State legalizes medical marijuana

Rhode Island on Tuesday became the 11th state to legalize medical marijuana and the first since the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in June that patients who use the drug can still be prosecuted under federal law.

The House overrode a veto by Gov. Don Carcieri, 59-13, allowing people with illnesses such as cancer and AIDS to grow up to 12 marijuana plants or buy 2.5 ounces of marijuana to relieve their symptoms. Those who do are required to register with the state and get an identification card.

The U.S. high court ruled June 6 that people who smoke marijuana because their doctors recommend it can still be prosecuted under federal drug laws. Federal authorities, however, have conceded they are unlikely to prosecute many medicinal-marijuana users.

Intelligent design goes way of dodo

Dover's much-maligned school policy of presenting intelligent design as an alternative to evolution was officially relegated to the history books Tuesday night.

On a voice vote, the newly elected Dover Area School Board unanimously rescinded the policy. Two weeks earlier, a judge had ruled the policy unconstitutional.

A different group of School Board members was in control in October 2004 when the board approved a policy requiring that ninth-grade biology students be read a statement saying that the theory of evolution is "not a fact" and has inexplicable "gaps" and referring students to a book on intelligent design. Proponents of intelligent design contend that life is so complex it must have been designed by an intelligent entity.

Arson suspected in new grass fire

Firefighters chased a grass fire hopscotching across a northeastern Oklahoma town Tuesday, while officials in Texas and New Mexico kept tabs on the wind and several massive wildfires their crews were fighting to contain.

In Shamrock, the suspected arson destroyed an abandoned schoolhouse, a home and other buildings as it raced through the town of about 100 residents.

In the past week and a half, grass fires started by as little as a spark from a car or an arcing power line have burned more than 600,000 acres across a drought-stricken stretch of Oklahoma, Texas and New Mexico. The fires have destroyed at least 450 homes and killed four people.

Captain blamed in tanker disaster

An explosion that destroyed a tanker and killed 21 seamen two years ago was caused by the captain's "stunningly" unsafe order to his crew to open vapor-filled cargo tanks for cleaning, the Coast Guard said in a report Tuesday.

Opening the hatches on 22 empty tanks caused the highly flammable vapors to escape onto the deck, where they were ignited by a spark, the investigators said. They also found that Capt. Efstratios Kavouras abandoned the ship without sending a distress call or trying to save his crew.

The 570-foot Bow Mariner, laden with more than 3.4 million gallons of ethanol, fuel oil and diesel oil, sank about 50 miles off the Virginia coast on Feb. 28, 2004. Twenty-one of the 27 crew members died. Kavouras was among the 18 whose bodies were never found.

Compiled from The Associated Press