The Week
California Burning
Thousands of firefighters battled a wildfire raging in the hills and canyons northwest of Los Angeles, which gobbled up more than 20,000 acres and threatened upscale homes. Hundreds fled as flames fueled by parched scrub came too close for comfort. Cooler temps and calmer winds aided firefighters as they struggled to contain the roiling blaze, but there were worries that the winds could kick up again this week. And it's just the beginning of the fire season.
A Reporter Leaves Jail and Testifies
The curious case of the alleged CIA leak got curiouser as New York Times reporter Judith Miller walked after 85 days in jail for refusing to reveal a confidential source. Just a day after being sprung, Miller, 57, testified before a grand jury about her conversations with Veep Dick Cheney's top aide Lewis "Scooter" Libby after, she says, he released her from a pledge of confidentiality (his lawyer says he did so a year ago). The grand jury is investigating the outing of Valerie Plame as a CIA operative, potentially a federal crime. Plame's CIA ties were first unveiled by syndicated columnist Robert Novak in July 2003. Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald is trying to suss out whether a crime was committed. Plame was unmasked soon after her husband, former Ambassador Joseph Wilson, wrote a Times op-ed ripping into the Bush administration for going to war based on claims it allegedly knew were bogus about Iraq. Time reporter Matt Cooper avoided jail time by testifying he spoke to Libby and Bush aide Karl Rove. "I went to jail," Miller said, "to preserve the time-honored principle that a journalist must respect a promise not to reveal the identity of a confidential source."
One of the biggest mysteries: why Fitzgerald went after Miller, who never even wrote a story about the case.
Frist's Stock Sale Raises Eyebrows
Did Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist sell his shares in his family's health biz after being tipped off they were about to tank? Inquiring government investigators--and Democrats--want to know. Frist denied any wrongdoing, saying that he sought the Senate Ethics Committee's OK before authorizing sale of his shares in Hospital Corp. of America. The sale went through just before HCA's stock price tumbled. The timing raised questions about whether Frist had insider info. Frist said the sale was long planned and intended to avoid future conflicts of interest. He vowed to cooperate with the probes.
It wasn ' t exactly a banner week for GOP brass. Tom DeLay was forced to step down as House majority leader after being indicted on a campaign fundraising charge. (story, Page 36.)
Israel's Sharon Seals His Power
TEL AVIV--The attacks came at Prime Minister Ariel Sharon by ballot and by rocket. In the end, the "rebels" in his Likud party were vanquished, Hamas and Islamic Jihad terrorists in Gaza were crying truce, and Sharon emerged more dominant than ever. Facing his strongest challenge for leadership of Likud, Sharon surprised pollsters by beating back the hard-line nationalist forces led by his nemesis, former Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, by a 52-to-48 percent vote of the party's fractious central committee. The vote, which leaves Netanyahu in the political wilderness and Sharon with no viable opposition, was seen as the ruling party's grumbling acceptance of "disengagement," Israel's stormy withdrawal from Gaza and a small part of the West Bank, both now in Palestinian hands. Sharon tried to deter extremists in Gaza from continuing rocket strikes on the Israeli border, threatening fierce retaliation. But Hamas and Islamic Jihad fired dozens of crudely aimed rockets at the long besieged city of Sderot, and Israeli attack helicopters swarmed over Gaza for days, reportedly killing some terrorists and destroying numerous weapons facilities.
With rare exceptions, the rockets from Gaza fell silent.
In Russia, Sports and Oil Mix
Russians are watching a tale of two oil moguls with apt cynicism. As part of Vladimir Putin's effort to tighten his grip on Russia's energy resources, the state-owned gas monopoly Gazprom agreed to pay oligarch Roman Abramovich, 38, a whopping $13 billion for his oil group, Sibneft (the government now controls nearly a third of the country's oil). The fate of Abramovich, Russia's richest man, contrasts sharply with that of another former oil magnate Mikhail Khodorkovsky, who was convicted in May of tax evasion and fraud after Russia nationalized his Yukos oil company. The difference? Abramovich spent his profits on sports, buying London's Chelsea soccer club, while Khodorkovsky pumped his bucks into (opposition) Russian politics.
Abramovich is now sitting on billions, and Khodorkovsky is sitting in prison.
Sick Puppies: a New Flu in Town
As if bird flu isn't bad enough, now you have to worry about your dog. Scientists are warning that a highly contagious canine flu is starting to make the rounds. But don't panic. "People should be aware but not have undue fear, because the vast majority of dogs will recover," says Cynda Crawford, an immunologist at the University of Florida College of Veterinary Medicine and lead author of a study on canine flu in Science. The most common symptom: a persistent cough, sometimes accompanied by a runny nose and fever. (Call the vet if your pup coughs for more than a day; the key is to catch the bug early, so it doesn't turn into pneumonia.) Researchers believe the virus jumped to dogs from horses, who have suffered from a similar flu for 40 years; there are no documented cases of people catching the infection, but the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is keeping close track. How can you protect your pooch? Advises Crawford: Take common-sense precautions like using clean kennels that check disease history, and scrubbing your hands and changing your clothes if you come in contact with other dogs, because humans can be unwitting carriers. A vaccine could be available in two to three years.
The best treatment for pups in the meantime, says Crawford: lots of fluids and foot-of-the bed rest.
Righteous Passing
Righteous passing. Judge and civil rights lawyer Constance Baker Motley (right), with former client Martin Luther King Jr. and his wife, Coretta, in 1965, died last week at 84.
This story appears in the October 10, 2005 print edition of U.S. News & World Report.