WASHINGTON - The nation's citizen soldiers, already strained by long tours in Iraq and Afghanistan, could be tapped again under new plans being developed by the Pentagon.
National Guard combat brigades that have already served in Iraq may be called for a second tour, likely breaking the 24-month deployment limit initially set by the Pentagon, the Guard's top general said.
While active-duty soldiers and smaller Guard units and members have returned to Iraq for multiple tours, the new plans would, for the first time, send entire Guard combat brigades back to the battlefront. Brigades generally have about 3,500 troops.
The move - which could include brigades from Arkansas, Florida, Indiana and North Carolina - would force the Pentagon to make the first large-scale departure from its previous decision not to deploy reserves for more than a cumulative 24 months in Iraq.
For some units, a second tour would mean they would likely exceed that two-year maximum. The planning was described by Lt. Gen. H. Steven Blum.
, who commands the Guard, in an Associated Press interview this week.
---
Sen. John McCain intends to launch exploratory committee for 2008 GOP presidential nomination
WASHINGTON (AP) - Republican Sen. John McCain intends to take the first formal step toward a White House run next week by launching a presidential exploratory committee, GOP officials say.
The officials spoke on the condition of anonymity to avoid pre-empting a public statement from the four-term Arizona senator, who is considered the front-runner for the 2008 Republican presidential nomination.
McCain, the GOP maverick who unsuccessfully sought his party's nomination in 2000, already has opened a bank account for the committee, one official said.
“The senator has made no decision about running for president,” said Eileen McMenamin, a McCain spokeswoman.
Aides to McCain say the senator will discuss whether to seek the presidency with his family over the Christmas holiday and decide thereafter.
---
Lame-duck Congress unlikely to authorize Bush's once-secret warrantless wiretapping program
WASHINGTON (AP) - Legislation aimed at President Bush's once-secret program for wiretapping U.S.-foreign phone calls and computer traffic of suspected terrorists without warrants shows all the signs of not moving ahead, notwithstanding President Bush's request this week that a lame-duck Congress give it to him.
Senate Democrats, emboldened by Election Day wins that put them in control of Congress as of January, say they would rather wait until next year to look at the issue. “I can't say that we won't do it, but there's no guarantee that we're going spend a lot of time on controversial measures,” Democratic Whip Richard Durbin of Illinois said Thursday.
In Senate parlance, that means no.
Republicans for months have known that no bill accomplishing Bush's goal could get filibuster-proof support from 60 senators. Sealing off any hope was what Democratic leader Harry Reid put on his lame-duck to-do list. The warrantless domestic surveillance bill was conspicuous in its absence.
As for next year, Bush should not expect Democrats to allow such legislation to pass without language establishing considerable congressional oversight of any expansion of warrantless wiretaps.
---
Crew struggled to slow runaway train before it derailed in the Sierras, investigators say
BAXTER, Calif. (AP) - Crew members aboard a runaway maintenance train that barreled down a steep Sierra Nevada slope tried frantically to slam on the emergency brakes before the locomotive derailed, investigators said.
The bodies of two crew members were recovered Friday from the smoldering wreckage of Thursday's derailment, which spilled thousands of gallons of fuel near a thick forest and sparked a large fire. Eight other crew members aboard the train, which was carrying rail equipment, suffered minor injuries.
Survivors told authorities that the men who died had been trying to apply the brakes when the train ran off the tracks in a ravine about 60 miles east of Sacramento.
The emergency brakes slowed the locomotive only slightly before the train's supervisor - in a final, desperate move - threw it into reverse, said Dave Watson, lead investigator for the National Transportation Safety Board.
The train kept rolling and gathering speed, eventually hitting a curve at about 50 mph - twice the recommended speed for that stretch of tracks.
---
Washington family's 3rd son deploying to Iraq 4 months after his twin brothers
SEATTLE (AP) - Growing up, Charlie Parsons played sports, liked to travel and enjoyed learning other languages - just like his older twin brothers. When they went off to West Point, Parsons soon followed. Now, four months after Capt. Bill Parsons and Capt. Huber Parsons III deployed to Iraq, younger brother Charlie Parsons is again following their lead.
“I didn't really look at it as following in their footsteps. We just have similar interests,” said Charlie Parsons, a second lieutenant from Miami, who also has a twin sister, Christine, a teacher in Jackson, Miss.
