Nation in brief: TV, movie writers announce strike
Television and movie screen writers said Thursday they would go on strike for the first time in nearly 20 years in a dispute over royalties.
Four writers told the Associated Press that Writers Guild of America President Patric Verrone made the announcement in a closed-door session, drawing loud cheers from the crowd.
“There was a unified feeling in the room. I don’t think anyone wants the strike, but people are behind the negotiation committee,” writer Dave Garrett said.
Garrett and the other writers said the guild planned to tell writers this afternoon when the strike would begin.
Nick Counter, president of the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, said in a statement the alliance was not surprised by the action.
“We are ready to meet and are prepared to close this contract this weekend,” he said.
New York
FBI agent cleared of aiding mobster
In a stunning finish to one of the worst law enforcement corruption cases in U.S. history, former FBI agent Lindley DeVecchio was cleared Thursday of giving up confidential information that a Colombo family hit man used to kill four fellow mobsters – either rivals or potential rats.
DeVecchio was cheered by his ex-colleagues before triumphantly leaving a Brooklyn courtroom, finally cleared after spending 13 years under suspicion for his long and bizarre relationship with mob killer/mob informer Gregory Scarpa Sr.
Prosecutors bent on bagging DeVecchio gambled by building their case on the shaky testimony of Linda Schiro, a mob mistress since she met Scarpa at age 16. Their hopes imploded when two reporters surfaced with decade-old interviews – captured on tape – that contradicted her testimony against DeVecchio.
DETROIT
American Airlines sued for detentions
Six men of Iraqi descent who were heading home from doing training for the U.S. military sued American Airlines on Thursday, saying employees detained and publicly humiliated them after another passenger voiced suspicions.
The men, who sued in U.S. District Court in Detroit alleging racial discrimination, say airline employees grounded their Aug. 28 flight from San Diego to Chicago and detained them, believing they were security risks.
The men, some of whom are U.S. citizens, were returning to the Detroit area after training Marines at California’s Camp Pendleton on Iraqi culture when another passenger expressed concerns to guards partly because she heard the men speaking Arabic.
After taxiing from the gate, pilots returned the plane to the terminal. The six men were segregated and detained while the airline helped more than 100 passengers find hotel rooms, according to a prepared statement from the men.
WASHINGTON
Senate to vote on ‘Law of the Sea’
The Reagan-era “Law of the Sea” treaty was primed for its first-ever Senate vote, boosted by strong support from the Bush administration and an emphatic vote of approval Wednesday by the Foreign Relations Committee.
With Senate ratification, the United States would join 155 nations that are party to a convention that sets rules and settles disputes over navigation, fishing and economic development of the open seas and establishes environmental standards.
Treaty supporters, after making little headway for years, have gained momentum recently with concerns that the melting of the global ice cap will trigger a rush of claims by Arctic countries, including Russia, to previously iced-in resources.
The international pact was first proposed by Richard Nixon in 1970.