Kerry to help veterans raise campaign funds

Senator John F. Kerry today plans to send out a fund-raising appeal on behalf of several Iraq war veterans running for Congress, citing the political attacks his war record received in his presidential run in urging his supporters to help the candidates. ''You and I both know how [Karl] Rove-style Republicans treat veterans who speak the truth," the Massachusetts Democrat plans to write in an e-mail to his supporters. The e-mail, a copy of which was provided to the Globe, asks for donations for Tammy Duckworth, who lost her legs in a helicopter accident in Iraq and is running in the March 21 Democratic primary for the House seat being vacated by Representative Henry Hyde, Republican of Illinois; Patrick Murphy, who is seeking to take on Representative Michael G. Fitzpatrick, Republican of Pennsylvania; and Joe Sestak, who is trying to oust another Pennsylvania Republican, Representative Curt Weldon.

Florida

MIAMI -- A federal judge ruled yesterday that the US government acted unreasonably when it sent home 15 Cubans who thought they had safely made it to the United States when their boat reached an abandoned bridge in the Florida Keys. US District Judge Federico Moreno ordered the federal government to make its best effort to help the immigrants return to the United States, said Kendall Coffey, a lawyer for the Cubans. (AP)

South Dakota

ELK POINT -- A woman who put her newborn in trash that ended up in a Nebraska landfill was sentenced yesterday to the maximum of 10 years in prison. Lori Schultz, 21, wept in court. After her son's birth Feb. 2, 2004, she wrapped him in towels and a garbage bag and put him in a trash can because she was afraid of how the boy's father, would react. (AP)