Around the nation

WISCONSIN

County judge ousts state’s first black justice

MADISON — A little-known county judge has narrowly defeated a Wisconsin Supreme Court justice with a law-and-order message and a barrage of third-party ads in a race that will go down as one of the state’s nastiest.

Burnett County Circuit Judge Michael Gableman captured about 51 percent of Tuesday’s vote to edge Justice Louis Butler for a 10-year term, the first time an incumbent justice has been defeated in 41 years.

Judge Gableman, 41, will take office in August.

The Judicial Commission is reviewing complaints against both men, and calls for reforming how Supreme Court justices are chosen will only grow given the mudslinging and big money spent this year.

Millions of dollars spent by liberal and conservative interest groups, funneled largely into negative attack ads that blanketed the state’s airwaves for weeks, pushed the race into the national spotlight.

MICHIGAN

Senator’s husband caught in prostitution sting

TROY — The husband of Sen. Debbie Stabenow told police he paid a prostitute $150 for sex at a hotel, according to a police report.

Thomas Athans, 46, co-founder of the liberal TalkUSA Radio network, was stopped by police who were investigating prostitution at the hotel, according to the police report obtained yesterday by the Associated Press under the state Freedom of Information Act.

The Detroit Free Press and the Detroit News first reported on the case.

Mrs. Stabenow, Michigan Democrat, said in a statement that the incident was “very disturbing and serious. Obviously it’s a deeply difficult and personal matter.”

Police did not file any charges against Mr. Athans stemming from the prostitution investigation.

ALABAMA

Dad pleads not guilty in tots’ deaths

MOBILE — A father has pleaded not guilty to capital murder charges in the deaths of his four young children, who were thrown from a coastal Alabama bridge in January.

Lam Luong, 37, entered the plea Tuesday at his arraignment on charges in the Jan. 7 deaths of his four children, who ranged in age from 4 months to 3 years.

Prosecutors have said Mr. Luong broke down and confessed to driving the children to the two-lane bridge and throwing them into the waters after a fight with his wife.

Mr. Luong, a shrimp-boat worker and native of Vietnam, later recanted, claiming two Asian women took the children and never returned them.

A trial date was not set.

ARIZONA

Bacteria may aid in weight loss

SCOTTSDALE — U.S. researchers suggest bacteria in the gut — or maybe the lack of them — may promote obesity.

The review of animal and human studies, published in Mayo Clinic Proceedings, finds that gut microbiota — the trillions of bacteria populating the human gastrointestinal tract — may play a role in regulating weight and that modifying these bacteria could become a treatment option for obesity.

Study lead author John DiBaise of the Mayo Clinic Arizona said much more research is needed. For instance, researchers need to prove or disprove the possible relationship between the gut microbiota and the regulation of weight.

“In particular, it is essential to demonstrate unequivocally whether differences in gut microbiota in obese versus lean people are the cause or the result of obesity,” Dr. DiBaise said.

The study authors suggest the next wave of research explore the safety and feasibility of modifying the gut microbiota in clinical trials involving humans.

ILLINOIS

Smoking predicts new cardiac woes

CHICAGO — Continuing to smoke after a heart attack is the biggest predictor for having another cardiac event, Greek researchers said.

Patients who continue to smoke have approximately three times the risk for future heart problems — including cardiac death — compared to those who quit smoking after the first acute myocardial infarction, or heart attack. This higher risk was independent of treatment and the presence of other cardiovascular risk factors.

Lead study investigator Dr. Loukianos Rallidis of the University General Hospital Attikon in Greece said there has been a progressive increase in the number of young people — those under age 35 — suffering acute myocardial infarction caused by poor dietary habits, lack of routine exercise and a lot of smoking.

LOUISIANA

Lawmaker’s brother charged with bribery

NEW ORLEANS — The eldest brother and political strategist of indicted U.S. Rep. William Jefferson has been charged with giving payoffs to a school board president — a bribery case apparently unrelated to the one against the congressman.

In a federal indictment handed up yesterday, Mose Jefferson is accused of giving $140,000 to help secure about $14 million in contracts to bring a computer-based teaching system to Orleans Parish schools. He is charged with bribery, money laundering and obstruction of justice.

The indictment opens a new chapter in the precipitous fall of the Jefferson Democratic machine, a former juggernaut in New Orleans’ ward-based politics. William Jefferson is accused of using his congressional office to leverage bribes and lucrative business deals from companies seeking to do business in Africa.

