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July 31st, 2009

Air Force releases 'Scare Force One' photos

Posted: 10:25 PM ET

By Mike M. Ahlers
CNN
WASHINGTON (CNN) - And now, the rejects.

Three months after the White House released a single photograph taken during a photo op of "Air Force One" flying over New York City - a flight that caused panic on the streets below - the U.S. Air Force on Friday released the remaining 145 photos taken during the flight.

The photographs show the Boeing VC-25 - a military version of a 747 - making three passes by the Statue of Liberty, at one point accompanied by an F-16 fighter jet and at another point making a steep bank not usually seen with passenger aircraft. That latter move may have contributed to the chaos below.

The photographs and several lengthy government e-mail chains were released in response to Freedom of Information Act requests by CNN and other news organizations.

The e-mail chains show that the flight's government organizers were aware of many New Yorkers' fears of low-flying aircraft before the April 27 flight, and show a flurry of second-guessing, finger-pointing, damage control and occasional expressions of regret in the hours immediately following the flight.


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July 31st, 2009

Authorities suspect contracted hit in couple's slaying, source says

Posted: 10:14 PM ET

By Ross Levitt and Susan Candiotti
CNN

(CNN) - A source with knowledge of the investigation tells CNN the state attorney's office believes there were two motives in the home-invasion killings of Florida couple Byrd and Melanie Billings - a robbery and a contracted hit.

The source said the state attorney's office is currently working under the belief that most of the suspects in the case thought they were there for a robbery, but that Leonard Gonzalez Jr., who authorities have described as the organizer of the crime, and other yet-unnamed suspects were plotting a hit on the couple.

The source said that from "Gonzalez down" it was a robbery and that from "Gonzalez up" it was a hit. The source was not sure of the exact motive behind the hit.


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July 31st, 2009

Coroner delays report as evidence points to anesthesia use

Posted: 10:01 PM ET

By Alan Duke
CNN

LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) - While the coroner's report on what killed Michael Jackson has been delayed indefinitely, new evidence emerged that the singer shopped for a doctor who would give him the drug investigators suspect led to his death.

Dr. Allan Metzger, whose name appeared on a search warrant served this week, refused Jackson's request in April for the anesthetic propofol - commonly known by the brand name Diprivan, Metzger's attorney said.

Investigators suspect another physician, Dr. Conrad Murray, gave the drug to Jackson in the 24 hours before he died, according to a source, who asked not to be named because the individual was not authorized to speak to the news media.


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July 31st, 2009

Feds seek stolen explosives

Posted: 09:21 PM ET

(CNN) - Authorities appealed for help from the public Friday after finding hundreds of pounds of explosives stolen from a storage facility at the Port of Walla Walla Industrial Park in southeastern Washington.

State troopers discovered they were stolen on Monday during a routine inspection at the site, said Jessie Summers of the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. Among the missing items are sticks of dynamite, a spool of detonation cord, sheet explosives, and 96 pounds of TNT, he said.

ATF is working with the Walla Walla Sheriffs Department in its investigation and has released photos of the stolen items in hopes someone will tip authorities to their whereabouts.

Washington State Patrol spokesman Jeff DeVore said the explosives were being stored for various law enforcement agencies and private parties. The remaining items have been moved elsewhere in the state.


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July 31st, 2009

Key House committee passes health-care bill

Posted: 09:13 PM ET

WASHINGTON (CNN) - President Barack Obama's top domestic priority moved one step closer to congressional approval Friday as a key House committee passed comprehensive health-care reform legislation.

The vote occurred as the House of Representatives adjourned for its August recess.

The 31-28 vote in the House Energy and Commerce Committee came after several days of intense and often contentious negotiations between Democratic House leaders and an influential group of fiscal conservatives in the party.


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July 31st, 2009

House boosts 'Cash for Clunkers' by $2 billion

Posted: 09:11 PM ET

By Tom Watkins
CNN

(CNN) - The House of Representatives voted Friday to spend an additional $2 billion in economic stimulus funds on the "Cash for Clunkers" program, but its passage by the Senate was not assured.

