In the Nation

Lindsey Kishline gingerly heads down snowy steps to a bus stop near the University of Washington in Seattle. (ELAINE THOMPSON / AP)

Posted: January 21, 2012

Prosecutor to take 5th in gun probe

WASHINGTON - A federal prosecutor in Arizona intends to remain silent if called for questioning in a congressional probe of a problem-plagued gun-smuggling investigation.

Patrick Cunningham's decision to invoke his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination in the investigation of Operation Fast and Furious was disclosed Friday after the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee subpoenaed him.

Committee Chairman Darrell Issa (R., Calif.) said congressional investigators had information that Cunningham played a role in approving a controversial law enforcement tactic that resulted in federal agents' losing track of weapons that later turned up at crime scenes in Mexico and the United States. In a letter to the committee Thursday, Cunningham's lawyer said his client wasn't even working at the U.S. Attorney's Office in Phoenix until 2010, months after Operation Fast and Furious began there. - AP

Trusties evicted by Miss. governor

JACKSON, Miss. - Amid controversy over pardons issued by then-Gov. Haley Barbour, inmate trusties will no longer work at the Mississippi Governor's Mansion.

Gov. Phil Bryant, who had already stopped the practice of inmate trusties living at the mansion, has ended a decades-old program of letting trusties work there. The announcement comes after criticism of Barbour's decision Jan. 6 to pardon four murderers and one robber who were trusties at the mansion during his second term.

Bryant's decision means six inmates assigned to the mansion since Jan. 3 will be transferred to other work programs. - AP

Arlington burial for Tuskegee pilot

ARLINGTON, Va. - On the same day retired Air Force Lt. Col. Luke Weathers Jr. took his resting place among other war and military heroes, his real-life story as a World War II aviator played out on movie screens across the country.

Weathers was buried Friday at Arlington National Cemetery in a service that began with a flyover of four F-16 jets in the Missing Man formation.

Weathers, 90, died Oct. 15 in Tucson, Ariz. His burial coincided with the official opening in theaters of Red Tails, a movie produced by George Lucas that tells the story of the Tuskegee Airmen, who debunked widely held beliefs that black pilots were incapable of fighting in combat. - AP

Elsewhere:

First-class postage will increase starting Sunday from 44 cents to 45. The change was announced in October.

Lawmakers reached a compromise Friday that toughens the rules airline and railroad workers must follow to hold union elections, boosting prospects for passage of a long-term funding plan for the Federal Aviation Administration, congressional aides said.

A Pacific Northwest storm that brought snow, ice, and powerful wind left a mess of fallen trees and power lines Friday as tens of thousands of residents faced the prospect of a cold, dark weekend and flooding became a top concern. Rescuers hoped for better weather after a blizzard kept them from searching for four people missing on Washington's Mount Rainier.