THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
NEWS
5A
Melanie Sochan/ASSOCIATED PRESS
Authorities work a crime scene outside H.H. Dow High School after a teenager shot his former girlfriend and then killed himself on Wednesday in Midland, Mich. The girl's mother, who had dropped her daughter off at the school, saw the shooting from her car and drove the vehicle shown here between the two to try to protect the girl, authorities said. On the left is the covered body of the shooter.
Two teens kill themselves at separate high schools
》 SCHOOL SHOOTINGS
BY DAVID EGGERT ASSOCIATED PRESS
MIDLAND. Mich. - A teenager shot his former girlfriend four times outside her high school, then killed himself in one of two fatal U.S. school shootings Wednesday, authorities said.
Midland Police Chief James St. Louis said the gunman died in the parking lot.
Jessica Forsyth, 17, was taken to Hurley Medical Center in Flint, where she was in serious but stable condition, hospital spokeswoman Christie White said.
After a conversation in the park
The boy, a 17-year-old from nearby Coleman, had gone to H.H. Dow High School on Wednesday morning to try to talk to Jessica, but he was turned away by school officials, the police chief said. The boy then called her and asked her to meet him outside the building.
ing lot, the boy pulled a gun out of a backpack and shot her four times before shooting himself. St. Louis said.
The girl's mother, who had dropped her daughter off at the school, saw the shooting from her
car and drove between the two to try to protect the girl, authorities said.
The school, about 100 miles northwest of Detroit, was locked down after the shooting.
"It's kind
In Greenville, Texas, a 16-year-old student fatally shot himself inside the band hall at Greenville High School, police said.
Police responded to the shooting about 15 minutes before the first bell, and the student was
"I don't know what to say about it. People didn't know what to think or what was going on.
of confusing," said junior Cory Hearns, who was taking an economics exam at the time. "I don't know what to say about it. People didn't know what to think or what was going on."
CORY HEARNS Dow High School junior
pronounced dead later at a hospital, Greenville city spokeswoman Lori Philyaw said in a statement.
The student's body was taken to the Dallas County medical examiner's office for an autopsy, Philaw said.
》 KIDNAPPING
Greenville is a city of about 26,000 residents about 45 miles northeast of Dallas. Greenville High has about 5,200 students.
Astronaut fired from NASA Woman to return to military service in two weeks
Nowak, a Navy captain, instead will return to the military.
Nowak didn't respond to a call to her Houston house seeking comment, and a spokeswoman for her
BY MIKE SCHNEIDER ASSOCIATED PRESS
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — Astronaut Lisa Nowak was fired from NASA on Wednesday, a month after she was charged with trying to kidnap a woman she regarded as her romantic rival for the affections of a space shuttle pilot.
If Nowak were a civil servant, NASA would have the choice of placing her on administrative leave, leave without pay or indefinite suspension until the charges are resolved, said NASA spokesman lames Hartsfield in Houston. But because she is an officer, those options are not available.
Nowak's dismissal did not reflect the space agency's belief in her guilt or innocence. NASA officials said. The agency said it lacked an administrative system to handle the allegations because Nowak is a naval officer on assignment to NASA, rather than a NASA civil servant.
It was the first time NASA has publicly fired an astronaut, according to space historian Roger Launius of the Smithsonian Institution. She is also the first active astronaut to be charged with a felony, he said.
She will be assigned to the stuff at the Chief of Naval Air Training in Corpus Christi, Texas, starting in two weeks, Navy Cmdr. Lydia Robertson said. Robertson said she didn't know what specific job Nowak would be doing.
The space shuttle pilot who was the object of Nowak's affections, Navy Cmdr. Bill Oefelein, remains on active duty while working for NASA. Robertson said she could not speculate whether his status was under review.
Chief astronaut Steve Lindsey notified Nowak late last month that she was to be fired from the astronaut corps. After her arrest, NASA placed Nowak on a 30-day leave, which was to end Thursday.
attorney said she didn't have any immediate comment.
