NATION IN BRIEF: Anti-gun group sues White House

The Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence sued the Bush administration Tuesday in hopes of stopping a new policy that would allow people to carry concealed, loaded guns in most national parks and wildlife refuges. An Interior Department spokeswoman refused to comment on the lawsuit, saying the department does not discuss pending litigation.

The Brady Campaign sued the Interior Department and its secretary, Dirk Kempthorne, as well as the leaders of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Park Service in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C. They want a federal judge to issue an immediate injunction stopping the elimination of the 25-year-old federal rule that severely restricts loaded guns in national parks. The Interior Department rule overturns a Reagan-era regulation that has restricted loaded guns in parks and wildlife refuges.

The previous regulation required that firearms be unloaded and placed somewhere that is not easily accessible, such as in a car trunk.

State sues Bush administration

California sued the Bush administration to block last-minute endangered species regulations that it argues are intended to reduce input from federal scientists, state Attorney General Jerry Brown said.

The lawsuit was filed Monday in U.S. District Court in San Francisco. The Interior Department issued the revised rules this month. They allow federal agencies to issue permits for mining, logging and similar activities without getting a review from federal wildlife biologists if their own research shows the project will not affect plants and animals.

The changes also block agencies from using the Endangered Species Act to consider the effects of greenhouse gas emissions on ecosystems when reviewing certain projects such as new roads or coal plants on federal land.

Report: Columbia had faulty parts

A new NASA report said that the seat restraints, suits and helmets of the doomed crew of the space shuttle Columbia didn’t work well, leading to “lethal trauma” as the out-of-control ship broke apart, killing all seven astronauts.

In a graphic 400-page report, NASA further studied the Feb. 1, 2003, shuttle tragedy to help them design their new shuttle replacement capsule more likely to survive an accident.

Columbia disintegrated as it returned to Earth at the end of its space mission. The accident was caused by a hole in the shuttle’s left wing that occurred at launched.

Killed were commander Rick Husband, pilot William McCool, Michael Anderson, David Brown, Kalpana Chawla, Laurel Clark, and Ilan Ramon of Israel.