Nation Digest
Court upholds seizure of Limbaugh's records

REED SAXON / AP Animal keeper Kelley Greene feeds a four-week-old baby Masai giraffe a bottle containing whole cow's milk at the Los Angeles Zoo yesterday.

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The ruling by a three-judge panel technically clears the way for Palm Beach County prosecutors to resume their investigation, stalled since December, but Limbaugh's medical records likely will remain sealed while he pursues further appeals.

Prosecutors have said they believe Limbaugh, 53, committed at least 10 felonies by "doctor shopping" — secretly obtaining overlapping drug prescriptions from more than one doctor in a one-month period.

"This is not yet a victory for the state," Limbaugh said, according to a transcript of his radio show yesterday. "We will continue to fight this as we have fought it all the way."

Washington

Air Force general withdraws Pacific command bid

Air Force Gen. Gregory Martin has requested that his nomination to be commander of U.S. Pacific Command, one of the top war-fighting commands in the U.S. military, be withdrawn.

A brief Pentagon announcement last night provided no reason for his decision, but a spokesman for Air Force Materiel Command, which Martin has headed since August 2003, said Martin believed that certain questions raised at his Senate confirmation hearing yesterday made his confirmation difficult.

The questions, posed by Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., pertained to a controversy over the Air Force's proposed deal with Boeing to lease 767s for use as aerial tankers, and to a scandal involving a former Air Force civilian official who was sentenced to nine months in prison Friday for helping Boeing obtain a lucrative contract in exchange for an executive job at the company.

Martin is not accused of wrongdoing, but concluded his confirmation would be held up for months, said Col. Jack Ivy, spokesman for the Air Force Materiel Command.

Huntsville, Texas
 
Exoneration ends 18 years on death row

A man who spent 18 years on Texas' death row was abruptly released yesterday after prosecutors — who once told jurors he was a "satanic demon" — conceded there is no evidence that he started a fatal fire in 1986.

Ernest Ray Willis, now 59, walked out of a prison unit into the arms of his wife, Verilyn. They were married four years ago but never had embraced.

A judge in July raised troubling questions about Willis' 1987 conviction on a murder-arson charge. That prompted Pecos County District Attorney Ori White to revisit the case. An arson analyst determined that Willis had been wrongly convicted of setting a house fire in West Texas that killed two women.

Austin, Texas

Two teen boys arrested in "Columbine" plot

Two teenagers were arrested for allegedly planning to re-create the Columbine massacre at their suburban high school.

Cedar Park police charged the boys, 15 and 16, with making terroristic threats.

The boys planned to carry out the shooting during a pep rally at Vista Ridge High and had discussed particular students they intended to target, Cedar Park Police Capt. Jeff Hayes said.

Salt Lake City

Mormons purchase giant Nebraska acreage

The Mormon church has become one of Nebraska's largest landowners with the purchase of 88,000 acres that will be used to raise cattle.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints paid $17.6 million last month for the land south of Alliance, about 60 miles from the Nebraska-Wyoming border.

The church began buying land in Nebraska in the early 1990s and held more than 140,000 acres before its most recent purchase, said Robert Lamoreaux, vice president of livestock for Farmland Management, which manages the church's land holdings.

Also

A federal grand jury in San Diego yesterday indicted a hunter who allegedly started the largest wildfire in California history. Sergio Martinez, 34, was indicted on one count each of setting timber on fire and making a false statement to a federal officer.

Prosecutors dropped charges yesterday against 227 protesters arrested at an anti-war march during the Republican National Convention in New York.