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ByMichaelGraczyk The Associated Press HOUSTON Doctors re- moved former President George H.W. Bush's breath- ing tube on Friday and he was breathing well on his own at a Houston hospital, his spokesman said. The tube was inserted Wednesday while the 92-year-old former presi- dent was being treated for pneumonia. Bush remains inintensivecareatHouston Methodist Hospital but is comfortable, family spokes- man Jim McGrath said. "He was extubated this morning, and is breath- ing well on his own with minimal supplemental ox- ygen," McGrath said. "Pres- ident Bush is comfortable and watching inauguration coveragetogetherwithMrs. Bush, their son Neil and daughter-in-law Maria." Former first lady Bar- bara Bush also remained hospitalized Friday for treatment of bronchitis, but she's feeling better and "focusing on spend- ing time with her hus- band," McGrath said. The 91-year-old is expected to remain in the hospital over the weekend as a precau- tion. Their son, former Pres- ident George W. Bush, of- fered thanks on Instagram on Thursday for all the messages "of love and sup- port for Mother and Dad." "Your prayers are work- ing: 41 and Mom are do- ing much better today and fighting on," he said in his first public comments about their illnesses. The younger Bush and his wife, former first lady Laura Bush, were at Presi- dent Donald Trump's inau- guration on Friday. Trump and former Pres- ident Bill Clinton have sent their well wishes earlier this week via Twitter, and Barack Obama offered sim- ilar thoughts earlier this week at his farewell pres- idential news conference. HOSPITALIZATION AilingGeorgeH.W. Bush, wife showing some improvement By Kate Brumback The Associated Press ATLANTA Two trans- gender men may legally change their names, a Georgia appeals court ruled Friday, overturning a judge's orders that said the name changes could be confusing and considered a type of fraud. Columbia County Supe- rior Court Judge J. David Roper abused his discre- tion when he denied the name change petitions, the Georgia Court of Ap- peals decision said. The appeals court sent the two cases back to Roper and directed him to enter an order chang- ing the names. Roper did not immedi- ately respond to an email and voicemail seeking comment Friday. LGBT rights group Lambda Legal last year filed appeals on behalf of Rowan Elizabeth Feld- haus, whose birth name was Rebeccah Elizabeth Feldhaus, and Andrew Norman Baumert, whose given name was Delphine Renee Baumert. LEGAL PROCEEDINGS Appeals court tells judge to allow name changes By Tom Hays The Associated Press NEW YORK In a scene U.S. authorities had dreamed of for decades, Mexican drug lord and escape artist Joa- quin "El Chapo" Guzman was hauled into an Amer- ican courtroom Friday and then taken away to an ul- tra-secure jail that has held some of world's most dan- gerous terrorists and mob- sters. Holding his unshack- led hands behind his back, a dazed-looking Guzman quietly entered a not-guilty plea to drug trafficking and other charges at a Brook- lyn courthouse ringed by squad cars, officers with as- sault rifles, and bomb-sniff- ing dogs. "He's a man known for a life of crime, violence, death and destruction, and now he'll have to answer for that," said Robert Ca- pers, the U.S. attorney in Brooklyn. The court appearance came hours after Guzman's Thursday night extradition from Mexico, where he had become something of a folk hero for two brazen prison escapes. Guzman, who is in his 50s, was ordered held with- out bail in a special Man- hattan jail unit where other high-risk inmates — includ- ing Mafia boss John Gotti and several close associ- ates of Osama bin Laden — spent their time await- ing trial. "It is difficult to imag- ine another person with a greater risk of fleeing pros- ecution," prosecutors wrote in court papers. Prosecutors described Guzman as the murderous overseer of a three-decade campaign of smuggling, brutality and corruption that made his Sinaloa cartel a fortune while fueling an epidemic of cocaine abuse and related violence in the U.S. in the 1980s and '90s. Guzman faces the pos- sibility of life in prison. To get Mexico to hand him over, prosecutors agreed not to seek the death pen- alty. They are also demand- ing he forfeit $14 billion in assets. Outside court, Guzman defense attorney Michael Schneider said: "I haven't seen any evidence that in- dicates to me that Mr. Guzman's done anything wrong." He also said he would contest whether his client was extradited prop- erly to New York. The U.S. has been try- ing to get custody of Guz- man since he was first in- dicted in California in the early 1990s. American authorities fi- nally got their wish on the eve of Donald Trump's presidential inauguration, though it was not clear if the timing of the extradi- tion was intended as a sign of respect to the Republi- can or some kind of slap, perhaps an effort to let outgoing President Barack Obama take the credit. When Guzman got off a plane in New York, "as you looked into his eyes, you could see the surprise, you could see the shock, and to a certain extent, you could see the fear, as the real- ization kicked in that he's about to face American justice," said Angel Melen- dez, a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent. While Guzman faces fed- eral charges in several U.S. states, federal prosecutors in Brooklyn won the jockey- ing to get the case. The U.S. attorney's office in Brooklyn has substantial experience prosecuting international drug cartel cases and was once led by outgoing U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch. New York City also boasts one of the most secure lock- ups in the United States, the Metropolitan Correctional Center in lower Manhattan. The drab-looking building is protected by steel barri- cades that can stop up to 7 tons of speeding truck, and the area is watched by cameras capable of reading a newspaper a block away. The jail's inmates have included Ramzi Yousef, who was the architect of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, and Ponzi king Bernard Madoff. In the special high-se- curity wing for the riskiest inmates, around a dozen prisoners spend 23 hours a day in roughly 20-by-12- foot cells, prohibited from communicating with one another. Meals are eaten in cells, and exercise is in a recreation area specifically for these inmates. Only a limited number of carefully vetted jailers would be allowed access to an inmate with Guzman's wealth and potential to cor- rupt people, said Catherine Linaweaver, a former Met- ropolitan Correction Center warden who retired in 2014. The special unit's strict confinement drew criti- cism from the human rights group Amnesty Interna- tional in 2011. The jail saw an auda- cious escape attempt in 1982, when two armed peo- ple in a hijacked sightsee- ing helicopter tried to pluck an inmate off a roof. Four years earlier, three prison- ers broke out by cutting through window bars. Guzman presided over a syndicate that funneled tons of cocaine from South America into the U.S. via tunnels, tanker trucks, planes, container ships, speedboats and even sub- marines, prosecutors said. Initially arrested in 1993, he broke out of a maximum- security Mexican prison in 2001, apparently in a laun- dry cart, and became a folk legend among some Mexi- cans, immortalized in song. He was caught in 2014 but escaped again, this time through a hole in his prison cell shower. A spe- cially rigged motorcycle on rails whisked him to free- dom through a mile-long tunnel. He was recaptured in a January 2016 shootout that killed five associates. DRUG LORD 'El Chapo' is hauled off to US jail that has held terrorists U.S.LAWENFORCEMENT Authorities escort Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, center, from a plane to a waiting SUV at Long Island MacArthur Airport in Ronkonkoma, N.Y., Thursday. SATURDAY, JANUARY 21, 2017 REDBLUFFDAILYNEWS.COM | NEWS | 7 A