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CLINTON TOWNSHIP, Mich. - President Bush urged Congress on Friday to find a way to settle tens of billions of dollars in claims by victims of asbestos in hopes of stanching a flood of litigation that he blamed for driving scores of companies out of business.
"This is a national problem ... that requires a national solution," the president said at a forum he hosted here in this Detroit suburb.
The appeal was the president's third event in as many days promoting restrictions on what he calls "junk lawsuits," one of his top legislative priorities for the beginning of his second term. Along with the asbestos litigation, Bush wants Congress to impose caps on noneconomic damages in medical malpractice cases and limit the ability to bring class-action lawsuits.
Indiana governor calls for death penalty reviewINDIANAPOLIS - With just three days left in his term, Gov. Joe Kernan removed a convicted murderer from death row Friday and called for a review of how fairly Indiana administers the death penalty.
Kernan granted clemency to Michael Daniels, an Indianapolis man convicted of killing an Army chaplain in 1978 in a $1 robbery as the minister shoveled snow with his 15-year-old son.
Daniels - incarcerated on Indiana's death row longer than anyone else - will now stay in prison for the rest of his life without the possibility of parole, the governor's office said.
Kernan said his reviews of two cases have "revealed weaknesses" in Indiana's death penalty system. He said he hopes state government can examine whether the sentencing system is fair.
Also ...CHAPLAIN ESPIONAGE INQUIRY: A Muslim chaplain imprisoned for 76 days as part of an espionage investigation by the government has received an honorable discharge from the Army. Although Capt. James Yee has been cleared in the investigation, he resigned in August, saying officials never apologized to him.
FBI SPY CASE: A federal judge in Los Angeles dismissed all charges against a former FBI informant accused of being a Chinese double agent and rebuked federal prosecutors for "deliberate misconduct" in the case. U.S. District Judge Florence Marie Cooper on Thursday said the government blocked Katrina Leung's access to a critical defense witness - retired FBI Agent James J. Smith, who for years was Leung's lover.
CREMATORY OPERATOR SENTENCE: Ray Brent Marsh, the former crematory operator who admits dumping 334 bodies and passing off cement dust as their remains pleaded guilty Friday to Tennessee charges and was sentenced to 12 years in prison.