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Nation in brief
Compiled from Times wires Panel may subpoena Martha StewartWASHINGTON -- A lawmaker leading the House investigation into ImClone stock sales said Sunday that Martha Stewart probably will be subpoenaed on her possible involvement in an insider trading scandal. "We can't sweep something like this under the rug because Martha Stewart is a celebrity, and so I think that we're probably going to have to subpoena her," said Rep. James D. Greenwood, chairman of the House Energy and Commerce oversight and investigations subcommittee. Committee investigators have been trying to resolve discrepancies between Stewart's account of the sale of nearly 4,000 shares of ImClone a day before the stock plunged and those of her now-suspended Merrill Lynch broker and his assistant. Stewart's friend, former ImClone CEO Samuel Waksal, was arrested in June on charges he secretly advised family members to sell their ImClone stock on December 27 after learning that his biotech company's highly promoted cancer drug had been rejected by the Food and Drug Administration. The House committee requested some of Stewart's e-mails, records from her business manager and phone records for its investigation. Stewart, who commands a multimedia empire as chief executive of Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia Inc., has refused to meet with the investigators. Her lawyers say they would do everything they can to comply with the committee's request for additional documents. "We've told her we want information about her phone call records, her e-mail records and we want that by the 20th of August," Greenwood, R-Pa., said on CNN's Late Edition. "If she provides that information to us voluntarily, we will review it. If she does not provide the information to us voluntarily, then we will subpoena that information. Then we will make a decision as to whether we need to call her forward under subpoena, and we may have to do that." Report: Grand jury impaneled for KmartTROY, Mich. -- The U.S. Attorney's Office has impaneled a federal grand jury in Detroit as part of its investigation into bankrupt Kmart Corp., and more than 20 subpoenas have been issued for witnesses, bank records and other documents, the Detroit News reported. Investigators want to unravel the facts behind the bankruptcy and determine if former chief executive Chuck Conaway, former president Mark Schwartz or other former executives will face charges. Kmart filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on Jan. 22. Pilot refuses to fly Israeli official because of securityCINCINNATI -- A pilot for a Delta Air Lines subsidiary would not fly Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister Michael Melchior from Cincinnati to Toronto because the pilot thought Melchior posed a security risk, an Israeli radio station reported Sunday. Melchior, who was being escorted by State Department officials, told Israel Radio that he waited on the plane Friday for more than an hour before the pilot evacuated it, saying there was a security risk. When Melchior disembarked, he said he was told he was not allowed to get back on the plane. "The security officials and the company all put pressure on him, and there were negotiations," Melchior told the station. "But the pilot is sovereign on his aircraft, and he is empowered to make such a decision." The Israeli radio station did not identify the subsidiary airline that Melchior planned to fly with. Melchior said he flew out on another Delta plane about a half-hour later. He has since returned to Israel. The Israeli embassy in Washington had taken the matter up with the State Department, Melchior said. Officials with the Atlanta-based airline declined to discuss the incident. This is the third time an Israeli official has been pulled from a flight because of a pilot's sense of a security risk, the radio station reported. The others reportedly were Alon Pinkas, the Israeli consul general in New York, and a bodyguard of Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres. Democratic chairman says Gore deserves to run againWASHINGTON -- Al Gore deserves the chance to run again for the White House after his disputed loss to George W. Bush in 2000, the Democratic Party chairman said Sunday. "He was robbed, and that's a fact," Terry McAuliffe said. The former vice president has said that he will decide by year's end whether to seek the Democratic nomination for president in 2004. The parties' political focus now is on the Nov. 5 election, which will determine control of Congress. By the next morning, McAuliffe said, "I do believe that the presidential campaign will get off and everybody will be out there. I think there's going to be six or seven people running for president, which I like." He said on ABC's This Week that Gore "deserves to run again. Listen, this is a primary process, and I have to be totally neutral in this, and I have talked to many candidates who have told me that they are probably going to run. "But listen, if you're Al Gore, you get up every morning knowing that you got a half a million more votes than George Bush did." Separated Guatemalan twins more alertLOS ANGELES -- Guatemalan twins born joined at the head and separated in a lengthy operation were more alert Sunday, and doctors reduced their sedation medication, hospital officials said. Though Maria de Jesus Quiej Alvarez and sister Maria Teresa were in critical condition, their vital signs remained stable. Meanwhile, medication used to sedate the two girls has been reduced. "Maria de Jesus is much more alert and even looking around," said UCLA Medical Center spokeswoman Roxanne Moster. Doctors said she may be making more progress because she didn't undergo the five extra hours of surgery that Maria Teresa endured to remove a buildup of blood on her brain. Pa. firefighters battle blaze in own firehouseHYNDMAN, Pa. -- The volunteer firefighters in this small mountain town got the call of their nightmares: Their firehouse was burning and the equipment was inside. "It was the worst nightmare you could imagine," fire Chief Jim Whitford said. "For most of the guys, it was kind of like their second home was burning." An electrical malfunction at the Hyndman Volunteer Fire Department firehouse is believed to have sparked the fire early Saturday. No one was in the building at the time, but much of the firefighters' equipment and fire trucks were already in flames by the time the volunteers reached it. The firefighters had only one hose to work with as they battled the blaze for about 20 minutes until fire trucks from nearby communities in western Maryland arrived. The damage was estimated at $500,000. Hyndman, about 80 miles southeast of Pittsburgh, has been loaned a fire truck and equipment from a Maryland fire company while it replaces what it lost.
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