child welfare officials seized 416 children from the compound, 139 women accompanied them on their own and had been allowed to stay with the children until Monday, when they were driven back to the compound. (AP)

CHICAGO - St. Xavier University in Chicago is getting ready to reopen after being shut down for several days because of threatening graffiti. The Catholic school has been closed since Friday after the discovery of restroom graffiti that read "be prepared to die on 4/14." Judith Dwyer, university president, said all the school's campuses will reopen today with graduate classes tonight and undergraduate classes tomorrow. Officials say they're found nothing to confirm there is a continuing threat at the school. Two other schools in the area have reopened after similar threats. (AP)