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Associated Press
FORT BRAGG, N.C. — Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, who walked off his combat outpost in Afghanistan and spent five years in captivity, will be court-martialed under a new commander-in-chief.
A military judge decided Tuesday to delay Bergdahl's trial from August until February to provide time for resolving disputes over the defense team's access to classified documents.
Bergdahl, now 30, sat attentively in his dress blue formal uniform, his infantry cord looped under the epaulet on his right shoulder, during the brief hearing. The soldier from Hailey, Idaho, faces charges of desertion and misbehavior before the enemy. The latter charge is relatively rare and carries the potential of life in prison.
A February start would mean the court-martial could make headlines only weeks after the new commander-in-chief is sworn in as president.
Bergdahl's defense says the presumptive Republican presidential nominee has already damaged his chances for a fair trial by calling him a "dirty, rotten traitor," who "should have been executed."
The judge, Col. Jeffrey Nance, also ruled that media organizations could hire a stenographer to capture courtroom discussions during the trial, and he gave Army prosecutors one week to provide reporters covering the case with online access to court documents.
The Army's primary investigating officer last year recommended against Bergdahl facing jail time, saying there is no evidence that any service members were killed or wounded searching for him in Afghanistan. A preliminary hearing officer recommended against a bad-conduct discharge.
But those recommendations were scrapped in December by the general overseeing the case. Gen. Robert Abrams, who leads the Army Forces Command at Fort Bragg, instead sided with an Army lawyer's recommendation for a general court-martial.
Bergdahl was quickly captured after walking off his combat post in Afghanistan in 2009, and held as a prisoner by the Taliban and its allies until President Barack Obama exchanged five Guantanamo Bay detainees for his safe return, saying the U.S. "does not ever leave our men and women in uniform behind."
Some blame went to railroad industry's delay in installing Positive Train Control
Associated Press
WASHINGTON — The speeding Amtrak train that crashed in Philadelphia last year, killing eight people, most likely ran off the rails because the engineer was distracted by word of a nearby commuter train getting hit by a rock, federal investigators concluded Tuesday.
The National Transportation Safety Board also put some of the blame on the railroad industry's decades-long delay in installing Positive Train Control, equipment that can automatically slow trains that are going over the speed limit.
Engineer Brandon Bostian was apparently so focused on the rock-throwing incident he heard about over the radio that he lost track of where he was and accelerated full-throttle to 106 mph as his train went into a sharp curve with a 50 mph limit, investigators said at an NTSB hearing convened to pinpoint the cause of the May 12, 2015, tragedy.
"He went, in a matter of seconds, from distraction to disaster," NTSB board member Robert Sumwalt said.
Bostian, who has been suspended without pay since the crash for speeding, did not attend the hearing. His attorney didn't return an email seeking comment.
Had Positive Train Control been in use along the stretch of track, "we would not be here today," said Ted Turpin, an NTSB investigator.
"Unless PTC is implemented soon," NTSB chairman Christopher Hart warned, "I'm very concerned that we're going to be back in this room again, hearing investigators detail how technology that we have recommended for more than 45 years could have prevented yet another fatal rail accident."
Among other things, the NTSB recommended research into seat belts in railcars and ways to secure luggage that can become missiles in a derailment; training for railroad crew members on multitasking; and the use of new equipment and procedures to help crew members keep track of their location in spots where Positive Train Control is not in place.
In a statement, Amtrak said it has "taken full responsibility for and deeply regrets the tragic derailment" and will carefully review the NTSB findings and recommendations and quickly adopt them where appropriate.
The railroad noted that Positive Train Control is already in place on most of Amtrak's portion of the Northeast Corridor and that it has also installed inward-facing video cameras on locomotives.
The tragic chain of events illustrated the potential for tragedy when people throw rocks at trains — a problem railroads are almost powerless to stop but is so common the industry has a term for it: "getting rocked."
WASHINGTON (AP) -- A senior Republican lawmaker said Friday he'll unveil additional funding next week to battle the Zika virus in hopes of a quick vote in the GOP-controlled House.
Appropriations Committee Chairman Harold Rogers said the anti-Zika measure will be financed by cuts elsewhere in the budget.
The Kentucky Republican briefed colleagues on the measure Friday morning and spoke to reporters afterward. While short on details, Rogers' measure is expected to provide significantly less than a bipartisan $1.1 billion Senate measure that was released on Thursday. The Senate measure declares combating Zika an "emergency" and provides its funding on top of the current $1.1 trillion limit on agency budgets.
The administration has already diverted about $600 million in previously appropriated funds to combat Zika, which can cause microcephaly, a severe birth defect, as well as other severe health problems. House Republicans are insisting that there's plenty of additional money sloshing around various agencies that can be used to help battle Zika.
"There's a variety of sources for offsets," said Rep. Tom Cole, R-Okla. "There's certainly plenty of money available, and remember this is on top of $600 million." Among the potential sources is a portion of the $5 billion provided in 2014 to battle Ebola.
The government's Zika response includes efforts to suppress the mosquitoes that can spread the virus and rapid response teams to tackle any hot spots. There's also funding needed by the National Institutes of Health for research into a vaccine. And the administration wants additional money to battle the virus overseas in places such as South and Central America.
The Senate measure, negotiated by Sens. Roy Blunt, R-Mo., and Patty Murray, D-Wash., is relatively close to what the White House has asked for, except it does not pay back already-tapped Ebola money and give Puerto Rico - a major Zika hotspot - help with its Medicaid program.
Rogers said the House legislation would advance as a stand-alone measure; the Senate proposal is likely to be woven together with two separate spending bills next week, including a widely popular measure funding veterans' programs.
The administration is urging lawmakers to deliver additional anti-Zika funds before Congress recesses for Memorial Day, but a more likely deadline is early-to mid-July, when lawmakers exit Washington for a seven-week recess dictated by earlier-than-usual national political conventions.