In the Nation

HAGERSTOWN, Md. - Army Pvt. Chelsea Manning is seeking a presidential pardon for sending reams of classified information to WikiLeaks, a leak she says was done "out of a love for my country and sense of duty to others," according to documents released Wednesday.

Manning's lawyer, David Coombs, sent the Petition for Pardon/Commutation of Sentence on Tuesday to President Obama, through the Justice Department, and to Army Secretary John M. McHugh. The White House said last month that a Manning request for a presidential pardon would be considered like any other.

Manning, formerly Bradley Manning, is serving a 35-year sentence at Fort Leavenworth, Kan., for her conviction July 30 on 20 counts for disclosing the information while working as an intelligence analyst in Iraq in 2010. Manning has said she wants to live as a woman and receive hormone therapy for gender dysphoria.

- AP

HOUSTON - Nine years after her husband died unexpectedly in a hospital, Linda Carswell is still fighting to get his heart back.

Jerry Carswell, a state championship-winning high school track coach, died in 2004 while hospitalized for kidney stones. Christus St. Catherine Hospital, where he died, promised a full autopsy, but did not perform toxicology tests.

His heart was also kept by the hospital that conducted the autopsy - something Linda Carswell found out well after her husband's burial. She sued St. Catherine for medical malpractice and won a nearly $2 million judgment three years ago. The jury found that, while St. Catherine did not cause Carswell's death, it fraudulently got Linda Carswell's permission for an autopsy she found to be incomplete.

A state appeals court in Houston last week reaffirmed much of that judgment. It also lifted a stay the hospital had sought to keep the heart from being turned over to Carswell, according to her attorney, Neil McCabe. It's unclear, after nearly a decade of legal battles, when Carswell will be allowed to put the heart and the issue to rest - or why Christus wants to prevent the heart from being turned over. - AP

SACRAMENTO, Calif. - Their egg-laying days behind them, about 1,200 Northern California chickens are heading for a cozy retirement on the East Coast, where they will live outside of cages and have plenty of room to spread their wings.

An anonymous $50,000 donation is funding Operation Chicken Airlift, which will send the hens on a cross-country cargo flight to upstate New York. From there the white Leghorn chickens will be ferried to different sanctuaries.

Laying hens are generally too lean for human consumption and are usually slaughtered after they stop providing eggs. - AP