Nation briefs 12/7/03

Gov. Schwarzenegger handed his first setback

SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger was dealt his first major political setback when the legislature rejected his borrow-and-spending-cap proposal. Now he's vowing to go over the legislature and take his plan straight to the voters. The setback came after Schwarzenegger spent the week barnstorming California to generate voter enthusiasm for his proposals to help reduce next year's expected $10 billion deficit. Senators voted 34-0 against the governor's plan to cap spending. The governor's $15 billion bond measure also lost, with only five lawmakers, all Democrats, voting for it.

FBI looking for motive in prosecutor's slaying

BALTIMORE -- Authorities haven't ruled anything out as they try to determine what led to the killing of Assistant U.S. Attorney Jonathan Luna, a federal prosecutor whose body was found face down in a Pennsylvania creek, an FBI spokesman said Saturday. Investigators are trying to determine if his death was related to work or something more personal. Luna, 38, was attacked after leaving his Baltimore office around midnight Wednesday. His body was found Thursday morning with 36 stab wounds.

Senate to hold special hearing on sexual assaults

AIR FORCE ACADEMY, Colo. -- The U.S. Senate's Armed Services Committee will hear from alleged victims of Air Force Academy sexual assaults at a special hearing, Sen. Susan Collins announced Saturday. An independent investigation of sexual assaults at the academy found that 142 had been reported from 1993 through 2002. Top commanders were replaced in April after the scandal erupted. Attorneys Joseph Madonia and James Cox represent seven female cadets who allege they were assaulted and then punished for reporting the attacks. The attorneys said all of the women want to testify.

Investigators stop search for missing student

GRAND FORKS, N.D. -- Investigators put the search for a missing University of North Dakota student on indefinite hold Saturday after two weeks of scouring the fields and rural roads across two states turned up no sign of her. Authorities had no plans to resume the search for Dru Sjodin unless something new developed in the case, instead concentrating on the evidence collected so far and trying to piece together clues to her whereabouts. Convicted rapist Alfonso Rodriguez Jr., 50, is charged with kidnapping Sjodin, 22, from the parking lot of the Grand Forks shopping mall where she was working on Nov. 22.

Unpublished Debussy piece has U.S. premiere

RALEIGH, N.C. -- A year before he died in 1918, French composer Claude Debussy wrote a piece for his coal merchant, who in exchange kept him well-supplied in the freezing winter months during World War I. The unpublished work remained undiscovered until it surfaced in 2001 in Paris, where it had been stored in a trunk for nearly 85 years. The piece, "Les soirs illumines par l'ardeur du charbon" ("Evenings Lit by Glowing Coal"), has made its way to a college in North Carolina, where it will make its U.S. performance debut today. Charles Timbrell, a Howard University music professor, will play the Debussy piece, which already has been performed in France, England and Sweden.

Janklow takes stand in own manslaughter trial

FLANDREAU, S.D. -- U.S. Rep. Bill Janklow took the stand as the final defense witness at his manslaughter trial Saturday, crying as he talked about the motorcyclist who died in the traffic accident he is accused of causing. Janklow said he remembers nothing about the crash at a rural crossroads on Aug. 16. Janklow, 64, is charged with second-degree manslaughter, running a stop sign, reckless driving and speeding in the crash that killed Randy Scott, 55, of Hardwick, Minn., when Janklow's Cadillac entered the path of Scott's motorcycle.

Officials look to Ohio for clues in W. Va. shootings

CAMPBELLS CREEK, W.Va. -- Authorities investigating three apparently random fatal shootings in August outside convenience stores in West Virginia said they are looking at recent shootings 200 miles away in Ohio in a desperate search for clues. So far, who fired the shots that killed Gary Carrier Jr., Jeanie Patton and Okey Meadows Jr. remains a mystery to the 73 investigators pursuing nearly 3,000 leads. Each was killed late at night by a .22-caliber bullet fired from the same weapon.

Alaska judge approves wolf control program

ANCHORAGE-- An Alaska judge has rejected an attempt by an animal rights group to stop a state-sponsored program allowing hunters to shoot wolves from airplanes in Alaska. The move Friday opens the door to a threatened nationwide tourism boycott targeting Alaska's $2 billion tourism business. Connecticut-based Friends of Animals, among others, asked Superior Court Judge Sharon L. Gleason to grant a preliminary injunction to stop the shooting. Gleason refused to grant the injunction and lifted a temporary restraining order that had kept three pilot-and-hunter teams grounded since Nov. 26.

-- From wire reports