ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, September 26, 1996 TAG: 9609260077
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-5 EDITION: METRO
Judge: Death penalty OK in Okla. case
DENVER - Prosecutors in the Oklahoma bombing case can seek the death penalty despite complaints Attorney General Janet Reno violated department policy by announcing within hours of the attack that she would press for the bombers' execution, a judge ruled Wednesday.
U.S. District Judge Richard Matsch also rejected defense arguments that the federal death penalty amounts to cruel and unusual punishment.
Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols are charged with murder and conspiracy in the April 19, 1995, bombing, which killed 168 people and injured 500. No trial date has been set. They could get the death penalty under a 1994 federal law.
- Associated Press
Riot police break up David Duke protest
LOS ANGELES - Police in riot gear, some on horseback, moved in and fired flash-bang devices Wednesday to disperse demonstrators protesting a campus appearance by former Ku Klux Klan grand wizard David Duke.
There were eight to 10 arrests, police said, and at least one protester was clubbed over the head with a baton. Two officers were struck by rocks and suffered minor injuries.
Duke was at California State University, Northridge, to debate civil rights leader Joe Hicks on a state ballot measure which would bar racial or gender preferences in public hiring, education and contracting.
Police said the arrests came after about 185 campus and Los Angeles police pushed the crowd away from the student union building where the debate was held.
Campus police Lt. Mark Hissong claimed several hundred protesters had tried to storm the front door of the building.
Inside, Duke told a crowd of 800 that affirmative action programs are unfair to whites. An overflow audience of 430 watched on closed-circuit television from another campus building.
Inside, Duke was shouted down, booed, hissed and laughed at when he said that affirmative action programs constitute ``discrimination against better qualified whites.''
``When blacks faced discrimination years ago, they called it just that, discrimination. Now that white people face discrimination, they call it affirmative action,'' Duke said.
- Associated Press
Hope Diamond takes a buffing
NEW YORK - Named for a man who lost his love, his money and his life, the Hope Diamond arrived here for a polishing Wednesday, chaperoned by an armored car and guards with submachine guns.
Just before noon, a convoy roared down crowded Fifth Avenue to the massive wrought-iron door of Harry Winston jewelers. Four guards leaped out with submachine guns cocked and pistols loaded. Two men emerged from the Brink's armored car, gripping a small black suitcase that held the world's biggest blue diamond.
Even a stone as brilliant as the Hope will lose its luster. The 45.5-carat diamond has been on display at the Smithsonian gem gallery in Washington for nearly 40 years. Given that it was born about 1 billion years ago, a face lift was overdue.
- Associated Press
Gunman shoots 4, sets fire to church
PORTLAND, Ore. - A man carried a pistol and a can of gasoline into a downtown Church of Scientology on Wednesday, starting a fire and shooting four church members, including a pregnant woman.
Jairus C. Godeka, 38, surrendered after walking out of the church's Portland Celebrity Centre with a female hostage who was heard shouting: ``Don't do anything. He's got a gun to my head.'' Police talked the man into releasing the hostage unharmed and dropping his pistol.
The pregnant woman who was shot earlier was hospitalized in critical condition with a gunshot wound in her shoulder. Two men, including the executive director of the center, were in serious condition; a fourth victim was hospitalized in fair condition with a gunshot wound to his buttocks.
Firefighters quickly put out the blaze. The man had carried a 1-gallon can of gas.
Godeka was not immediately charged, and investigators said they had no idea what prompted the shooting. The church, however, denounced it as a hate crime.
- Associated Press
FBI: Lawmaker's ex bouncing checks
WASHINGTON - Joseph Waldholtz, the former husband of Rep. Enid Greene, R-Utah, has used heroin and continued to bounce checks since he pleaded guilty in June to bank, election and tax fraud, according to papers filed in U.S. District Court.
According to a federal prosecutor who filed the papers, an FBI agent uncovered evidence not only of Waldholtz's heroin problem and check-kiting, but of forged prescriptions and one incident in which he took advantage of a friend who loaned him her credit card believing he was going to use it to buy a birthday present for his daughter. Instead, he spent $550 on himself, the court papers said.
Waldholtz drew national attention to himself, his wife and their marriage when he suddenly disappeared late last year amid allegations of personal and political financial misdeeds. His wife quickly distanced herself from him, called on prosecutors to indict him, and filed for and received a divorce.
Waldholtz, 33, is scheduled to explain himself this morning to U.S. District Judge Norma Holloway Johnson, who released Waldholtz on his own recognizance last June.
- The Washington Post
LENGTH: Long : 104 linesby CNB