In the Nation

RICHMOND, Va. - Former Gov. Jim Gilmore was narrowly nominated yesterday by the Virginia Republican Convention to run for the seat of retiring Republican U.S. Sen. John Warner.

Gilmore won with 50.3 percent of the delegate votes over Bob Marshall, the Virginia General Assembly's most ardent foe of abortion and same-sex marriage.

The slim margin - about 65 votes, less than a percentage point - leaves Gilmore to face popular, well-funded Democrat Mark Warner in the Nov. 4 election. The GOP has lost the state's last two gubernatorial races and the 2006 Senate election.

In his speech to about 3,500 delegates, Gilmore called Mark Warner, who succeeded him as governor, a tax-prone "limousine liberal."

- AP

NEWTON, Mass. - Federal officials say a commuter trolley was going nearly 30 m.p.h. faster than it should have been when it crashed into another train in Massachusetts.

Kitty Higgins of the National Transportation Safety Board said yesterday that a red signal required trolley operator Terrese Edmonds to stop for 60 seconds at the Waban station before proceeding at no more than 10 m.p.h.

Higgins said Edmonds' trolley was going 37 to 38 m.p.h. when it struck the other train.

Edmonds was killed in the crash Wednesday at Newton, Mass. About a dozen passengers were injured. Higgins said the board was investigating reports that Edmonds was talking on a cell phone.

- AP

SANTA ANA, Calif. - A Washington Times reporter has been subpoenaed by a federal judge who wants him to disclose the sources for a story he wrote about an engineer convicted of conspiracy to export U.S. defense technology to China.

Reporter Bill Gertz was ordered to appear before U.S. District Judge Cormac Carney in June, the paper reported yesterday. Carney has also requested e-mail messages, files and correspondence.

Gertz cited U.S. government sources in a 2006 article that said that Justice Department officials approved an indictment against Tai Mak and that four of Mak's relatives would also be charged.

Mak's attorneys had objected to Gertz's story, and Carney ordered an investigation to determine who leaked the information.

The four relatives were eventually indicted and have pleaded guilty to related offenses in exchange for leniency. Mak is serving a 24-year federal prison sentence.

- AP

Residents cleaned up

yesterday after a tornado plowed a trail of destruction through the east side of Indianapolis, but they gave thanks that nobody was killed and that the only injuries were minor. The storm late Friday ripped roofs off several apartment buildings, snapped trees, and toppled power lines.

Two judges were convicted

yesterday in Shreveport, La., of taking bribes to set low bonds or remove court holds on defendants. The racketeering charge carries up to 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.