Friday, February 20, 2009
Support for Burris wavers
CHICAGO — A group of black ministers who supported U.S. Sen. Roland Burris as he fought to get his job now plan to ask for his resignation following revelations that he tried to raise money for the disgraced governor who appointed him, one of the ministers told The Associated Press on Thursday.
Many of the city’s influential black pastors supported Burris because of his scandal-free reputation — even though he was appointed by then-Gov. Rod Blagojevich three weeks after the governor was arrested for allegedly trying to sell the Senate seat.
Now some of those pastors will ask Burris to resign, according to the minister, who spoke on condition of anonymity because a meeting with Burris had not yet been scheduled.
Warner to be knighted
WASHINGTON — No question, the stately John Warner, late of the U.S. Senate, has always been a committed Anglophile. He kept a bust of Winston Churchill on the marble mantle of his Senate office for 30 years. When he wed his current wife in 2003, he wore his ancestral plaid kilt. He regularly travels to Great Britain. And when he gets back from his next trip, planned for spring, you can call him Knight.
Queen Elizabeth II is expected to meet privately with Warner at Buckingham Palace, ask him to kneel, whack him on both shoulders with a long, ornate sword and confer upon him what the British Embassy says is the highest honor that country affords. She’ll pronounce him John Warner, Knight Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire.
According to the British Embassy, the 82-year-old Warner will become one of only a handful of foreigners ever to be honored as a British knight. (Along with the likes of U2 lead singer and AIDS activist Bono, Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel, Bill Gates and Colin Powell.)
Lobbyist, Times reach deal
RICHMOND, Va. — A Washington lobbyist has settled her $27 million defamation lawsuit against The New York Times over a story involving then-presidential candidate John McCain, both sides disclosed Thursday. The newspaper is not paying any money to end the case, but agreed to let the lobbyist’s lawyers make a statement on the Times’ Web site.
The newspaper also plans to print a “note to readers” in today’s editions explaining that it did not intend to imply that the lobbyist and McCain had an affair.
Vicki L. Iseman had sued the Times in December, alleging that the newspaper and several of its reporters and editors damaged her reputation by printing the Feb. 21, 2008, front-page story. Iseman had represented telecommunications companies before the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee, which McCain chaired, and the Times reported that McCain aides once worried that the relationship between the two had turned romantic.
Sunnis, Shiites win seats
BAGHDAD — Sunni tribal leaders who led an uprising against insurgents expanded their political clout, and the Shiite-led government reaped rewards for security crackdowns in Iraq’s biggest cities, according to full results issued Thursday from last month’s provincial elections.
The elections — held Jan. 31 without major violence but later tainted by allegations of fraud — were seen as a chance to extend the Sunni political voice and test the strength of main Shiite parties before national races later this year.
The provincial councils have no direct sway over national affairs, but carry wide powers over regional matters.
Report: Military weakened
WASHINGTON — For the third consecutive year, a classified Pentagon assessment has concluded there’s a significant risk that the U.S. military could not respond quickly and fully to any new crisis, The Associated Press has learned.
The latest risk assessment, drawn up by Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, comes despite recent security gains in Iraq and plans for troop cuts there.
The assessment finds that the U.S. continues to face persistent terrorist threats, and the military is still stretched and strained from long and repeated tours to the warfront.
Teen arrested in 9 arsons
COATESVILLE, Pa. — A 19-year-old described as a pyromaniac who liked to watch things burn was charged Thursday with setting nine fires in an arson-plagued steel town, including a block-long blaze that displaced dozens of people last month.
Roger Leon Barlow Jr., an automotive technical student from nearby Downingtown, was charged with arson, aggravated assault and related counts. He was arraigned Thursday afternoon, and bail was set at $9 million.
Coatesville, about 35 miles west of Philadelphia, has tallied 18 arsons this year and 26 last year, one of them fatal.
Combined dispatches