NEW YORK - Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani gave testimony before a grand jury that differs from other statements he has made, The New York Times reported. Giuliani, a candidate for the Republican presidential nomination, testified about Bernard Kerik, who served as corrections commissioner and police commissioner under Giuliani in New York. The former mayor also backed Kerik for the position of U.S. secretary of homeland security. The Times said it has obtained a transcript ... [full story]

WASHINGTON, D.C. – The National Association of Counties’ (NACo) this week applauded the 75 U.S. Senators for voting Wednesday to extend the Secure Rural Schools and Communities Self Determination Act.  Additionally, this vote would reauthorize this Act and fully fund the Payment in Lieu of Taxes (PILT) program for five years.    The Senate voted 75-22 for the bipartisan amendment that devotes $2.8 billion over five years (2007-2011) for payments to counties and states affected by ... [full story]

WASHINGTON - A career diplomat with broad experience in the Middle East was sworn in Thursday as U.S. ambassador to Iraq. Ryan Crocker, who most recently served as ambassador to Pakistan, succeeds Zalmay Kalilzad, who moved to head the U.S. mission at the United Nations. Crocker was director of governance for the Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq for six months in 2003. He has also been ambassador to Kuwait, Syria and Lebanon and in other positions ... [full story]

SAN DIEGO - San Diego FBI chief Dan Dzwilewski, who was rebuked by superiors for publicly defending ousted U.S. Attorney Carol Lam, has announced his retirement. Dzwilewski, who has been at the helm of the San Diego office since July 2003, sent an e-mail to his agents and staff Wednesday saying he planned to take a post as director of security at Sempra Energy. His last day at the bureau is to be April 30. ... [full story]

WASHINGTON - Sen. Dianne Feinstein on Thursday challenged claims by a former top Justice Department official that Carol Lam was fired from her job as U.S. attorney in San Diego because of a mediocre record in prosecuting immigration cases. During a hearing of the Senate Judiciary Committee, the California Democrat produced a recent letter from a top federal immigration official in San Diego praising Lam's record in combating migrant smuggling. The three-page letter dated Feb. ... [full story]

HAGERSTOWN, Md. - Charlotte L. Winters, the last surviving female World War I veteran, has died at age 109. Winters died last week in her sleep at the Fahrney-Keedy life care community in Boonsboro, Md., the Baltimore Sun reported. Winters was the oldest woman veteran when she died, and she may have helped pave the way for women to join the U.S. Navy in 1916 when she called on U.S. Navy Secretary Josephus Daniels and ... [full story]

Proposed Changes to ESA Regulations Would Undermine Recent Federal Court Decisions Protecting Endangered Salmon Representatives of a broad-based coalition of fishing businesses and conservation groups this week warned that sweeping changes proposed by the Bush administration to regulations under the Endangered Species Act would pose a direct threat to salmon recovery efforts in the Pacific Northwest. Several of the proposed changes, made public earlier this week, appear to take direct aim at efforts to protect ... [full story]

WASHINGTON - House Republican Whip Roy Blunt (Mo.) released the following statement this afternoon urging Democratic leaders to bring to the House a clean, straightforward funding package for our troops: "This Congress has no greater responsibility than to ensure the men and women who have stepped forward to safeguard our freedoms have what they need to be secure. But that's a responsibility Democrats formally abdicated this afternoon, as they adjourned the House for spring recess ... [full story]

SANTA ANA, Calif - Officials in Orange County, Calif., have used electronic highway signs to alert residents of a water shortage emergency. "ORANGE COUNTY WATER EMERGENCY CONSERVE WATER," read the 35 signs usually reserved for abducted children or traffic problems, the Los Angeles Times reported. A week-long shutdown at a water treatment plant in Yorba Linda, Calif., was behind the shortage, and less obtrusive requests to conserve water were not getting results, water district officials ... [full story]

CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas - U.S. Navy Capt. Lisa Nowak, the former astronaut charged with attempted kidnapping, has reported for duty at the Naval Air Station Corpus Christi in Texas. The Corpus Christi (Texas) Caller-Times reported it wasn't clear whether Nowak would work on the Texas base or telecommute as she develops curriculum for the Chief of Naval Air Training. "She checked in like anybody would check in for their first day of work," Chief of ... [full story]

A Berkeley, Calif., woman who considers herself an "old hippie" has headed to Iraq, where she hoped to be embedded with a U.S. Army unit as a blogger. Jane Stillwater, 64, was sponsored by The Lone Star Iconoclast, a liberal weekly newspaper near President George Bush's ranch in Crawford, Texas, The San Francisco Chronicle reported. But as she boarded a plane Wednesday, she didn't know whether the military would find her a spot. "Oh, yeah, ... [full story]

A former top aide testified Thursday that U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales was more involved than he has admitted in firing eight U.S. attorneys. Under questioning by U.S. Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., Kyle Sampson told the Judiciary Committee that he does not think Gonzales was accurate when he said he had not participated in the process, The New York Times reported. "I don't think it's accurate," Sampson repeated. "I think he's recently clarified it. But ... [full story]

CINCINNATI - A Middletown, Ohio, man was being held on $5,500 bail on charges he tried to sell his toddler in a Walgreen's parking lot. Police said a witness claimed Jason W. McCarthy, 30, offered to sell her his 2-year-old son, the Cincinnati Enquirer reported. Police didn't say how much money McCarthy allegedly wanted for the child. McCarthy was charged with child endangering. He was also charged with loitering in the aid of a drug ... [full story]