Jury seeks DeLay associates' e-mail

AUSTIN, Texas — A Texas grand jury asked Thursday for all e-mail sent and received in 2002 by three indicted associates of U.S. Rep. Tom DeLay as part of an investigation into an alleged campaign-finance scheme.

The latest subpoenas request correspondence to and from e-mail addresses belonging to John Colyandro, Jim Ellis and Warren RoBold. The grand jury did not ask DeLay to provide e-mails.

Colyandro was executive director of Texans for a Republican Majority, a political-action committee founded by DeLay. Ellis runs DeLay's national fundraising committee, Americans for a Republican Majority, and RoBold is a Republican fundraiser in Washington.

Prosecutors allege that DeLay and his associates funneled corporate money given to the Texas committee to an arm of the Republican National Committee, which sent it back to seven GOP candidates for the Texas Legislature. Texas law prohibits corporate money from being used directly in a political campaign.

DeLay, Ellis and Colyandro are charged with conspiracy and money laundering.

House backs closure of military bases

WASHINGTON — The House voted overwhelmingly Thursday to allow the first round of U.S. military base closures and consolidations in a decade, clearing the way for facilities across the country to start shutting their doors as early as next month.

In a 324-85 vote, the House refused to veto the final report of the 2005 base-closing commission, meaning the report seems all but certain to become law in mid-November. Targeted facilities then would have six years to close their doors and shift forces as required under the report.

Both the House and Senate must pass resolutions rejecting the report to stop the Pentagon's sweeping restructuring of its far-flung domestic base network. But, as expected, the House effort by Rep. Ray LaHood, R-Ill., failed. And there's no similar attempt under way in the Senate.

The panel sent President Bush its final report in September. He signed off on it and sent it to Congress on Sept. 15. That began a 45-legislative day period for Congress to reject the report.

Congressional critics and many local officials fear the impact of base closures on their area economies — and on their political futures.

In the biggest decisions, the commission voted in August to keep open a historic shipyard in Kittery, Maine, a submarine base in Groton, Conn., and Air Force bases in New Mexico and South Dakota.

U.S. nuclear carrier to be based in Japan

WASHINGTON — The United States for the first time will base a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier in Japan starting in 2008, the U.S. Navy said Thursday. The oldest aircraft carrier in the U.S. Navy, the USS Kitty Hawk, is based in Japan in order to keep a non-nuclear-powered carrier there, but it is scheduled to be decommissioned in 2008. Keeping an aircraft carrier permanently based in Japan has been an enduring element of U.S. security strategy in the Pacific.

Japan, whose cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki were devastated by U.S. atomic bombs in 1945 at the end of World War II, had been reluctant to serve as a base for nuclear-powered warships. Japan has been a staunch opponent of nuclear weapons.

The Navy said in a statement released by the Pentagon that one of its nine Nimitz-class nuclear-powered aircraft carriers will replace the conventionally powered Kitty Hawk in 2008. The Kitty Hawk is based in Yokosuka, south of Tokyo.

The move was part of the Navy's long-term effort to routinely replace older ships deployed around the world with newer or more-capable ones, the Navy said. The Kitty Hawk was commissioned in 1961.

House OKs penalties for frivolous suits

WASHINGTON — The House Thursday approved a crackdown on frivolous lawsuits that includes mandatory penalties for those who file them.

The bill passed the House 228-184, with just 16 Democrats supporting it.

But the mostly Republican effort, with penalties that can include court costs and lawyer fees, is considered unlikely to progress in the Senate. It also includes a "three strikes" rule that would suspend lawyers from practice for a year if a judge determines they have filed three meritless claims.

A similar bill passed the House last year and was ignored in the Senate, where Democrats have enough votes to erect procedural hurdles. Senate aides said no action was scheduled on this year's version.

The Bush administration backed the bill, along with business groups, but it was opposed by trial lawyers, a classic constituency of the Democrats.

Compiled from The Associated Press and Reuters