Attorney general collapses

Attorney general collapses

WASHINGTON — Attorney General Michael Mukasey collapsed during a speech Thursday night and lost consciousness, a Justice Department official said.

The 67-year-old Mukasey was rushed to George Washington University Hospital, where his condition was not immediately known.

Mukasey was delivering a speech to the Federalist Society at a Washington hotel when “he just started shaking and he collapsed,” said Associate Attorney General Kevin O’Connor. “They’re very concerned.”

Mukasey was 15 to 20 minutes into his speech about the Bush administration’s successes in combatting terrorism when he began slurring his words. He collapsed and lost consciousness, said O’Conner, the department’s No. 3 official. It was unclear whether he regained consciousness.

D.C. braces for inaugural

WASHINGTON — The Washington area’s transit system is bracing for record ridership on Inauguration Day and says passengers should expect extraordinarily long lines and packed railcars and buses.

With hotels filling up in Pennsylvania and West Virginia for the Jan. 20 swearing in of President-elect Barack Obama, public transportation will be critical for getting crowds to and from the nation’s capital, officials said.

District of Columbia Mayor Adrian M. Fenty has said Obama’s inauguration could lead to an unprecedented turnout of 3 million to 5 million people. Other estimates have anticipated crowds of about 1.5 million.

Catoe said Metro is preparing for more than double the system’s typical ridership. Weekday ridership is usually about 750,000 on rail and 450,000 on buses.

Trains collide; no injuries

RIALTO, Calif. — A Metrolink commuter train sideswiped a freight train Thursday, causing no serious injuries but bringing back still-vivid memories of a deadly train wreck in the region just two months ago.

The commuter train, carrying 15 passengers and crew, was heading east from downtown Los Angeles toward San Bernardino at 11:30 a.m. when it collided with a westbound BNSF train pulling onto a side track, authorities said.

The accident came just about 10 weeks after the deadliest crash in Metrolink history. On Sept. 12, a Metrolink train and Union Pacific freight train collided head-on in the Chatsworth area of Los Angeles, killing 25 people and injuring 135. Both trains were going about 40 mph.

Report: Search improper

TOLEDO — An agency director improperly used state computers to find personal information on “Joe the Plumber,” a government watchdog said in a report released Thursday.

There was no legitimate business purpose for the head of Ohio’s Department of Job and Family Services to order staff to look up the records, Inspector General Tom Charles said.

Investigators weren’t able to determine whether the searches were politically motivated, the report said.

Gov. Ted Strickland suspended the agency director, Helen Jones-Kelley, for a month without pay after reviewing the findings. He rejected a request to fire her.

19,000 student deaths

BEIJING — China has acknowledged for the first time that more than 19,000 students died in the massive earthquake that struck Sichuan province in May.

The earthquake left nearly 90,000 people dead or missing, but the government had never said how many of the casualties were students. Their deaths caused protests and anger among parents, because of reports that many of the schools that collapsed had been built with substandard materials.

Wei Hong, the executive vice governor of Sichuan, announced the student death toll of 19,065 at a news conference today.

Minn. recount continues

The U.S. Senate recount continued Thursday without major glitches across Minnesota, as tabulators and the volunteers watching them settled into an increasingly familiar routine of thumbing, counting and sorting.

With about 46 percent of the 2.9 million ballots counted by Thursday evening, the gap between Republican incumbent Norm Coleman and DFL challenger Al Franken continued to close. Coleman was leading by only 136 votes, a drop from his unofficial lead of 215 that was confirmed Tuesday by the state Canvassing Board.

The figures represent a compilation of recount data reported to the secretary of state and gathered by the Star Tribune.

Ramsey County elections manager Joe Mansky said things went smoothly Thursday, although he noted some tension in the morning.

Combined dispatches