Coeur d’Alene, Idaho
New Craig allegations: Idaho Republican Sen. Larry Craig faced new allegations this week when the Idaho Statesman published the accounts of eight men who said the senator had had sex with them or propositioned them during his political career. Last August, Craig pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct after allegedly making sexual advances to an undercover police officer. When that arrest became public, Craig said the officer had misinterpreted his actions, and denied he was gay. Those denials, said the men in the Statesman article, drove them to come forward. “I’m disgusted because it’s hypocritical,” said Tom Russell, 48, who claims that Craig approached him at a Utah ski resort. Craig said the newspaper was pursuing a vendetta against him, and that its report had no “basis in reality.”
Des Moines
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Front-runners slip: Republican Mike Huckabee and Democrat Barack Obama have surged ahead in polls of likely caucus-goers in Iowa. Following a strong performance in the recent CNN/YouTube debate, Huckabee took a five-percentage-point lead in Iowa over Mitt Romney. In national polls, the fast-rising Huckabee now trails Rudy Giuliani by only six points. In the Democratic contest, Obama went ahead of Hillary Clinton in Iowa by three points, prompting the Clinton camp to go on the offensive. Clinton said that Obama had purposely evaded votes on abortion in the Illinois Senate and on Iran in the U.S Senate. “A president can’t dodge the big fights,’’ Clinton said. An Obama aide said he didn’t need lectures on courage “from someone who followed George Bush to war in Iraq.’’
Morelia, Mexico
Another pop star murdered: The lead singer of one of Mexico’s most popular music groups was abducted and killed this week in a Mexican state riddled by drug-related violence. Sergio Gomez of the band K-Paz de la Sierra was kidnapped Sunday after a concert in Morelia, capital of the state of Michoacan. His body was recovered on the outskirts of Morelia, and medical examiners say he had been tortured and then strangled to death. A handful of Mexican musicians have died this year under similar circumstances. Some officials fear that singers, whether they have links to drug cartels or not, are routinely “adopted” by drug gangs, which post Internet videos showing their members executing rivals to soundtracks of popular tunes.
Bethesda, Md.
Suicidal soldier court-martialed: A U.S. Army reservist is facing court-martial for attempting suicide. First Lt. Elizabeth Whiteside, 25, went on trial last week, charged with attempting suicide and endangering the lives of fellow soldiers. Whiteside earned the nickname Trauma Mama for her work as a medical dispatcher at the Camp Cropper detainee prison in Baghdad. But after a heated argument with a superior officer with whom she had been clashing, Whiteside threatened suicide and fired a gun several times, shooting herself once in the stomach. During testimony last week, prosecutors scorned Whiteside’s “psychobabble defense.” That prompted an angry outburst from an Army psychiatrist testifying in her defense. “She has a severe and significant illness,” Col. George Brandt shouted. “Let’s treat her as a human being, for Christ’s sake!” Attempted suicide is a crime under U.S. military law but is rarely prosecuted.
New York City
Imus is back: Eight months after he was fired for describing the Rutgers University women’s basketball team as “nappy-headed ho’s,’’ radio personality Don Imus returned to the air this week. During his first show for Citadel Broadcasting, Imus brought back familiar political guests such as Sen. John McCain, and introduced two black comedians as new sidekicks. His show’s acerbic tone “is not going to change,’’ Imus said, while pledging “never say anything in my lifetime that will make any of these young women at Rutgers regret or feel foolish that they accepted my apology and forgave me.”
Caracas, Venezuela
Failed power grab: President Hugo Chavez’s plan to radically revise Venezuela’s constitution was narrowly defeated this week, and Chavez admitted he had misread the national mood. By a 51–49 vote, Venezuelans defeated a slate of constitutional reforms that would have abolished presidential term limits, empowered the president to appoint local leaders, and reduced the workday to six hours. The results surprised both Chavez and his opposition. Perhaps “we are not politically mature enough” for socialism, Chavez remarked. Former Defense Minister Rául Baduel,
a leader of the opposition, warned that “the president could attempt to reach the same results through the legislative process.” (For more on the Venezuela vote, see Page 20.)
