Nation in brief: Clinton delegate moves to Obama
Sen. Hillary Clinton’s campaign suffered an embarrassing defection Thursday when former Democratic National Committee Chairman Joe Andrew switched support to Sen. Barack Obama, warning other party leaders that the negative tone of the prolonged campaign is becoming a “catastrophe” that will help Republicans.
The announcement by Andrew, a former Indiana state Democratic Party chairman chosen by President Bill Clinton to head the national party in 1999, was aimed at urging voters in his home state as well as the party’s uncommitted superdelegates to rally around Obama and prevent further battling over the nomination that he said only helps the presumptive GOP nominee, Sen. John McCain.
“While I was hopeful that a long, contested primary season would invigorate our party, the polls show that the tone and temperature of the race is now hurting us,” Andrew wrote in a lengthy letter released by the Obama campaign.
Andrew’s announcement came just days before his home state of Indiana, as well as North Carolina, hold the next round of presidential primary contests Tuesday.
Wichita Falls, Texas
Crash prompts plane grounding
The Air Force grounded all T-38C training jets on Thursday, following the second fatal crash involving the aircraft in eight days, the military said.
Two pilots died when their high-altitude, supersonic plane went down during a routine training mission, according to a statement from Sheppard Air Force Base.
The two-seat plane was assigned to the 80th Flying Training Wing, a multinational organization that produces future combat pilots for NATO.
The crash follows the deaths of two pilots whose training jet crashed April 23 at Columbus Air Force Base in Mississippi.
The Air Force suspended all T-38 flights pending the investigations into what caused the two planes to go down. The jets are used to prepare student pilots to fly fighters and bombers.
Carson City, Nev.
State seeks help on search costs
Nevada’s governor intends to ask the widow of missing multimillionaire Steve Fossett to help pay the state’s $687,000 tab in the unsuccessful search for the famed adventurer last fall, the governor’s spokesman said Thursday.
Ben Kieckhefer, press secretary for Gov. Jim Gibbons, said any assistance from the Fossett family would be voluntary.
“We are going to request that they help offset some of these expenses, considering the scope of the search, the overall cost as well as our ongoing budget difficulties,” Kieckhefer told the Associated Press.
Fossett, 63, took off in a small plane Sept. 3 from a ranch south of Yerington on what was supposed to be a short pleasure flight.