National news

Treasury secretary high on economy

Washington Treasury Secretary John Snow said Sunday he expects continued strong economic growth and “lots and lots of good jobs” created in the coming months.

At the same time, however, he said world affairs have so dominated the public’s attention that the strong growth is not reflected in polls about President Bush’s stewardship of the economy.

“There’s been so much attention to other things, particularly the war in Iraq, that it’s deflected attention from the economy,” Snow said. “But the news on the economy … is so good and so pervasive, so far-reaching, that I think people will change their views here.”

The nine-month period that ended April 30 showed an annual growth of 5.5 percent in the gross domestic product, which measures the value of all goods and services produced in the United States. That was the strongest three-quarter growth in 20 years, Snow said on CNN’s “Late Edition.”

Clinton says stability in Iraq to take 5 years

Berlin It will take at least five years before Iraq becomes a stable and secure country, despite a handover of power set for July 1, former President Clinton said in an interview released Sunday.

In an interview with Der Spiegel newsweekly, Clinton said that a planned transfer of power to Iraqis on July 1 would not likely stop violence in Iraq, and that it would take at least five years to create “a peaceful, secure and pluralistic Iraq.”

“I don’t believe that we’re out of the woods yet,” he told the magazine.

But, he said that he hoped the transfer of power was a sign that the administration of President Bush was taking a new tack.

“I hope that the whole process has led back to a foreign policy that we should have followed – to cooperate wherever we can, and only to act alone when we have to,” he said.

Flight mistakenly lands at Air Force base

St. Paul, Minn. A Northwest Airlines flight that was headed to Rapid City, S.D., landed a few miles off course at Ellsworth Air Force Base, and passengers had to wait in the plane for more than three hours while their crew was interrogated.

Passengers on Northwest Flight 1152, an Airbus A-319 from St. Paul, expected to be welcomed to Rapid City Regional Airport on Saturday, but after about five minutes they were told to close their window shades and not look out, said passenger Robert Morrell.

Eventually, the captain and first officer were replaced by a different Northwest crew for the short hop to the right airport.

Northwest confirmed that the crew made an “unscheduled landing.”

The city’s airport runway is “just over the hill” from Ellsworth, and the Northwest crew had to descend through a layer of clouds, said a base spokeswoman, Lt. Christine Millette.

The Federal Aviation Administration is investigating.

Army recruiter tricked him, teenager says

Clinton, Iowa A recent high school graduate is accusing an Army recruiter of tricking him into enlisting once he changed his mind about joining the military.

Ryan Winter, 18, says the recruiter repeatedly assured him before he reported to duty this month in Davenport that he would simply have to head to Fort Jackson in South Carolina for a brief out-processing procedure.

“He said, ‘I’m going to be back by next week,’ ” said his mother, Laurie Kasmar. Instead, she received an emotional phone message June 13 from their son, saying he had been tricked into joining the Army.

Ryan Winter’s family claims he was told if he did not sign final enlistment papers, he would be considered absent without leave, fined $50,000, face prison time and never find a decent job again.

The Army will launch an internal investigation, and a congressional inquiry is under way, said Toni Harn, a spokeswoman for the Army’s Recruiting Battalion in Des Moines.

Released amputee in jail lobby for days, dies

Los Angeles A diabetic amputee who was released from the county jail languished for three days on a bench in the busy jailhouse lobby before he was noticed by deputies and rushed to a hospital, where he later died.

Gustavo Ortega, 50, died of coronary artery disease, with diabetes, chronic renal failure and hypertension as contributing factors, the Los Angeles Times reported Sunday.

A request by Ortega’s family for an investigation has triggered an inquiry by the Office of Independent Review, a civilian oversight agency that monitors the sheriff’s department.

“The one thing I just cannot understand is: How can they just let somebody stay in their facility, in plain view, for three days?” said Ortega’s brother, Mike. “It was total negligence.”

The sheriff’s department said it followed procedures in releasing Ortega in April, but officials said he seemed to have slipped through the cracks in a system that processes up to 800 inmates a day.

“It’s a tragedy if we didn’t observe him and the public saw him and didn’t do anything,” said Sheriff’s Capt. Anthony Argott, who oversees the reception center. “This poor guy needed help.”

Argott said Ortega may have been overlooked because people often linger for hours in the busy lobby, which is open 24 hours a day.

Bodies identified as those of father, sons

Pleasant Prairie, Wis. A father and two sons missing from Chicago for more than a month were identified Sunday as the bodies that washed ashore on Lake Michigan bound together by nylon rope and tied to bags filled with sand.

“We consider these deaths to be very suspicious and this case is being handled by law enforcement as a homicide,” said Pleasant Prairie Police Chief Brian J. Wagner.

The victims were identified as Kevin L. Amde, 45; Davinci Amde, 6; and Tesla E. Amde, 3.

The bodies were found Saturday by a resident on a beach in Pleasant Prairie, just north of the Illinois state line.

The victims were last seen May 6, when the father picked up the oldest boy from school in Chicago, Wagner said.

The children’s mother, Veronica Amde, reported them missing May 11. Wagner said she did not want to comment Sunday.

No cause of death has been released, and there was no evidence of trauma on any of them, Wagner said. A medical examiner said the three appeared to have been in the water since about the time they were reported missing.

Lightning strike injures 19 at golf tourney

Kremmling, Colo. Four men were struck by lightning and 15 others suffered minor injuries while playing golf atop a bluff in northwest Colorado, officials said.

The lightning strike caught many people by surprise Saturday during a golf tournament set up on a makeshift course.

Participants, who ran to their cars during a storm, were returning to the bluff when the bolt hit, authorities said.

“All of a sudden it felt like someone hit me over the head with a baseball bat,” said Kim Douglass, who was standing near the group of men.

Four of the men were flown to Denver-area hospitals with what authorities said were life-threatening injuries. Fifteen of those knocked down were treated for minor injuries and released, officials said.