In the Nation
Storm system spares La., Miss.
NEW ORLEANS - A tropical depression came ashore in the Florida panhandle yesterday, sparing coastal Louisiana and Mississippi the first serious brush with tropical weather since two hurricanes laid waste to the area in 2005.
Forecasters downgraded the threat when the storm system moved ashore near Fort Walton Beach in the panhandle. They said the depression maintained the same intensity as it made landfall.
"We expect it to move over land and weaken," said Eric Blake, a hurricane specialist for the National Hurricane Center in Miami.
The weather service discontinued tropical-storm warnings that had stretched from Apalachicola, Fla., to the mouth of the Mississippi River, including metropolitan New Orleans. - AP
Alaska drops bridge project
JUNEAU, Alaska - The state yesterday officially abandoned the "bridge to nowhere" that became a nationwide symbol of federal pork-barrel spending.
The $398 million bridge would have connected Ketchikan, on one island in southeastern Alaska, to its airport on another nearby island.
"Ketchikan desires a better way to reach the airport, but the $398 million bridge is not the answer," Gov. Sarah Palin said in a statement. She directed the state transportation department to find a "fiscally responsible" alternative.
Under mounting political pressure, Congress stripped the stipulation that the $200 million be used for the bridge, but still sent the money to the state for any use it deemed appropriate.- AP
Lawmakers tout child health bill
Defying President Bush's veto threat, a bipartisan group of lawmakers issued details yesterday of a planned expansion of a children's health-insurance program.
The House plans to vote Tuesday on the measure, which would add $35 billion over five years to the program. It would be financed by raising the federal cigarette tax to $1 per pack, a 61-cent increase.
The president says the bill is too costly, covers middle-income families that can afford insurance, and involves an unacceptable tax increase.
The bill's backers reject Bush's assertion, saying it would provide financial incentives for states to cover their lowest-income children first.
- AP
Elsewhere:
A sixth man sought in the Las Vegas armed-robbery case against O.J. Simpson has surrendered in court. Bail for Charles Bruce Ehrlich of Miami was set at $32,000.
A sport-utility vehicle broadsided a commuter train during yesterday morning's rush hour in Los Angeles, causing a fire and injuring six people in the second Gold Line crash in two weeks.
A small plane plowed into the front entrance of a barbecue restaurant in Clayton, N.C., yesterday, killing one person, believed to be the pilot.