Nation in brief

Congressman tells jury he doesn't remember crash

FLANDREAU, S.D. - U.S. Rep. Bill Janklow took the stand as the final defense witness at his manslaughter trial Saturday, crying as he talked about the motorcyclist who died in the traffic accident he is accused of causing.

The former governor and state attorney general said he remembers nothing about the crash at a rural crossroads Aug.16. He admitted speeding, but responded "I don't know" or "I don't recall" to many of his lawyer's questions about events before and after the accident.

Janklow, 64, is charged with second-degree manslaughter, running a stop sign, reckless driving and speeding in the crash that killed Randy Scott, 55, of Hardwick, Minn., when Janklow's Cadillac crossed the path of Scott's motorcycle.

Scott was killed instantly.

Closing arguments are expected Monday.

If convicted, the former four-term Republican governor and only congressman from South Dakota could face up to 10 years in prison and a House Ethics Committee investigation.

SACRAMENTO, Calif. - Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger was dealt his first major political setback when the Legislature rejected the borrow-and-spending-cap proposal he planned to use to target the state's fiscal crisis.

Now the actor-turned-governor is vowing to go over the Democrat-dominated Legislature and take his plan straight to the voters.

"As he said he would do, he will go over the heads of the Legislature ... and put a spending limit on the November ballot next year," Schwarzenegger spokesman Rob Stutzman said late Friday as it became clear the governor's plan wouldn't pass.

"The governor defined them as overspending addicts during the campaign, and as overspending addicts they've showed themselves as unable to reform," Stutzman said.

Senators voted 34-0 against the governor's plan to cap spending. The governor's $15-billion bond measure also lost, with only five lawmakers, all Democrats, voting for it. The Assembly also failed to approve any proposal and adjourned minutes before a midnight deadline.

CINCINNATI - A weekend rally planned to protest the death of a black man following a struggle with police was canceled Saturday at the request of the man's family.

The Rev. Calvin Harper, president of the Baptist Ministers Conference of Greater Cincinnati and Vicinity, said the minister's group would no longer march on City Hall on Sunday to protest the death of Nathaniel Jones, 41.

About 500 people attended the service at Allen Temple AME Worship Center, a converted shopping center used because his home church could not accommodate the crowd.

Jones, 41, died after a scuffle with police early last Sunday in the parking lot of a fast-food restaurant.

GRAND FORKS, N.D. - Investigators put the search for a missing University of North Dakota student on indefinite hold Saturday after two weeks of scouring the fields and rural roads across two states turned up no sign of her.

Police Capt. Mike Kirby said authorities had no plans to resume the search for Dru Sjodin unless something new developed in the case. Instead, they were concentrating on the evidence collected so far in her apparent kidnapping and trying to piece together clues to her whereabouts.

"I would never say never on a possible search," Kirby said. "But as of now, there is nothing organized."

A convicted rapist released from prison this year is charged with kidnapping Sjodin, 22, from the parking lot of the Grand Forks shopping mall where she was working Nov.22. Alfonso Rodriguez Jr., 50, remains in jail and is not talking with authorities, his lawyer said.

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