The nation in brief

QUOTE OF THE DAY

“We are all very seized with the need to

grip this problem. It’s a tragedy when we lose our people for any reason. But for this reason it is particularly hurtful and must be incredibly difficult for people to accept or understand.”

British army Lt. Gen. Adrian Bradshaw,

the deputy commander of the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan, on insider attacks in Afghanistan Article, this page

Chicago police find marijuana field

CHICAGO - Chicago police spent Wednesday chopping down about 1,500 marijuana plants that were growing on a chunk of land the size of two football fields.

A police officer and county sheriff’s deputy in a helicopter spotted the plants Tuesday as they headed back to their hangar about three miles away. Officials said the plants, hidden by a tree canopy and surrounding plants, would have been ready to harvest in a few more days.

No arrests had been made as of Wednesday, and police were still trying to determine who owns the property that housed the site on the city’s far South Side.

Bill Clinton: Vote despite N.H. law

DURHAM, N.H. - Former President Bill Clinton on Wednesday urged out-of-state college students to vote in the battleground state of New Hampshire.

Clinton criticized the state’s new voter-registration law while campaigning for President Barack Obama at the University of New Hampshire. He said that while some students may believe that this election doesn’t matter, “Republicans in New Hampshire think it matters - that’s why they’ve worked so hard to keep you from voting.”

A federal judge ruled in 1972 that New Hampshire could not forbid out-of-state students from voting in the state even if they planned to leave after graduation, and the U.S. Supreme Court ruled similarly seven years later.

But under a law passed over Democratic Gov. John Lynch’s veto this year, new voters would be required to sign a statement saying they are subject to laws that apply to all residents, including laws requiring drivers to register cars and get a New Hampshire driver’s license. The law doesn’t specifically mention voting.

Texas halts maybe-dead-voter purge

AUSTIN, Texas - The Texas attorney general and secretary of state agreed Wednesday to stop purging from the voter rolls the names of 68,000 people who are listed as possibly deceased, said attorneys for four living voters who made the list.

Voting registrars will continue to purge the names of approximately 13,000 voters who are confirmed dead, but not those whom the state only suspects might be deceased on the basis of incomplete information, according to a statement released by civil-rights attorneys Buck Wood and Dave Richards. The agreement comes a day before a court was to hear arguments to stop the purge.

The four voters who brought the lawsuit received letters from a county registrar asking them to confirm they were not dead. The four argued that the state should not require them to prove they are alive. The secretary of state’s office, which ordered the new procedures, agreed Wednesday to drop that requirement.

Steroids linked to deadly meningitis

NASHVILLE, Tenn. - An outbreak of a rare and deadly form of meningitis has now sickened 26 people in five states who received steroid injections, health officials said Wednesday. Four people have died.

Eighteen of the cases are in Tennessee where a Nashville clinic received the largest shipment of the steroid suspected in the outbreak. The drug was made by a specialty pharmacy in Massachusetts that has since issued a recall.

Three cases have been reported in Virginia, two in Maryland, two in Florida and one in North Carolina. Two of the deaths were in Tennessee; Virginia and Maryland had one each, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said.

Investigators have been looking into at least three different products used for the back injections that could have been tainted by the fungus that appears to be behind the illnesses. None of the products have been ruled out. However, the primary suspect is steroid medication, which is commonly used for back pain.

Front Section, Pages 4 on 10/04/2012

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