Nation briefs 6/22/04

Connecticut governor resigns amid probe

HARTFORD, Conn. -- Gov. John G. Rowland announced his resignation Monday amid a months-long cascade of graft allegations, a federal investigation and a rapidly gathering drive to impeach him for accepting gifts from friends and businessmen. Rowland, a third-term Republican, became engulfed in scandal in December when he admitted accepting renovations at his lakeside cottage and lying about it. Other gifts and favors soon came to light. Rowland, 47, becomes the first U.S. governor in seven years to resign under pressure. Republican Lt. Gov. M. Jodi Rell will serve the rest of Rowland's term.

Supreme Court rules for HMOs, police ID

WASHINGTON -- Patients can't seek fat damage awards in court if their HMOs refuse to pay for doctor-recommended medical care, the Supreme Court ruled Monday, rejecting arguments that the threat of multimillion-dollar lawsuits keeps insurance companies honest. The unanimous decision invalidated an important part of patient rights laws in several states and tossed a political hot potato back to Congress. Lawmakers have tried repeatedly and failed to pass national patient protections. Also Monday, a sharply divided Supreme Court ruled that people who refuse to give their names to police can be arrested, even if they've done nothing wrong. The court previously had said police may briefly detain people they suspect of wrongdoing, without any proof. But until now, the justices had never held that during those encounters a person must reveal their identity.

Bound bodies on shore believed murder-suicide

PLEASANT PRAIRIE, Wis. -- Kevin L. Amde, 45, and his sons, Tesla, 3, and Davinci, 6, whose bound bodies washed up on the shore of Lake Michigan, drowned in an apparent double murder and suicide, a deputy medical examiner said Monday. The bodies were bound together with rope and tied to bags filled with sand when a resident spotted them on a beach Saturday. None of the three showed any physical trauma, said Deputy Medical Examiner Rick Berg, citing preliminary autopsy findings. The children's deaths were ruled homicides. Authorities plan an investigation before making a determination on how the father died, Berg said.

9-11 panel may call for combining spy agencies

WASHINGTON -- A member of the Sept. 11 commission predicts the panel will support centralization of the nation's intelligence agencies as the only way to prevent future terrorist attacks. "You're going to see unanimous recommendations on the intelligence community ... They couldn't distinguish between a bicycle crash and a train wreck," commissioner John Lehman, a Republican, said Sunday. Centralization will enable information to get to people "in a position to make a difference," Lehman said on NBC's "Meet the Press." On the issue of al-Qaida's ties to Iraq under Saddam, Lehman defended Dick Cheney, the most aggressive promoter of that idea. Lehman said new intelligence that "we are now in the process of getting" indicates one of Saddam's Fedayeen fighters was a prominent al-Qaida member.

-- From wire reports