Nation Digest

NATIONAL ARCHIVES

Reward Is Offered for Hard-Drive Recovery

The National Archives offered a $50,000 reward Friday for information leading to the recovery of a missing computer hard drive containing a large store of sensitive personnel data from the Clinton administration. The information included the Social Security numbers and other private information of White House employees in the 1990s.

Described by the archives as "a Western Digital My Book external hard drive," it also contains political records, logs of social events and other gatherings, information about Secret Service and White House operating procedures and other data, the Associated Press reported last week, quoting congressional officials.

The archives said it has known since March 24 that the drive was missing from a processing room in College Park. The Secret Service is investigating, and it remains unclear whether the drive was lost or stolen, the archives said.

-- Paul Duggan

VETERANS AFFAIRS

Panel Will Investigate Possible HIV Exposure

A congressional panel will question Department of Veterans Affairs officials next month about mistakes that put patients at three VA hospitals at risk of possible exposure to HIV and other diseases involving infectious body fluids.

The agency recommended that more than 10,000 former VA patients in Miami; Murfreesboro, Tenn.; and Augusta, Ga., get follow-up blood checks. Five have tested positive for HIV and 43 have tested positive for hepatitis, according to an update Friday on the VA Web site.

The House Veterans' Affairs oversight and investigations subcommittee has set a June 16 hearing in Washington to look into what caused the problems and what the VA has done to fix them. The VA's inspector general is currently investigating.

The subcommittee chairman, Rep. Harry Mitchell (D-Ariz.), said Thursday that veterans are testing positive for HIV and hepatitis, and "whether it came from these improper procedures or not, the VA has a responsibility to take care of these patients."

A top VA doctor has said no one will ever know if the positive tests were caused by exposure to improperly operated or cleaned endoscopic equipment used in colonoscopies at Murfreesboro and Miami and to treat patients at the VA's ear, nose and throat clinic in Augusta. The VA has not denied the mistakes.

-- Associated Press

N.Y. Policeman Kills Fellow Officer: A plainclothes policeman who drew his gun while chasing someone he had found rummaging through his car was shot and killed by a fellow officer who was driving by and saw the pursuit, the police commissioner said. Commissioner Raymond Kelly said Omar J. Edwards, 25, died after being shot late Thursday within blocks of the Harlem housing police station where he worked. The shooter was white, and Edwards was black, which could raise questions about police use of deadly force in a minority community. Also, in recent years several off-duty policemen in the New York City area were shot and killed by other officers. It was unclear whether the officer identified himself before firing on Edwards.

Labor Department Suspends Farmworker Rules: The Labor Department suspended a regulation adopted shortly before President George W. Bush left office that would have made it easier for farmers to bring in foreign workers. Many immigration and labor advocacy groups had opposed the new rule for lowering wages and eliminating some protections for temporary farmworkers. Farm owners said the change eliminated red tape that made it harder to bring in foreign workers to help harvest crops. The Labor Department restored old regulations governing the H-2A guest worker program while officials come up with new rules.

-- From News Services