Grain prices set records as drought, food worries spread

Grain prices set records as drought, food worries spread
Former Penn State board of trustees head resigns amid sex-abuse scandal
"America's toughest" sheriff on trial over discrimination claims
U.S. banks haunted by mortgage demons that won't go away
Closing arguments expected in Air Force sex scandal trial
UK man extradited to Arizona in meth-related chemicals sales case
House votes to appropriate $606 billion for defense
Accused Texas base shooter praised militant cleric in emails
Work needed to restart California nuclear plant: NRC report
Active duty military may don uniforms at San Diego gay pride parade
Penn State could incur steep penalty in probe of unreported crime
Illinois panel votes to expel indicted lawmaker from legislature
Los Angeles opens newly planted park trampled in Occupy protest
Report finds private student loans riskier before financial crisis
Penn State did not fully cooperate in Sandusky probe: governor
Defense lawyers say Guantanamo court rigged to deliver death sentence
Allen Stanford moved to high-security Florida prison
NYC tax revenue may be less than expected: report
Non-partisan report sees no harm in tax hikes for wealthy
Penn State could incur steep penalty in probe of unreported crime
SpongeBob coins among Peregrine assets seized by FBI
In Arizona, "America's toughest" sheriff on trial over discrimination claims
Pennsylvania pension woes weigh on credit ratings
Troubled California cities view on debt a concern: Moody's
Analysis: Shoppers may be spared worst of corn price surge
Rains too late for some drought-savaged corn fields
New York area homeowners turning to "lawn painting"
Hyatt son to turn Chicago building into boutique hotel
Contested Tennessee mosque will not open in time for Ramadan
Active duty military may don uniforms at San Diego gay pride parade
"America's toughest" sheriff on trial over discrimination claims
U.S. banks haunted by mortgage demons that won't go away
UK man extradited to Arizona in meth-related chemicals sales case
Closing arguments expected in Air Force sex scandal trial
Former Penn State board of trustees head resigns amid sex-abuse scandal
Penn State could incur steep penalty in probe of unreported crime
House votes to appropriate $606 billion for defense
Accused Texas base shooter praised militant cleric in emails
Work needed to restart California nuclear plant: NRC report

Posted: 19 Jul 2012 05:18 PM PDT

CHICAGO/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Grain prices pushed to record highs on Thursday as scattered rains in Midwest did little to douse fears that the worst drought in half a century will end soon or relieve worries around the world about higher food prices. Government forecasters did not rule out that the drought in the U.S. heartland could last past October, continuing what has been the hottest half-year on record. ...

Former Penn State board of trustees head resigns amid sex-abuse scandal

Posted: 19 Jul 2012 06:26 PM PDT

HARRISBURG, Pennsylvania (Reuters) - Penn State University's board of trustees has accepted the resignation of Steven Garban, the man who chaired the board when the child sex abuse scandal involving ex-assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky first broke. In a letter posted to the board's website on Thursday evening, PSU Trustees Chairwoman Karen Peetz said: "Earlier today I accepted Steve Garban's resignation from the Board of Trustees. I want to sincerely thank him for his many years of service to Penn State University and for the leadership he exhibited today. ...

"America's toughest" sheriff on trial over discrimination claims

Posted: 19 Jul 2012 06:55 PM PDT

PHOENIX (Reuters) - Arizona lawman Joe Arpaio, who calls himself America's toughest sheriff, was accused of racial profiling as a trial began on Thursday in a class-action lawsuit alleging he discriminated against Latinos in his crackdown on illegal immigration. The case will test whether the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office can target those in the country illegally in immigration sweeps without racially profiling Hispanic citizens and legal residents. ...

U.S. banks haunted by mortgage demons that won't go away

Posted: 19 Jul 2012 06:46 PM PDT

(Reuters) - Lenders like Bank of America Corp and Wells Fargo & Co say they are facing mounting pressure to buy back bad mortgages they sold to investors, signaling that banks' home-loan headaches could continue for years. Investors like Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have been pressing banks to buy back bad mortgages for years, but in recent months those requests have intensified, the banks have said in recent second-quarter earnings reports. These comments from banks provide a fresh reminder of the loose ends that remain from the housing bust that started five years ago. ...

Closing arguments expected in Air Force sex scandal trial

Posted: 19 Jul 2012 06:37 PM PDT

SAN ANTONIO (Reuters) - Both military prosecutors and defense attorneys rested their cases on Thursday in a trial against a drill instructor accused of serial sexual assault of women during U.S. Air Force basic training in Texas, in the first court-martial of a widening military sex scandal. Air Force basic training instructor Staff Sergeant Luis Walker is accused of 28 counts, including rape and attempted assault, for allegedly having inappropriate sexual relationships with 10 women. ...

