News Digest

Wednesday, September 26, 2007 11:34 AM PDT

IDAHO - Sen. Craig to ask judge for a second chance on

guilty plea

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Larry Craig’s lawyers go to court on today in search of a rare legal prize — a do-over. It won’t be easy.

Judges generally don’t like to let parties try another approach after the first one failed. And Craig’s first approach — a guilty plea he hoped would go unnoticed — has failed.

Now Craig’s attorneys will join the parade of drunk drivers and teenage leadfoots at what is usually a sleepy suburban courthouse, to try to convince Judge Charles Porter that Minnesota’s justice system made a terrible mistake in accepting the senator’s guilty plea after a bathroom sex sting.

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‘‘He’s already gotten lots of justice and fairness. A court will view this as taking not just a second bite at the apple, but a fourth and fifth bite,’’ said Mary Jane Morrison, a professor in criminal law at Hamline University.

THE NATION

Democrats unveil stopgap spending bill to keep government running until mid-November

WASHINGTON (AP) — Congressional Democrats unveiled legislation Tuesday to keep the government running until mid-November, giving them more time to bridge gaping differences with President Bush over the budget.

The stopgap legislation is needed as the Oct. 1 start of the fiscal year looms with none of the 12 annual spending bills, which fund government agencies and departments, passed into law.

Consumer confidence falls, home sales slump, pointing to trouble for holiday shopping season

NEW YORK (AP) — Crumbling consumer confidence and slumping home sales could prove to be a bad combination for retailers, and for the broader economy going into the holiday shopping season, if the labor market contracts further and chokes off spending, economic data showed Tuesday. But markets took some heart from the warning signs, hoping that they would goad the Federal Reserve to lower interest rates more.

Worries about jobs and the economy flared in September, driving a key barometer of consumer sentiment to its lowest level in nearly two years, a private research group said.