Nine people charged in storm charity theft
SAN FRANCISCO -- Nine people were charged with bilking the Red Cross of at least $25,000 donated for Hurricane Katrina victims, the FBI said yesterday. Four suspects were contract workers at a Red Cross national call center in Bakersfield, said US Attorney McGregor W. Scott. The other five allegedly picked up checks they weren't entitled to. Operators at the national call center provide qualifying hurricane victims with a personal identification number that they then present to receive funds . (AP)
Utah
Church control over public plaza is upheld
SALT LAKE CITY -- A federal appellate court has upheld a deal between city and church leaders that gave the Mormon Church control over a downtown plaza. Judges on the US Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit said traditional public forums can be sold to private groups. The deal does ''nothing to advance religion, but merely enables the LDS church to advance itself," according to the decision, which was issued Monday. The American Civil Liberties Union had argued it was illegal to give the church police power in a public area. (AP)
Florida
Tourist says space trip is 'dream come true'
CAPE CANAVERAL -- A rich entrepreneur scientist who bought his own ticket to the International Space Station said from orbit yesterday that the trip was worth the millions of dollars he paid the Russian Space Agency and that his only fear on launch day was not going. ''I'm having a great time. I mean, this is a dream come true," Gregory Olsen said from the space station. As for the reported $20 million he paid for the 10-day trip: ''It's like the price and value argument. This is something I wanted to do." (AP)
Washington, D.C.
Times reporter awaits action by prosecutor
New York Times reporter Judith Miller said yesterday that if the federal prosecutor who sent her to jail doesn't bring criminal charges in his probe of the Bush administration, she will wonder why she spent nearly three months behind bars. ''If he brings indictments, if he has a very serious case, then I might have to say perhaps his zealousness with respect to this mission was justified," Miller said of Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald. (AP)
Bush moves to protect historic burial ground
The White House yesterday moved toward declaring the African Burial Ground in lower Manhattan a national monument -- a step that could boost federal care for the historic site. In a letter to the Secretary of the Interior, Gail Norton, President Bush asked the agency to determine whether the burial ground should be declared a national monument ''and whether it may warrant permanent federal protection." (AP)
