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National briefsCompiled from Times wires © St. Petersburg Times, published February 16, 2001 Shuttle crew prepares to depart space stationCAPE CANAVERAL -- Space shuttle Atlantis' astronauts gave one final orbit-raising lift to the international space station Thursday and hauled over the last batch of supplies. The shuttle crew delivered a DVD player along with about 20 movies and 3,000 pounds of supplies. The three Alpha men are due to return to Earth in March aboard space shuttle Discovery. The Atlantis astronauts will leave the station this morning and are due back Sunday. McVeigh faces clemency deadlineDENVER -- Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh faced an end-of-the-day deadline Thursday for asking the president to spare his life. McVeigh, 32, is scheduled to die by lethal injection May 16 in the first execution by the federal government in 37 years. The U.S. Bureau of Prisons set the execution date after McVeigh dropped all appeals. Under federal rules, he had one month after the date was set to file a request for clemency. The deadline was midnight EST. Commission rules for Calif. energy suppliersSACRAMENTO, Calif. -- In a victory for California's electricity wholesalers, a federal agency says power plant operators can't be forced to supply electricity if they risk not getting paid. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission on Wednesday denied a request by the Independent System Operator, which oversees the state's power grid, to relax its creditworthiness standards and allow near-bankrupt utilities to get power. That means the state may now have to step in and pay for emergency power purchases made by the ISO to avoid rolling blackouts. The state entered its 31st day under a Stage 3 power alert Thursday. Coke recalls some bottles of sodaATLANTA -- Coca-Cola Enterprises has recalled some two-liter bottles sold -- and presumably consumed -- last year in Georgia and Florida, saying they were bottled under unsanitary conditions in Jacksonville. Georgia Agriculture Commissioner Tommy Irvin said the Food and Drug Administration alerted him Thursday of the problem with some bottles of Coca-Cola Classic. The affected bottles are coded JAN2201JAA, JAN2202JAD and JAN2201JAE. The bottles were sold last October. Customers may return those bottles to the place of purchase for a refund. In Washington . . .JUSTICE DEPARTMENT: Charles A. James, a veteran antitrust lawyer who helped craft government rules on corporate mergers, was named Thursday by the Bush administration to head the Justice Department's antitrust division. The job requires Senate confirmation. FEMA: Joe Allbaugh, a longtime aide to President Bush, was confirmed by the Senate on Thursday to head the Federal Emergency Management Agency, placing him at the helm of the nation's assistance efforts in natural disasters. The Senate voted 91-0 to confirm him.
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