Bush honors soldier killed in Iraq

President Bush on Monday presented the nation”s highest military award to a 19-year-old soldier who died saving the lives of four comrades in Iraq by jumping on a grenade tossed into their military vehicle.

The honored soldier, Army Pfc. Ross McGinnis, “gave all for his country,” the president said somberly.

“No one outside this man”s family can know the true weight of their loss. But in words spoken long ago, we are told how to measure the kind of devotion that Ross McGinnis showed on his last day: ”Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.””

The president spoke in the East Room at a ceremony attended by Vice President Dick Cheney, prior recipients of the Medal of Honor, military leaders, McGinnis” parents, Tom and Romayne, and his two sisters, Becky and Katie. The four soldiers protected by McGinnis” actions were all in attendance.

McGinnis was in the gunner”s hatch of a Humvee on Dec. 4, 2006, on a patrol in Iraq, when a grenade sailed past him and into the vehicle where the four other soldiers sat. He shouted a warning, then jumped on the grenade while it was lodged near the vehicle”s radio.


Walter Reed reports patient data breach


Names, Social Security numbers, birth dates and other information was released, hospital officials said Monday. The computer file that was breached did not include information such as medical records, or the diagnosis or prognosis for patients, they said.

The disclosure marked the latest in a series of breaches of government computer records.

Walter Reed officials declined to explain exactly how the information was compromised, pending an ongoing investigation by the hospital and the Army. They would only say that the computer file was found on a “non-government, non-secure computer network.”


Ex-House aide pleads guilty in lobby scandal

A one-time top aide to former Oklahoma Rep. Ernest Istook has pleaded guilty to a conspiracy to defraud the House as part of the Jack Abramoff lobbying scandal.

John Albaugh told a federal judge he is guilty of accepting gifts in return for official favors.

Albaugh could face up to 24 months in prison. The sentence could be reduced if he cooperates with the government”s investigation of the scandal involving members of Congress, their aides and members of the Bush administration.


More Americans using public transit

Soaring gas prices are pushing more Americans to take public transit, with streetcars and trolleys and other light rail experiencing the largest percentage ridership increase, according to a new report released today by the American Public Transportation Association.

APTA”s report said Americans took 2.6 billion trips on public transportation in the first three months of 2008, almost 85 million more trips than last year for the same time period, a 3.3 percent increase.

|— Herald wire services

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