Police chemist fired for shoddy work, lying

OKLAHOMA CITY -- An embattled police chemist was fired Tuesday for allegedly performing shoddy work and giving false or misleading testimony in criminal cases, including some in which she helped send men to death row.

Joyce Gilchrist was dismissed by Chief of Police M.T. Berry, who said the decision was based on the recommendations of an administrative panel who heard testimony about Gilchrist's alleged misconduct.

A statement from Berry's office said reasons for firing Gilchrist "include laboratory mismanagement, criticism from court challenges and flawed casework analysis." Berry said her termination was effective Tuesday.

Gilchrist, whose work is being investigated by the FBI and the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation, has been on paid administrative leave from the Police Department since February, earning a base salary of $59,528.

She faces allegations in an undetermined number of criminal cases. Hundreds of her cases are being re-examined.

U.S. wildlife program to honor trapping ban

OLYMPIA, Wash. -- A federal wildlife control program has agreed to abide by Washington's voter-approved ban on most animal trapping, bowing to pressure from animal-rights groups and the state attorney general.

State lawyers believe the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Wildlife Services Division isn't governed by Initiative 713, which outlaws most body-gripping traps and two specific poisons.

"They asked us to voluntarily comply with the initiative and we are doing so," Hallie Pickhardt, an Agriculture Department spokeswoman, said Monday.

The initiative, approved with 55 percent of the vote last year, allows the use of some traps for wildlife control, but only with a specific permit from the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife.

Comet photos show complex objectPASADENA, Calif. -- Detailed images of a comet taken by NASA's Deep Space 1 probe reveal an unexpectedly complex object with a surface of rugged terrain, rolling plains, deep fractures and very dark material, scientists said Tuesday.

The spacecraft, nearing the end of its useful life, flew within 1,340 miles of comet Borrelly's bowling pin-shaped nucleus on Saturday and snapped two dozen pictures.

The images of the 2 1/2-by-5-mile nucleus revealed it was spewing three distinct columns of dust.

They also showed that the nucleus' frozen core of dust and ice is coated with a pitch black material, thought to be a mix of organic molecules.

"This was sort of like a Dove Bar the size of Mount Everest," said Don Yeomans, a comet expert at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, where results of the flyby were displayed at a news conference.

20 percent of drivers admit sleeping at wheelWASHINGTON -- One in five motorists admits having fallen asleep at the wheel in the past year, says the National Sleep Foundation, which is trying to get drowsy drivers off the road.

"I think in our society we are quite used to denying our tiredness," said director Richard Gelula, whose organization commissioned a study. "We believe that sleep is something that we can cheat on."

Studies show that drowsy drivers have slower reaction time; impaired judgment and vision; increased moodiness and aggressive behavior; and more difficulty following road signs.

"It's a form of impaired driving, really," said Judith Stone, president of Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety. "It's in the same kind of category as drunk driving."

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration estimates drowsy drivers cause 100,000 crashes each year that result in more than 1,500 deaths and 71,000 injuries. By comparison, 16,653 people were killed last year in alcohol-related crashes.

--From wire reports