Bush, Hastert oppose extending 9/11 probe
President Bush and House Speaker Dennis Hastert, Republican of Illinois, have decided to oppose granting more time to an independent commission investigating the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, virtually guaranteeing that the panel will have to complete its work by the end of May, officials said last week. A growing number of commissioners had concluded that the panel needed more time to prepare a thorough, credible accounting of missteps leading up to the terrorist attacks on New York and Washington. But the White House and leading Republicans have informed the panel that they oppose any delay, which could mean Sept. 11-related controversies emerging during the presidential campaign, sources said. With time running short, the 10-member bipartisan panel has decided to scale back the number and scope of public hearings, according to commission members and staff. (Washington Post)
FLORIDA
Police stop plane, hold suspect in two slayings
MIAMI -- Police stopped a taxiing plane yesterday to arrest a man they say killed his former girlfriend and her mother and left her 4-year-old daughter wandering around Miami International Airport. Jason Nelson, 26, was arrested by Miami-Dade police early yesterday. The body of 21-year-old Robyn Golder was found in a wooded area by Miami-Dade police about 4 a.m. yesterday, said Lee County Sheriff's Office spokeswoman Ileana LiMarzi. Nelson was on a flight leaving the country but did not know where he had been headed, LiMarzi said. Golder's daughter was found at the airport and has been reunited with family in Lehigh Acres, where Golder's mother, 53-year-old Julie Halsmer, was found shot to death Saturday night. Lehigh Acres is about 110 miles northwest of Miami. (AP)CALIFORNIA
Woman named to lead city Police Department
SAN FRANCISCO -- Mayor Gavin Newsom named Assistant Police Chief Heather Fong the city's interim police chief yesterday, two days after he swore in Joanne Hayes-White as the city's first woman fire chief. If the city's Police Commission confirms the 26-year veteran's appointment this week as expected, San Francisco will have the rare distinction of having women lead its two key public safety departments. Newsom, who wants Fong considered for the permanent job, had vowed to bring new leadership to a department still reeling from a scandal over a 2002 street brawl in which three off-duty police officers were accused. (AP)Man booked in slaying of tennis stars' kin
COMMERCE -- Tips from citizens led to the arrest of the chief suspect in last year's fatal shooting of the half-sister of tennis stars Venus and Serena Williams, investigators said yesterday. Robert Maxfield, 23, was being held without bail yesterday in connection with the Sept. 14 shooting of Yetunde Price, 31. He was scheduled to be arraigned tomorrow. Maxfield was arrested Saturday afternoon without incident at his sister's Compton home, officials said. He was arrested the week investigators issued a warrant for Maxfield's arrest. Although no monetary reward had been posted, several "courageous citizens stepped up to the plate and helped," Lieutenant Daniel Rosenberg of the Los Angeles County sheriff's homicide bureau said yesterday. (AP)
