Kin of Colorado theater victims want guns discussed in presidential debate

Kin of Colorado theater victims want guns discussed in presidential debate
California lawmaker offers to revise "anti-Arizona" immigration bill
Republican senators: U.S. oil reserves should be kept for emergency
New Mexico removes "forcible" from state regulation mentioning rape
Veterans agency shaken over wasted expenses, official resigns
Company officials struggled with Minneapolis shooter: police
Supreme Court rejects appeal on airport scanners
Amtrak train derails in central California, 30 injured
End of payroll, Bush tax cuts top "fiscal cliff" fears: study
Arizona attorney general to face campaign finance complaint
Boy Scouts to report suspected pedophiles to U.S. authorities
Supreme Court may narrow law in human rights cases
Siblings admit to US bank robbery in multistate crime spree
Butch Cassidy's gun draws $175,000 in California auction
Most Americans doubt Scientology is true religion: poll
Jewish prisoner argues Texas must provide kosher food
FDA chief says scarce funding hobbles sweeping food safety regulations
Supreme Court won't review 1993 WTC bombing liability case
Supreme Court rejects kosher meat plant manager's appeal
AmEx to refund $85 million to credit card customers
Guantanamo detainee having tough time back in Canada: lawyer
Duke Energy says Crystal River nuclear repair could exceed $3 billion
Supreme Court rejects appeal over Merrill broker bias
Supreme Court rejects worker harassment case
Judge could rule Monday on Pennsylvania voter ID law
California governor vetoes bill curbing deportation checks
Bonnie, Clyde guns stay together after high bidder pays $500,000
Body of Canada man missing for 18 months recovered in Nevada
California lawmaker offers to revise "anti-Arizona" immigration bill
Kin of Colorado theater victims want guns discussed in presidential debate
Company officials struggled with Minneapolis shooter: police
New Mexico removes "forcible" from state regulation mentioning rape
Veterans agency shaken over wasted expenses, official resigns
Amtrak train derails in central California, 30 injured
Republican senators: U.S. oil reserves should be kept for emergency
Boy Scouts to report suspected pedophiles to U.S. authorities
Arizona attorney general to face campaign finance complaint

Posted: 01 Oct 2012 05:32 PM PDT

DENVER (Reuters) - Relatives of victims of a Colorado movie theater shooting rampage demanded on Monday that President Barack Obama and Mitt Romney address gun violence in their first presidential debate this week in Denver. In a letter to debate moderator Jim Lehrer, relatives of eight of the 12 people who died at a midnight screening of "The Dark Knight Rises" in July urged him to ask the men who want to lead the country about mass shootings in Colorado at Wednesday night's debate. "To ignore the problem of gun violence where two of the worst shootings in U.S. ...

California lawmaker offers to revise "anti-Arizona" immigration bill

Posted: 01 Oct 2012 06:13 PM PDT

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - A California lawmaker offered on Monday to revise a proposed law to shield some illegal immigrants from federal status checks, a day after the state's Democratic governor vetoed the bill as "fatally flawed." The bill as written would have barred local authorities from honoring federal detention requests on illegal immigrants, which may lead to deportation, unless those individuals were charged or convicted of a serious or violent felony. ...

Republican senators: U.S. oil reserves should be kept for emergency

Posted: 01 Oct 2012 03:05 PM PDT

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Strategic reserves of oil should be kept for true supply shocks seven top Republicans in the Senate told President Barack Obama on Monday, urging the White House to avoid tapping stockpiles unless there is a "severe" disruption. The White House has said for months it was considering the merits of selling oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, or SPR, as a tool for dealing with oil prices spooked higher by Middle East tensions and Western restrictions on Iranian oil sales. ...

New Mexico removes "forcible" from state regulation mentioning rape

Posted: 01 Oct 2012 03:43 PM PDT

SANTA FE, New Mexico (Reuters) - A New Mexico official on Monday said the state removed the word "forcible" from the description of rape in a proposed change to a regulation setting out the conditions under which a parent could qualify for state child care assistance. The word was removed after critics highlighted the term in the wake of a controversy over Missouri Republican U.S. Senate candidate Todd Akin's comment that women have natural defenses that prevent pregnancy from "legitimate rape. ...

