WASHINGTON, D.C.
Mukasey refuses probe of Bush aides Attorney General Michael Mukasey is refusing to refer the House's contempt citations against two of President Bush's aides to a federal grand jury. He says they committed no crime. In a letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Mukasey said White House Chief of Staff Josh Bolten and former presidential counsel Harriet Miers were right in refusing to turn over documents or testify about the firings of federal prosecutors. Pelosi has threatened to file a civil suit over the issue.
EPA defends ruling against California law The Environmental Protection Agency justified its decision to block California and other states from regulating auto emissions by saying the pollution doesn't cause them unique problems. California officials note that the state has been granted other Clean Air Act waivers to deal with problems that are happening elsewhere, such as diesel pollution. Critics say California does have worse global warming problems than other states.
White House official quits over plagiarism A White House official who served as President Bush's middleman with conservatives and Christian groups has resigned after admitting to plagiarism. Twenty columns Timothy Goeglein, who worked for Bush since 2001, wrote for an Indiana newspaper were determined to have material copied from other sources without attribution.
FLORIDA
Sentences appealed in Padilla terror case Federal prosecutors in Miami have appealed the sentences of Jose Padilla and two other men convicted of conspiring to provide "material support" for Al-Qaida. They filed their appellate notice with the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. In January, a federal judge rejected prosecutors' bids for life sentences for Padilla and his codefendants, saying their support for Islamic extremists abroad did not call for the severe punishment given to the nation's worst terrorists. That decision was a major disappointment to the Justice Department, which authorized the appeal.
GEORGIA
Original smallpox vaccine phased out The government said goodbye to one of the greatest lifesavers -- the original smallpox vaccine. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta made arrangements to dispose of its 12 million doses of Dryvax, and notified other health departments and the military to do the same by Feb. 29. Dryvax -- produced by scraping virus off the skin of infected calves -- is being replaced in stockpiles by a lab-produced version.
FLORIDA
Human error blamed in power outage Florida Power & Light says human error caused a power outage for more than half a million customers this week. The electric company blamed a field engineer who was investigating a switch that malfunctioned at a Miami substation.
CHINA
New chance for data on missing Americans A window has opened for families of the 8,100 U.S. servicemen missing since the Korean War, with China agreeing to allow access to sensitive military records -- but only to Chinese researchers at first. In another sign of warming U.S.-China ties, the two countries also agreed to set up a military hot line for communicating in emergencies.
PHILIPPINES
Thousands call for president to resign In one of the largest demonstrations against President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo since she took office in 2001, thousands took to the streets, demanding she resign over a corruption scandal. Two former presidents, Corazon Aquino and Joseph Estrada, joined priests, nuns, farmers, leftist activists and students in the march in Manila.
