National briefs 10A

Transportation Security Administration under fire

WASHINGTON -- Some in Congress see the Transportation Security Administration as a bloated, unresponsive agency that is shirking its most important duty: ensuring safe air travel.

Lawmakers from both parties were furious this week when they learned the TSA wants to trim roughly 20 percent of the funding for the air marshal program -- $104 million -- to help plug a budget hole.

The timing for the request couldn't have been worse: It came just before the Homeland Security Department -- TSA's parent agency -- warned that al-Qaida might try more suicide hijackings.

New York Sen. Charles Schumer and other Democrats denounced the idea of cutting the air marshal program as "mind-boggling" and "crazy." Rep. Harold Rogers, R-Ky., chairman of the subcommittee that funds TSA, called the plan foolish.

The air marshal flap is the latest stumble by the agency, which was created in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

Massachusetts court to rule on same-sex marriage

BOSTON -- The president and the pope may have their opinions about gay marriage, but it's the seven relatively obscure judges on Massachusetts' highest court who may write the next chapter in the debate about whether same-sex couples should be allowed to wed.

The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court has had a history of extending broad parental rights to gay couples -- leading to speculation that the court could become the first in the country to legalize same-sex marriage.

A decision could come soon in a lawsuit filed by seven gay partners who want the court to force the state to give them marriage license. The case has drawn national attention amid mounting predictions that the first American gay marriages could soon come to pass.

Riordan may run for governor of California

LOS ANGELES -- As actor Arnold Schwarzenegger leans against running in California's gubernatorial recall race, Richard Riordan apparently is leaning toward it.

A candidacy by the popular former mayor of Los Angeles could further pressure Democrats to field a candidate of their own on Oct. 7, straining Democratic unity.

Riordan, a moderate Republican, is assembling a campaign team and said he will seriously consider getting in the race if actor Arnold Schwarzenegger does not.

Schwarzenegger's political advisers said he is leaning against running and will make an announcement Wednesday. He will then appear on "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno" to discuss it.

Potential candidates have one week left, until Aug. 9, to file to run.

Suspect in hoax is a former FBI informant

PORTLAND, Ore. -- The woman accused of calling an Indiana couple and falsely claiming to be their long-lost daughter had been an FBI informant in the past.

Donna L. Walker, who was held by Kansas authorities Friday in lieu of $100,000 bail, provided tips to authorities about child pornographers.

"Periodically, she on her own initiative would call us, and we would evaluate the information," FBI spokeswoman Beth Anne Steele told the Associated Press on Saturday.

Steele said the information was usually for cases outside Portland, so it would be passed on to other police departments or FBI offices.

Walker was known to regularly place such calls to law enforcement agencies around the country, Steele said.

Federal court papers say an informant identified as "Donna" frequently posed as a young girl to lure child pornographers out of the shadows of the Internet and turn them over to authorities in Arizona, California, Kentucky and Washington. Donna Walker was later subpoenaed as a witness, and federal officials as well as Walker have acknowledged that she was the informant, The Oregonian reported in Saturday's editions.

-- From wire reports