First jurors picked in Sandusky sex abuse trial

First jurors picked in Sandusky sex abuse trial
Obama, Bill Clinton court New York elite to raise millions
Mississippi man executed for killing four children
Evidence in Clemens trial "lacking": forensic expert
Still no verdict in Philadelphia church sex abuse case
New York Governor urges end to labor dispute ahead of Belmont Stakes
Fatigue, poor driving record blamed for fatal N.Y. bus crash
North Carolina sterilization survivors closer to compensation
J.C. Penney ad puts gay Texas couple in spotlight
NJ Catholic boys school faces child sex abuse allegations
California gay marriage case looks headed to Supreme Court
Ex-baseball player: Clemens got vitamin injections
Rare virus linked to rodents kills two in Utah
Brazil's Odebrecht sues Florida over Cuba, Syria law
Ohio teen indicted in Chardon High School killings
Washington state man accused of slaying two sex offenders
Mississippi man to be executed for killing four children
Brazil's Odebrecht sues Florida over Cuba, Syria law
Kia recalls 72,568 Rio cars in U.S. due to sensor issue
Boston seeks to cut car usage with free airport bus
NY middleman gets 2-1/4 years prison in insider case
J&J to stop selling controversial vaginal implants
Tiny remnants of war found in Omaha Beach sand
On U.S. car license plates, DAMNIML8 is OK, TOILET is not
Same-sex marriage cases loom for Supreme Court
Government, schools to clarify loans for students
Disney junk-food ad ban latest move to slim U.S. kids
Appeals court to reveal gay marriage case plan
F-35 production quality worries Senate panel
New York Governor urges end to labor dispute ahead of Belmont Stakes
Evidence in Clemens trial "lacking": forensic expert
Mississippi man executed for killing four children
Fatigue, poor driving record blamed for fatal N.Y. bus crash
NJ Catholic boys school faces child sex abuse allegations
J.C. Penney ad puts gay Texas couple in spotlight
North Carolina sterilization survivors closer to compensation
Rare virus linked to rodents kills two in Utah
Disney junk-food ad ban latest move to slim U.S. kids

Posted: 05 Jun 2012 04:51 PM PDT

BELLEFONTE, Pennsylvania (Reuters) - A retired bus driver, a student, a high school teacher, an engineer and a Wal-Mart employee were among nine jurors picked on Tuesday in the child sex abuse trial of former Penn State assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky, a case that shook the university and focused attention on sexual predation in the United States. Sandusky faces 52 counts of molesting 10 boys over a 15-year period and has pleaded not guilty. ...

Obama, Bill Clinton court New York elite to raise millions

Posted: 05 Jun 2012 01:31 PM PDT

NEW YORK (Reuters) - President Barack Obama enlisted Bill Clinton to campaign alongside him in New York on Monday, tapping the popular ex-president's star power to rake in cash for his re-election bid from Wall Street investors and show-business elite. The two men teamed up for the first time since Clinton put Obama's campaign on the defensive last week when he became the most prominent Democrat to disavow attacks on Republican challenger Mitt Romney's record as a private equity executive. ...

Mississippi man executed for killing four children

Posted: 05 Jun 2012 05:17 PM PDT

TUPELO, Mississippi (Reuters) - Mississippi executed a man on Tuesday for the 1990 murders of four of his young nieces and nephews, with the state's governor rejecting pleas for a reprieve from the mothers of the children he killed. Henry Curtis Jackson Jr, 47, fatally stabbed two nieces and two nephews - aged 2 to 5 years - while he searched for money to steal from a safe kept in his mother's home near Greenwood, authorities said. He was pronounced dead by lethal injection at 6:13 p.m. ...

Evidence in Clemens trial "lacking": forensic expert

Posted: 05 Jun 2012 05:58 PM PDT

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A forensic expert on Tuesday cast doubt on evidence being used against former baseball pitching ace Roger Clemens in his perjury trial, saying medical waste the prosecution says shows his use of performance enhancing drugs could have been contaminated. Clemens, 49, is on trial for a second time on federal charges of lying in 2008 to a U.S. congressional committee when he denied use of performance-enhancing drugs. The House of Representatives Committee on Oversight and Government Reform was investigating drug use in Major League Baseball. ...

Still no verdict in Philadelphia church sex abuse case

Posted: 05 Jun 2012 02:54 PM PDT

PHILADELPHIA (Reuters) - A Philadelphia jury ended a third day of deliberations on Tuesday without reaching a verdict in the child sex abuse trial of a Roman Catholic monsignor, the highest ranking U.S. clergyman to stand trial in the church's wide-ranging pedophilia scandal. Monsignor William Lynn, who for 12 years as secretary of the clergy supervised hundreds of priests in the Philadelphia Archdiocese, is accused of conspiracy and child endangerment. If convicted on all charges, he faces the possibility of 21 years in prison. ...

New York Governor urges end to labor dispute ahead of Belmont Stakes

Posted: 05 Jun 2012 05:59 PM PDT

NEW YORK (Reuters) - New York Governor Andrew Cuomo urged workers at New York's Belmont Park on Tuesday to settle a labor dispute ahead of Saturday's Stakes horse race, when thoroughbred I'll Have Another is aiming to win the sport's first Triple Crown in more than 30 years. More than 150 maintenance and starting gate employees have been locked in a labor dispute with the New York Racing Association over wages and health care benefits since 2010. Cuomo called for both sides to sort out the dispute. ...

