Reporter faces fines for silence

A federal judge in Washington has held a former USA Today reporter in contempt of court and ordered her to pay up to $5,000 a day if she refuses to identify her sources for stories about a former Army scientist under scrutiny in 2001 anthrax attacks that killed five people and sickened 17. U.S. District Judge Reggie Walton said Toni Locy, 48, must pay the fines out of her own pocket as long as she continues to defy his order to cooperate in scientist Steven Hatfill's lawsuit against the Justice Department, which he accuses of violating his privacy by discussing the investigation with reporters.

Ex-Cleland aide gets probation

A former chief of staff for former Georgia Democratic Sen. Max Cleland has pleaded guilty to misdemeanor trespassing after being arrested inside an Edgartown, Mass., Coast Guard station last summer. Michael Duga Jr., 32, of Coral Springs, Fla., was sentenced to a year's probation. Cleland, who fired Duga after the arrest, said he hadn't been aware of Duga's criminal record, which included drug possession charges. On Friday, Cleland said, "He obviously needed to turn his life around and he's working hard to do that."

Alligator victim tempts jaws again

Adrian Apgar didn't learn the first time. Apgar, who made national news and lost an arm in November 2006 when Polk County deputies rescued him from the jaws of an alligator while he was naked and on drugs in a Central Florida lake in the middle of the night, has had another run-in with the law —- and a gator. About 12 a.m. Friday, Polk deputies again found Apgar naked, standing in a pond near Lakeland, walking toward an alligator about 50 feet offshore. Deputies were able to safely talk him out of the water and he was sent for an involuntary psychiatric exam. "He's not just a menace to society, he's a menace to himself," Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd said. "He's past being comical, he has real issues."

Democrat wins ex-speaker's seat

Illinois Democrat Bill Foster won a special election Saturday to fill former GOP House Speaker Dennis Hastert's seat in Congress. Foster had won 52 percent of the vote compared to 48 percent for Republican Jim Oberweis with 556 of 568 precincts reporting in the district, which stretches from Chicago's far western suburbs almost to the Mississippi River. Foster will serve the remainder of Hastert's term, which ends in January. The 66-year-old Hastert, who lost his powerful post as speaker after Democrats captured control of Congress in the 2006 election, resigned from the House late last year.

Mom charged for hosing toddler

Florida authorities arrested a Orlando mother who was videotaped spraying her 2-year-old daughter with a high-pressure water hose at a carwash. Niurka Ramirez, who was charged with child abuse and released from jail Saturday on $1,000 bail, said she was just trying to discipline the child for throwing a temper tantrum, and didn't use the high-pressure feature on the hose.

Crash data suggest caution on Monday

Our watches will be springing forward with daylight-saving time, but our biological clocks may not. According to Michigan State Police accident numbers for 2002-06, the Mondays after the switch to daylight-saving time were worse than an average day that month or an average Monday.