Woman arrested in finger-in-chili case
San Francisco
The woman who claimed she found a well-manicured finger in her bowl of Wendy’s chili last month was arrested Thursday night in Las Vegas, police said.
Anna Ayala was taken into custody at her home, San Jose police spokesman Enrique Garcia said. Garcia said police would not give any further details about the arrest until a news conference this afternoon.
Ayala told police she found the finger in her chili March 22 while eating at a Wendy’s in San Jose. Health officials say it was apparently a woman’s finger, because of the long, manicured nail.
The Las Vegas woman said she intended to sue but relented, claiming the publicity was too emotionally taxing. Court records show Ayala has a history of making claims against corporations, including a former employer, General Motors and another fast-food restaurant.
Ohio-based Wendy’s International Inc. ended its internal investigation of the incident Thursday, saying it found no credible link between the 1 1/2 -inch-long finger tip and the restaurant chain.
Base commission to visit listed sites
Washington The commission determining which military bases should be closed this year plans to assign each of its nine members to separate regions of the country and ask them to visit each facility on the closure list from that region, officials said Thursday.
Sen. Christopher J. Dodd, D-Conn., met with Base Realignment and Closure Commission Chairman Anthony Principi on Thursday, and was told about the plan to divide up the panel’s work. Dodd said he told Principi he would like him to be assigned to the New England region, but those decisions have not been made yet.
Charles Battaglia, executive director of the base closure commission, said the regional concept is an attempt to meet the stringent time requirements for finalizing the list of recommended base changes.
The Defense Department is scheduled to release its list of proposed base closings in mid-May.
Bush says nomination of Bolton is politics
Washington President Bush prodded the Senate on Thursday to confirm John R. Bolton as U.N. ambassador and blamed politics for holding up the vote. Bush’s 2004 presidential challenger said Bolton, if approved, would be weakened by the allegations against him.
Two days after the Republican-led Senate Foreign Relations Committee abruptly postponed plans to vote on the nomination, Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., said he strongly supports Bolton, but “I can’t speak for all of leadership” of the Senate GOP.
No top Senate Republican has voiced opposition to Bolton. But cracks in support by some GOP senators have put the nomination in question. The White House is lobbying three Republicans on the committee whose concern about Bolton’s nomination derailed Tuesday’s planned vote.
North Carolina State elects ‘pirate’ as prez
Raleigh, N.C. Aye, matey! The Pirate Captain is now the student government president at North Carolina State University.
Will Piavis ran under the name the Pirate Captain and won a runoff election, with nearly 59 percent of the vote. As the results were read, his supporters chanted his name and wore pirate hats from Long John Silver’s restaurant.
But the new president is now sounding more politico than pirate. Piavis is reaching out to students turned off by his unusual campaign, urging them to get involved in student government.
Some were disturbed by what they saw as a lack of substance.
“He doesn’t really have any issues,” senior Alissa Tompkins said. “All his quotes in the paper were in pirate language that doesn’t make any sense.”