UK man extradited to Arizona in meth-related chemicals sales case

Posted: 19 Jul 2012 06:38 PM PDT

PHOENIX (Reuters) - A British man has been extradited to Arizona from Scotland to face trial for illegally exporting and distributing chemicals used to make methamphetamine in the state, authorities said on Thursday. Brian Howes, 48, was ordered to remain in custody on suspicion of 82 drug-related crimes pending a September 5 trial under an order issued in federal court on Thursday, a U.S. attorney's office spokesman said. Howes, who faces charges that include unlawful distribution of listed chemicals and conspiracy, arrived in Arizona on Friday, authorities said. ...

House votes to appropriate $606 billion for defense

Posted: 19 Jul 2012 06:23 PM PDT

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The House of Representatives approved on Thursday $606 billion in defense spending for next year after two days of debate that saw lawmakers from both parties line up to condemn the ongoing war in Afghanistan as a waste of lives and money. The Republican-dominated House voted 326-90 to approve the annual defense appropriations bill, which includes a Pentagon base budget of $518 billion plus $87.7 billion in spending for the Afghanistan war and other overseas operations, according to the House Appropriations Committee. ...

Accused Texas base shooter praised militant cleric in emails

Posted: 19 Jul 2012 05:51 PM PDT

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A U.S. Army psychiatrist declared some suicide bombings acceptable and offered money to a militant Muslim cleric in emails months before he was accused of killing 13 people at Fort Hood, Texas, according to copies of the emails released on Thursday. The emails became public for the first time as part of a report assessing what the FBI knew about Major Nidal Hasan and whether the agency could have prevented his 2009 shooting spree. Hasan, 41, is scheduled to stand trial in a military court-martial on August 20 for the shooting spree, which also wounded more than 30. ...

Work needed to restart California nuclear plant: NRC report

Posted: 19 Jul 2012 05:49 PM PDT

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - A U.S. nuclear inspection team has identified a number of issues that require further study before a damaged California nuclear plant can restart, according to a report issued on Thursday. The two-reactor San Onofre Nuclear Station, located in Orange County, has been shut for more than five months due to the discovery of premature wear of steam generator tubes. Located halfway between Los Angeles and San Diego, the nuclear station is critical to bolster the state grid and allow power to be imported to Southern California from outside the state. ...

Active duty military may don uniforms at San Diego gay pride parade

Posted: 19 Jul 2012 04:22 PM PDT

(Reuters) - The Department of Defense will allow active duty members of all branches of the U.S. military to don their service uniforms while marching in the upcoming San Diego gay pride parade, event organizers said on Thursday. The move, announced the day before the weekend festivities are to begin, comes in the wake of a repeal that went into effect last September of the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" law, under which homosexuals were allowed to serve in the military only if they did not divulge their sexual orientation. ...

Penn State could incur steep penalty in probe of unreported crime

Posted: 19 Jul 2012 06:26 PM PDT

(Reuters) - Penn State University could face a record government penalty, potentially in the millions, for failing to report campus crime, including Jerry Sandusky's child sex abuse, experts said on Thursday. The Department of Education is investigating Penn State for possible violations of the Clery Act, which requires colleges to collect and report daily and annual crime statistics and issue timely warnings to students and others. ...

Illinois panel votes to expel indicted lawmaker from legislature

Posted: 19 Jul 2012 05:31 PM PDT

CHICAGO (Reuters) - A lawmaker from Chicago who has been indicted for bribery but has refused to resign his seat should be expelled from the Illinois Legislature, a special investigative panel recommended on Thursday. State House Representative Derrick Smith was arrested in March and charged with accepting a $7,000 bribe in exchange for endorsing a daycare center's state grant application. ...

Los Angeles opens newly planted park trampled in Occupy protest

Posted: 19 Jul 2012 03:31 PM PDT

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Police opened the gates to a revived Los Angeles City Hall Park Center on Thursday for the first time since November when a tent city of Occupy demonstrators turned it into a sandlot before they were evicted. But sign-waving protesters were barred from the $1 million project while local politicians and city workers held a press conference in the park. Concrete barriers with chain-link fencing remained on the edges of the park that covers a city block and surrounds City Hall. Newly posted rules prohibit camping. ...

Report finds private student loans riskier before financial crisis

Posted: 19 Jul 2012 05:01 PM PDT

(Reuters) - Borrowers who took out private student loans in the run-up to the financial crisis are facing higher levels of default, reflecting the risky lending practices at the time, the Obama administration said in a new report. The Department of Education and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau said private lenders have since cleaned up some of the worst activities, but lawmakers should still work to improve the private loan market and enhance protections for students. ...

