Around the Nation

Impeachment papers ordered for governor

HARTFORD, Conn. — Members of a special legislative committee that has been considering whether Gov. John G. Rowland should be impeached asked its lawyer to draft an article of impeachment yesterday because the governor has not cooperated with their probe.

The decision came after a lawyer for Mr. Rowland refused to testify before the House Select Committee of Inquiry, which has been trying to obtain the personal financial records of the governor and his wife.

Mr. Rowland, 46, a Republican, has been under increasing pressure to resign since admitting in mid-December that he lied about who paid for improvements to a summer cottage.

There was no formal vote of the committee to take another step toward impeaching the embattled governor. There still would be many steps before Mr. Rowland might actually be impeached.

Protesters prepare for GOP convention

NEW YORK — A growing list of potential protesters — including abortion-rights supporters, antiwar activists and even off-duty police officers — want permission to hold demonstrations during the Republican National Convention, police officials said yesterday.

About 17 organizations have contacted the New York Police Department so far about permits that would allow them to legally march and rally outside the convention at Madison Square Garden and at other sites around Manhattan. More are expected to apply before a June 15 deadline.

Authorities say the applications could overlap and conflict in demand for times and space. One request by an antiwar group has been denied already because the estimated draw — 250,000 people — was deemed too large.

The list of organizers includes NARAL Pro-choice America, the New York City AIDS Housing Network, the environmental group Time’s Up, the Green Party and the liberal advocacy group MoveOn.org.

Truckers protest diesel fuel prices

LOS ANGELES — Truckers parked their rigs on a busy freeway outside Los Angeles yesterday morning, snarling rush-hour traffic for miles in a wildcat protest over high diesel prices. About 700 protested at separate rallies.

Three tractor-trailers stopped in the northbound lanes of the Golden State Freeway in Commerce, 17 miles southeast of downtown, according to the California Highway Patrol. Authorities drove or towed the trucks out of traffic and the lanes were clear less than an hour later. Five persons were arrested.

The California Trucking Association said the price of diesel fuel has risen 36 cents in the past two weeks to as high as $2.50 a gallon in California — 56 cents a gallon higher than the national average. However, the association said it opposed the wildcat job action, preferring instead to work for a legislative solution.

Nazi suspect stripped of his U.S. citizenship

CINCINNATI — A federal appeals court yesterday upheld a judge’s decision to strip retired autoworker John Demjanjuk of U.S. citizenship, saying the government has proved he served as a guard in Nazi concentration camps.

The Ukrainian-born Demjanjuk, 84, insists he was a prisoner during the war, not a guard. The government has spent 27 years trying to prove he was a guard. A three-judge panel of the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the 2002 decision by a Cleveland federal judge who revoked Demjanjuk’s citizenship.

His family vowed to challenge the ruling. Demjanjuk’s age and deteriorating health would make it difficult for him to withstand a process to deport him, said Ed Nishnic, his son-in-law and family spokesman.

Nancy Reagan shuns plan for university

DENVER — Nancy Reagan is just saying no to the idea of a Ronald Reagan University in Colorado. Organizers wanted to name a proposed 10,000-student university after the former president, but his wife issued a statement Thursday effectively killing the idea.

“We do not support the creation of a separate university,” she said.

Federal law gives former presidents or their spouses final say over the use of the president’s name, said Terry Walker, the founding president of the university. The rejection was a shock, he said.

Mr. Walker had begun raising money for the university, which he envisioned with schools of medicine, law and public policy on a 200-acre campus northeast of Denver.

Mrs. Reagan said she appreciated the founders’ intentions but suggested that Reagan supporters focus on the education program at the Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, Calif.

From wire dispatches and staff reports