All three brothers are members of the 3rd Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division, a Stryker Brigade Combat Team from the Army's Fort Lewis, south of Seattle. When Charlie Parsons leaves for Baghdad on Monday, he and his brothers will join an unknown number of siblings serving together in the military.
The Army doesn't maintain a database of family members serving at the same time.
“It's not normally something that you put on your records,” said Joseph Piek, a Fort Lewis spokesman, noting he recalls only two sets of brothers who have served together recently.
---
Contented sea cows: Scientists in Florida say manatees may be smarter than we think
SARASOTA, Fla. (AP) - Back in 1902, a scientist examining the smooth, grapefruit-size brain of a manatee remarked that the organ's unwrinkled surface resembled that of the brain of an idiot.
Ever since then, manatees have generally been considered incapable of doing anything more complicated than chewing sea grass.
But Hugh, a manatee in a tank at a Florida marine laboratory, doesn't seem like a dimwit. When a buzzer sounds, the speed bump-shaped mammal slowly flips his 1,300 pounds and aims a whiskered snout toward one of eight loudspeakers lowered into the water. Nosing the correct speaker earns him treats.
Hugh is no manatee prodigy. Such sensory experiments, along with other recent studies, are revealing that sea cows aren't so stupid after all.
Researchers contend that if the plant-eating beasts seem slow-witted, it is because they faced no threats to their survival before the advent of boat propellers.
---
PlayStation 3 makes debut in Japan; would-be buyers turned away after consoles sell out
TOKYO (AP) - Sony's PlayStation 3 made its highly anticipated debut in Japan to long lines on Saturday, with local stores selling out their supplies of the video game console in a pattern that's expected to be repeated around the world.
Throngs of people lined up for hours around Bic Camera, an electronics retailer in downtown Tokyo, to get their hands on one of the consoles. The enthusiasm was so great, clerks with megaphones asked the crowd to stop pushing, warning that all sales would end if there were any injuries.
“Standing in line today is the only way to make sure I got one,” said Takayuki Sato, 30, among the buyers who queued up at Bic Camera, snaking around the building in a complete circle.
But would-be buyers were turned away even before the store opened at 7 a.m. The retailer refused to say how many machines it had but said it had wrapped up sales of its entire supply by 1 p.m.
Short supplies were reported elsewhere, too. Sanae Saito, a clerk at Yodobashi Camera Co. chain, said her store's stock had already sold out Saturday morning, although she declined to say how many machines were available.
---
Craggy-faced actor Jack Palance, who won an Academy Award for 'City Slickers,' dies at 87
LOS ANGELES (AP) - Jack Palance, the craggy-faced menace in “Shane,” “Sudden Fear” and other films who turned successfully to comedy in his 70s with his Oscar-winning self-parody in “City Slickers,” has died.
Palance died Friday of natural causes at his home in Montecito, Calif., surrounded by family, said spokesman Dick Guttman. He was 87.
When Palance accepted his Oscar for best supporting actor he delighted viewers of the 1992 Academy Awards by dropping to the stage and performing one-armed push-ups to demonstrate his physical prowess.
“That's nothing, really,” he said slyly. “As far as two-handed push-ups, you can do that all night, and it doesn't make a difference whether she's there or not.”
That year's Oscar host, Billy Crystal, turned the moment into a running joke, making increasingly outlandish remarks about Palance's accomplishments throughout the show.
---
Buckeyes' Thad 5 recruiting class opens season with record-setting 107-69 win over VMI
COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) - Greg Oden never left the bench and No. 7 Ohio State still put on a show. Daequan Cook scored 22 points and the Buckeyes' Thad Five recruiting class opened the season with a record-setting 107-69 victory over VMI on Friday night in the first round of the BCA Classic.
“Our guys played against some guys they'll be watching on TV before long,” VMI coach Duggar Baucom said. “He (Ohio State coach Thad Matta) has a stable of horses.” It was a spotty game for both teams, particularly so for the Buckeyes with two freshmen and a junior-college transfer in the starting lineup.
“I don't know if I've coached in a game like that, where offensively you're basically making plays the entire night,” Matta said as he ran his record to 7-0 in openers as a head coach.
