Execution given go-ahead

Execution given go-ahead

CINCINNATI — Prison staff examined veins on an Ohio death row inmate who argues his obesity prevents humane lethal injection and found nothing that should cause a problem in delivering the deadly chemicals, the state said Monday.

A more detailed examination on Richard Cooey, 41, will be conducted this morning, when he is scheduled to die for killing two college students in 1986, said Andrea Carson, a spokeswoman for the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction.

The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday denied one of two pending appeals to stop the execution. It turned down without comment Cooey’s claim that his obesity could make it difficult for prison staff to access a suitable vein to deliver the chemicals used in lethal injection. The argument also had been rejected Thursday by a federal appeals court in Cincinnati and the Ohio Supreme Court, with both courts ruling that he missed a deadline for filing the appeals.

Cooey was still waiting for a ruling on his appeal of the Ohio Supreme Court’s dismissal Monday of his complaint that the state’s protocol for lethal injection is unconstitutional.

Gay couples rush to marry

SAN FRANCISCO — Gay couples from around California and the nation are feverishly tying the knot ahead of Election Day to avoid missing out if voters approve a ballot initiative aimed at banning same-sex marriage.

Proposition 8 would amend the state constitution to limit marriage to a man and a woman. If approved, it would overturn a California Supreme Court ruling that made the state only the second, after Massachusetts, to legalize same-sex marriage. On Friday in Connecticut, the state Supreme Court ruled the state would be the third to allow gay marriage.

Ohio rep suffers injuries

CINCINNATI — U.S. Rep. Jean Schmidt of Ohio suffered broken ribs and vertebrae when she was struck by a car while jogging last week, but the damage wasn’t discovered until after she fainted from pain on an overseas trip, her spokesman said Monday.

The Republican congresswoman was heading to a weekend fact-finding visit to Afghanistan when severe pain caused her to pass out while the plane was landing at a U.S. Air Force base in Germany. A hospital examination then found the breaks in two ribs and two vertebrae that hadn’t been detected earlier, spokesman Bruce Pfaff said.

Schmidt, 56, subsequently flew back to Ohio and was resting Monday in her home just east of Cincinnati, her spokesman said.

The avid marathoner was struck by a car last week. Police still haven’t found the driver.

War resister must leave

BUFFALO, N.Y. — A former U.S. Army sergeant who has been living in Canada as a war resister has been denied refugee status there.

Patrick Hart of Buffalo, N.Y., and his family must leave Canada by Oct. 30, or they will be deported.

The Canadian Border Services Agency also turned down a request by Hart and his wife to stay in Canada with their 6-year-old son on humanitarian and compassionate grounds.

Hart had been in the Army 91‚Ñ2 years before going to Toronto in 2005 while preparing for a second deployment to the Middle East. He says he feels the U.S. presence in Iraq is morally wrong.

Action in missing-girl case

ORLANDO, Fla. — Prosecutors today are expected to present the case against Casey Anthony — the mother of missing 3-year-old Caylee Marie — to members of a grand jury who will decide whether she will face more serious charges, possibly murder.

The 22-year-old mother is the main suspect in the disappearance of her daughter, who was reported missing July 15. She told detectives that she last saw Caylee in mid-June when she left the girl with a baby sitter. Authorities have not been able to find the nanny, and they question whether she exists.

Anthony is currently charged with child neglect, filing a false statement with law enforcement and check fraud.

Anthony was born in Warren and moved with her parents and brother to Florida in 1989.

Boeing talks break down

SEATTLE — Negotiations aimed at resolving a five-week walkout by Boeing Co. commercial jet production workers broke down late Monday.

Boeing framed the crucial issue as “long-term competitiveness.” A union leader said the machinists were being asked to “bargain away our members’ jobs.”

Talks between the two sides resumed Sunday for the first time since 27,000 machinists in Washington, Oregon and Kansas went on strike Sept. 6 over issues that include job security, pay, retirement benefits and health care.

Combined dispatches