International
Libya releases Islamic militants accused of plotting overthrow
TRIPOLI, Libya (AP) — Libya has released 214 Islamic militants after they renounced violence. The Libyan leader’s son Seif al-Islam Gadhafi said 34 members of the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group, including its leader, were sent home Tuesday after they affirmed they had broken ties with the organization.
French sex workers protest legal brothels, claim to be “proud”
PARIS (AP) — Dozens of French sex workers proclaiming themselves proud to be prostitutes marched Wednesday to protest a lawmaker’s proposal to legalize brothels in France, arguing that such a law would deny them the freedom to work on their own. A lawmaker has proposed reopening brothels in order to move prostitutes off the streets and provide them with medical, financial and legal protection.
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Nation
PETA: octuplets’ mother ponders offer to save home of 14 children
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Things have appeared to be going to the dogs for octuplets’ mom Nadya Suleman, who is in danger of losing her home.Now it turns out that dogs — and cats, too — might be able to keep a roof over the heads of Suleman and her 14 children. PETA heard of a planned foreclosure on Suleman’s house and has offered an undisclosed sum to put a sign in her front yard: “Don’t Let Your Dog or Cat Become an Octomom. Always Spay or Neuter.”
Fugitive missing for 38 years found running Arizona City chapel
HELENA, Mont. (AP) — A hitchhiker originally sentenced to be executed for the 1951 killing of a Montana man who picked him up during a blizzard has been found running a wedding chapel under an assumed name in Arizona 38 years after he skipped out on parole.
Frank Dryman was found after the victim’s grandson hired an investigator who tracked the fugitive to his Arizona City notary and chapel business, where he was known as Victor Houston. Now 78, Dryman was awaiting extradition proceedings after his Tuesday arrest in Pinal County.
Military aims for mandatory, more efficient concussion detection
HAGERSTOWN, Md. (AP) — Battlefield medics will soon conduct mandatory examinations of service members who may have sustained concussions instead of waiting for them to complain of symptoms, the military’s brain-injury experts said Wednesday.
Medical leaders developing new guidelines said early diagnosis will lead to better treatment and tracking of concussions, the most common form of traumatic brain injury from the improvised bombs used in Iraq and Afghanistan.
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State/local
Jindal budget plan moves $14 million in costs to school districts
(AP) — Louisiana’s education chief Wednesday defended Gov. Bobby Jindal’s proposal to shift $14 million in transportation and salary costs from the state to local public school districts next year.
Lawmakers and local school leaders said the districts can’t afford the added expense, but Superintendent of Education Paul Pastorek said school systems have unspent dollars in reserve accounts and federal stimulus money available to cover the costs.
“I think that the evidence shows that the districts have the financial resources to be able to address these needs. Now, some people will not have all the resources, and some people will disagree,” Pastorek told the House Appropriations Committee, which is combing through Jindal’s budget recommendations.
Jindal’s plan is for 2010-11 fiscal year.
US Airways resuming nonstops to BR after more than a decade
(AP) — US Airways says it is bringing back nonstop service between its hub in Charlotte, N.C., and Baton Rouge after a seven-year hiatus.
It will offer three daily flights in each direction, starting June 24, operated by US Airway’s regional partner, PSA Airlines after a 12-year break.
East Baton Rouge Parish sued in sewage-treatment plant case
(AP) — An environmental group is suing the city-parish to force compliance with federal regulations on discharges from sewage treatment plants.
The Louisiana Environmental Action Network, of Baton Rouge, alleges three sewage-treatment plants have violated the Clean Water Act at least 60 times since Jan. 1, 2008. LEAN filed its suit Monday in federal District Court.