Nation digest 06/03/03

USS Constellation arrives home after final mission

CORONADO, Calif. -- Sailors aboard the USS Constellation unfurled large "thank you" banners as the aircraft carrier returned home Monday from Iraq on its final mission before decommissioning.

The ship was greeted at North Island Naval Air Station by thousands of relatives and friends shouting "welcome home" to the 5,000 sailors who had spent seven months at sea.

The Constellation left San Diego Bay on Nov. 2 and supported operations in Afghanistan before the ship's air wing was called in to attack targets in Iraq.

In August, the Constellation will be decommissioned, with the new, $4.5 billion USS Ronald Reagan taking its place next year.

Mental patient held in jail because of mixup

MILWAUKEE -- The mental health system that was supposed to care for a 54-year-old schizophrenic with dementia sent her to jail, where she was wrongly held for two months, officials acknowledged.

Julie Ofner was charged with prostitution after offering to have sex with a police officer for $10, and was committed to a mental health facility in February because experts concluded she would never be capable of understanding a misdemeanor case against her.

The Milwaukee County Mental Health Complex sent her back to jail one month after getting her Feb. 18, and she got lost -- in jail.

A spokesman for the mental health center said personnel there were prohibited from discussing patients' cases.

Judge won't dismiss case against sniper suspect

FAIRFAX, Va. -- A judge refused Monday to dismiss state charges against sniper suspect Lee Boyd Malvo because of an alleged overlap with federal charges.

Fairfax Circuit Judge Jane Marum Roush also heard arguments on a change of venue motion but said she would rule later.

Malvo's lawyers had sought to have the Virginia charges thrown out because of a state law that forbids state prosecution when the federal government initiates a prosecution for the same crimes.

Roush noted that the federal charges said nothing about the Oct. 14 shooting of FBI analyst Linda Franklin, for which Malvo is facing trial in Fairfax County.

Malvo, 18, and John Muhammad, 42, have been linked to 20 shootings, including 13 deaths, in Virginia, Maryland, Georgia, Alabama, Louisiana and Washington, D.C.

Colorado residents pump out flooded homes

VAIL, Colo. -- Residents pumped out their homes Monday after a raging creek broke through an underground culvert, sending water into the neighborhood and opening up a 22-foot-wide sinkhole in Colorado's main east-west highway.

Sandbags and mounds of dirt were piled up around the houses, a mix of condominiums and single-family homes worth up to $1 million, many flooded with several inches of water.

"We were at the grocery store when the water broke," said Carol Reichman Cook, who returned home to find 6 inches of water in her two-story house. "It came right through our utility room. It came like a total river."

About a mile away, highway crews in front-end loaders and graders diverted water away from the sinkhole on Interstate 70 so they could look for the damaged culvert about 20 feet below. A 24-mile stretch of the highway was closed.

-- From wire reports