President Barack Obama urged the Senate "to act with the American consumers in mind to pass this important legislation." But a vote had not been scheduled in the Senate, where the program faces opposition that could make quick passage difficult.

The program offers rebates to certain consumers who exchange old gas-guzzling vehicles for new, more efficient ones. It will run at least through this weekend, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said Friday.

The additional $2 billion comes from a clean-energy fund set up by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, the nearly $800 billion economic stimulus program the Obama administration pushed through Congress in February.


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July 31st, 2009

Former Phillipine President Aquino dead at 76

Posted: 08:06 PM ET

(CNN) - Former Philippine President Corazon Aquino, a political novice whose "People Power" movement pushed out longtime strongman Ferdinand Marcos less than three years after her husband's assassination, has died at age 76, her family announced Saturday.

Aquino had been battling colon cancer for more than a year and died of cardio-respiratory arrest early Saturday morning, said Mai Mislang, a spokeswoman for her son, Philippine Sen. Benigno Aquino III.

Aquino had not been involved in politics before her husband, opposition leader Benigno "Ninoy" Aquino Jr., was gunned down at Manila's airport in August 1983. The political novice took over the leadership of her husband's movement after his death and challenged Marcos in a 1986 election.


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July 31st, 2009

City workers accuse long-time boss of racism

Posted: 08:04 PM ET

By Edmund DeMarche and Chloe Melas
CNN

(CNN) - Black employees at a Philadelphia waste transfer plant were harassed, humiliated and discriminated against by their supervisor for decades, says an attorney representing two workers who filed a complaint against the city.

Among the allegations in the complaint is that for decades, John Gill, the Northwest Transfer Station's superintendent, limited one restroom to whites only, said the attorney, Howard K. Trubman. The restroom - which he called the "supervisors' bathroom" - was supposedly for the sole use of upper-level officials with the city's Streets Department, Trubman said.

As far back as 1996, it became apparent to black employees that they were being slighted, said Trubman. They would watch white co-workers walk into the segregated bathroom, conveniently located one floor above Gill's office.


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July 31st, 2009

Nazi concentration camp survivor found strangled

Posted: 07:32 PM ET

By Jason Kessler
CNN

NEW YORK (CNN) - A 90-year-old Nazi concentration camp survivor was found strangled Thursday in his Upper East Side apartment, a spokeswoman for the New York City medical examiner said Friday.

Felix Brinkmann, a native of Latvia, was a Holocaust survivor who escaped death for a year while he was in the Mauthausen, Ebensee and Auschwitz camps. Five times he had been slated for the gas chambers, but each time he used his fluency in German to talk his way out.

After the war ended, he was stunned to discover his wife, who had also been shipped to Auschwitz, alive and well in Poland.


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July 31st, 2009

Take back KBR bonuses, senators urge Pentagon

Posted: 06:46 PM ET

From Abbie Boudreau and Scott Bronstein
CNN Special Investigations Unit
WASHINGTON (CNN) - Two Democratic senators Friday called on the Pentagon to take back more than $83 million in bonuses paid to military contractor KBR after a Defense Department report criticized its electrical work on U.S. bases overseas.

"I want them to tell us on what basis can they possibly continue to justify having paid $83 million of the taxpayers' money for shoddy work that resulted in risk to our soldiers," Sen. Byron Dorgan of North Dakota told reporters.

Dorgan said he and Sen. Bob Casey of Pennsylvania are pressing Defense Department officials to reclaim $83.4 million in bonus payments it awarded KBR for its work in Iraq.

After the report issued Monday by the Defense Department's inspector general on the electrocution deaths of U.S. troops in Iraq, Casey said the Pentagon should fine KBR, "make it hurt and make it count."

"These are just absolutely stunning conclusions about failures by KBR as well as failures by our government," Casey said.

KBR, based in Houston, Texas, has been widely criticized for its work in the war zones in Iraq and Afghanistan. The company has defended its performance and said Friday that Dorgan and Casey "are wrong in their assertion that we have been derelict in our duties to protect the troops."

"The safety and security of all employees and those the company serves remains KBR's top priority," KBR spokeswoman Sarah Engdahl said in a statement issued to CNN.


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