Nowak, a mother of three, is accused of confronting Colleen Shipman, the woman who had become Oetelein's girlfriend, at the Orlando airport after driving from Houston. She wore an astronaut diaper so that she would not have to stop during her 900-mile trip, authorities said.
She allegedly pepper-sprayed Shipman through a partially lowered car window. Police found a BB gun, new steel mallet, a knife and rubber tubing in Nowak's possession.
Nowak, 43, pleaded not guilty to attempted kidnapping and burglary with assault. She was released on bail wearing a monitoring device on her ankle.
She received a commission from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1985 and joined the astronaut corps in 1996. She flew on her first and only space shuttle mission last July during Discovery's 13-day trip to the international space station.
》'SCOOTER' LIBBY CASE
Democrats ask Bush not to pardon former aide
BY MICHAEL J. SNIFFEN
ASSOCIATED PRESS
ASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON — Attorneys for L. Lewis "Scooter" Libby began crafting a request for a new trial Wednesday as the Bush White House tried to knock down speculation about a pardon for the convicted former aide.
Libby, the former chief of staff to Vice President Dick Cheney, was found guilty of perjury and obstruction in the investigation into the 2003 leak of CIA operative Valerie Plame's identity. He is the highest ranking White House official convicted in a government scandal since the Iran-Contra affair two decades ago.
His conviction immediately fueled
speculation that Libby, who also served as an aide to President Bush, would be pardoned and spared prison. Top Democrats have called on Bush to pleade not to pardon him.
"This was a lengthy trial on a serious matter, and a jury of his peers convicted him. And we've got to respect that conviction," the president said in an interview with CNN En Español. "On a personal note, I was sad. I was sad for a man who had worked in my administration, and particularly sad for his family." He said he could not comment further because it was an ongoing legal matter.
At the White House, Bush was guarded in his comments.
"All of this conversation, speculation about a pardon, I know, makes for interesting speculation, but it's just that," Snow said. "Right now, Scooter Libby and his attorneys have made clear that they're going to try to get a retrial and if they don't get that, they're going to get an appeal."
the same reason for brushing off pardon questions.
Snow said Bush is not necessarily stingy, but "careful" about giving out pardons. "These are not things to be treated blithely," Snow said, stressing that Bush takes the pardon process very seriously. "He wants to make sure that anybody who receives one
Press secretary Tony Snow gave
— that its warranted, but I would caution against any speculation in this case," Snow said.
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Government sues Walgreens for racial bias
ST. LOUIS — The federal government Wednesday sued Walgreen Co., alleging widespread racial bias against thousands of black workers throughout the nation's largest drugstore chain.
The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission alleged in a class-action lawsuit that Walgreen, based in Deerfield, IL., makes decisions about employee assignment and promotion based on race.
Most of the complaints that led to the lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in East St. Louis.
ill., came from employees and former employees in St. Louis, Kansas City, Detroit and Tampa, Fla. But EEOC officials in St. Louis said they have found evidence of the same trend around the country.
Walgreen released a statement saying it was committed to "fairness, diversity and opportunity" and that it was "saddened and disappointed" by the EEOC action.
"Our commitment is to providing opportunity to all employees
Walgreen said it was the "nation's best represented retailer in urban
— not only because it is the right thing to do but because our business was built on this principle," the statement said.
Walgreen is the nation's largest drugstore chain by sales. It has more than 5,638 stores in 48 states and Puerto Rico. It had sales of $47.4 billion in the 2006 fiscal year.
The lawsuit alleges that Walgreen assigns black managers, management trainees and pharmacists to low-performing stores and to stores in black communities, and denies them promotions, based on race.
areas" and that "managers of all backgrounds are promoted to senior levels from those locations."
The lawsuit seeks back pay,compensatory and punitive damages and an end to the practices.
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