In the news

WORLD

BAGHDAD, Iraq – The four U.S. helicopters that have crashed in Iraq since Jan. 20 were apparently shot down, the chief American military spokesman said Sunday. This was the first time the U.S. command has publicly acknowledged that the aircraft were lost to enemy fire.

Maj. Gen. William Caldwell told reporters that the investigations into the crashes of three Army and one private helicopters are incomplete but “it does appear they were all the result of some kind of anti-Iraqi ground fire that did bring those helicopters down.”

“There’s been an ongoing effort since we’ve been here to target our helicopters,” Caldwell said. “Based on what we have seen, we’re already making adjustments in our tactics and techniques and procedures as to how we employ our helicopters.”

On Friday, Gen. Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, acknowledged that insurgent ground fire in Iraq “has been more effective against our helicopters in the last couple of weeks.”

Pace said it was unclear whether “this is some kind of new tactics or techniques that we need to adjust to.”

In the aftermath of the worst single bomb attack in Iraq since the start of the war – 137 people killed in a suicide truck bombing on a Shiite market – stunned Iraqis picked through the rubble of devastated buildings and loaded coffins into minivans.

NATION

WASHINGTON – A revolt against a national driver’s license is quickly spreading to other states after it began in Maine last month.

The Maine Legislature on Jan. 26 overwhelmingly passed a resolution objecting to the Real ID Act of 2005. The federal law sets a national standard for driver’s licenses and requires states to link their record-keeping systems to national databases.

Within a week of Maine’s action, lawmakers in Georgia, Wyoming, Montana, New Mexico, Vermont and Washington state also balked at Real ID. They are expected soon to pass laws or adopt resolutions declining to participate in the federal identification network.

“It’s the whole privacy thing,” said Matt Sundeen, a transportation analyst for the National Conference of State Legislatures. “A lot of legislators are concerned about privacy issues and the cost. It’s an estimated $11 billion implementation cost.”

The law’s supporters say it is needed to prevent terrorists and illegal immigrants from getting fake identification cards.

States will have to comply by May 2008. If they don’t, driver’s licenses that fall short of Real ID’s standards cannot be used to board an airplane, enter a federal building or open some bank accounts.

About a dozen states have active legislation against Real ID, including Arizona, Georgia, Hawaii, Massachusetts, Missouri, New Hampshire, Oklahoma, Utah and Wyoming.

STATE&LOCAL

WILLIAMSBURG – Relying on self-deprecating jokes, unusual candor and outright flattery, President Bush on Saturday wooed lawmakers he not only needs but will have to answer to in the final two years of his presidency.

Bush had not seen fit to attend a Democratic congressional retreat since 2001, his first year in office. But the new political reality that has Democrats in charge of Capitol Hill for the first time in a dozen years changed his mind. When he appeared before House Democrats at a Virginia resort, he seemed to be trying to make up for lost time.

With his first words, he sought to put to rest one bone of contention between the White House and the new congressional majority: the dropped “ic.”

Democrats found it demeaning when the president, in his State of the Union address last month, referred to the “Democrat majority,” as opposed to the “Democratic majority.”

“Now look, my diction isn’t all that good,” Bush told the 200 lawmakers who wrapped up two days away from Washington with family and aides. “I have been accused of occasionally mangling the English language. And so I appreciate you inviting the head of the Republic Party.”