Coalition urges feds to curtail plane emissions
SAN FRANCISCO — A coalition of states and environmental groups is urging the federal government to curb global- warming pollution from planes and other aircraft.
California, Connecticut, New Jersey, New Mexico, Pennsylvania and the District of Columbia plan to file a petition today asking the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to regulate greenhouse-gas emissions from domestic and foreign aircraft departing or landing at U.S. airports.
Aviation is responsible for about 3 percent of the country’s overall carbon-dioxide emissions, and the Federal Aviation Administration expects domestic aircraft emissions to rise 60 percent by 2025, according to the petition.
Crews search for missing medical copter
ANCHORAGE, Alaska — Volunteers joined a Coast Guard search Tuesday for a medical helicopter that vanished in snow and heavy wind while carrying a patient and medical crew over mountainous coastal terrain.
A Coast Guard cutter was searching for the LifeGuard Alaska helicopter that was heading about 150 miles from Cordova to Anchorage when it disappeared early Monday evening, authorities said.
A patient, pilot, paramedic and nurse were aboard the Euro copter BK 117.
Lawyer gets 15 years for swindling clients
MIAMI — A disbarred attorney was sentenced Tuesday to 15 years in prison for skimming about $13.5 million in settlement money from thousands of clients made ill by asbestos and using it to support his swank lifestyle.
Louis S. Robles, 59, also was ordered to pay full restitution.
Prosecutors said Robles used money from his asbestos clients’ trust funds to pay for real estate, including a waterfront mansion in Key Biscayne, Fla., apartments in New York and Los Angeles and a condo in Telluride.
Another search warrant executed in disappearance
BOLINGBROOK, Ill. — Authorities executed another search warrant late Tuesday in the case of a former suburban Chicago police sergeant suspected in his fourth wife’s disappearance. Stacy Peterson has been missing since late October.
The latest warrant dealt with items inside two vehicles already seized from Drew Peterson’s home, said Charles Pelkie, a spokesman for Will County state’s attorney James Glasgow. “It expands the scope of the initial search warrant regarding items in his vehicles,” Pelkie said, declining to elaborate.
Drew Peterson’s attorney, Joel Brodsky, did not immediately return messages Tuesday.
Giuliani left company helm earlier this year
Amid a spate of stories about his companies’ controversial clients, GOP presidential contender Rudy Giuliani on Tuesday announced that he gave up his role as chairman and chief executive of his consulting company earlier this year.
The disclosure comes after recent stories about his consulting and law firms’ business with the government of Qatar, a gambling business in Macau and an Ethiopian faction opposing its government.
And it comes as Vanity Fair published a story about his business dealings that questions whether it’s legal for him to be paid by the companies as he runs full time for president.
But spokeswoman Sunny Mindel said Giuliani Partners pays Giuliani no salary.
The former New York City mayor still has an equity stake in the business he created in 2002 after leaving City Hall, a 30 percent share that paid him $4.1 million last year.
