NATIONAL NEWS

Hillary faints during speech Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton fainted Monday during a lunchtime speech. The senator’s press secretary, Philippe Reines, said Clinton was suffering from a stomach virus during her talk. “She felt weak, needed to sit down and then fainted briefly,” Reines said. “She received immediate medical attention at the site and is now proceeding with her schedule as planned.” Clinton, 57, was giving a speech for a Democratic group of 150 people at the Saturn Club in Buffalo, said Vincent Tracy, the club’s general manager. Colleen DiPirro, head of the Amherst Chamber of Commerce, said Clinton told the crowd that she had a stomach virus or food poisoning. DiPirro reported that she began speaking, asked for a glass of water, continued with her remarks and then asked to sit down. Clinton then left the stage for a few minutes, returned to try to finish her speech and passed out for about 30 seconds. Secret Service agents surrounded the senator, DiPirro added. Clinton did not go to a hospital, and no ambulance was called, sources said. There were no cameras in the room when Clinton fainted, a club spokesman said. Clinton arrived Monday evening at Canisius College in Buffalo, New York, where she was going to give a speech despite collapsing during an earlier speech. Hazmat truck drivers begin security fingerprinting According to CNN, one of the requirements of the USA Patriot Act, an anti-terrorism program, is that all hazardous material truck driver be fingerprinted. Congress mandated the trucker checks as part of the USA Patriot Act, amid fears that trucks could be used as weapons of mass destruction. As a stopgap measure in the years since the attacks on September 11, 2001, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) has checked the names of approximately 2.7 million hazardous material truckers against lists of known or suspected terrorists. As the result of those checks, the TSA turned over more than 100 leads to the FBI, according to a report by the Congressional Research Service. Fingerprint-based checks are considered more comprehensive and reliable than checks of lists of names. Beginning Monday, all truckers who apply for new hazardous materials “endorsements” will be fingerprinted. On May 31, the program will extend to all drivers renewing existing endorsements. It is expected to take five years to check all 2.7 million truck drivers, and truckers fear logjams early in the program because there are few places to be fingerprinted. There are only three places in California and one in most other states. There are currently no plans to require fingerprints and background checks of drivers who haul nonhazardous materials, but the TSA is looking at a plan to issue credentials to all transportation workers.