Veterans agency shaken over wasted expenses, official resigns

Posted: 01 Oct 2012 03:20 PM PDT

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Department of Veterans Affairs acknowledged "serious lapses in oversight" on Monday and a senior official resigned as an investigation detailed funds wasted on elaborate conferences and said employees got gifts like massages and helicopter rides. The revelations came just months after a scandal and shake-up at another U.S. federal agency, the General Services Administration, also over a lavish conference, and renewed questions about lax supervision of taxpayer dollars in a presidential election year. ...

Company officials struggled with Minneapolis shooter: police

Posted: 01 Oct 2012 04:00 PM PDT

MINNEAPOLIS (Reuters) - Two company officials battled a worker they had just fired for tardiness and poor performance when he embarked upon a shooting rampage that killed five people and wounded three at a Minneapolis sign manufacturer last week, police said on Monday. Minneapolis police on Monday released more details about the investigation into Andrew Engeldinger's shooting spree at Accent Signage Systems Inc. on Thursday, the worst work-place shooting on record in Minnesota. ...

Supreme Court rejects appeal on airport scanners

Posted: 01 Oct 2012 01:18 PM PDT

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Supreme Court on Monday refused to consider a Michigan blogger's challenge of the use of full-body scanners and thorough pat-downs at airport checkpoints. Without comment, the court declined to take up Jonathan Corbett's complaint that the Transportation Security Administration's use of the screening techniques violated passengers' protection against illegal searches under the Fourth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. ...

Amtrak train derails in central California, 30 injured

Posted: 01 Oct 2012 03:08 PM PDT

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Some 30 people were injured on Monday when a tractor-trailer truck crashed through a rail crossing signal and collided with an Amtrak passenger train in central California, causing the train to derail, authorities said. There were no immediate reports of fatalities or critical injuries from the accident near the city of Hanford, about 30 miles south of Fresno, Kings County Assistant Sheriff Dave Putnam said. "It doesn't appear that there are major injuries," Putnam said, describing the injuries as mostly cuts, scrapes and broken bones. ...

End of payroll, Bush tax cuts top "fiscal cliff" fears: study

Posted: 01 Oct 2012 12:38 PM PDT

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - If Congress does nothing and the United States plunges off the "fiscal cliff" in three months, taxes would rise for 90 percent of Americans due to automatic increases in income and payroll taxes and other financial shocks, said a report issued on Monday. In the latest forecast of trouble ahead if Capitol Hill cannot overcome its fiscal paralysis, the Tax Policy Center, a Washington think tank, predicted taxes would rise by $500 billion in 2013, or an average of almost $3,500 per household. At the same time, government spending would shrink, reducing the budget deficit. ...

Arizona attorney general to face campaign finance complaint

Posted: 01 Oct 2012 02:52 PM PDT

PHOENIX (Reuters) - An Arizona county prosecutor will pursue a civil complaint against state Attorney General Tom Horne and a political associate, accusing them of violating campaign finance laws in 2010 when Horne ran for office, the prosecutor said on Monday. Maricopa County Attorney Bill Montgomery said the enforcement action accuses Horne, a Republican, of orchestrating the efforts of an independent committee run by ally Kathleen Winn that pumped an estimated $500,000 into campaign advertisements against Horne's opponent. ...

Boy Scouts to report suspected pedophiles to U.S. authorities

Posted: 01 Oct 2012 02:55 PM PDT

(Reuters) - The Boy Scouts of America is preparing to report to law enforcement the names of hundreds of adult leaders who have confessed to or been accused of molesting scouts since the 1960s, a spokesman said Monday. The Boy Scouts' policy since last year has required accusations or incidents of child molestation to be immediately reported to authorities. Before then, reporting requirements differed from state to state depending on local laws, which raised questions about how many incidents went unreported over the years. ...

Supreme Court may narrow law in human rights cases

Posted: 01 Oct 2012 01:19 PM PDT

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Supreme Court seemed skeptical on Monday of allowing victims of human rights abuses to sue in American courts against the foreign corporations accused of aiding in the atrocities. But in oral arguments in one of the court's biggest human rights cases in years, some justices suggested they might not close U.S. courts to similar claims against individuals, including those who take refuge in the United States, or to claims involving U.S. companies. ...

Siblings admit to US bank robbery in multistate crime spree

Posted: 01 Oct 2012 11:38 AM PDT

ATLANTA (Reuters) - Two siblings serving lengthy prison sentences in Colorado in connection with a multistate crime spree pleaded guilty on Monday to related federal bank robbery and firearms charges in Georgia. Lee Grace Dougherty, 30, and her brother Ryan Edward Dougherty, 23, admitted to stealing $5,168 from a bank in Valdosta on August 2, 2011. They face decades-long sentences for the Georgia charges when they are sentenced on December 17. ...

