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Petraeus nominated for Central Command job

WASHINGTON, April 23 (UPI) -- The White House announced Wednesday that U.S. Army Gen. David Petraeus, commander of U.S. forces in Iraq, has been nominated to lead U.S. Central Command.

U.S. Army Gen. Raymond Odierno was nominated to move into Petraeus' post in Iraq, the U.S. Defense Department said in a statement.

The Senate will have to approve of the Petraeus move, which would place him in overall command of U.S. operations in both Iraq and Afghanistan. He would replace U.S. Navy Adm. William Fallon, who stepped down in March amid high-profile differences with the Bush administration over the war.

The announcement also said U.S. Army Lt. Gen. Peter Chiarelli had been nominated for promotion to full general and would take over for Odierno as the Army's vice chief of staff.

Clinton says Pa. proves her viability

WASHINGTON, April 23 (UPI) -- Hillary Clinton publicly pressed her case as the most viable Democratic presidential candidate following her high-profile victory in the Pennsylvania primary.

Clinton made the rounds of the network television news shows Wednesday morning and argued that she has proved she can win the major states that could be pivotal in the November election.

"It's very hard to imagine a Democrat getting to the White House without winning those states," she told CNN.

At the same time, however, The New York Times reported that polls show Barack Obama in a good position in the upcoming Indiana and North Carolina primaries to be held in two weeks.

The Times said Obama's camp said the results in Pennsylvania did not significantly alter the tight race for the nomination. Obama leads in popular vote, states won and pledged delegates.

The U.S. senator from Illinois focused more of his attention on presumptive Republican nominee John McCain than on Clinton in his Tuesday night concession speech.

High court rules for police search power

WASHINGTON, April 23 (UPI) -- The U.S. Supreme Court Wednesday broadly and unanimously reinforced police search power, brushing aside a state court and a state law.

The justices ruled in a Virginia case that the Fourth Amendment, which guards against unreasonable searches and seizures, is not violated when an arrest is not authorized by state law or when there is a search following from the arrest, as long as there is "probable cause" for both.

Police stopped David Lee Moore of Portsmouth, Va., in 2003 on a charge of driving with a suspended license. State law required the officers to give him a ticket but did not allow an arrest based solely on a misdemeanor traffic violation.

However, police placed him in custody, searched him and found crack cocaine. The Virginia Supreme Court overturned his drug conviction, saying the cocaine should not have been admitted because state law did not permit an arrest and the Fourth Amendment did not permit a search following a traffic citation.

In an opinion written by Justice Antonin Scalia, joined by seven other justices and concurred in by a separate opinion by Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the U.S. Supreme Court said neither the arrest nor the search violated the Fourth Amendment.

States are free to impose stricter search-and-seizure rules than the U.S. Constitution, the high court said, but the "Fourth Amendment should reflect administrable bright-line rules" regardless of state laws.

(No. 06-1082 Virginia vs. Moore)

Spellings backs student loan plan

WASHINGTON, April 23 (UPI) -- The Bush administration has endorsed a plan before Congress to buy back student loans to ensure that students can continue to borrow for college.

In an interview Tuesday, Education Secretary Margaret Spellings told The New York Times the administration wants to provide a backup for commercial lenders to ensure the credit crisis does not keep students from borrowing.

"I want to make double-dog sure that we have the tools necessary," Spellings said. "If we don't need to use them, so be it."

The Education Department reports that 43 lending institutions have withdrawn from the federal student loan program and that some banks that remain in are pickier about the loans they make. Students seeking loans for commercial colleges, for-profit institutions that mostly provide vocational training, are the most likely to have trouble.

The House passed a bill this month that authorizes the buying back of federally-guaranteed student loans through July 2009. A similar bill has been introduced in the Senate.

U.S. drunken driving rate tops 15 percent

WASHINGTON, April 23 (UPI) -- A report from the federal government estimates 15.1 percent of all U.S. motorists drove under the influence of alcohol last year.

The estimates from the Department of Health and Human Services' Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration say the figure in some states was above 25 percent.

Wisconsin led the pack with at 26.4 percent, followed by North Dakota at 24.9 percent and Minnesota at 23.5 percent. Utah was most-sober at 9.5 percent and was the only state below 10 percent.

The report also noted that nearly one of every 20 adult drivers in the United States got behind the wheel while under the influence of marijuana, crack or other illegal drugs. Washington, D.C., led that ignoble category at 7 percent.

"This report highlights the enormous public health risk posed by this problem -- one threatening the lives of many Americans every day," SAMHSA Administrator Terry Cline said in a statement.

The survey released Wednesday was based on data collected from 127,283 adult drivers in 2004, 2005 and 2006 and included a standard margin of error that varied from state to state.

3 killed in Arizona plane crash

MESA, Ariz., April 23 (UPI) -- A small plane crashed outside Phoenix Wednesday, killing all three people aboard, the Federal Aviation Administration said.

The FAA said the plane was on approach to Falcon Field Airport in Mesa when air traffic controllers saw the plane trailing smoke before crashing into an orange grove.

"At first the pilot banked left toward the shopping center and then he must have realized that he wasn't going to make it and turned to his right and went down into the orange grove," Antonio Gonzales told the Arizona Republic.

The plane, a Lancair, was owned by a Scottsdale corporation. The names of the victims were not immediately released.