The Nation in Brief

A woman and her dog cross a wet street as the first snow of the season in Missouri hits the pavement and melts in downtown Kansas City.
A woman and her dog cross a wet street as the first snow of the season in Missouri hits the pavement and melts in downtown Kansas City.

Bombs suspect indicted on 30 counts

NEW YORK -- The Florida man accused of sending pipe bombs to prominent critics of President Donald Trump was indicted Friday on charges that carry a potential penalty of life in prison.

The 30-count indictment against Cesar Sayoc was handed up in Manhattan federal court, where Sayoc made an initial appearance earlier this week after he was moved to New York.

Sayoc, 56, was arrested Oct. 26 in Florida on five charges that carry a potential sentence upon conviction of nearly 50 years.

Authorities said he sent improvised explosive devices to numerous Democrats, critics of Trump and CNN. The scare heightened tensions before the crucial midterm elections, but he was arrested within days. Prosecutors say evidence against Sayoc includes DNA linking him to 10 of the explosive devices and fingerprints on two of them.

Prosecutors followed through on a promise to upgrade the charges with an indictment that led with five counts alleging use of a weapon of mass destruction. The document said he mailed 16 improvised explosive devices though the U.S. mail to victims across the country.

The charges said he aimed to "kill, injure and intimidate an individual and unlawfully to damage and destroy a building, vehicle, and other real and person property."

None of the devices -- some of which arrived at New York addresses -- exploded.

Sessions reins in U.S. sway over police

Civil rights leaders lashed out Friday at Jeff Sessions, who in one of his last acts as attorney general approved an order restricting the federal government's ability to enforce changes at state and local law enforcement agencies that are accused of abuse.

In a memo released late Thursday by the Justice Department and praised by police organizations, Sessions added new requirements to court-enforced "consent decrees" reached with state and local government entities. Sessions signed the memo Wednesday, the day he resigned.

It says that two senior political appointees at the Justice Department must approve almost all future agreements. The decrees also are to have a "sunset" provision, limiting them to no more than three years. And Justice attorneys now must show "aggravating factors" beyond demonstrating that police actions were unconstitutional.

Under the Obama administration, the Justice Department opened 25 investigations into law enforcement agencies in cities including Chicago, New Orleans, Cleveland and Ferguson, Mo., and was enforcing 14 consent decrees and other agreements.

"This memo seals Sessions's legacy as an obstructionist when it comes to advancing justice, promoting reform and protecting the rights of victims of discrimination," said Kristen Clarke, president and executive director of the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law.

But Chuck Canterbury, the national president of the Fraternal Order of Police, said that future consent decrees will give more responsibility to local departments, include the views of rank-and-file officers and be "more collaborative."

Uranium found in water at nuke plant

COLUMBIA, S.C. -- Federal regulators say tests show uranium levels exceeding safe drinking water standards have been found at two locations at a nuclear fuel plant that has leaked in South Carolina.

The state newspaper reported that the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and plant operator Westinghouse told a community meeting Thursday night in Columbia that the pollution came from leaks in 2008 and 2011 from a contaminated wastewater line.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission said the uranium-contaminated water is in the middle of the large fuel plant south of Columbia and has not reached the property boundary.

The commission's Tom Vukovinsky said Westinghouse thinks the leaks "are fairly shallow."

Westinghouse is working on a plan to clean the pollution and prevent the spread of the uranium-tainted groundwater.

The plant makes fuel rods for commercial nuclear reactors.

Medical pot running low in Oklahoma

TULSA -- A limited supply of medical marijuana in Oklahoma means some patients are paying premium prices and businesses are running out of products.

Healthy Buds Dispensary in Tulsa sells out of marijuana buds faster than owner Michael Monroe can restock from his Oklahoma City grower, The Tulsa World reported.

Monroe said he's seen customers from as far away as Miami, Okla., about 90 miles northeast of Tulsa, since he began publicizing that he would be selling buds.

"Honestly, it's the older customers coming in," said Monroe, who had to close his shop for a few hours this week after running out of supplies. "I would say 80 percent of them are older than 50."

In June, Oklahoma voters approved use of marijuana for medicinal purposes.

While the state began accepting applications for licenses from patients, growers, dispensaries and caregivers in August, many licensed medical marijuana businesses in the state aren't expected to begin marijuana bud sales before December, when widespread harvests are expected to be complete.

-- Compiled by Democrat-Gazette staff from wire reports

photo

AP/Telegraph Herald/JESSICA REILLY

Gary Siegwarth, a state biologist in Iowa, gets ready to transfer trout as he restocks a pond Friday in Dubuque.

A Section on 11/10/2018

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