NATION IN BRIEF : ALASKA : Prosecution Stresses Skipper’s Drinking

The final prosecution witnesses in the Joseph Hazelwood trial in Anchorage testified that the Exxon Valdez skipper drank enough vodka to impair judgment before the tanker sailed, and that he risked capsizing by rocking the ship back and forth after the helmsman drove it onto a reef. Alaska Superior Court Judge Karl Johnstone refused to allow testimony from a state investigator assigned to guard Hazelwood after the March 24 grounding. The judge said the guard should not have questioned Hazelwood without his lawyers.