Pension debt overwhelms bankrupt San Bernardino, California

Pension debt overwhelms bankrupt San Bernardino, California
Peterson jury hears paramedic tell of cold, waxy body
NYC cut pensions for police in military: lawsuit
Ex-pastor of Indiana church investigated for sex with teen
Obama: Penn State punishment "appropriate" in Sandusky scandal
Justice Department: California should not let illegal immigrant practice law
U.S. nuclear bomb facility shut after security breach
Close call for three jets over Washington airport
Mexican ex-governor tells U.S. judge he laundered drug money
Terminal at Chicago O'Hare partially closed amid probe
Second Air Force trainer guilty in sex scandal
Abuse by grandmother decades ago killed Texas woman: police
Iowa governor moves out of mansion because of black mold
Massachusetts governor signs "three strikes" bill
New York tests social impact bond investing with Goldman Sachs
Missouri Catholic priest pleads guilty in child porn case
Peterson jury hears paramedic tell of cold, waxy body
Chick-fil-A plucks one-day record from gay marriage blowup
Drought worsens in U.S. farm states-climatologists
Psychiatrist warned university about accused Colorado gunman: report
Light rain as weather system shifts
Con Edison cuts voltage in parts of NYC for repairs
Mississippi River traffic halted as vessels run aground
Bristol-Myers executive charged with insider trading
Retailers cautious after discounts boost July sales
Judge rejects second request for mistrial in Drew Peterson case
Americans turn less to cigarettes, but find substitutes
Duke CEO says in settlement talks with NC officials
U.S. probing air traffic controllers after US Airways incident
Private firms eyeing profits from public schools
Ex-pastor of Indiana church investigated for sex with teen
Peterson jury hears paramedic tell of cold, waxy body
Pension debt overwhelms bankrupt San Bernardino, California
Justice Department: California should not let illegal immigrant practice law
Second Air Force trainer guilty in sex scandal
Abuse by grandmother decades ago killed Texas woman: police
U.S. nuclear bomb facility shut after security breach
Missouri Catholic priest pleads guilty in child porn case
Close call for three jets over Washington airport
NYC cut pensions for police in military: lawsuit

Posted: 02 Aug 2012 04:53 PM PDT

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - San Bernardino, the third California city to seek bankruptcy protection since June, is saddled with huge pension debt and will produce details of those unfunded obligations within 15 days, its mayor said on Thursday. The city filed for bankruptcy protection on Wednesday, citing over $1 billion in estimated liabilities and up to 25,000 creditors, many of whom are the city's own employees. The city, 65 miles east of Los Angeles, also listed estimated assets as over $1 billion. Patrick J. ...

Peterson jury hears paramedic tell of cold, waxy body

Posted: 02 Aug 2012 06:10 PM PDT

JOLIET, Illinois (Reuters) - A paramedic who testified on Thursday at the murder trial of Drew Peterson, a former police officer accused of killing his third wife, said her body was cold and waxy in the bathtub where he found her. Kathleen Savio's body was found in a bathtub in 2004 and the death was initially considered an accidental drowning. But suspicions were raised when Peterson's fourth wife, Stacy Peterson, disappeared in 2007. Savio's body was exhumed and reexamined and Peterson was charged with murder. ...

NYC cut pensions for police in military: lawsuit

Posted: 02 Aug 2012 03:06 PM PDT

NEW YORK (Reuters) - New York City was sued by the U.S. government on Thursday over allegations it unlawfully reduced pension benefits for police officers who have served in the military since the September 11, 2001, attacks. The class action accused the city of using only police officers' base pay to calculate benefits. Under the law, an employer must take into account the compensation that the service member would likely have earned had he or she not been performing military service, the lawsuit said. ...

Ex-pastor of Indiana church investigated for sex with teen

Posted: 02 Aug 2012 06:12 PM PDT

CHICAGO (Reuters) - The former pastor of an Indiana Baptist megachurch is being investigated for sexual relations with a teenage girl, and the church is cooperating with authorities probing whether any of the behavior was criminal, a church official said on Thursday. Jack Schaap, 54 and pastor for 11 years at the First Baptist Church of Hammond, confessed to having sex with a member of the church when she was 16, said Eddie Wilson, director of public relations for the church. ...

Obama: Penn State punishment "appropriate" in Sandusky scandal

Posted: 02 Aug 2012 02:54 PM PDT

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama said the NCAA penalties imposed on Penn State University for the school's failure to stop football coach Jerry Sandusky's sexual abuse of children were "appropriate" punishment. The NCAA, the governing body of U.S. college sports, fined Penn State $60 million and voided its football victories for the past 14 seasons in an unprecedented rebuke last month over the Sandusky scandal. ...

