National Briefing

MICHIGAN

44 more Detroit schools will close, manager says

The emergency financial manager for Detroit Public Schools said 44 schools and a support building will close in June as the district addresses budget issues and declining enrollment.

Six more schools are scheduled to close in June 2011, and seven more will close a year later.

Robert Bobb publicly announced the closures as part of a proposed five-year plan to reorganize and create a leaner district. The closures are in addition to the closing of 29 schools before last fall.

The nearly 88,000-student district faces a deficit of at least $219 million. Full-time enrollment is projected to drop to about 56,000 by 2015.

WASHINGTON STATE

Millennium plotter appeals

An Al Qaeda-trained terrorist convicted in an attempted bombing on the millennium is appealing a federal court’s ruling that his 22-year sentence was too lenient.

A three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled 2-1 last month that the sentence for Ahmed Ressam was too short. The court removed U.S. District Judge John C. Coughenour from the case, saying it doubted his impartiality after he twice sentenced Ressam to 22 years.

Ressam was arrested in December 1999 on his way to bomb Los Angeles International Airport.

PENNSYLVANIA

VA fined over radiation doses

The Department of Veterans Affairs has been fined $227,500 after incorrect radiation doses were given to 97 veterans with prostate cancer at the Philadelphia VA Medical Center.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission said the fine announced Wednesday is one of the largest it has levied for medical errors.

VA officials reviewed medical records and conducted tests on 116 veterans who were undergoing treatment for prostate cancer at the Philadelphia center from 2002 to 2008.

They found that 97 received the wrong dosage of tiny radioactive iodine pellets implanted in the prostate to kill cancer cells.

IDAHO

Private-prison chiefs removed

The Corrections Corp. of America is replacing the top two officials at Idaho’s only private prison after the American Civil Liberties Union sued over claims of brutal inmate-on-inmate violence.

Idaho Department of Correction Director Brent Reinke announced the change at the Idaho Correctional Center in a memo to department staffers.

WASHINGTON, D.C.

Human origins exhibit opens

The Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History has opened a new permanent exhibit exploring human evolution over 6 million years.

The nearly $21-million Hall of Human Origins has more than 285 fossils and artifacts, including the only Neanderthal skeleton in the United States.

Curator Rick Potts said the exhibit tracks major milestones of human development, including when we started walking upright and speaking. He said the science can be compatible with religious perspectives.

TEXAS

Bus drive shaft blamed in crash

Investigators say a broken drive shaft likely caused a bus to veer off a Texas highway, killing two passengers and injuring 40 other people.

Texas Department of Public Safety spokeswoman Tela Mange said Wednesday that a preliminary investigation shows the drive shaft came apart and fell off the Americanos USA bus as it was driving Tuesday morning on Interstate 37 about 45 miles from San Antonio.

The driver lost control of the bus and it spun into the center median and flipped onto its side.

AND FINALLY . . .

Live tweets OK for barbershops

Let the record reflect that the Tennessee state Senate has endorsed fish tanks and live birds in barbershops.

The Senate voted 30-1 for a measure allowing barbershops to display live fish and birds. A companion bill passed the House earlier and the legislation is headed to the governor.

Barbershop owner Lori Corbin had been asked to drain the built-in fish tank at her shop in Mt. Pleasant after a state inspection. Existing law bars birds, fish or other live animals in barbershops, except those that help people with disabilities.

Corbin said she wants fish in her shop because they “make you relaxed.”

-- times wire reports