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MULDROW, Okla. (AP) —
The first American soldier to die in combat against the Islamic State group in Iraq has been identified as a 20-year Army veteran and Oklahoma native who had been deployed 11 times to Iraq and Afghanistan.
Master Sgt. Joshua L. Wheeler, 39, was identified by coalition officials Friday as the person killed during a compound raid near the city of Kirkuk.
High school friends said Wheeler, who graduated from Muldrow High School in 1994, enlisted in the Army when he was 19.
April Isa, now an English teacher at Muldrow High School, graduated with Wheeler. She remembered a funny, quiet teen with long blond hair who "would keep you in stitches."
In Muldrow and Roland, towns where Wheeler grew up and some family members live, flags were lowered to half-staff.
TUCSON, Ariz. (AP) —
Compounding the nation's severe shortage of execution drugs, federal authorities have seized shipments of a lethal-injection chemical that Arizona and Texas tried to bring in from abroad, saying the imports were illegal.
"Courts have concluded that sodium thiopental for the injection in humans is an unapproved drug and may not be imported into the country for this purpose," Food and Drug Administration spokesman Jeff Ventura said in a statement.
In addition, the FDA bars importation of drugs from manufacturers that are not approved by the agency, a rule intended to protect Americans from impure or otherwise dangerous pharmaceuticals. Sodium thiopental is no longer made by any FDA-approved companies.
Arizona paid nearly $27,000 for sodium thiopental, an anesthetic that has long been used in executions, according to documents obtained by The Associated Press. Federal agents intercepted the shipment when it arrived via British Airways at the Phoenix airport in July, the documents show.
The documents do not reveal what country or company Arizona tried to import the drugs from.
Texas and FDA authorities gave even fewer details about the seizure there.
Death penalty states have been struggling to obtain execution chemicals for several years after European companies refused to sell the drugs. States have had to change drug combinations or put executions on hold while they look for other options. Tennessee brought back the electric chair as a backup method of execution, and Utah did the same with the firing squad.
Earlier this year, Nebraska was told by the FDA that it could not legally import lethal-injection chemicals after the state paid $54,400 for drugs from Harris Pharma, a distributor in India. The FDA would not say Friday whether it confiscated those drugs.
Officials in Arizona said they believe the drugs seized there are legal.
"The department is contesting FDA's legal authority to continue to withhold the state's execution chemicals," Arizona Corrections Department spokesman Andrew Wilder said.
In Texas, the state Department of Criminal Justice is "addressing the lawful status of imports with the Food and Drug Administration and is awaiting their decision," spokesman Jason Clark said in a statement.
Other states have also looked into buying drugs from international pharmacies. Ohio, which has halted executions until at least 2017 because of a lack of drugs, sent a letter earlier this month to the FDA asserting that the state believes it can obtain a lethal-injection drug overseas without violating any laws.
The AP obtained the Arizona documents as part of a lawsuit against the corrections department over transparency in executions.
Executions have been put on hold in Arizona following the drawn-out death of Joseph Rudolph Wood in July 2014. The state has said it doesn't plan on seeking death warrants for inmates until it resolves a lawsuit originally filed by Wood and other death row inmates seeking information about the drugs used in executions.
Wood, convicted of killing his ex-girlfriend and her father, snorted repeatedly throughout the 90 minutes it took for him to die. Authorities later revealed he was given 15 doses of midazolam and a painkiller. He was supposed to die with one dose.
"Once again, the Arizona Department of Corrections is trying to skirt the law in order to get execution drugs. Nobody is above the law, and that includes the Arizona Department of Corrections," said Wood's attorney, Dale Baich.
WASHINGTON (AP) —
Former Rhode Island Gov. Lincoln Chafee announced Friday he would end his quixotic Democratic presidential campaign after failing to gain traction against Hillary Rodham Clinton and Bernie Sanders.
"After much thought I have decided to end my campaign for president today," Chafee said at a women's forum held by the Democratic National Committee. "But I would like to take this opportunity one last time to advocate for a chance be given to peace."
Chafee delivered a widely panned debate performance earlier this month and has struggled to raise money and generate enthusiasm in a field that has been dominated by Clinton, a former secretary of state, and Sanders, the Vermont independent senator.
Chafee's departure comes days after Vice President Joe Biden declined to join the field and former Virginia Sen. Jim Webb announced he was leaving the Democratic campaign and would consider an independent bid.
It leaves Clinton, Sanders and former Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley as the three main contenders for the nomination. All three are appearing Saturday at a major Iowa Democratic fundraising dinner in Des Moines, an event that helped fuel President Barack Obama's rise in the fall of 2007.
The former Rhode Island senator surprised many when he formed a presidential exploratory committee last spring and raised eyebrows when he called for the U.S. to switch to the metric system during a formal campaign kickoff in Virginia last June.
His poll numbers were so low that comedian Conan O'Brien came up with a song for Chafee's longshot bid and encouraged viewers to boost his poll numbers from 0 percent to 1 percent because "it seems like the nice thing to do."
Often driving from his Rhode Island home, Chafee visited the first primary state of New Hampshire several times but failed to draw large crowds.
In the first Democratic debate, Chafee referred to himself as a "block of granite" when it came to issues and said he was most proud of his judgment, particularly his vote against the Iraq war. He frequently said U.S. foreign policy should promote peace but his performance was widely panned, prompting questions about whether he would continue his campaign.
Chafee raised just $11,000 in the most recent fundraising quarter. Most of his money has come from more than $360,000 that he has loaned his campaign. During his past campaigns, he relied on an old New England family fortune amassed over generations.
The presidential bid represented an unusual twist for the unconventional 62-year-old lawmaker and the son of late Sen. John Chafee.
In the Senate, the younger Chafee stood out as a liberal Republican in an increasingly conservative party. He was the lone Republican in 2002 to vote against going to war in Iraq, a moment that he tried to make a cornerstone of his campaign.
He was elected governor in 2010 as an independent and twice backed President Barack Obama's White House campaigns. He joined the Democrats in 2013 and used his presidential campaign to urge the U.S. to help reinvigorate the United Nations as a way to promote peace and stability.
DNC Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz, a Florida congresswoman, called Chafee a "class act" and recalled his decision to join the Democratic party.
"Let's remember that that was a big deal," Wasserman Schultz told the audience. "Because when he joined our party, he made clear that his former party had left him."