Justice Department: California should not let illegal immigrant practice law

Posted: 02 Aug 2012 04:38 PM PDT

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - The Department of Justice told California's high court on Thursday that it should not allow an illegal immigrant to practice law in the state even though he passed the bar exam and has the backing of state officials. The amicus brief, filed after the California Supreme Court sought the Justice Department's guidance in the closely watched test case, was a blow against the efforts by Sergio Garcia, 35, to win his law license despite his immigration status. ...

U.S. nuclear bomb facility shut after security breach

Posted: 02 Aug 2012 03:50 PM PDT

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. government's only facility for handling, processing and storing weapons-grade uranium has been temporarily shut after anti-nuclear activists, including an 82-year-old nun, breached security fences, government officials said on Thursday. WSI Oak Ridge, the contractor responsible for protecting the facility at Oak Ridge, Tennessee, is owned by the international security firm G4S, which was at the center of a dispute over security at the London Olympic Games. ...

Close call for three jets over Washington airport

Posted: 02 Aug 2012 03:12 PM PDT

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Three U.S. Airways flights came too close to one another this week over Washington's Reagan National Airport because of "miscommunication" between the control tower and a regional hub, U.S. transportation officials said Thursday. Two of the regional commuter jets took off in the direction of an incoming flight with inadequate separation in the incident on Tuesday afternoon, federal officials said. ...

Mexican ex-governor tells U.S. judge he laundered drug money

Posted: 02 Aug 2012 02:49 PM PDT

NEW YORK (Reuters) - A former Mexican state governor pleaded guilty in a New York federal court on Thursday to conspiring to launder millions of dollars of cocaine trafficking proceeds. Mario Villanueva,64, governor of Quintana Roo state from 1993 to 1999, was extradited to the United States in May 2010 after serving a six-year sentence in Mexico for money laundering. The state is home to the famous seaside resort city of Cancun. The money transfers were administered by Consuelo Marquez, a Lehman Brothers investment representative who pleaded guilty to money laundering charges in 2005. ...

Terminal at Chicago O'Hare partially closed amid probe

Posted: 02 Aug 2012 02:30 PM PDT

CHICAGO (Reuters) - The Transportation Security Administration temporarily suspended passenger screening in one part of Chicago O'Hare International Airport on Thursday as agents conducted a "suspicious activity" investigation. The TSA closed its security checkpoint at Terminal 2 but did not evacuate the facility, which remains open to inbound and outbound flights, said Gregg Cunningham with the Chicago Department of Aviation. The suspicious activity was not immediately explained. ...

Second Air Force trainer guilty in sex scandal

Posted: 02 Aug 2012 04:35 PM PDT

SAN ANTONIO (Reuters) - A second Air Force trainer has been convicted in connection with the widening sexual misconduct scandal at Lackland Air Force Base in Texas. Technical Sergeant Christopher Smith, 33, was found guilty late Wednesday on charges of having unprofessional relationships with two female basic trainees and faces up to a year in prison. Seven Lackland training instructors have been charged with sexual misconduct at the Army's Ordnance Center and School in Aberdeen, Maryland, in the largest sex scandal to hit the U.S. military since the 1990s. ...

Abuse by grandmother decades ago killed Texas woman: police

Posted: 02 Aug 2012 04:21 PM PDT

AUSTIN, Texas (Reuters) - Linda Gatica survived head injuries caused by child abuse when she was a baby, but more than three decades later they finally killed her in what Texas police are now calling a murder. Yet investigators said on Thursday they aren't hunting for a suspect in the murder of Gatica, who was 36 when she died in May at an Austin care facility for people with mental disabilities. That's because they believe the killer to be Gatica's long-dead grandmother, Martha Gatica, who abused her when she was 4 months old. ...

Iowa governor moves out of mansion because of black mold

Posted: 02 Aug 2012 02:59 PM PDT

DES MOINES (Reuters) - Governor Terry Branstad and his wife Chris have moved out of the Iowa governor's mansion in Des Moines after black mold was found in their third-floor residence, a spokeswoman said. Chris Branstad had not been feeling well for a few weeks and suggested her sickness might be caused by something at Terrace Hill, the state-owned mansion that has been home to Iowa governors since 1976. Tests were done on the mansion and confirmed black mold on the third floor, which was converted into living quarters for the state's governor and family. ...

