Print

Email story

Comment

Email editor

Nation in brief

Michael Jackson trial won't gag Jay Leno

By wire services
Published March 12, 2005

SANTA MARIA, Calif. - The judge in the Michael Jackson trial delivered the punch line Friday that Jay Leno has been wanting to hear: The comedian is allowed to crack jokes at Jackson's expense.

Judge Rodney S. Melville made his ruling about Leno as he clarified a gag order preventing everyone involved in the case from discussing it. Leno has been subpoenaed to testify at the trial, and the comedian feared that the order would apply to his monologues on The Tonight Show.

"I am not attempting to prevent anybody from making a living in the normal way that they make their living," the judge ruled, adding that Leno may not talk about the specific things to which he is a witness.

Leno has been finding creative ways to make jokes about Jackson without opening his mouth.

Leno may be called to testify about having contact with Jackson's accuser or his mother. The defense contends the family tried to bilk Leno and others out of money.

DEBATE OVER FINANCES: Michael Jackson stayed home to recuperate from a back injury Friday while his attorneys were in court battling prosecution efforts to expose financial records they say will show that the multimillionaire superstar is "on the precipice of bankruptcy." The judge in Jackson's child molestation trial said he would allow only minimal evidence on Jackson's financial condition, saying "I don't want to inundate the jury with a lot of figures that don't tell a story." He said he understood the prosecution theory that Jackson had reason to "take drastic actions to protect his image" after the airing of a damaging documentary called Living With Michael Jackson. But he urged lawyers to confer and reach an agreement by Thursday on the issue of financial records.

SHREVEPORT, La. - Friday, President Bush wrapped up a two-day swing through the South. The tour was meant to build support for Bush's approach to revamp Social Security, casting him as a defender of the retirement program and warning Congress that the nation would not stand for partisan deadlock on the issue.

Campaigning in Tennessee and Louisiana for his plan to create individual investment accounts in Social Security, the president sought to reassure retirees that nothing would change for them and to convince younger workers that the accounts would give them a chance to build substantial nest eggs.

"The safety net is secure for older Americans," Bush said in Memphis. "Franklin Roosevelt did a good thing when he set up Social Security. It has worked. And so the discussion today is not to get rid of Social Security; the discussion today is to build on what Franklin Roosevelt put in place."

WASHINGTON - President Bush will nominate one of his closest confidantes, Karen Hughes, to lead an effort at the State Department to repair the image of the United States overseas, particularly in the Arab world, administration officials said Friday.

She will also be a leader in publicizing the president's campaign for democracy in the Middle East.

Hughes, 48, is to be named next week as Bush's choice to be undersecretary of state for public diplomacy and public affairs, a position that requires Senate confirmation.

WASHINGTON - Sen. Paul Sarbanes, D-Md., said on Friday that he would not seek re-election in 2006, becoming the second Democratic senator to announce his plans to retire after this term.

Sarbanes' decision opens the door to a possible run by Kweisi Mfume, a former Democratic congressman from Maryland who recently resigned as president of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.

Even before Sarbanes' announcement, Mfume had prompted speculation about his candidacy by declining to rule out entering the race.

WASHINGTON - The warden and some guards at a federal prison treated Muslim inmates unfairly and retaliated against them last year when they complained about conditions, a Justice Department watchdog unit said Friday.

The department's inspector general, Glenn Fine, said his office had found "a disturbing pattern of discriminatory and retaliatory actions" against Muslim inmates at the institution, which was not identified, "particularly against those who complained about poor conditions."

BLAKE JURY RETURNS MONDAY: Jurors in the Robert Blake murder trial ended a week of deliberations on Friday without reaching a verdict. The panel was ordered to resume deliberations Monday. Jurors have been discussing the case since March 4.

[Last modified March 12, 2005, 00:50:11]