 Former Playmate of the Year Anna Nicole Smith got her U.S. Supreme Court hearing on Tuesday, when her lawyer argued she should collect millions of dollars she claims her late Texas oil tycoon husband had promised her. At one point during the hour-long arguments, the 38-year old blond widow, dressed in black and sitting in the spectator section, became emotional and started crying, a witness and her lawyer said.Smith, who formerly also has hosted her own reality television show, did not talk to the crush of reporters, photographers and camera crews when she entered and left the Supreme Court building.The issue before the justices in the long-running legal battle is to review when federal courts can hear claims that are also involved in state probate hearings.The justices seemed receptive to arguments by Smith's lawyer that federal courts have jurisdiction to consider her claims....
http://news.yahoo.com
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Editor - 15:28:00 02-28-06
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 After Iraq, many soldiers seek counseling |
More than a third of U.S. soldiers received psychological counseling soon after returning from Iraq, according to a Pentagon study that could add fodder to a budget battle in Congress over veterans' health care.The researchers did not find the results surprising, because the military has a new mental health screening program for returning soldiers and is encouraging them to get help early to prevent serious problems later, said study co-author Dr. Charles Hoge, a colonel at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research.Because of the new screening program, the findings cannot be compared to those from previous wars, Hoge said."There are psychological consequences of war and we want to address those up front," Hoge said. "The hope is we won't have as high rates of mental health consequences as we've seen in prior wars."...
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2006-02-28-soldiers-counseling_x.htm?csp=34
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Editor - 15:26:00 02-28-06
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| Vermont Campaign Finance Limits Draw Court Skepticism |
Several U.S. Supreme Court justices expressed skepticism about Vermont's limits on campaign contributions and spending, the strictest in the nation. The justices heard a free-speech challenge to a 1997 Vermont law that limits contributions to as little as $200 per election cycle for each candidate, and caps spending as low as $2,000 for state representative candidates. The state says the limits are needed to prevent corruption and keep candidates from having to spend a large amount of their time on fund raising. The case offers the justices in Washington a chance to revise their landmark 1976 Buckley v. Valeo decision, which allowed federal limits on campaign contributions while throwing out the law's cap on spending. In that decision, the court said spending limits would reduce the amount of political expression. ...
http://quote.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000087&sid=a8K0VUUH6WpM&refer=home
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Editor - 15:24:00 02-28-06
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| Deadly bird flu strain confirmed in cat in Germany |
The deadly strain of bird flu was confirmed Tuesday in a cat in northern Germany, the first time the virus has been identified in a mammal in the 25 nations of the European Union. The cat was on the northern island of Ruegen, where most of the more than 100 wild birds infected by the H5N1 strain were found, the Friedrich Loeffler institute said. The cat was found dead over the weekend and then tested positive for H5N1, laboratory leader Thomas Mettenleiter said. In Geneva, World Health Organization spokeswoman Maria Cheng said this was the first time she knows of an animal other than a bird being infected in Europe. Tigers and leopards were infected by H5N1 in Thailand, where they were fed chicken carcasses in a zoo. Bird flu infections also have been confirmed in Jan in humans in the Asian part of Turkey. Twenty-one people in the country tested positive for the H5N1 strain, and 4 children died. It is not clear whether cats can pass the disease to humans, Cheng said...
http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2006-02-28-bird-flu-cat_x.htm?csp=34
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Editor - 15:20:00 02-28-06
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| From Cash to Yachts: Congressman's Bribe Menu Court Documents Show Randall 'Duke' Cunningham Set Bribery Rates |
Prosecutors call it a corruption case with no parallel in the long history of the U.S. Congress. And it keeps getting worse. Convicted Rep. Randall "Duke" Cunningham actually priced the illegal services he provided. Prices came in the form of a "bribe menu" that detailed how much it would cost contractors to essentially order multimillion-dollar government contracts, according to documents submitted by federal prosecutors for Cunningham's sentencing hearing this Friday. "The length, breadth and depth of Cunningham's crimes," the sentencing memorandum states, "are unprecedented for a sitting member of Congress." Prosecutors will ask federal Judge Larry Burns to impose the statutory maximum sentence of 10 years in prison. The sentencing memorandum includes the California Republican's "bribery menu" on one of his congressional note cards, "starkly framed" under the seal of the United States Congress. ...
http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/story?id=1667009&page=1&CMP=OTC-RSSFeeds0312
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Editor - 15:16:00 02-28-06
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| Storms May Push Western Rivers to Flood |
Persistent rain that threatened to push creeks and rivers over their banks turned to snow early Tuesday, easing flood threats across western Nevada and the Sierra. South of Carson City, snow began falling before dawn after a day of heavy rain that had emergency personnel on high alert amid fears of a repeat of a New Year's Eve flood that caused more than $17 million damage.Small creek and urban flood warnings that had been issued a day earlier for the Reno-Carson City area and eastern Sierra were canceled early Tuesday by the National Weather Service. A flood warning for the lower Truckee River at Vista east of Sparks remained in effect until 4 p.m.A winter storm warning was posted for the Lake Tahoe region, where forecasters said up to 10 inches of snow was possible before the storm dissipated later in the day.Total snow accumulations at the higher elevations could reach 3-5 feet, forecasters said....
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,186300,00.html
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Editor - 10:50:00 02-28-06
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