GEORGIA
Report: Too much fluoride in water
ATLANTA | Fluoride in drinking water — credited with dramatically cutting cavities and tooth decay — may now be too much of a good thing. Getting too much of it causes spots on some children’s teeth.
A reported increase in the spotting problem is one reason the federal government said Friday it plans to lower the recommended levels for fluoride in water supplies — the first such change in nearly 50 years.
About two of five adolescents have tooth streaking or spottiness because of too much fluoride, a surprising government study found recently. In some extreme cases, teeth can even be pitted by the mineral, though many cases are so mild only dentists notice it. The problem is generally considered cosmetic.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services is proposing changing the recommended fluoride level to 0.7 milligrams per liter of water. And the Environmental Protection Agency will review whether the maximum cutoff of 4 milligrams per liter is too high. The standard since 1962 has been a range of 0.7 to 1.2 milligrams per liter.
MAINE
Bailey maintains Simpson’s innocence
YARMOUTH | Former O.J. Simpson defense lawyer F. Lee Bailey is defending Simpson’s 1995 acquittal on charges of murdering his ex-wife and her friend.
In his first written account of the trial, Mr. Bailey has posted a 46-page paper on his website in which he presents evidence he says proves Simpson’s innocence. Mr. Bailey told the Portland Press Herald that the document, called “The Simpson Verdict,” is an effort to reveal evidence not heard before and to explain why he has maintained Simpson’s innocence.
Mr. Bailey was part of Simpson’s defense team when the former football star was found not guilty in the 1994 slayings of his wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend, Ronald Goldman. Simpson was later found liable for the deaths in a civil court and is now serving a lengthy jail term in a robbery.
MISSISSIPPI
South prepares for possible snow
JACKSON | A blast of winter weather pushed across the South on Sunday, coating bridges and roads with snow, sleet and freezing rain and causing hundreds of flight cancelations.
Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal and Alabama Gov. Bob Riley issued emergency declarations. Mr. Riley said workers had readied snow and salt trucks to help clear icy roads, and he asked all residents to stay home Sunday night and Monday unless it was necessary to venture out.
Mississippi officials warned motorists early Sunday that ice was already accumulating on roads and bridges in many counties, creating hazardous driving conditions. The National Weather Service posted winter storm warnings from east Texas to the Carolinas.
NEW YORK
Jealousy blamed in castration death
NEW YORK | A male model who had recently been a contestant on a Portuguese reality TV show was taken into police custody hours after his gay lover, a celebrity Portuguese television journalist, was found castrated and bludgeoned to death in a New York City hotel.
The journalist, 65-year-old Carlos Castro, had arrived in the U.S. in late December in the company of Renato Seabra to see some Broadway shows and spend New Year’s Eve in Times Square, according to a family friend.
There had been some friction between the two men toward the end of the trip, but nothing to suggest that anything horrible was about to happen, said the friend, Luis Pires, the editor of the Portuguese language newspaper Luso-Americano.
“I think that they were a little bit upset with each other, for jealousy reasons,” Mr. Pires told the Associated Press.
RHODE ISLAND
Deposition set in college rape suit
PROVIDENCE | A former Brown University student who said he was falsely branded a rapist must be questioned under oath before his lawyers can speak with the woman who accused him, a federal magistrate has ruled.
But U.S. Magistrate Judge David Martin also said Friday the woman should be questioned on the next possible day after William McCormick III, who sued his accuser as well as Brown, is deposed. The dates of the depositions weren’t set.
Mr. McCormick said in a lawsuit he was falsely accused of rape in September 2006 by a fellow freshman. He said he was removed from campus without being told of the rape accusation and that the university was influenced by the woman’s being the daughter of a wealthy donor and alumnus of the school.
Mr. McCormick signed a confidential agreement the following month — under the threat of possible criminal charges, he said — in which he agreed to withdraw from Brown in exchange for the accuser dropping the matter. He has said he never touched the woman.
• From wire dispatches and staff reports
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