MASSACHUSETTS

17 states sue over global warming

BOSTON — A group of state attorneys general is taking the Environmental Protection Agency back to court to try to force it to comply with a Supreme Court ruling that rebuked the Bush administration for inaction on global warming.

The high court decided a year ago that carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases are air pollutants under the Clean Air Act and ordered the EPA to take action.

But 17 states and others said in a court filing yesterday that the EPA has not issued a decision on regulation. Their court filing seeks to compel the EPA to act within 60 days.

Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley said the EPA is failing to deal with the dangers of global warming.

The plaintiffs in yesterday’s court action also include attorneys general from Arizona, California, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Iowa, Maine, Maryland, Minnesota, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington and the District, plus the city of New York, and the mayor and City Council of Baltimore.

NEW YORK

Fire kills 4, razes group home

UTICA — A fire destroyed a house that served as a group home for the homeless, the troubled or the disabled, killing four people and injuring at least one, authorities said.

Firefighters found heavy smoke and flames coming from the building when they were summoned Tuesday evening. Two people were found dead inside the house, and two others died at the hospital, Fire Chief Russell Brooks said.

Utica Public Safety Commissioner Daniel LaBella said one person jumped from a second-floor balcony and was taken to a hospital. He said the owner of the house reported that seven people lived on the second floor and two lived on the first floor.

Names of the victims were not released.

Fire officials returned to the scene early yesterday to begin an investigation into the cause of the fire — the city’s deadliest in 17 years.

PENNSYLVANIA

Mother charged in lice case

BELLE VERNON — A woman in western Pennsylvania is charged with endangering her two children for reportedly ignoring warnings and sending them to school with lice.

Authorities in Belle Vernon, Pa., said Nicole Lynn Holmes remained in jail yesterday awaiting a preliminary hearing.

School officials in the town south of Pittsburgh told police the problem arose in February when she was told she had to get her children treated before they could return to school.

But police said she later sent the two youngsters back to school without treatment and exposed other children to lice.

Court staff said yesterday that a public defender would be assigned to represent Mrs. Holmes at the preliminary hearing tomorrow.

SOUTH CAROLINA

Tanker overturns, shuts down highway

ST. GEORGE — Interstate 26 in southeastern South Carolina was shut down in both directions after a tanker carrying hazardous material overturned yesterday afternoon.

Officials said no serious injuries were reported. They said hazardous-materials teams cleaned up the spill, and traffic was rerouted as a precaution.

Health department spokesman Thom Berry said it was important to clean up the spill quickly because the hazardous material becomes more toxic when it mixes with water. The National Weather Service forecast a 50 percent chance of rain for the area yesterday afternoon.

Highway Patrol spokesman Cpl. Paul Brouthers said no other vehicles were involved in the crash. The driver of the tanker had only minor cuts.

UTAH

Families of miners sue over cave-in

SALT LAKE CITY — A lawsuit filed by the families of six men killed in a Utah mine cave-in claims that the collapse occurred because the mine’s owners were harvesting coal unsafely.

The suit filed yesterday in Salt Lake City charges that Murray Energy Corp. performed risky retreat mining last summer. It seeks unspecified damages.

Six miners were killed in the August cave-in in central Utah. Their bodies have not been recovered. Three men trying to reach them died 10 days after the collapse in another cave-in.

The lawsuit names Murray Energy and others affiliated with the mine, including the Intermountain Power Agency and the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power.

WISCONSIN

Explosion destroys church; 7 hurt

OCONOMOWOC — An explosion in a Milwaukee suburb demolished a church and damaged two homes yesterday , injuring seven people, including three firefighters, authorities said.

Road and sewer work was being done in downtown Oconomowoc before the explosion occurred about 1:30 p.m., said Bob Duffy, the city’s economic development director. The blast and flying debris knocked over several workers, he said.

WE Energies had received a call from a contractor about an hour earlier, saying workers smelled gas and may have hit a line, company spokesman Brian Manthey said. The company sent out a crew, and at least one of its workers was injured, he said.

Another WE Energies spokesman, Rick James, said he did not yet know whether natural gas caused the explosion.

One person was flown to Froedtert Memorial Lutheran Hospital and was being evaluated, hospital spokeswoman Carolyn Bellin said. Four others, including a firefighter, were taken to Oconomowoc Memorial Hospital with cuts, bruises and abrasions, administrative assistant Jeanne Ward said. Mr. Duffy said two other firefighters suffered minor injuries.

From wire dispatches and staff reports