Penn State did not fully cooperate in Sandusky probe: governor

Posted: 19 Jul 2012 05:03 PM PDT

HARRISBURG, Pennsylvania (Reuters) - Pennsylvania's governor said on Thursday that Penn State University officials may have intentionally withheld information from a grand jury looking into allegations of football coach Jerry Sandusky's child sex abuse. Penn State's cooperation in the Sandusky investigation, dating back to 2009, was "incomplete," despite a subpoena from the state attorney general, Governor Tom Corbett said at a news conference. Corbett was Pennsylvania's attorney general in 2009, before he was elected governor in 2010. ...

Defense lawyers say Guantanamo court rigged to deliver death sentence

Posted: 19 Jul 2012 04:06 PM PDT

GUANTANAMO BAY U.S. NAVAL BASE, Cuba (Reuters) - The Pentagon official overseeing the Guantanamo tribunal tried to rig the jury selection process to boost the odds of obtaining a death sentence for a prisoner accused of directing a deadly attack on a U.S. warship, defense lawyers alleged on Thursday. They asked the judge to drop the charges against Saudi defendant Abd al Rahim al Nashiri, an alleged al Qaeda chieftain who is accused of choosing and supplying the suicide bombers who drove a boat full of explosives into the side of the USS Cole off the coast of Yemen in 2000. ...

Allen Stanford moved to high-security Florida prison

Posted: 19 Jul 2012 09:20 AM PDT

HOUSTON (Reuters) - Allen Stanford, convicted of leading a $7 billion Ponzi scheme, is serving his 110-year sentence in a high-security federal prison in central Florida, according to the U.S. Bureau of Prisons. Stanford, 62, was moved to the Coleman II penitentiary on July 10 from the federal detention center in downtown Houston, a prison spokesman said. The Coleman II facility, located 50 miles northwest of Orlando, serves brunch on the weekend, has Bocce ball courts, a music center and a game room, according to the facility's orientation handbook. ...

NYC tax revenue may be less than expected: report

Posted: 19 Jul 2012 04:09 PM PDT

(Reuters) - New York City's business and income taxes may produce less revenue than expected in the budget year that began on July 1, creating a $150 million shortfall that could require the mayor to make more cuts to keep the budget balanced, a state monitor said on Thursday. The report said a sluggish national recovery and a weakening local economy made fiscal 2012 different from the past. Contrary to prior years, "taxes added little to the surplus because uncertain and contradictory economic signals did not permit the city to significantly raise its tax collection forecasts". ...

Non-partisan report sees no harm in tax hikes for wealthy

Posted: 19 Jul 2012 04:00 PM PDT

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Letting tax rates for the wealthy rise will not put a short-term damper on the economic recovery, according to a report by the non-partisan research arm of the U.S. Congress. The study by the Congressional Research Service is likely to be used by Democrats in the looming battle over whether to extend tax cuts originally enacted during the administration of President George W. Bush when they expire at the end of the year. Republicans want the cuts continued for all income groups while Democrats favor letting them expire for the most affluent Americans. ...

Penn State could incur steep penalty in probe of unreported crime

Posted: 19 Jul 2012 03:36 PM PDT

(Reuters) - Penn State University could face a record government penalty, potentially in the millions, for failing to report campus crime, including Jerry Sandusky's child sex abuse, experts said on Thursday. The U.S. Department of Education is investigating Penn State for possible violations of the Clery Act, which requires colleges to collect and report daily and annual crime statistics and issue timely warnings to students and others. ...

SpongeBob coins among Peregrine assets seized by FBI

Posted: 19 Jul 2012 04:51 PM PDT

CHICAGO (Reuters) - Silver SpongeBob SquarePants coins minted by a private company in New Zealand were among the assets seized by FBI agents from Peregrine Financial Group after its chief confessed to nearly 20 years of fraud last week. Ira Bodenstein, the trustee in Peregrine's bankruptcy case in Chicago, said the coins were in a vault at the firm's Cedar Falls, Iowa, headquarters. The value of the takings was not immediately clear. The coin disclosure adds a new twist to the case of Peregrine Finiancial Group CEO Russell Wasendorf Sr. ...

In Arizona, "America's toughest" sheriff on trial over discrimination claims

Posted: 19 Jul 2012 12:07 PM PDT

PHOENIX (Reuters) - Arizona's controversial Joe Arpaio, who calls himself America's toughest sheriff, went on trial Thursday in a class-action lawsuit alleging he discriminates against Latinos and legal immigrants in a zeal to crack down on illegal immigration. The case will test whether the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office (MCSO) can target the undocumented in immigration sweeps without racially profiling Hispanic citizens. ...

