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HOUSTON — Former first lady Barbara Bush was released from a hospital Tuesday, a week after she underwent surgery for a perforated ulcer.

At a news conference, former President George H.W. Bush said, "I can report that Barb is feeling much, much better, and I'll be glad to get her home." He thanked the Method-ist Hospital staff for taking care of his wife.

Mrs. Bush, 83, was hospitalized a week ago for abdominal pains. On Nov. 25, surgeons closed a dime-sized hole in her small intestine that was caused by the ulcer.

FORT WORTH — One of two men videotaped coaxing two little boys into smoking marijuana pleaded guilty to reduced charges and was sentenced Tuesday to up to seven years in prison.

Vanswan Polty pleaded guilty to two charges of causing injury to a child and three unrelated burglary charges before his trial began. He had faced from five years to life in prison if convicted of the charge he had faced, e

Polty, 20, and Demetris McCoy, 18, were videotaped coaxing McCoy's then 2- and 4-year-old nephews into smoking marijuana. Police found the tape while searching a house during a burglary investigation in 2007. Drug tests performed on the youngsters revealed they had marijuana and cocaine in their systems.

McCoy was sentenced to eight years in prison after pleading guilty to injury to a child and burglary charges this summer and had agreed to testify against Polty.

KANSAS CITY — A regional airliner with a cracked windshield was diverted to Kansas City's airport and landed safely Tuesday.

No injuries were reported.

United Airlines spokesman Jeff Kovick said United Express Flight 5335 was carrying 66 passengers and four crew members on a flight from St. Louis to Denver.

The windshield was cracked but still in place when the Bombardier CRJ-700 Canadair jetliner reached a gate, said Joe McBride, spokesman for Kansas City International Airport.

Kovick said the airline launched an investigation to find how the windshield broke.

WASHINGTON — The Bush administration asked the Supreme Court on Tuesday to let the nation's older power plants draw in billions of gallons of water for cooling without installing technology that would best protect fish and aquatic organisms.

Lawyers for the government and electricity producers urged the justices to overturn a lower court ruling that says the Clean Water Act does not let the government pit the cost of upgrading an estimated 554 power plants against the benefits of protecting fish and aquatic organisms when limiting water use.

They argued that for the last 30 years the Environmental Protection Agency has weighed the costs of controlling power plant withdrawals from rivers, streams and other waterways against the benefits of saving more aquatic wildlife in setting technology requirements.

Environmentalists want the decision upheld, an outcome that could prompt the EPA, under a new administration, to require existing power plants to install more costly and protective technology.

MIAMI — Sen. Mel Martinez of Florida, one of the most prominent Hispanic leaders in the Republican Party, announced Tuesday that he would not seek a second term in 2010.

Martinez was seen as vulnerable in a state that has been tilting Democratic, particularly among Latinos. Though he said in a statement that his decision was not based on his re-election prospects, he acknowledged that he was making his decision public now "to give the many qualified individuals who might choose to try to succeed me an opportunity to organize and gather support."

Florida Republicans who have known Martinez for years said he probably chose to step aside after weighing the challenges of a bruising campaign against serving in a Democratic-controlled Congress.

TRACY — A Girl Scout leader and her husband were arrested after an emaciated, terrified and nearly naked 17-year-old showed up at a gym with a chain locked to his ankle, saying he had just fled his captors, authorities said Tuesday.

˚The boy, who authorities said ran away from a Sacramento foster home last year, came into the In-Shape Sports Club in Tracy on Monday wearing only boxer briefs and covered in what appeared to be soot, gym manager Chuck Ellis said. Tracy is about 70 miles south of Sacramento.

Ellis said the teen was afraidsomeone was going to come after him and asked to be hidden.

The boy said he had been held captive for nearly a year, said Ellis, adding that he looked as if he was only 10 to 12 years old.

Authorities said they believe the boy had been chained to a car seat but picked up a dropped key, unlocked himself and fled when the car stopped.

Police arrested Kelly Layne Lau, 30, and Michael Schumacher, 34, late Monday after questioning the couple.

LOS ANGELES — Lawyers for Roman Polanski, a fugitive for 30 years in a notorious sex case involving a 13-year-old girl, filed a request Tuesday to dismiss the charge against him because of prosecutorial and judicial misconduct.

The motion alleges that a documentary about the filmmaker released earlier this year revealed "a pattern of misconduct and improper communications" between the district attorney's office and the judge in Polanski's case.

Poland-born Polanski, 75, has been living in France in self-imposed exile from the United States since fleeing in 1978 after pleading guilty to having sex with a 13-year-old girl in Los Angeles. He was initially indicted on six felony counts and faced up to life in prison.

Polanski, who had already been incarcerated for a psychological diagnosis, skipped sentencing that would have sent him to prison and fled to France