Burris returns to Senate

Burris returns to Senate

WASHINGTON — Sen. Roland Burris went back to work Wednesday, giving a speech on the Senate floor and presiding over a body he’s been told by many that he should quit.

Burris gave a two-minute speech from the Senate floor in support of a voting-rights bill, then presided over the Senate for an hour, a tradition for freshmen. He spent another hour with the Senate gavel later in the evening.

“Allow these 600,000 residents to become full citizens,” Burris told a virtually empty Senate chamber as he spoke in support of a bill that would give a congressional seat to the District of Columbia.

Burris has been under fire since new revelations about how he was appointed to fill the Senate seat vacated by President Barack Obama. Burris was appointed by disgraced former Gov. Rod Blagojevich, who was impeached and driven from office after he was accused of trying to sell the Senate seat. Burris has changed his story multiple times.

Teen leader in trouble

WOLCOTT, Conn. — The reigning Miss Connecticut Outstanding Teen, a volunteer for Mothers Against Drunk Driving, held a party that resulted in two dozen people being charged with underage drinking, police said Wednesday.

Rachael Ramonas, 17, once organized a benefit for the families of friends killed in a car crash in which the teen behind the wheel had a history of drunken driving, according to the Web site of Miss America’s Outstanding Teen.

It’s unclear whether Ramonas, who competed in the Miss America Outstanding Teen pageant in August in Florida, was among those charged. Police are not releasing the teens’ names because they are juveniles, and no teens are charged with drunken driving.

Obama honors Wonder

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama on Wednesday thanked musician Stevie Wonder for creating “a style that’s uniquely American” as he presented the singer-songwriter the nation’s highest award for pop music.

Obama, who called Wonder the soundtrack of his youth, gave the star the Library of Congress’ Gershwin Prize for Popular Song during an East Room tribute that featured Tony Bennett, Martina McBride and Wonder himself. The president joked that the group was “the most accomplished Stevie Wonder cover band in history.”

Wonder was emotional at times, thanking Obama for the award and reflecting on what his election as the first black president means to the United States.

Prenatal vitamins faulted

LOS ANGELES — Many brands of multivitamins for pregnant women may not contain all the iodine they claim, potentially putting babies at risk of poor brain development, a new study suggests.

Tests on 60 brands that listed iodine as an ingredient on their labels found many fell short of the stated amount. The risk of too little iodine appears greater with “natural” vitamins that get their iodine from kelp rather than a salt form, the study found.

“If these numbers are all real, then they’re not meeting their label claim, and that’s a problem,” said William Obermeyer, a former Food and Drug Administration scientist who co-founded ConsumerLab.com, a private testing service. Obermeyer was not part of the research.

2 Somali children killed

MOGADISHU, Somalia — An artillery shell killed two schoolchildren in the Somali capital on Wednesday during the second day of fighting between AU peacekeepers and Islamist insurgents, witnesses and officials said. Elsewhere, Islamists seized a key southern town from pro-government forces.

Yusuf said two pupils under 10 years old were killed and four others injured.

Mogadishu’s police chief Abdi Hassan Awale confirmed Islamic insurgents had briefly attacked the AU peacekeeping base in southern Mogadishu for the second day and Somali government soldiers and African Union troops fought back. On Monday, an attack on an AU base killed 11 Burundian soldiers and injured 17 others.

UAW’s advice to workers

DETROIT — United Auto Workers President Ron Gettelfinger urged union members to vote for contract concessions to Ford Motor Co., saying the automaker can’t survive in the long term without major restructuring.

The company lost $14.6 billion last year and is burning through $1 billion per month to stay in business because revenue has dropped so dramatically, Gettelfinger said in a letter to 42,000 hourly Ford workers, including thousands in Ohio.

He recommends that members vote for concessions and points out that the union was able to preserve base pay, keep current health benefits and pensions and prevent further plant closures.

Associated Press