In the Nation

WASHINGTON - The chairman of the Senate committee with jurisdiction over homeland security says he has scheduled a hearing for May 23 to review the Secret Service investigation of the Colombia prostitution scandal.

Sen. Joe Lieberman told CNN's State of the Union that he believes the agency has done a thorough job in investigating the incident. But the Connecticut independent said he also wants to know whether there were warning signs about agents' behavior. He also wants to hear what steps are being taken to ensure something similar doesn't happen again.

Lieberman said the Secret Service director, Mark Sullivan, will be called to the hearing by the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee. - AP

CHICAGO - A speeding car hit a support beam of a Chicago elevated train track, crashing with enough force to split in two and killing four passengers inside, authorities said Sunday.

The Cook County medical examiner's office said three women died at the scene. A fourth woman was pronounced dead at a hospital early Sunday. The crash happened around midnight.

Police Department spokesman Hector Alfaro said the car was traveling fast when it hit a support beam of a Chicago Transit Authority train track on the city's West Side before it ran into a light pole. Chicago fire officials said the vehicle crashed with enough force that it split in two.

Police were investigating the cause of the crash. - AP

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. - New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg has told University of North Carolina graduates that last week's vote on same-sex marriage shows there is still a lot of work to be done for civil rights in this country.

Bloomberg spoke Sunday to thousands of graduates at Kennan Stadium.

Bloomberg told them Americans have slowly understood since this country was founded that if the government can deny freedom to one person, it can deny freedom to everyone. The mayor says every generation has brought more freedom to this country, and he expects the latest generation to continue to the work, especially in light of last Tuesday's vote approving a state constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage. - AP

NEW YORK - It was a special day for one Columbia University janitor: The 52-year-old immigrant graduated from the Ivy League school with honors Sunday.

It took Gac Filipaj a dozen years to finish his courses in the classics while working full time. First, he learned English after fleeing the civil war in his native Yugoslavia in 1992. An ethnic Albanian, he was afraid of being drafted into the Serb-led army.

He returned to his cleaning duties at Columbia, but said he hopes to get a better job and go to graduate school. - AP