The Buckeyes advance to meet Loyola of Chicago - a 68-57 winner over Princeton - in Saturday night's second round.
AP-ES-11-11-06 0615EST
While active-duty soldiers and smaller Guard units and members have returned to Iraq for multiple tours, the new plans would, for the first time, send entire Guard combat brigades back to the battlefront. Brigades generally have about 3,500 troops.
The move - which could include brigades from Arkansas, Florida, Indiana and North Carolina - would force the Pentagon to make the first large-scale departure from its previous decision not to deploy reserves for more than a cumulative 24 months in Iraq.
For some units, a second tour would mean they would likely exceed that two-year maximum. The planning was described by Lt. Gen. H. Steven Blum.
, who commands the Guard, in an Associated Press interview this week.
---
Sen. John McCain intends to launch exploratory committee for 2008 GOP presidential nomination
WASHINGTON (AP) - Republican Sen. John McCain intends to take the first formal step toward a White House run next week by launching a presidential exploratory committee, GOP officials say.
The officials spoke on the condition of anonymity to avoid pre-empting a public statement from the four-term Arizona senator, who is considered the front-runner for the 2008 Republican presidential nomination.
McCain, the GOP maverick who unsuccessfully sought his party's nomination in 2000, already has opened a bank account for the committee, one official said.
“The senator has made no decision about running for president,” said Eileen McMenamin, a McCain spokeswoman.
Aides to McCain say the senator will discuss whether to seek the presidency with his family over the Christmas holiday and decide thereafter.
---
Lame-duck Congress unlikely to authorize Bush's once-secret warrantless wiretapping program
WASHINGTON (AP) - Legislation aimed at President Bush's once-secret program for wiretapping U.S.-foreign phone calls and computer traffic of suspected terrorists without warrants shows all the signs of not moving ahead, notwithstanding President Bush's request this week that a lame-duck Congress give it to him.
Senate Democrats, emboldened by Election Day wins that put them in control of Congress as of January, say they would rather wait until next year to look at the issue. “I can't say that we won't do it, but there's no guarantee that we're going spend a lot of time on controversial measures,” Democratic Whip Richard Durbin of Illinois said Thursday.
In Senate parlance, that means no.
Republicans for months have known that no bill accomplishing Bush's goal could get filibuster-proof support from 60 senators. Sealing off any hope was what Democratic leader Harry Reid put on his lame-duck to-do list. The warrantless domestic surveillance bill was conspicuous in its absence.
As for next year, Bush should not expect Democrats to allow such legislation to pass without language establishing considerable congressional oversight of any expansion of warrantless wiretaps.
---
Crew struggled to slow runaway train before it derailed in the Sierras, investigators say
BAXTER, Calif. (AP) - Crew members aboard a runaway maintenance train that barreled down a steep Sierra Nevada slope tried frantically to slam on the emergency brakes before the locomotive derailed, investigators said.
The bodies of two crew members were recovered Friday from the smoldering wreckage of Thursday's derailment, which spilled thousands of gallons of fuel near a thick forest and sparked a large fire. Eight other crew members aboard the train, which was carrying rail equipment, suffered minor injuries.
Survivors told authorities that the men who died had been trying to apply the brakes when the train ran off the tracks in a ravine about 60 miles east of Sacramento.
The emergency brakes slowed the locomotive only slightly before the train's supervisor - in a final, desperate move - threw it into reverse, said Dave Watson, lead investigator for the National Transportation Safety Board.
The train kept rolling and gathering speed, eventually hitting a curve at about 50 mph - twice the recommended speed for that stretch of tracks.
---
Washington family's 3rd son deploying to Iraq 4 months after his twin brothers
SEATTLE (AP) - Growing up, Charlie Parsons played sports, liked to travel and enjoyed learning other languages - just like his older twin brothers. When they went off to West Point, Parsons soon followed. Now, four months after Capt. Bill Parsons and Capt. Huber Parsons III deployed to Iraq, younger brother Charlie Parsons is again following their lead.
“I didn't really look at it as following in their footsteps. We just have similar interests,” said Charlie Parsons, a second lieutenant from Miami, who also has a twin sister, Christine, a teacher in Jackson, Miss.
