In brief: Gingrich testing 2012 possibility
Atlanta – Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich will begin raising money to test whether a bid for the GOP presidential nomination is feasible, his spokesman told the Associated Press Wednesday night.
Gingrich is set to talk about the step at a news conference today at the state Capitol in his home state of Georgia, where he has a meeting with the governor.
Earlier Wednesday, Fox News Channel suspended the contracts of Gingrich and former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum, another on-air contributor, for two months as they explore possible White House runs.
Order bars Sheen from seeing kids
Los Angeles – A judge issued a temporary restraining order Tuesday stripping “Two and a Half Men” star Charlie Sheen of contact with his two youngest children and barring him from coming within 100 yards of his estranged wife.
The action by Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Hank Goldberg came after Sheen’s estranged wife, Brooke Mueller, filed a declaration full of accusations against the actor that might have dropped jaws a month ago but now seemed merely a confirmation of the bizarre and menacing personality on display in his nonstop media appearances.
“I am very concerned that (Sheen) is currently insane,” Mueller wrote in the declaration, which included numerous claims of criminal conduct, such as allegations that the actor discussed using child-support money to “knock off” enemies and that he threatened to stab her in the eye with a pen knife.
22-year veteran leaving Senate
Honolulu – Democratic U.S. Sen. Daniel Akaka of Hawaii announced Wednesday he won’t run for re-election next year after 22 years in the Senate.
The 86-year-old Akaka – the third-oldest member of the Senate – becomes the seventh recent senator to announce plans to retire.
“It was a very difficult decision for me. However, I feel that the end of this Congress is the right time for me to step aside,” Akaka said in a statement.
Akaka, the only U.S. senator of Native Hawaiian or Chinese ancestry, suffered a major defeat in December when he failed to get a full Senate vote on legislation granting Native Hawaiians the right to form their own government.