Nation in brief

Report: Rushing missile system might be costly

The Bush administration's push to deploy a $22-billion missile defense system by this time next year could lead to cost increases and technical failures that will have to be fixed before it can hope to stop enemy warheads, congressional investigators said on Tuesday.

The General Accounting Office, in a 40-page report, said the Pentagon was combining 10 technologies into a missile defense system without knowing if they could handle the task, often described as trying to hit a bullet with a bullet.

The overall uncertainty, the investigators said, has produced "a greater likelihood that critical technologies will not work as intended in planned flight tests." If failures ensue, they added, the Pentagon's Missile Defense Agency "may have to spend additional funds in an attempt to identify and correct problems by September 2004 or accept a less capable system."

WASHINGTON - A widely criticized plan to lease 100 refueling tanker planes from the Boeing Co. should go forward even though it might end up costing billions of dollars more over the lifetimes of the planes, the Pentagon said.

Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz said in a letter released Tuesday the leasing plan would allow the Air Force to modernize its aging tanker fleet immediately and save money in the short term.

Wolfowitz's letter came in response to a request from Sen. John Warner, R-Va., Senate Armed Services Committee chairman, who asked the Pentagon to explore whether it would be better to lease 25 planes - instead of 100 as planned - and buy the rest.

The Congressional Budget Office has said taxpayers would end up spending at least $5.7-billion more to lease the planes than they would through a straight purchase.

MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa is slated to get 32 of the 100 tankers.

PHILADELPHIA - A school bus driver who stashed a rifle behind his seat and set out for the nation's capital with 13 children on a bizarre, unauthorized field trip was sentenced Tuesday to four years in prison.

Otto Nuss, 65, pleaded guilty to federal kidnapping charges in June. His January trip touched off a frantic six-hour search and alarmed parents at the Berks Christian School in Birdsboro. None of the children was harmed.

WASHINGTON - The American Civil Liberties Union asked the federal courts Tuesday to prevent the U.S. Secret Service from keeping anti-Bush protesters far away from presidential appearances while allowing supporters to display their messages up close.

The civil liberties group filed the lawsuit in federal court in Pennsylvania on behalf of four advocacy organizations that claimed the Secret Service forced them into protest zones or other areas where they could not be seen by President Bush or Vice President Dick Cheney or be noticed by the media covering their visits.

"The pattern we found was at presidential and vice presidential appearances, protesters were restricted to areas where they were out of sight, out of earshot and often out of mind," said Witold Walczak, legal director for the ACLU's Greater Pittsburgh chapter.

BETHESDA, Md. - An inexpensive device that detects wiring problems could prevent many of the 40,000 electrical fires that damage U.S. homes and kill 350 people each year, safety officials said Tuesday, urging homeowners to install Arc Fault Circuit Interrupters.

The device, also called an AFCI, cuts power when it detects electricity arcing from damaged wires. Homes with old wiring are especially vulnerable to this problem, which can occur when wires or cords overheat or are pinched by furniture, pierced by nails, frayed from age or gnawed by rodents.

AFCIs cost as little as $25, but the Consumer Product Safety Commission said installing one can be dangerous and should be done only by a licensed electrician.

WASHINGTON - U.S. judges urged repeal of legislation passed this year that makes it more difficult for them to impose lighter sentences than specified in federal guidelines.

The Judicial Conference of the United States voted unanimously Tuesday to support overturning the law, which also requires reports to Congress on any judge who departs from the sentencing guidelines. Critics, including Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., and Chief Justice William Rehnquist, have warned it could intimidate judges or lead to a "black list" of judges deemed soft on criminals.

JOHN KERRY: Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., picked up two key endorsements Tuesday - one from former New Hampshire Gov. Jeanne Shaheen, who becomes his national chairwoman, and the other from former Clinton Cabinet member Aida Alvarez, a well-known figure in the Hispanic community.

DICK GEPHARDT: Dick Gephardt picked up his 14th union endorsement for the Democratic presidential nomination when leaders of the 322,000-member Laborers International Union of North America decided Tuesday to back the Missouri Democrat.

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