Nation in brief

Washington's long race reaches an official end

OLYMPIA, Wash. - After three vote tallies and nearly two nerve-racking months of waiting, Democrat Christine Gregoire was declared Washington's governor-elect on Thursday. But her Republican rival did not concede and wants a new election.

"Less than two weeks from today I will take the oath of office as your next governor of the great state of Washington," an ebullient Gregoire told supporters at a Capitol news conference.

The Republican candidate, Dino Rossi, said he was exploring whether to contest the election in the courts or in the Legislature.

Rossi and the state GOP said they have discovered a discrepancy of more than 3,500 votes in strongly Democratic King County, the state's largest, possibly pointing to fraud or mistakes that could have swung the ultraclose election.

"I think we need to examine what's right and what's wrong and let's expose it and see if we can correct it," he said at a news conference from his campaign headquarters.

Gregoire congratulated Rossi for running a strong campaign and said it was up to him to decide when and where to concede. But she ruled out a brand new election.

"Do-overs" only occur in golf, and only during practice, she said. "This is not golf and this is not practice."

LOS ANGELES - A slow-rolling series of storms that battered the West this week brought snowfall and high wind Thursday to parts of California, where weather-weary residents have already endured lashing rain, heavy snowfall and a destructive tornado.

Since the wild weather began slogging ashore Monday, five deaths in California and two in Colorado have been blamed on storms. Searchers on Thursday recovered what they believed were the bodies of two missing college students who had vanished after their canoe capsized in a flooded Arizona creek.

Up to a foot of snow fell on Colorado mountains, and northern Nevada was expecting as much as 6 feet on top of the 3-4 feet that already had fallen.

In Arizona, residents of Sedona - a tourist community known for its stunning red rock formations - began cleaning up after a heavy storm bloated a creek to a rushing river of mud.

California has taken brunt of the Pacific barrage, first in Southern California then in the north. Heavy rain, wind and blizzard conditions struck Northern California early Thursday, snarling traffic, cutting power to thousands in the San Francisco Bay Area, while temporarily closing major routes across the Sierra Nevada.

Forecasters expect the area to receive several more storms over the next few days.

NASHVILLE - Two couples have been charged in a price-switching scheme that allegedly defrauded Wal-Mart stores in 19 states of $1.5-million over the last decade.

Authorities said the scheme involved using a home computer to produce UPC bar codes for cheaper products and slipping them over the real codes on high-priced items. The suspects then allegedly sold the merchandise, or returned it for refunds or store gift cards that also were sold.

The Uniform Product Code identifier brings up a product's name and price on a store cashier's screen.

Authorities said they're still calculating the total stolen from Wal-Mart and two other unidentified retail chains by the four suspects and up to 30 accomplices.

COLUMBUS, Ohio - A brain-damaged baby whose father is accused of abuse cannot be removed from life support because parental rights have not been terminated, the state's highest court said Thursday. The baby's father said he sees signs of recovery.

A court-appointed medical guardian does not have authority to make the life and death decision in the case of Aiden Stein, the Ohio Supreme Court said. The year-old boy was diagnosed with shaken baby syndrome and remains hospitalized and dependent upon a ventilator and feeding tube.

Matthew Stein, 21, is suspected of injuring his son March 15 and could be charged with murder if the baby dies, police said. No charges have been filed; Stein denies harming the boy.

PHILADELPHIA - The U.S. Department of Justice has issued its first-ever medical guidelines for treating sexual assault victims - without any mention of emergency contraception, the standard precaution against pregnancy after rape.

The omission of the so-called morning-after pill has frustrated and angered victims' advocates and medical professionals who have long worked to improve victims' care.

Gail Burns-Smith, one of several dozen experts who vetted the protocol during its three-year development by Justice's Office on Violence Against Women, said emergency contraception was included in an early draft, and she does not know of anyone who opposed it.

"But in the climate in which we are currently operating, politically it's a hot potato," said Burns-Smith, retired director of Connecticut Sexual Assault Crisis Services.

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