All three brothers are members of the 3rd Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division, a Stryker Brigade Combat Team from the Army's Fort Lewis, south of Seattle. When Charlie Parsons leaves for Baghdad on Monday, he and his brothers will join an unknown number of siblings serving together in the military.
The Army doesn't maintain a database of family members serving at the same time.
“It's not normally something that you put on your records,” said Joseph Piek, a Fort Lewis spokesman, noting he recalls only two sets of brothers who have served together recently.
---
Contented sea cows: Scientists in Florida say manatees may be smarter than we think
SARASOTA, Fla. (AP) - Back in 1902, a scientist examining the smooth, grapefruit-size brain of a manatee remarked that the organ's unwrinkled surface resembled that of the brain of an idiot.
Ever since then, manatees have generally been considered incapable of doing anything more complicated than chewing sea grass.
But Hugh, a manatee in a tank at a Florida marine laboratory, doesn't seem like a dimwit. When a buzzer sounds, the speed bump-shaped mammal slowly flips his 1,300 pounds and aims a whiskered snout toward one of eight loudspeakers lowered into the water. Nosing the correct speaker earns him treats.
Hugh is no manatee prodigy. Such sensory experiments, along with other recent studies, are revealing that sea cows aren't so stupid after all.
Researchers contend that if the plant-eating beasts seem slow-witted, it is because they faced no threats to their survival before the advent of boat propellers.
---
PlayStation 3 makes debut in Japan; would-be buyers turned away after consoles sell out
TOKYO (AP) - Sony's PlayStation 3 made its highly anticipated debut in Japan to long lines on Saturday, with local stores selling out their supplies of the video game console in a pattern that's expected to be repeated around the world.
Throngs of people lined up for hours around Bic Camera, an electronics retailer in downtown Tokyo, to get their hands on one of the consoles. The enthusiasm was so great, clerks with megaphones asked the crowd to stop pushing, warning that all sales would end if there were any injuries.
“Standing in line today is the only way to make sure I got one,” said Takayuki Sato, 30, among the buyers who queued up at Bic Camera, snaking around the building in a complete circle.
But would-be buyers were turned away even before the store opened at 7 a.m. The retailer refused to say how many machines it had but said it had wrapped up sales of its entire supply by 1 p.m.
Short supplies were reported elsewhere, too. Sanae Saito, a clerk at Yodobashi Camera Co. chain, said her store's stock had already sold out Saturday morning, although she declined to say how many machines were available.
---
Craggy-faced actor Jack Palance, who won an Academy Award for 'City Slickers,' dies at 87
LOS ANGELES (AP) - Jack Palance, the craggy-faced menace in “Shane,” “Sudden Fear” and other films who turned successfully to comedy in his 70s with his Oscar-winning self-parody in “City Slickers,” has died.
Palance died Friday of natural causes at his home in Montecito, Calif., surrounded by family, said spokesman Dick Guttman. He was 87.
When Palance accepted his Oscar for best supporting actor he delighted viewers of the 1992 Academy Awards by dropping to the stage and performing one-armed push-ups to demonstrate his physical prowess.
“That's nothing, really,” he said slyly. “As far as two-handed push-ups, you can do that all night, and it doesn't make a difference whether she's there or not.”
That year's Oscar host, Billy Crystal, turned the moment into a running joke, making increasingly outlandish remarks about Palance's accomplishments throughout the show.
---
Buckeyes' Thad 5 recruiting class opens season with record-setting 107-69 win over VMI
COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) - Greg Oden never left the bench and No. 7 Ohio State still put on a show. Daequan Cook scored 22 points and the Buckeyes' Thad Five recruiting class opened the season with a record-setting 107-69 victory over VMI on Friday night in the first round of the BCA Classic.
“Our guys played against some guys they'll be watching on TV before long,” VMI coach Duggar Baucom said. “He (Ohio State coach Thad Matta) has a stable of horses.” It was a spotty game for both teams, particularly so for the Buckeyes with two freshmen and a junior-college transfer in the starting lineup.
“I don't know if I've coached in a game like that, where offensively you're basically making plays the entire night,” Matta said as he ran his record to 7-0 in openers as a head coach.
The Buckeyes advance to meet Loyola of Chicago - a 68-57 winner over Princeton - in Saturday night's second round.
AP-ES-11-11-06 0615EST
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