:: National News ::

• Louisiana eyes Gustav, activates Guard troops (AP)

  AP - On the eve of Hurricane Katrina's third anniversary, a nervous New Orleans watched Wednesday as another storm threatened to test everything the city has rebuilt, and officials made preliminary plans to evacuate people, pets and hospitals in an attempt to avoid a Katrina-style chaos.

  
  

• Factory had tension between union, immigrants (AP)

  AP - Union bosses in this region of rural Mississippi have long grumbled that the largest factories here hire illegal immigrants, and that the immigrants were starting to get more overtime and supervisory positions.

  
  

• One small hitch for FAA, one giant mess for fliers (AP)

  AP - When a computer system that distributes flight plans nationwide came rolling to a halt this week because of a software glitch, so did airplanes on tarmacs from Orlando to Chicago. The ensuing delays drove home just how easily an apparently isolated problem can trigger network-wide disarray in the country's aging air traffic control system.

  
  

• Death for man who kidnapped, murdered Idaho boy (AP)

  AP - A longtime sex offender was sentenced to death Wednesday for the 2005 kidnapping, torture and murder of a 9-year-old northern Idaho boy after federal jurors who watched video of some of the brutality deliberated just three hours.

  
  

• SoCal jury gets case of ex-Marine in Iraq deaths (AP)

  AP - A federal jury on Wednesday began deliberating whether a former Marine squad leader committed manslaughter in Iraq, marking the first time in which civilians will decide whether the actions of a military service member during combat were criminal.

  
  

• Arrest reopens mystery of missing Calif. couple (AP)

  AP - Linda Sohus was a towering blonde fantasy buff who liked to paint unicorns. Her husband, Jonathan, was a diminutive computer programmer working at a NASA lab who shared his wife's passion for science fiction.