Butch Cassidy's gun draws $175,000 in California auction

Posted: 01 Oct 2012 03:13 PM PDT

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - A gun the Wild West outlaw Butch Cassidy wielded in the late 19th century and later tried to exchange for amnesty has drawn a $175,000 bid at a California auction house, the owner of the company said on Monday. The Colt revolver was turned over to a sheriff in Utah in 1899 as part of Cassidy's failed attempt to obtain amnesty from the state's governor, said John Eubanks of California Auctioneers & Appraisers. "He tried to become a regular citizen by turning over his guns," Eubanks said. ...

Most Americans doubt Scientology is true religion: poll

Posted: 01 Oct 2012 01:31 PM PDT

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Most Americans do not think Scientology is a true religion, more people would prefer to win an Olympic gold medal than a Pulitzer prize and celebrity endorsements do not carry much weight, according to a new poll released on Monday. Seventy percent of respondents to the 60 Minutes/Vanity Fair poll said the controversial Church of Scientology, which is popular with Hollywood stars such as Tom Cruise and John Travolta, was not a real religion, but 13 percent said that it was. ...

Jewish prisoner argues Texas must provide kosher food

Posted: 01 Oct 2012 01:53 PM PDT

NEW ORLEANS (Reuters) - Lawyers for an imprisoned Jewish man argued in court on Monday that the state of Texas is violating his religious freedom by failing to provide him with kosher meals. Max Moussazadeh, convicted of murder, has been in a Texas prison for 19 years after he served as a lookout during a robbery in which a partner shot and killed a man. He filed a 2005 federal lawsuit accusing the prison system of failing to offer him kosher food, though it accommodated inmates with special dietary needs such as diabetics. ...

FDA chief says scarce funding hobbles sweeping food safety regulations

Posted: 01 Oct 2012 02:14 PM PDT

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Food and Drug Administration said it is having difficulty implementing expansive new rules to improve food safety, nearly two years after President Barack Obama signed the standards into law, because of a lack of funding. FDA chief Margaret Hamburg predicted on Monday that her agency "very soon" will issue new regulations needed to enforce the Food Safety Modernization Act, a sweeping piece of legislation enacted to upgrade the security of the U.S. food supply after a deadly salmonella outbreak in 2009. ...

Supreme Court won't review 1993 WTC bombing liability case

Posted: 01 Oct 2012 10:30 AM PDT

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Supreme Court on Monday let stand a lower court's finding that the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey was not legally responsible for failing to prevent a 1993 truck bombing in the World Trade Center's parking garage. Without comment, the justices rejected an appeal by Antonio Ruiz, a man injured in the blast, who accused the Port Authority of failing to provide adequate security in the garage. ...

Supreme Court rejects kosher meat plant manager's appeal

Posted: 01 Oct 2012 09:04 AM PDT

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Supreme Court on Monday rejected an appeal by the former chief executive of a kosher meat packing plant in Iowa who was sentenced to 27 years in prison on charges of financial fraud. Without comment, the high court refused to consider whether Sholom Rubashkin's sentence was excessive for a first-time, nonviolent offender and whether he was entitled to a new trial based on evidence of alleged judicial misconduct in the case. The case had sparked an outcry from members of the legal and Orthodox Jewish communities who supported Rubashkin's quest for a new trial. ...

AmEx to refund $85 million to credit card customers

Posted: 01 Oct 2012 10:34 AM PDT

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - American Express will refund $85 million to customers to resolve charges that three subsidiaries broke consumer protection laws across the credit card business, U.S. regulators said on Monday. Subsidiaries misrepresented the perks consumers would receive if they enrolled in a credit card program, charged certain consumers higher late fees than were legally permissible, misled consumers about debt collection and committed other violations, the U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau said. ...

Guantanamo detainee having tough time back in Canada: lawyer

Posted: 01 Oct 2012 11:47 AM PDT

OTTAWA (Reuters) - Guantanamo detainee Omar Khadr, who was transferred to a prison in his Canadian homeland over the weekend, is having a difficult time adapting to his new circumstances, one of the inmate's lawyers said on Monday. Khadr, the youngest prisoner and last Westerner held in the U.S. military prison on Cuban soil, returned to Canada on Saturday to finish his sentence. He had spent almost 10 years in Guantanamo. He was 15 years old when captured in Afghanistan and later confessed to killing a U.S. soldier and conspiring with al Qaeda. ...

