Nation Digest
Gay-marriage licenses may be blocked

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"I would consider, after the Legislature has completed its work, what legal options are available to me, if any," said the Republican governor, who repeatedly has stated his belief that marriage should be limited to a union between a man and a woman.

Romney has made no secret of his distaste for the 4-3 ruling in November by the Supreme Judicial Court that made Massachusetts the first state to legalize gay and lesbian marriage — and in the process launched a national debate.

The state's highest court gave the Legislature six months to implement its decision, setting in motion a frantic effort by lawmakers to craft an alternative to marriage for gay and lesbian couples.

Bill would OK transplants between people with HIV

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. — A bill in the Illinois Legislature aimed at letting people with HIV donate their organs to others who have the virus is receiving support from some organ-donor experts and physicians.

If approved, Illinois would be the first state to allow organ transplants between people who have the virus that causes AIDS. The legislation was approved 95-22 in the state House and awaits a vote in the Senate.

Experts say such a law could spark a movement in other states to eliminate a prohibition against such procedures.

Self-navigating robots to race across desert

BARSTOW, Calif. — A driverless Humvee converted by Carnegie Mellon University students snagged the pole position yesterday in a first-of-its-kind competition that pits 15 self-navigating robots against one another in a $1 million race across the Mojave Desert.

The Pentagon's research and development agency will award the prize to the first team whose microcircuit-and-sensor-studded vehicle can cover a rugged, twisty desert course of at least 150 miles in less than 10 hours today.
 
Race sponsors said it was unclear if any one of the competitors would be able to claim the taxpayer-funded prize.

Judge orders records access for suit over abortion issue

DETROIT — A federal judge yesterday ordered the University of Michigan Health System to produce patients' abortion records, with personal information removed, for possible evidence in a lawsuit challenging the Partial-Birth Abortion Act.

U.S. District Judge Avern Cohn ordered the university to give Dr. Timothy Johnson, chairman of the university's Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, access to patients' abortion records to review them for use in the lawsuit.

Johnson is one of seven doctors who sued U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft in November to block implementation of the federal law that bans a late-term procedure in which the fetus is delivered partially and the skull then is punctured.

Also ...

General Motors is recalling 93,572 Oldsmobile Aurora sedans from the 1995-1997 model years because fuel can leak into the engine and start a fire, the federal government said yesterday. ... An Ohio maintenance worker has been suspended for displaying a sign with the word "traitor" on his state snowplow while helping provide security for President Bush's motorcade in Cleveland on Wednesday, officials said. ... Repair crews worked yesterday to cap an oil well that blew out when drillers hit a natural-gas pocket, forcing the evacuation of hundreds of people from Carlsbad, N.M., homes and businesses.

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