National briefs 6/13/04

Southern California sniper killed after shooting three

IRVINE, Calif. -- A sniper opened fire Saturday at a rural Southern California recycling center, wounding a worker and a deputy, then fled. He was killed hours later in a shootout after deputies spotted him from a helicopter, Orange County sheriff's spokesman Jim Amormino said. The gunman shot the helicopter pilot in the leg. The sniper, a middle-aged man wearing green, Army-style fatigues, began firing at employees at the Baker Canyon Green Recycling Center about 11:10 a.m., Amormino said. The sniper fled the business, but was spotted by the helicopter crew around 4 p.m., Amormino said. The gunman was killed near a trailer park, but it wasn't immediately clear whether he was killed by deputies on the ground or in the air, authorities said.

Survey: College students apathetic about politics

SEASIDE, Calif. -- Most college students doubt that voting in presidential elections will make major changes in American society, according to a nationwide survey. Only 35 percent of the students surveyed said presidential voting will create "a lot of change," compared to 47 percent who thought so in March 2001, according to the poll conducted for the Leon and Sylvia Panetta Institute, a public-policy think tank at the California State University, Monterey Bay. The survey also found that only 19 percent of American college students believe that politics is "very relevant" to their lives, and 43 percent believe that politics has little or no relevance.

Poll: Edwards favored for Kerry's running mate

WASHINGTON -- Sen. John Edwards, the smooth-talking populist who emerged from the nominating campaign as John Kerry's chief rival, is favored among registered voters to be the Democratic vice presidential candidate, according to an Associated Press poll. But his name on the ticket does not automatically boost Democratic prospects. A Kerry-Edwards pairing ties with the GOP tandem of President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney, which is no better than Kerry's current showing in head-to-head matchups against Bush, according to the AP poll.-- From wire reports

Democratic strategists cautioned against reading too much into any poll before Kerry selects a running mate.

Catholic bishops to discuss clergy sex abuse, Catholic lawmakers in closed session

In a private retreat this week, U.S. Roman Catholic bishops will discuss some internal church rifts that have become uncomfortably public -- over the clergy sex abuse crisis and, separately, Holy Communion and politics.

Bishops disagree on whether Catholic lawmakers at odds with church teaching should receive the sacrament. They've sparked a national debate on the issue as a Catholic who supports abortion rights -- John Kerry -- is poised to become the Democratic nominee for president.

The bishops also will decide whether to override the objections of some U.S. church leaders and authorize a second round of audits of American dioceses -- reviews that are aimed at determining whether the dioceses are doing enough to combat the molestation scandal.

Bishops hope to emerge from the weeklong meeting, which starts Monday in Englewood, Colo., with a more unified message on both fronts, church observers say.

Cassini probe has close encounter with Saturn moon Phoebe

LOS ANGELES -- The internationally built Cassini spacecraft completed a flyby of Saturn's largest outer moon as it prepared to enter a four-year orbit to study the ringed planet, NASA officials said Saturday. The plutonium-powered spacecraft, which is carrying 12 science instruments and a probe, came within about 1,285 miles of the dark moon Phoebe on Friday, officials at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory said. The $3.3 billion spacecraft pointed its instruments at the moon, then turned to point its antenna toward Earth. Its data reached NASA's Deep Space Network on Saturday morning. Officials said the spacecraft was operating normally and was in excellent condition.