Noriega back in Miami cell to finish out his prison term
MIAMI (Reuters) -- Former Panamanian strongman Gen. Manuel Noriega was moved back to a Miami prison to finish his drug trafficking sentence following three months of treatment at a federal prison hospital, a prison official said Thursday."He's back in the same cell he's occupied for the last 10 years," said Arturo Blanco, executive assistant to the warden at the Miami prison.
Noriega, who turns 62 next month, was moved in September to the Medical Center for Federal Prisoners in Springfield, Mo. Privacy rules prevented prison officials from saying what Noriega was treated for, but they said the hospital is reserved for inmates with intensive medical needs.
Noriega was returned on Dec. 21 to the Miami prison, where his status as the only prisoner of war in the United States has earned him a 250-square-foot cell dubbed the "presidential suite."
Noriega surrendered to U.S. invasion forces in Panama in 1990 and was brought to Miami, where he was convicted in 1992 of allowing Colombian cartels to use Panama as a transit center for U.S.-bound drugs.
4 more L.A. police officers suspended as part of probe
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) -- Four more Los Angeles Police Department officers were suspended as a result of a probe into corruption in the department's Rampart Division, the Los Angeles Times reported Friday.
The report said the four had all worked in the same anti-gang CRASH unit as the man at the center of the scandal, former officer-turned-informant Rafael Perez.
The LAPD has uncovered alleged wrongdoing by officers ranging from unjustified shootings, beatings and drug dealing to false arrests and evidence planting.
Officials did not say why the four had been suspended with pay, but sources told the Los Angeles Times more officers are expected to be relieved of duty as the investigation continues.
Mississippi attorney general gets death threat on Web
JACKSON, Miss. (AP) -- The Mississippi attorney general is contacting state authorities after discovering an Alabama Klan group's Web site said he had "earned a death sentence."
Michael Moore, perhaps best known for his role in suing the tobacco industry, has recently helped to bring to trial several murder cases dating back to the state's civil rights struggle.
A group calling itself the Alabama White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan railed against Moore in an article on its Web site glorifying onetime Mississippi Klan chieftain Sam Bowers. Bowers is serving a life prison term for the 1966 murder of Vernon Dahmer, an NAACP leader and black voting rights advocate.
4 arrested after N.M. jeweler is kidnapped, beaten, robbed
GALLUP, N.M. (AP) -- A jeweler who won two big jackpots at an Indian casino last year was kidnapped, beaten and robbed of cash and weapons, the FBI said.
Four people were arrested, and more arrests were expected.
Jim Rashid, 58, was abducted Tuesday night outside the Sky City Casino on the Acoma Pueblo reservation and forced to drive to one of his jewelry stores. He escaped as his kidnappers planned to take him to another of the stores, FBI Agent Doug Beldon said.
Rashid was treated at a hospital for cuts and bruises.
"We believe the fact that it's been well-publicized that this guy had substantial winnings out there is motivational in the crime," Beldon said.
Rashid won slot machine jackpots worth $6.3 million in May and $1.9 million in July at the casino. The $6.3 million jackpot was the largest ever in a New Mexico casino.
Three men and a woman, all from Denver, were arrested Wednesday in Gallup and Santa Fe, Beldon said. He said a substantial amount of cash was recovered but he wouldn't release details.
Pilot who balked at flying in storm awarded $10 million
DALLAS (AP) -- An American Airlines pilot who was fired after refusing to fly during a 1996 ice storm has been awarded $10 million by a jury.
Michael LaGrotte, a pilot for 10 years at American Eagle, was awarded the money Wednesday in a lawsuit contending he was fired for turning around his turboprop plane in a storm.
LaGrotte's attorney, Mike Cook, said the pilot made an attempt to fly from Dallas to Houston but returned to the airport because he thought conditions were unsafe. He was asked to try again and refused.
American Eagle, the regional airline owned by American Airlines parent AMR Corp. of Fort Worth, said it will appeal.
The company said LaGrotte was fired because he did not execute proper procedures during severe ice conditions and failed to follow safety procedures in two earlier incidents.
Michigan man going to prison for running over a black
GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (AP) -- A white man who ran his car over a black man three times, dragging him across a gas station parking lot, has been sentenced to seven to 25 years in prison.
Joe Raab, 30, pleaded guilty last month to assault with intent to do great bodily harm and ethnic intimidation. He was sentenced Wednesday.
Raab initially was accused of assault with intent to kill Willie Lee Jarrett, 36, but prosecutors reduced the charge, saying they doubted that was his intent.
Raab told police he came out of a gas station restroom Sept. 15, saw Jarrett in the driver's seat of his car and thought he was trying to steal it.
Authorities said Raab jumped in the car and ran over Jarrett three times, dragging him 80 feet across the pavement. Half of one of Jarrett's ears was torn off, and he suffered wounds to his back, hands, chest and shoulder.
Washington justices uphold broadened health coverage
OLYMPIA, Wash. (AP) -- The Washington Supreme Court on Thursday upheld a state law requiring health insurance companies to cover such alternative medical services as chiropractic care, naturopathy and massage therapy.
The court's unanimous decision ended four years of legal challenges and cleared the way for consumers to get comprehensive health care from any licensed provider in Washington, Insurance Commissioner Deborah Senn said.
"Choice of provider is the biggest single issue in health care," Senn said Thursday night.
Health insurers have been fighting the law since its approval in 1996, saying it will only result in higher costs for carriers, and ultimately, consumers.
The law requires insurance policies to provide coverage for treatments and services by every category of licensed health care providers in Washington.