Duke Energy says Crystal River nuclear repair could exceed $3 billion

Posted: 01 Oct 2012 01:14 PM PDT

HOUSTON (Reuters) - Returning the damaged Crystal River nuclear unit in Florida to service could cost $3 billion and take eight years, according to an independent review of repair options commissioned by Duke Energy as it pursued a merger with Progress Energy earlier this year, the utility said in a filing Monday. ...

Supreme Court rejects appeal over Merrill broker bias

Posted: 01 Oct 2012 07:06 AM PDT

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Supreme Court on Monday refused to consider an appeal by Bank of America Corp's Merrill Lynch unit of a ruling that allowed black brokers who accused it of bias to pursue their lawsuit as a class action. Merrill contended that the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago misinterpreted a 2011 Supreme Court decision, in a case known as Wal-Mart Stores Inc v. Dukes, that made it significantly harder to pursue class-action cases. ...

Supreme Court rejects worker harassment case

Posted: 01 Oct 2012 07:16 AM PDT

(Reuters) - The Supreme Court on Monday refused to consider an appeal by a white dockworker seeking to hold his employer responsible for harassment by co-workers for his having picketed on behalf of minority employees. John Ketterer complained that white co-workers at the Yellow Transportation Inc terminal in Dallas subjected him to harassment including obscene slurs, circling him in a threatening way and throwing a lit firecracker at him for his support of black and Hispanic co-workers. He also said he faced retaliation based in part on his having twice been fired, though later reinstated. ...

Judge could rule Monday on Pennsylvania voter ID law

Posted: 01 Oct 2012 07:17 AM PDT

HARRISBURG, Pennsylvania (Reuters) - A judge was expected to rule Monday on whether a new Pennsylvania voter identification law gives voters liberal access to the documents needed to cast a ballot or should be blocked as restrictive five weeks before Election Day. Commonwealth Judge Robert Simpson said he planned to rule on the law before an October 2 deadline imposed by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court when it ordered him to reconsider his August decision upholding the law. ...

California governor vetoes bill curbing deportation checks

Posted: 30 Sep 2012 10:34 PM PDT

SACRAMENTO (Reuters) - California Governor Jerry Brown vetoed an immigration measure dubbed the "anti-Arizona" bill late on Sunday that would shield some illegal immigrants from federal status checks. The bill would have prohibited local authorities from honoring federal detention requests, which may lead to deportation proceedings, on illegal immigrants unless those individuals were charged or convicted of a serious or violent felony. ...

Bonnie, Clyde guns stay together after high bidder pays $500,000

Posted: 30 Sep 2012 08:34 PM PDT

LITTLETON, New Hampshire (Reuters) - Two pistols found on the bodies of famed Depression-era outlaws Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow after they were killed by a posse in 1934 have sold at auction on Sunday for $504,000. A snub-nosed .38 special found taped to the inside of Parker's thigh with white medical tape fetched $264,000 at an auction in Nashua, New Hampshire. A Colt .45 recovered from the waistband of Barrow's pants was purchased for $240,000. The guns owned by Parker, who died at age 23, and Barrow, who was 25, were purchased by a Texas collector who wished to remain anonymous. ...

Body of Canada man missing for 18 months recovered in Nevada

Posted: 01 Oct 2012 06:31 PM PDT

(Reuters) - The remains of a Canadian man who got lost in the Nevada wilderness 18 months ago have been recovered seven miles from where he became stranded with his wife while relying on a GPS device to navigate, authorities said on Monday. Hunters looking for elk in the rugged mountains of northern Nevada on Sunday discovered the body of Albert Chretien, 59, who left the couple's van on March 22, 2011, to seek help on foot, Elko County Sheriff's detective Jim Carpenter said. ...

California lawmaker offers to revise "anti-Arizona" immigration bill

Posted: 01 Oct 2012 06:13 PM PDT

Kin of Colorado theater victims want guns discussed in presidential debate

Posted: 01 Oct 2012 05:32 PM PDT

Company officials struggled with Minneapolis shooter: police

Posted: 01 Oct 2012 04:00 PM PDT

New Mexico removes "forcible" from state regulation mentioning rape

Posted: 01 Oct 2012 03:43 PM PDT

Veterans agency shaken over wasted expenses, official resigns

Posted: 01 Oct 2012 03:20 PM PDT

Amtrak train derails in central California, 30 injured

Posted: 01 Oct 2012 03:08 PM PDT