Washington – Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich on Sunday urged Attorney General Alberto Gonzales to resign, saying the “self-created mess” over the firings of eight U.S. attorneys last year has hampered his ability to do his job.
“I cannot imagine how he is going to be effective for the rest of this administration,” Gingrich said on “Fox News Sunday.” “They’re going to be involved in endless hearings, which is going to take up an immense amount of time and effort.
“I think the country, in fact, would be much better served to have a new team at the Justice Department, across the board,” he said.
Gingrich, who is believed to be considering a run for the 2008 GOP presidential nomination, is the latest prominent Republican to speak out against the attorney general, and Democrats said the remarks were evidence of waning support within Gonzales’ own party.
Gingrich, who served 11 terms in Congress and is a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington, defended President Bush’s right to replace the federal prosecutors, who are all presidential appointees. But he said the administration and Gonzales had bungled the explanation of the moves and should be held accountable.
“This is the most mishandled, artificial, self-created mess that I can remember in the years I’ve been active in public life,” he said.
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CAMARILLO, Calif.
Average gasoline cost up 18 cents per gallon
The average cost of self-serve regular gasoline rose about 18 cents per gallon nationwide in the past two weeks, a survey says.
That translated to an average price of $2.78 a gallon, according to the latest Lundberg Survey of 7,000 gas stations.
On Friday, a gallon of mid grade gasoline averaged about $2.89. Premium was nearly $3.
The lowest average price for regular fuel was $2.54 in Charleston, S.C., and the highest was in San Francisco at $3.30 a gallon.
HOUSTON
Nurse accused in fire that killed 3, injured 6
A licensed vocational nurse has been arrested and accused of starting a fire in her office that killed three people and injured six others.
The March 28 fire spread throughout the fifth floor of a six-story building. Three firefighters were among the injured.
Misty Ann Weaver, 34, was scheduled to make her first court appearance Tuesday, charged with three counts of felony murder and one count of first-degree arson. She was arrested late Saturday.
Authorities alleged she started the fire because she had neglected to finish an accreditation audit.
“She was fearful of being discharged by the doctor,” investigator James Snowden said. “Therefore, she figured that by starting a small fire, it would more or less postpone the audit information.”
PROVO, Utah
Firms allege loophole allows sanitizing films
Film editors were back in the cutting room just a few months after a federal appeals judge ruled last year that they could no longer edit movies to make them acceptable family fare.
Thanks to what they say is a loophole in copyright law that allows cuts for educational purposes, some of the companies that were ordered to turn over their inventory to Hollywood studios are scrubbing more movies.
Film editors say the education clause can be used to get around the July ruling by Judge Richard Matsch that sanitizing movies on DVD or VHS tape violates federal copyright laws.
Matsch ordered Utah-based CleanFlicks and others named in the suit, including Play It Clean Video of Ogden and CleanFilms of Provo, to stop deleting racy scenes to clean up movies for rental and ordered the businesses to turn over their inventory to the movie studios.
A message left Sunday on a Directors Guild of America media contact line was not immediately returned.
ATHENS, Greece
Ship captain blames currents for accident
A cruise-ship captain indicted on negligence charges after his vessel foundered on a volcanic reef and sank in the Aegean Sea blamed strong currents for the accident, state-run television reported Sunday.
Two French tourists have been missing since Thursday, when the ship struck rocks and eventually sank off the island of Santorini. All the other people on board – 1,154 passengers and 391 crew members, according to operator Louis Cruise Lines – were rescued.
State-run NET television quoted from what it said were excerpts of the captain’s deposition.
“I felt the ship, which had been on a normal course, slip to the right because of sea currents,” NET quoted him as saying.
