US secrecy rising, coalition reports

Government secrecy by almost any measure is expanding and little is being done to stop it, according to a coalition of 67 organizations favoring greater openness. From classified information to the president's use of the state secrets privilege, the lack of disclosure should be a growing concern to the public and the Congress, said Patrice McDermott, director of OpenTheGovernment.org, which compiled a report using mostly the government's own figures. (AP)

A push to try teens as adults in slayings
NEWARK - Essex County prosecutors want three males, a 16year-old and two 15-year-olds, who are charged in execution-style shooting deaths to be tried as adults. They are charged in the deaths of three students in a schoolyard in Newark on Aug. 4. Three other men, all adults, have also been arrested. The victims were to attend Delaware State University this fall. A fourth victim, Natasha Aeriel, was shot but survived. (AP)

WYOMING - A car wash employee was killed when he got entangled in giant, automatic brushes, authorities said. Police were investigating the death of Ricardo Alberto Martinez, 18, but foul play wasn't suspected. Martinez was closing the car wash Friday when a customer returned to have his vehicle washed again. After the vehicle entered the car wash, Martinez went inside and somehow became entangled, police said. Another customer later found the body at the business in this community near Grand Rapids. (AP)

NEW YORK - A registered sex offender who abruptly checked out of a run-down Times Square hotel after an extended stay was questioned by police about a woman found beaten and strangled in his room, authorities said yesterday. The body, wrapped in plastic bags, was discovered at the Hotel Carter Thursday by a chambermaid who reached beneath a bed and felt a foot. (AP)