Massachusetts governor signs "three strikes" bill

Posted: 02 Aug 2012 03:03 PM PDT

BOSTON (Reuters) - A tough new Massachusetts crime bill that imposes a "three strikes" rule on violent repeat offenders was signed into law on Thursday. Democratic Governor Deval Patrick signed the legislation, known as Melissa's Bill, in a private ceremony, a spokeswoman said. The law was named for Melissa Gosule, a young Massachusetts teacher who was kidnapped, raped and murdered in 1999 by a repeat violent criminal offender out on parole. ...

New York tests social impact bond investing with Goldman Sachs

Posted: 02 Aug 2012 12:10 PM PDT

(Reuters) - Goldman Sachs will invest nearly $10 million in a New York City jails program, using an innovative financial instrument in which private investments fund public social services, Mayor Michael Bloomberg said on Thursday. Goldman will create one of the nation's first "social service bonds" to help fund a New York City program that aims to lower the 50 percent recidivism rate among youthful offenders jailed at the Rikers Island correctional facility. ...

Missouri Catholic priest pleads guilty in child porn case

Posted: 02 Aug 2012 03:19 PM PDT

KANSAS CITY, Missouri (Reuters) - A Kansas City Catholic priest pleaded guilty to federal child pornography charges on Thursday, admitting to the crimes just weeks before he was scheduled to go on trial for taking sexually explicit photos of several young girls. Shawn Ratigan, 46, pleaded guilty to four counts of producing child pornography and one count of attempting to produce child pornography using girls as young as 2 years old. The photos, taken with still cameras and a cell phone, included close-up pictures of the children's genitals. ...

Peterson jury hears paramedic tell of cold, waxy body

Posted: 02 Aug 2012 02:18 PM PDT

JOLIET, Illinois (Reuters) - The paramedic who testified on Thursday at the murder trial of Drew Peterson, a former police officer accused of killing his third wife, said her body was cold and waxy in the bathtub where he found her. Kathleen Savio's body was found in a bathtub in 2004 and the death was initially considered an accidental drowning. But suspicions were raised when Peterson's fourth wife, Stacy Peterson, disappeared in 2007. Savio's body was exhumed and reexamined and Peterson was charged with murder. ...

Chick-fil-A plucks one-day record from gay marriage blowup

Posted: 02 Aug 2012 09:57 AM PDT

(Reuters) - Adding a bit of controversy to the menu doesn't seem to have hurt Chick-fil-A. The chain restaurant had a "record-setting day" on Wednesday, according to a spokesman, as customers descended on its roughly 1,600 locations across the United States in support of its president's contentious stance against gay marriage. ...

Drought worsens in U.S. farm states-climatologists

Posted: 02 Aug 2012 10:07 AM PDT

(Reuters) - The worst U.S. drought in 56 years intensified over the past week as above-normal temperatures and scant rainfall parched corn and soybean crops across the Midwest and central Plains, a report from climate experts said on Thursday. The drought became more severe in the southern United States as well, just a year removed from a record-breaking dry spell that ruined crops and wilted grazing pastures across Texas and Oklahoma enough to force an unprecedented northward migration of cattle. ...

Psychiatrist warned university about accused Colorado gunman: report

Posted: 01 Aug 2012 08:52 PM PDT

DENVER (Reuters) - A psychiatrist who treated the former graduate student accused of killing 12 people in a shooting rampage at a movie theater in Colorado warned her university about him more than a month before the massacre, a published report said on Wednesday. Dr Lynne Fenton notified a so-called threat-assessment team at the University of Colorado, Denver, in early June that she was alarmed by the behavior of James Holmes, but no further action was taken, the Denver Post reported, citing an anonymous source. Reuters could not immediately confirm the report. ...

Light rain as weather system shifts

Posted: 02 Aug 2012 12:16 PM PDT

CHICAGO (Reuters) - The drought-hit U.S. Midwest will be left high and dry as fresh weather updates indicate a tropical weather system now at the edge of the Caribbean Sea will not bring any moisture to the area when it makes landfall in about 10 days, an agricultural meteorologist said on Thursday. Known as tropical depression 5, the system initially was expected to reach landfall on August 11-12 near Beaumont, Texas near the Texas-Louisiana border and potentially bring rain into the drought-stricken U.S. Plains and Midwest, according to Drew Lerner, meteorologist for World Weather Inc. ...

Con Edison cuts voltage in parts of NYC for repairs

Posted: 02 Aug 2012 08:57 AM PDT

(Reuters) - New York power company Consolidated Edison said on Thursday it was reducing voltage by 5 percent in neighborhoods of the Bronx and Manhattan to make repairs to electrical equipment. The areas affected by the reduction in voltage include the communities of Riverdale, Marble Hill, Kingsbridge and Van Cortlandt Park in the Bronx; and Inwood and Washington Heights in Manhattan, the company said in a statement. Repairs were being made on equipment serving those areas, and at this time customers were not asked to take any special measures, the company said. ...

