Gwinnett Daily Post

Attorney who leaked video sentenced

PROVIDENCE, R.I. - An attorney who gave a TV reporter a secret FBI videotape from an investigation into City Hall corruption was sentenced Friday to 18 months in prison.

Joseph Bevilacqua Jr. also must serve three years of supervised release and pay $152,000, the cost of the government's investigation into who leaked the tape.

Ex-Miami Herald columnist won't be prosecuted

MIAMI - A former Miami Herald columnist will not be prosecuted for secretly recording phone conversations with city commissioner Arthur E. Teele Jr. just before Teele killed himself, a prosecutor said Friday.

Jim DeFede's actions could have violated Florida law, but ''it is a crime without a victim or a complainant,'' Assistant State Attorney Joseph Centorino said in a memo. ''There appears to be no public benefit that would result from a criminal prosecution of Mr. DeFede.''

Edgar Ray Killen sent back to jail

PHILADELPHIA, Miss. - A judge sent Edgar Ray Killen back to prison Friday after finding that the former Ku Klux Klan leader, convicted for the 1964 slayings of three civil rights workers, was in better health than the court had been told.

Four law enforcement officers and a convenience store owner testified they had seen Killen driving during the past two weeks. But at an August court hearing, the 80-year-old sawmill owner and preacher had testified he was in constant pain and confined to a wheelchair.

Court: 'Dirty bomb' suspect can be held

RICHMOND, Va. - In a victory for the Bush administration, a federal appeals court ruled Friday that the government can continue to hold indefinitely an American accused of plotting to detonate a radioactive ''dirty bomb.''

A three-judge panel of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled unanimously to reverse a judge's order that the government either charge or free Jose Padilla, who has been in custody for more than three years.

Sept. 11 rescuers honored by Bush

WASHINGTON - President Bush honored 442 firefighters, police officers and rescuers who died Sept. 11, awarding posthumous Medals of Valor to their families at a White House ceremony Friday.

''A proud America will always stand in the shadow of their service and sacrifice,'' Bush told a crowd of some 1,200 friends and family.

- From wire reports