The nation in brief

— QUOTE OF THE DAY “Good flight nurses are hard to find.” U.S. District Judge Ronald Leighton,

ruling that a flight nurse discharged from the Air

Force under the military’s “don’t ask, don’t tell”

policy should be given her job back as soon as possible Article, this page

Fertilizer spill closes stretch of I-35

CAMERON, Mo. - A tanker truck spilled about 20,000 pounds of fertilizer near Interstate 35 in northwest Missouri on Friday, forcing police to shut down part of the highway and evacuate nearby homes and businesses.

Traffic was backed up in both directions for miles by midday near the busy intersection of I-35 and U.S. 36 in Cameron.

Police said the tanker carrying 40,000 pounds of ammonium nitrate pulled into a parking lot across the road from a truck stop about 9:45 a.m. and got stuck in mud.

Cameron police Sgt. Marty Gray said the tanker got hooked on something as the driver tried to move the truck, causing about 20,000 pounds of fertilizer to spill onto the ground.

In addition to its use as a fertilizer, the Environmental Protection Agency said ammonium nitrate is used with additives as a blasting agent and can explode when combined with the right amount of heat.

Witness: Voting-rights claims ignored

WASHINGTON - A former Justice Department official said Friday that his higher-ups told lawyers they are not interested in pursuing Voting Rights Act accusations against members of minority groups who harass white voters.

A large number of people inside the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division “believe, incorrectly but vehemently, that enforcement of the VRA should not be extended to white voters but should be limited to protecting racial, ethnic and language minorities,” said Christopher Coates, the former chief of the Justice Department’s Voting Section.

Coates, who ran the Voting Section under President George W. Bush, testified in front of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, which is looking into the department’s handling of voting-rights accusations against the New Black Panther Party in Philadelphia.

Justice Department spokesman Tracy Schmaler denied the accusation.

The department investigated complaints that New Black Panther Party leaders King Samir Shabazz and Jerry Jackson intimidated white voters at a Philadelphia polling place in 2008. A criminal investigation into the episode was dropped by the Bush administration, but then the Obama Justice Department obtained a narrower civil court order against the conduct than Bush officials had sought.

Judge delays abduction, rape case

PLACERVILLE, Calif. - A judge suspended criminal proceedings Friday against the man accused of kidnapping and raping Jaycee Dugard 19 years ago, citing concerns about the man’s mental state.

El Dorado County Superior Court Judge Douglas Phimister made the decision after a short pretrial hearing for Phillip Garrido.

Phimister said he had concerns about Garrido’s mental competency to stand trial on 29 counts of kidnapping, rape and false imprisonment in the 1991 disappearance of Dugard.

The judge did not halt proceedings against Garrido’s wife, Nancy, who faces similar counts. The couple are accused of holding the girl captive in a backyard jumble of tents and sheds for nearly two decades until they were arrested in August 2009.

Public defender Susan Gellman described the suspension as a delay that would likely last only a few months and not a strategy to keep her client from being prosecuted.

Front Section, Pages 4 on 09/25/2010

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