Clinton YouTube ad creator had Obama link

Washington

The creator of an Orwellian ad against Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., shown on YouTube worked for a digital consulting firm with ties to rival Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill.

Philip de Vellis, a strategist with Blue State Digital, acknowledged he created the video, which portrayed Clinton as a Big Brother figure and urged support for Obama's presidential campaign. De Vellis, 33, said he resigned from the firm Wednesday.

Blue State designed Obama's Web site, and one of the firm's founding members, Joe Rospars, took a leave to work as Obama's director of new media.

DeVellis said he produced the ad outside of work and that neither Blue State nor the Obama campaign was aware of his role in the ad.

New Haven, Conn.

Ex-sailor charged in terrorism case

A former Navy sailor arrested two weeks ago was indicted Wednesday on charges of supporting terrorism by giving a suspected terrorism financier secret information about the location of Navy ships and the best ways to attack them.

Hassan Abujihaad was charged with one count of providing material support to terrorists with intent to kill U.S. citizens and one count of disclosing classified information relating to the national defense. Abujihaad, 31, was arrested March 7 in Phoenix.

The classified information involved a Navy battle group scheduled to move from California to the Middle East in the spring of 2001 to engage in missions against al-Qaida and the Taliban, according to the indictment.

Concord, N.H.

Conviction tossed for GOP official

A federal appeals court Wednesday reversed the conviction and sentence of a former Republican National Committee official accused in a phone-jamming plot on Election Day 2002.

James Tobin, the former regional chairman of President Bush's re-election campaign, was convicted in 2005 of helping to arrange more than 800 hang-up calls that jammed get-out-the-vote phone lines set up by the state Democratic Party.

Republican John Sununu defeated then-Gov. Jeanne Shaheen for the Senate.

Tobin was sentenced to 10 months in prison on charges of telephone harassment.

But the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Boston ruled the statute under which Tobin was convicted "is not a close fit" for what Tobin did and questioned whether the government showed Tobin intended to harass.

Greensburg, Pa.

Family allegedly held "slave"

A couple and their three teenage children held a woman captive for six months, referring to her as their "slave" as they beat her, forced her to do chores and threatened her life and the lives of her relatives, police said Wednesday.

All five members of the family, ranging in age from 43 to 16, were arrested Tuesday on charges of kidnapping and making threats.

They had not entered pleas Wednesday but denied wrongdoing.

The accuser, Emily Nicely, 19, said she went to live with the family voluntarily but alleges she had been forced to stay with them since September, authorities said.

Mark Pollard, 43, Cynthia Pollard, 41, and their oldest son, Mark Jr., 18, remained in jail Wednesday.

The couple's younger children were charged as adults but were released on bail.

Columbia, S.C.

Ultrasound bill for abortion passes

Legislation that would require women seeking abortions to first view ultrasound images of their fetuses advanced Wednesday in the South Carolina Legislature.

The bill, supported by Republican Gov. Mark Sanford, passed 91-23 after lawmakers defeated amendments exempting rape or incest.

The House must approve the bill again in a routine vote before it goes to the Senate, where its sponsor expects it to pass with those exemptions.

Some states make ultrasound images available to women before an abortion, but South Carolina would be alone in requiring women to view the pictures.

Critics consider the proposal a tool to intimidate.

Seattle Times news services