Bill would maintain U.S. access to Soyuz
Washington The House Wednesday passed a bill allowing the U.S. astronauts to fly on Russian Soyuz spacecraft through the end of 2011 in a move to forestall the possibility that the United States would lose access to the International Space Station.
The legislation amends the 2000 Iran Nonproliferation Act that prohibits use of most Russian space technology and know-how as long as Russia is exporting nuclear and missile technology to Iran.
The House unanimously passed the bill, a modified version of legislation drafted by Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Richard Lugar, R-Ind., and passed by the Senate last month.
Lugar’s office said it was confident the Senate would quickly pass the House version, and President Bush, despite some early misgivings, is prepared to sign it.
Former governor faces racketeering charges
Montgomery, Ala. Former Alabama Gov. Don Siegelman was charged Wednesday in a “widespread racketeering conspiracy” that includes allegations he took a bribe from former hospital executive Richard Scrushy for a key state appointment.
Also indicted on federal charges were two members of Siegelman’s administration and Scrushy, the former head of the HealthSouth medical-services company who was acquitted earlier this year in a massive accounting-fraud case.
Siegelman, who was governor from 1999 to 2003, was charged with racketeering, fraud, bribery, extortion and obstruction of justice.
Siegelman called the long-running grand jury probe a political witch hunt by Republican prosecutors trying to derail his current Democratic campaign for a second term in 2006.
In all, Siegelman is accused of soliciting more than $1 million for himself, his 1998 campaign for governor or his unsuccessful bid in 1999 to get Alabama voters to approve a state lottery. Prosecutors say he made official state decisions in return for the money.
Louisiana wants to talk to hospital employees
Baton Rouge, La. The Louisiana attorney general’s office subpoenaed 73 employees of Memorial Hospital on Wednesday as part of its investigation of deaths at hospitals and nursing homes in the New Orleans area during and after Hurricane Katrina.
The subpoenas were “for all levels of personnel” and included doctors, nurses and support staff, said Kris Wartelle, a spokeswoman for Attorney General Charles Foti.
They included people who were at the hospital during the storm and its aftermath “or they knew something about it,” Wartelle said.
On the Memorial campus, 34 patients died after the hospital was cut off by floodwaters, according to Tenet Healthcare Corp., which owns the hospital. Tenet has said 24 of those patients were in a facility on the hospital grounds run by LifeCare Holdings Inc., a separate company.
At least 140 patients at New Orleans-area hospitals and nursing homes died during the storm and its aftermath. Two owners of a nursing home in St. Bernard Parish were charged last month with 34 counts of negligent homicide for flood deaths at that facility.
Wartelle has said previously that six hospitals and 13 nursing homes in Louisiana are under investigation. Allegations include patients being abandoned, evacuated improperly or euthanized to spare them further suffering while waiting for rescuers.