Nation in brief

Bush spells out his technology initiatives

MINNEAPOLIS - President Bush, campaigning Monday in Minnesota, vowed to boost broadband access to the Internet, highlighted federal grants to develop hydrogen as an alternative fuel and set a 2014 target date for all Americans to have their medical records in a portable, electronic format.

In his remarks, the president noted the Energy Department's announcement Monday of $350-million in grants to fund hydrogen research. The grants are a first installment in what Bush has said will be $1.2-billion for research on hydrogen fuel cells.

He also promoted the use of electronic records for storing personal health data, citing his proposal to double, to $100-million, annual grants toward such efforts. He announced the creation of a position in the Department of Health and Human Services to be called the national health information technology coordinator.

On high-speed access to the Internet, Bush called on Congress to make permanent the existing tax breaks for broadband services.

WASHINGTON - The Justice Department is opening a criminal investigation into allegations thatRepublican staffers on the Senate Judiciary Committee stole more than 4,000 computerized memos from their Democratic counterparts from 2001 to 2003, Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont, the committee's top Democrat, said Monday.

The department has assigned the investigation to David Kelley, the U.S. attorney for the southern district of New York.

Leahy said that Senate Sergeant at Arms William H. Pickle, who investigated the intrusion and determined that two Republican staffers had been responsible, "made a good start with his investigation and report," but the senator noted that the Justice Department would be able to go further.

Both Republicans and Democrats on the panel had asked the Justice Department to take action in the case after Pickle submitted his report last month.

CHICAGO - Matthew Hale, the self-styled "Pontifex Maximus" of a white supremacist group, was found guilty Monday of trying to have a federal judge killed after she made him change the group's name.

Hale's World Church of the Creator preached a gospel of "racial holy war" that authorities said inspired a follower to go on a shooting rampage five years ago, targeting minorities in Illinois and Indiana and killing two.

Hale, 32, was found guilty of four of the five charges against him, but acquitted of one of two counts of soliciting the murder of a federal judge. The judge was not attacked.

His attorney, Thomas Anthony Durkin, said the FBI planted a mole to try to lure Hale into a murder plot, and prosecuted him for his unpopular views.

LOS ANGELES - Michael Jackson explained dropping two high-profile lawyers leading his defense, declaring on Monday that his life is at stake and that he deserved their full attention.

The pop star's announcement came in a statement issued a day after attorneys Mark Geragos and Benjamin Brafman said they voluntarily "stepped down" from the case for reasons they would not discuss publicly.

"It is imperative that I have the full attention of those who are representing me. My life is at stake," Jackson said. "Therefore, I must feel confident that my interests are of the highest priority. I am innocent of these false charges, and will aggressively seek to clear my name."

Jackson, 45, is free on $3-million bail. He was originally charged with seven counts of lewd or lascivious conduct involving a child under 14 and with administering an intoxicant, reportedly wine, to a child under 14.

MARS ROVER WRAPS UP: The second of NASA's twin Mars rovers completed its primary mission Monday, the 90th full day on the Red Planet. Opportunity will probably keep working through at least September. As of Monday, Opportunity and its twin, Spirit, have completed all the tasks NASA required before it would consider the mission a success. Each rover traveled at least 1,980 feet, took stereo and color panoramas, drove to at least eight locations and operated simultaneously with its twin for 60 days.

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