NATION IN BRIEF: Shuttle gets thumbs-up for launch

NASA cleared space shuttle Endeavour for a Friday night launch to the international space station, but the weather outlook was not too promising. A cold front was expected to bring rain and thick clouds by the weekend. Forecasters put the odds of acceptable conditions at 60 percent for the scheduled 7:55 p.m. Friday liftoff and only 40 percent for Saturday. The chance of success goes up dramatically Sunday. The countdown, at least, was proceeding smoothly at Cape Canaveral, Fla., and mission managers gave a thumbs-up at the traditional two-days-before-launch review.

Rezko’s request for new trial rejected

A federal judge in Chicago turned down a request for a new trial from convicted influence peddler Tony Rezko. Rezko was a major fund-raiser for Gov. Rod Blagojevich and for President-elect Barack Obama. He was convicted in June of using his clout with the governor’s office to launch a $7 million scheme to squeeze payoffs out of companies seeking business from the state. U.S. District Judge Amy St. Eve said federal prosecutors had proven their case. She refused to throw out the guilty verdicts. Rezko was convicted following a trial of more than three months. He is believed to be cooperating with federal prosecutors in hopes of getting a lighter sentence.

Warning of God’s wrath defended

The American Civil Liberties Union is taking up the case of a southwestern Michigan minister who was sent to prison for warning that a judge could be tortured by God. In 2007, the Rev. Edward Pinkney, 60, was convicted of paying people to vote in a Benton Harbor election. Months later, he wrote an article in a Chicago newspaper, the People’s Tribune, saying the Berrien County judge who handled his case, Alfred Butzbaugh, could be punished by God with curses, fever and “extreme burning” unless he changed his ways. In June 2008, another Berrien County judge sent Pinkney to prison for three to 10 years after finding that he had violated probation by threatening the judge. “To our knowledge, this case marks the first time in modern history that a preacher has been imprisoned for predicting what God might do,” said Michael Steinberg, legal director for the ACLU in Michigan, which asked the state appeals court Wednesday to release Pinkney on bail while he appeals the probation violation.

Hawaiian king’s effects displayed

Some of the more extravagant paraphernalia of Hawaii’s King Kalakaua is on display for the first time at Iolani Palace in Honolulu. The exhibit includes a pipe carved from a white mineral known as meerschaum and a gold cigarette case drizzled with 99 diamonds, a trio of emeralds and a quartet of rubies. The case was the 1881 birthday gift from the Hawaiian king’s sister-in-law Poomaikelani.

Teaching hospital’s funds running out

The University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston, which was damaged by Hurricane Ike, is laying off about 3,800 workers because it is running out of money. The University of Texas Board of Regents said the teaching hospital would have no money to operate in about three months at its current spending rate. Ike caused nearly $710 million in losses to the hospital when it struck the Texas coast in September, and officials have said insurance covered only about $100 million of that.

3 more indicted in polygamy case

A grand jury in Schleicher County, Texas, has indicted three more members of a polygamist sect that was the focus of a massive raid on an Eldorado ranch in the spring. The state attorney general’s office said four people were named in eight new indictments Wednesday, but one of them —- sect leader Warren Jeffs —- had been previously charged. The grand jury has now charged 12 members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, most with sexual assault of a child.

N.Y. plane crash anniversary marked

Victims of the deadly Flight 587 crash were remembered at a New York City ceremony on the seventh anniversary of the tragedy. The American Airlines flight crashed in a quiet Queens neighborhood on Nov. 12, 2001, after taking off from Kennedy International Airport bound for the Dominican Republic. The crash killed all 260 people on board and five people on the ground. The National Transportation Safety Board determined that the tail of the Airbus A300 had fallen off, and blamed pilot error, inadequate pilot training and overly sensitive rudder controls. The disaster jarred a city still fearful after the terrorist attacks two months earlier. The loss was also felt heavily in the Dominican Republic.