LITTLE ROCK — QUOTE OF THE DAY
“Sometimes I fault myself for not having been able to make the case more clearly to the country.”
President Barack Obama,
on his health-care overhaul Article, 1AProsecutor to face removal hearing
MADISON, Wis. - Wisconsin Gov. Jim Doyle took initial steps Wednesday to remove a prosecutor accused of sending racy text messages to a domestic-abuse victim and a law student seeking a pardon.
Doyle said his office had received verified complaints from county taxpayers, which was required to start the process to remove Calumet County District Attorney Ken Kratz.
Doyle appointed former Kenosha County District Attorney Bob Jambois to oversee the removal proceedings.
Doyle said Kratz was being notified of the charges against him and a public hearing would be scheduled soon.
Kratz has acknowledged sending 30 text messages in three days last year to a domestic-abuse victim while he was prosecuting her ex-boyfriend. Kratz asked whether the woman was “the kind of girl that likes secret contact with an older married elected DA,” and called her a “tall, young, hot nymph.”
A second woman said she received similar messages after she received Kratz’s help to get a drug conviction pardoned. And another woman complained to Doyle’s office last week that Kratz invited her to an autopsy after they went to dinner in January, “provided I act as his girlfriend and would wear high heels and a skirt.”59 NYC cabdrivers held in meter scam
NEW YORK - Dozens of New York City taxi drivers have been arrested on charges of quietly doubling the rates that thousands of passengers should have paid.
Officials said tourists and residents unsuspectingly overpaid hundreds of thousands of dollars in all.
City officials said Wednesday that the 59 drivers were among far more who bumped up their meters to a higher suburban rate when they were in the city. Prosecutors said the cabbies stole a total of more than $235,000 during about 77,000 cab trips.
Some 45 drivers were being arraigned on charges of scheming to defraud. Another 14 face petty larceny charges.
Taxi and Limousine Commission Chairman David Yassky said officials are pursuing administrative penalties against roughly 2,000 drivers over the issue.
Pipe-bomb probers quiz 2nd student
COLUMBIA, S.C. - The principal of a South Carolina high school where pipe bombs were discovered and disarmed after a shooting confirmed Wednesday that a second student was being questioned.
Socastee High School Principal Paul Browning said police asked the second student about the Tuesday afternoon event at the school in the northeast part of the state, and the student was released to his parents.
The episode began when a freshman confronted an on-campus officer and fired a gun before being taken into custody, police said. Students were evacuated to a football field, and bomb squads removed and disarmed the explosive devices.
The students returned to school Wednesday.
Detectives also interviewed other students Wednesday about the episode and reports that comments had been posted on a social networking site before the shooting, Browning said.
Police said they also found items “consistent with the construction of pipe bombs and other incendiary devices” at the freshman’s Myrtle Beach home.
Front Section, Pages 3 on 09/23/2010