Pennsylvania pension woes weigh on credit ratings

Posted: 19 Jul 2012 03:45 PM PDT

(Reuters) - Credit rating agencies are warning Pennsylvania about the high cost of its pension system, with Standard & Poor's Ratings Services saying on Thursday that it could downgrade the state in the next two years if the problem isn't fixed. S&P changed its outlook on the state's debt to 'negative' from 'stable,' saying it was concerned in part about mounting spending pressure for public pensions amid a slow-growth economy. S&P affirmed the 'AA' credit rating on the state's GO debt, but said the rating could drop a notch if Pennsylvania does not enact pension reform. ...

Troubled California cities view on debt a concern: Moody's

Posted: 19 Jul 2012 10:18 AM PDT

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Defaults and bankruptcies by municipal bond issuers are likely to remain few but the cases of the California cities of Stockton and San Bernardino may signal unwillingness among financially troubled cities to pay their debt obligations, a Moody's Investors Service report released on Thursday said. ...

Analysis: Shoppers may be spared worst of corn price surge

Posted: 19 Jul 2012 02:41 PM PDT

NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. grain prices are soaring as the Midwest corn belt suffers its worst drought since 1956, but that doesn't mean grocery bills are about to jump. Easing costs of other commodities, hedging strategies aimed at keeping corn costs in line and fears of turning off consumers in a weak economy should all keep packaged food companies from hiking prices, at least in the short term. "The spike is isolated, and thank goodness it is, because these companies have no room for pricing," said Edward Jones analyst Jack Russo. ...

Rains too late for some drought-savaged corn fields

Posted: 19 Jul 2012 01:41 PM PDT

CHICAGO (Reuters) - Indiana farmer Brian Scott saw on Thursday the heaviest rains of the year soak his 2,300-acre farm in the throes of the worst drought in five decades, but they were a mixed blessing at best. The downpour came too late for his corn crop, which was already past the critical stage of setting yields. His soybeans, though, could get better and set more pods. For growers like Scott across the U.S. Midwest farm belt, even unexpectedly heavy rains like the one on Thursday are coming too late for their corn crop to recover from the drought. ...

New York area homeowners turning to "lawn painting"

Posted: 19 Jul 2012 01:30 PM PDT

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Despite the summer's persistent heat waves, the grass really is greener in some neighborhoods in New York and New Jersey. Homeowners with brown, dried-up lawns are turning to "lawn painting" to liven up their yards. Business is booming, according to Joe Perazzo, who launched his lawn painting company in New York's most suburban borough of Staten Island a few years ago, inspired by the tinting process used to color professional athletic fields. Other companies have sprung up in the region and elsewhere in the country. ...

Hyatt son to turn Chicago building into boutique hotel

Posted: 19 Jul 2012 12:39 PM PDT

(Reuters) - One of Chicago's historic Michigan Avenue buildings has been purchased by the son of late Hyatt Hotels Corp founder Jay Pritzker and an investment company, a spokesman for the investment firm AJ Capital Partners said on Thursday. John Pritzker and AJ Capital Partners will pay $13 million for the Chicago Athletic Association building, and another $47 million to turn it into a boutique luxury hotel, said Jeff Broaden of AJ Capital, who manages investor relations, said in an email message. ...

Contested Tennessee mosque will not open in time for Ramadan

Posted: 19 Jul 2012 01:30 PM PDT

(Reuters) - A newly constructed Muslim mosque in Tennessee, the subject of a long-running fight in the community, did not receive building inspectors' clearance to open in time for the start of Ramadan on Thursday. The Islamic Center of Murfreesboro said it had learned that several more construction steps that could take 10 days to complete would be needed to obtain an occupancy certificate. Opponents of the Islamic Center, which replaces a 30-year-old facility, have tried to stop it since local authorities approved the mosque in 2010. They claim Islam was not protected by the U.S. ...

Active duty military may don uniforms at San Diego gay pride parade

Posted: 19 Jul 2012 07:00 PM PDT

(Reuters) - The Department of Defense, in a first-of-its-kind move, will allow active duty members of all branches of the U.S. military to don their service uniforms while marching in an upcoming San Diego gay pride parade, event organizers said on Thursday. The move, confirmed in an internal defense memo, marks the first time the military has granted such blanket permission since the September repeal of the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy, under which gay individuals were allowed to serve in the military only if they did not divulge their sexual orientation. ...