Friday, January 6, 2006

Padilla Makes First Court Appearance

MIAMI -- Jose Padilla, the alleged al Qaeda operative held as an "enemy combatant" for more than three years, made his first appearance in court Thursday after he was taken from a Navy brig and flown to Miami.

The transfer from military to civilian custody came after a legal battle that went all the way to the Supreme Court.

Padilla appeared before a judge on criminal charges after he was taken from a brig in South Carolina and flown by military aircraft to Miami, said U.S. Marshals Service spokesman David Turner. He is to enter a plea Friday.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Barry L. Garber explained Padilla's rights as a criminal defendant and asked whether he understood them.

"Yes, I do," said Padilla.

Garber set a Friday hearing for Padilla to enter his plea and to determine whether he will remain in custody or be released on bail. Prosecutors said they will ask that he be held until his trial.

Padilla, a former Chicago gang member, was arrested at Chicago's O'Hare Airport in May 2002 and held by the Bush administration without criminal charges on suspicion of plotting to detonate a radioactive "dirty bomb" inside the United States.

* * *

PIERRE, S.D. -- The South Dakota Supreme Court reinstated the law license of former representative William J. Janklow (R-S.D.) two years after it was suspended over a deadly auto accident that ended Janklow's political career and sent him to jail. The high court said restoring Janklow's license would pose no public threat because his offenses were unrelated to the practice of law and did not involve fraud or other dishonesty.

MONTPELIER, Vt. -- State officials agreed to cover $7 million in drug costs for poor Vermont senior citizens for a month after a new federal Medicare prescription drug program rejected some of their claims. The state had covered 30,000 seniors' drug costs until Sunday, when the federal program took effect, but some have reported problems enrolling in the new system. Vermont is not the only state helping seniors cope with confusion over the new federal drug benefit. Maine has offered, when necessary, to continue covering the prescriptions of 67,000 low-income Medicare recipients who previously got their drugs through state programs. Maine and Vermont plan to ask the federal government for reimbursement.

TARPON SPRINGS, Fla. -- Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I, the spiritual leader of the world's 200 million-plus Orthodox Christians, said that he is eager to meet with Pope Benedict XVI this year in an effort to heal the long-standing rift between the Roman Catholic and Orthodox churches. Visiting this heavily Greek community northwest of Tampa for the annual Feast of the Epiphany, Bartholomew told reporters that the pope plans an official visit this year to his headquarters in Istanbul. The last official talks between the two churches broke off five years ago without an agreement on the theological issues that divide them.

ATLANTA -- A man who shot and injured his mailman because he wanted the federal government to take care of him was sentenced to life in prison. William Clayton Crutchfield, 60, of suburban Snellville shot Earl Lazenby up to seven times with a .380-caliber pistol on June 29 as the letter carrier pulled up to Crutchfield's mailbox.

MIAMI -- Tropical Storm Zeta kept its strength in the eastern Atlantic and could break the record for the Atlantic storm lasting longest into January since record keeping began in 1851. The 27th and final named storm in a record-breaking hurricane season that officially ended more than a month ago, Zeta had sustained winds near 40 mph, according to the National Hurricane Center in Miami. Zeta poses no threat to land. Its first incarnation as a tropical storm lasted from Dec. 30 to about 4 a.m. Thursday when it briefly weakened into a depression. The storm was expected to weaken again soon because of strong wind shear, said Stacy Stewart of the National Hurricane Center.

-- From News Services