The nation in brief

Friday, November 16, 2012

QUOTE OF THE DAY

“I’m very proud of you, New York.You guys are tough.You bounced back just as America always bounces back.The same is going to be true this time.”

President Barack Obama,

after meeting with emergency workers on Staten Island, as he toured areas affected by Hurricane Sandy Article, this page

Confession called false in 1979 case

NEW YORK - The man charged with killing a 6-year-old boy in 1979 made a false confession and will plead innocent, his lawyer said Thursday.

Pedro Hernandez’s admission in May to suffocating Etan Patz was a stunning turn in one of the most notorious cases in New York City history, prompting the first arrest in the case. But he is mentally ill, and his statements “are not reliable,” his lawyer, Harvey Fishbein, said after Hernandez made a brief court appearance Thursday.

“The really sad part of this case is that it will take time, it will take money ... and it will not tell the city what happened to Etan Patz,” Fishbein said.

But prosecutors say an exhaustive post-arrest investigation found enough evidence to seek an indictment and proceed to trial.

A judge set a Dec. 12 date for Hernandez to enter a plea.

Etan’s disappearance led to an intensive search and spawned a movement to publicize cases of missing children. His photo was among the first put on milk cartons, and his case turned May 25 into National Missing Children’s Day.

Pilot ejects safely in Florida jet crash

TYNDALL AIR FORCE BASE, Fla. - Air Force officials said Thursday that a fighter jet crashed along a highway in the Florida panhandle and that the pilot ejected safely.

There were no immediate reports of injuries.

A news release from the Air Force said the F-22 Raptor went down Thursday afternoon near Tyndall Air Force Base, just southeast of Panama City. The pilot was receiving medical treatment at the base.

A section of U.S. 98 was closed as rescuers responded.

The cause of the crash isn’t clear.

New laws vowed

for compounders

WASHINGTON - The chairman of the Senate’s health committee pledged Thursday to move ahead with legislation to tighten oversight of compounding pharmacies, amid a deadly outbreak caused by tainted specialty medications.

But a top lobbyist for the compounding industry, as well as other senators, argued that existing state and federal laws could have prevented the fungal meningitis that has killed 32 people.

In the second hearing on the issue this week, members of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions sought accountability for the contaminated steroid shots that have sickened more than 460 people in 19 states.

“This committee will forge ahead in developing legislation,” said committee chairman Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa.

The International Academy of Compounding Pharmacists’ chief executive David Miller condemned the New England Compounding Center, the company at the center of the outbreak, and said existing state and federal laws could have been used to shut the company down years ago.

Front Section, Pages 4 on 11/16/2012