Mississippi River traffic halted as vessels run aground

Posted: 02 Aug 2012 12:57 PM PDT

(Reuters) - The Mississippi River was closed to traffic at two locations on Thursday as barge tows ran aground near Greenville, Arkansas, and La Crosse, Wisconsin, due to low water amid the worst U.S. drought in 56 years, private and government sources said. It was unclear when the key shipping waterway might be reopened to commercial traffic, they said. Low water has restricted barge drafts to a lighter-than-normal nine feet and limited barge tows to fewer barges on numerous sections of the Mississippi River. ...

Bristol-Myers executive charged with insider trading

Posted: 02 Aug 2012 10:08 AM PDT

(Reuters) - A Bristol-Myers Squibb Co executive has been criminally charged with insider trading, accused of buying options in three companies that the drugmaker was looking to buy. Prosecutors said Robert Ramnarine, 45, made about $311,361 in illegal profit between August 2010 and July 2012 by buying call options in ZymoGenetics Inc and Pharmasset Inc and call and put options in Amylin Pharmaceuticals Inc, shortly before those pharmaceutical companies agreed to takeovers. ...

Retailers cautious after discounts boost July sales

Posted: 02 Aug 2012 09:59 AM PDT

(Reuters) - Retailers reported stronger-than-expected sales for July, but the gains were largely due to discounting and do not necessarily signal vigorous consumer spending for the rest of the year. The sales reports also show signs of troubles are surfacing at some teen apparel chains as the back-to-school shopping season gets into full swing. U.S. sales at stores open at least a year rose 4.6 percent in July, well above the analysts' average forecast of 3.1 percent, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S. The figures exclude drugstores. ...

Judge rejects second request for mistrial in Drew Peterson case

Posted: 02 Aug 2012 09:50 AM PDT

JOLIET, Illinois (Reuters) - A judge rejected a second request to declare a mistrial in the case of former suburban Chicago policeman Drew Peterson accused of killing his third wife, who was found dead in a dry bathtub in 2004. There is little physical evidence linking Peterson to the death of Kathleen Savio, so prosecutors have been trying to introduce testimony this week that Peterson made threats and tried to hire a hit man. Defense attorneys have objected to the testimony as hearsay, and have asked twice for a mistrial. ...

Americans turn less to cigarettes, but find substitutes

Posted: 02 Aug 2012 09:37 AM PDT

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - While more Americans than ever before are quitting their cigarette habit, a growing number are also turning to large cigars and pipes, suggesting that gains in curbing tobacco consumption may be more elusive than previously thought. The findings were outlined in a report released on Thursday by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Overall consumption of smoked tobacco products declined 27.5 percent between 2000 and 2011, but use of noncigarette smoked tobacco products increased by a whopping 123 percent in that same time. ...

Duke CEO says in settlement talks with NC officials

Posted: 02 Aug 2012 09:19 AM PDT

(Reuters) - Duke Energy is in negotiations with North Carolina regulators and the state attorney general over its controversial ousting of its former chief executive in the hours after it closed its takeover of Progress Energy, its CEO said on Thursday. Jim Rogers, who was returned to the top job at Duke after the board sought the resignation of his replacement, would not comment on the nature of the talks with the North Carolina Utilities Commission, which held hearings on the surprise CEO switch last month. ...

U.S. probing air traffic controllers after US Airways incident

Posted: 02 Aug 2012 08:00 AM PDT

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. officials said on Thursday they are investigating "miscommunication" this week that led three US Airways planes - two outbound and one inbound - to approach unacceptably close to each other over Washington's Reagan National Airport. In a statement about the incident, the Federal Aviation Administration said bad weather south of the nation's capital on Tuesday forced controllers to divert planes to a different runway. "During the switchover of operations, miscommunication ... ...

Private firms eyeing profits from public schools

Posted: 02 Aug 2012 07:18 AM PDT

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The investors gathered in a tony private club in Manhattan were eager to hear about the next big thing, and education consultant Rob Lytle was happy to oblige. Think about the upcoming rollout of new national academic standards for public schools, he urged the crowd. If they're as rigorous as advertised, a huge number of schools will suddenly look really bad, their students testing way behind in reading and math. They'll want help, quick. And private, for-profit vendors selling lesson plans, educational software and student assessments will be right there to provide it. ...