Nation & World Digest

More Sotomayor support

WASHINGTON — Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor picked up more GOP support Wednesday in her drive toward near-certain Senate confirmation this week as the first Hispanic justice, even as a growing chorus of Republicans called her unfit for the bench.

Republican Sens. Kit Bond of Missouri and Judd Gregg of New Hampshire broke with the party to announce they’d vote for President Barack Obama’s nominee, saying that although they may disagree with her, she’s well-qualified to be a justice.

Their support came as Democrats were preparing to declare political victory on Sotomayor’s confirmation and warning that Republicans who opposed Sotomayor would face a backlash from Hispanics, a large and fast-growing segment of the electorate.

Ford attacker to be freed

HOUSTON — The Charles Manson follower convicted of attempting to assassinate President Gerald Ford is set to be released from a federal prison in Texas later this month after serving more than 30 years behind bars.

Lynette “Squeaky” Fromme was a 26-year-old disciple of the cult murderer Manson when she aimed a semiautomatic .45-caliber pistol at Ford in September 1975 in Sacramento, Calif. Secret Service agents grabbed her, and Ford was unhurt.

Fromme, 60, is scheduled to be released on parole from the Federal Medical Center Carswell in Fort Worth on Aug. 16, according to the Federal Bureau of Prisons and the court-appointed attorney who represented her at trial.

Ex-rep guilty of bribery

ALEXANDRIA, Va. — A former Louisiana congressman was convicted Wednesday of taking bribes in a case in which agents found $90,000 in his freezer.

Former Rep. William Jefferson, a Democrat who had represented parts of New Orleans, was accused of accepting more than $400,000 in bribes and seeking millions more in exchange for brokering business deals in Africa. A federal jury convicted him on 11 of 16 counts, including bribery, racketeering and money laundering.

Jefferson was stoic as the verdict was read and had little to say afterward, deferring most questions to his lawyer.

Defense lawyer Robert Trout said he will appeal the convictions.

Flu shots shipped early

TRENTON, N.J. — The swine-flu pandemic is spurring makers of seasonal-flu vaccines to ship them to the U.S. market well ahead of schedule, and supplies are tightening as distributors and others snap up vaccine vials.

The top U.S. supplier of flu vaccine, Sanofi Pasteur, stopped taking orders for 10-dose vials of Fluzone, which make up about 60 percent of its production, on June 19, spokesman Len Lavenda said Wednesday.

“Last year, we had them available through Thanksgiving,” Lavenda told The Associated Press. “That’s a huge difference.”

Sanofi, Novartis AG and GlaxoSmithKline PLC all have begun shipments of seasonal-flu vaccine earlier than usual, with Glaxo and Novartis both starting shipments Wednesday and Sanofi on July 27.

Lab security lagging

WASHINGTON — Government officials have been slow to upgrade security at U.S. laboratories that handle deadly germs nearly a year after congressional investigators found weak security controls, a new audit finds.

Two of the labs found to have security problems have made some improvements despite “limited action” by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to work out a comprehensive safety plan, the report from the Government Accountability Office said.

Investigators urged the CDC to set uniform perimeter security for all five of the nation’s Biosafety Level 4 labs. Those labs handle organisms that cause diseases without a cure — such as the Ebola virus and smallpox — and require the highest level of security.

‘Waterfront’ writer dies

NEW YORK — Budd Schulberg, the son of a studio boss who defined the Hollywood hustle with his novel “What Makes Sammy Run?” and later proved himself a player with his Oscar-winning screenplay for “On the Waterfront,” died Wednesday at age 95.

His wife, Betsy Schulberg, said he died of natural causes at his home in Westhampton Beach, on Long Island.

“On the Waterfront,” directed by Elia Kazan and filmed in Hoboken, N.J., was released in 1954 to great acclaim and won eight Academy Awards. It included one of cinema’s most famous lines, uttered by Marlon Brando as the failed boxer Terry Malloy: “I coulda been a contender.”

Associated Press