The nation in brief

Saturday, August 30, 2014

Judge tosses suit on Thad Cochran win

JACKSON, Miss. -- A Mississippi judge dismissed a lawsuit Friday that seeks to overturn six-term U.S. Sen. Thad Cochran's victory in a Republican primary runoff, but the losing candidate in the prolonged election fight could still appeal the decision to the state Supreme Court.

Judge Hollis McGehee said state Sen. Chris McDaniel, who lost to Cochran in the June 24 runoff, failed to start an election challenge on time. McDaniel's lawsuit claims irregularities spoiled the runoff, and it asks the judge to declare McDaniel the winner or order a new runoff.

McDaniel, a Tea Party-backed candidate, led a three-person primary June 3. But certified results show Cochran defeated McDaniel by 7,667 votes in the runoff three weeks later. Turnout jumped significantly for the runoff, including in predominantly black precincts where Cochran fared well. McDaniel has called the runoff a "sham" and criticized Cochran for appealing to voters who traditionally support Democrats.

McDaniel will hold a news conference Tuesday to announce whether he will appeal the ruling, attorney Mitch Tyner said.

2 key abortion mandates struck in Texas

AUSTIN, Texas -- A federal judge invalidated two major Texas abortion regulations Friday, ruling that they created "a brutally effective system" designed to close abortion facilities, not to improve women's health as state lawyers had argued.

U.S. District Judge Lee Yeakel of Austin ruled that the two key provisions in House Bill 2, passed last summer, imposed an impermissible burden that blocked access to abortion for "women throughout Texas."

Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott promised a swift appeal Friday. The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals already has upheld portions of the bill.

Yeakel struck down one provision, set to take effect Monday, that would have required abortion clinics to meet the same standards as ambulatory surgical centers. The rule would have shut down 19 abortion clinics and left none operating in Texas south or west of San Antonio.

Yeakel, who was appointed by President George W. Bush, also struck down a provision requiring abortion doctors to gain admitting privileges in a nearby hospital. About half of the state's abortion clinics were forced to shut down after the regulation went into effect Nov. 1 because many hospitals declined to grant privileges, the judge said.

Plea in NYC guilty to aiding Hezbollah

NEW YORK -- A Suriname man accused of seeking to provide the Islamist group Hezbollah with a permanent South American base for staging attacks against the U.S. pleaded guilty Friday in Manhattan to three counts.

Dino Bouterse, 41, who held himself out to be the commander of Suriname's counterterrorism unit, said at a hearing in New York federal court that, in 2013, he provided a fake Surinamese passport "to be used in support of Hezbollah" and brandished a pistol during related drug deals.

Bouterse, who pleaded guilty as part of a plea deal with federal prosecutors, faces 15 years to life in prison when he's sentenced Jan. 6, U.S. District Judge Shira Scheindlin said at the hearing.

The charges include attempting to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization, conspiring to import more than 5 kilograms of cocaine into the U.S., and use of a destructive weapon during a drug-trafficking crime.

Hezbollah, a Lebanese Shiite militant group and political party, is designated as a terrorist organization by the U.S.

Pilot in Virginia F-15 crash a combat vet

BOSTON -- The pilot killed in the crash of an F-15 jet this week in the remote Virginia mountains was a decorated combat veteran with 17 years of experience flying the planes, military officials in Massachusetts said Friday.

The pilot, Lt. Col. Morris "Moose" Fontenot Jr., joined the Massachusetts Air National Guard in February and had been serving with the 104th Fighter Wing as the inspector general and an F-15 instructor pilot.

Col. James Keefe, commander of the Westfield-based fighter wing, said the death was announced "with a sense of profound sadness."

Fontenot was flying the single-seat plane to New Orleans for a radar system upgrade when he crashed Wednesday morning in western Virginia. Officials say he reported an in-flight emergency before losing radio contact. The investigation into the cause of the crash is expected to take several weeks.

Fontenot, 41, of Longmeadow, Mass., was a 1996 Air Force Academy graduate. His active-duty career included deployments to the Middle East, and he earned honors including the Meritorious Service Medal. He had also served as a squadron commander in several locations and had assignments in Washington, D.C.; Japan; Idaho; Florida; and Alaska.

A Section on 08/30/2014