Fatigue, poor driving record blamed for fatal N.Y. bus crash

Posted: 05 Jun 2012 05:17 PM PDT

NEW YORK (Reuters) - A New York bus crash last year that killed 15 people was caused by a driver who was severely fatigued and had a terrible driving record, the National Transportation Safety Board said in a report released on Tuesday. The five-member board decided unanimously that driver Ophadell Williams had had little sleep for days before the accident and criticized his employer, World Wide Travel of Greater New York, for a "corporate culture that fostered indifference to passenger safety. ...

North Carolina sterilization survivors closer to compensation

Posted: 05 Jun 2012 04:08 PM PDT

RALEIGH, North Carolina (Reuters) - Living victims of a state-sanctioned sterilization program in North Carolina would receive $50,000 in tax-free compensation if a bill approved on Tuesday by the state's House of Representatives becomes law. North Carolina would become the first state to offer more than an apology for forced sterilizations and castrations of thousands of citizens if the state Senate also passes the compensation bill and the governor signs it. Democratic Governor Beverly Perdue has included money in her proposed budget to fund the payments. ...

J.C. Penney ad puts gay Texas couple in spotlight

Posted: 05 Jun 2012 04:53 PM PDT

DALLAS (Reuters) - A J.C. Penney ad for Father's Day featuring a gay Texas couple and their two children has angered a national conservative organization, but the couple says they've been bombarded with mostly positive feedback from friends and strangers around the country. The print ad in a small June catalog for the Plano, Texas-based retailer shows Cooper Smith and Todd Koch of Dallas laughing and playing with their 3-year-olds, Mason and Claire. It reads, "First Pals - What makes Dad so cool? He's the swim coach, tent maker, best friend, bike fixer and hug giver - all rolled into one. ...

NJ Catholic boys school faces child sex abuse allegations

Posted: 05 Jun 2012 04:52 PM PDT

MORRISTOWN, New Jersey (Reuters) - Accusations of child sex abuse at New Jersey's elite Delbarton School widened on Tuesday as two men joined a lawsuit claiming molestation by monks at the Roman Catholic boys academy in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Just two days after New Jersey Governor Chris Christie spoke at his son's graduation from Delbarton, Steve Badt, 44, and a second unidentified man joined the suit alleging sexual abuse by robe-clad monks at the picturesque Morristown school. The lawsuit was first filed in March by Tom Crane and Bill Crane Jr. ...

California gay marriage case looks headed to Supreme Court

Posted: 05 Jun 2012 01:48 PM PDT

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - A federal court declined an appeal to revisit California's gay marriage ban on Tuesday, clearing the way for the Supreme Court to consider whether the ban violates the U.S. Constitution. Supporters of the ban, Proposition 8, have lost two rounds in federal court. Tuesday's decision now passes the issue into the hands of the top U.S. court, which, while conservative-leaning, has been sympathetic towards gay rights. The Supreme Court could agree to hear the matter in a session beginning in October, ahead of the November 6 U.S. ...

Ex-baseball player: Clemens got vitamin injections

Posted: 05 Jun 2012 01:06 PM PDT

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - An ex-Major League Baseball player testified on Tuesday that he saw former pitching ace Roger Clemens being injected with a vitamin, as Clemens' defense sought to undermine prosecution claims he received performance-enhancing drugs. Clemens, 49, is on trial for a second time on federal charges of lying in 2008 to the House of Representatives Committee on Oversight and Government Reform when he denied having used performance-enhancing drugs. The committee was investigating drug use in Major League Baseball. ...

Rare virus linked to rodents kills two in Utah

Posted: 05 Jun 2012 03:54 PM PDT

SALT LAKE CITY (Reuters) - Two people in Utah have died following exposure to hantavirus, a rare but deadly disease of the lungs spread by rodents, health officials said on Tuesday. The fatalities, the first from the virus in the state since 2009, occurred over the last four weeks in central Utah's Millard County and in Salt Lake County, said Rebecca Wood, an official at the Utah Department of Health. The two deceased were adults, state epidemiologist Jodee Baker said. The cases were not linked but each individual was exposed to rodents a few weeks before becoming ill, Baker said. ...

Brazil's Odebrecht sues Florida over Cuba, Syria law

Posted: 05 Jun 2012 11:10 AM PDT

MIAMI (Reuters) - The U.S. subsidiary of Brazilian construction giant Odebrecht has filed a lawsuit challenging a recently signed Florida law barring local governments from hiring companies that do business in Cuba or Syria. The lawsuit, filed on Monday in Miami federal court, claims the measure is "unconstitutional and unenforceable" and argues that the federal government, not states, has the authority to enact laws involving foreign affairs. ...

Ohio teen indicted in Chardon High School killings

Posted: 05 Jun 2012 12:40 PM PDT

CLEVELAND (Reuters) - A 17-year-old student has been indicted by an Ohio grand jury on charges that he killed three students and wounded three others in a high school cafeteria rampage last February in a small city east of Cleveland. The indictment of T.J. Lane was date stamped Monday by the Geauga County court clerk's office. Geauga County Prosecuting Attorney David Joyce and defense attorneys Ian Friedman and Mark DeVan could not be reached for comment. In May, an Ohio juvenile court judge ruled that Lane would be charged as an adult in the attack a Chardon High School. ...

Washington state man accused of slaying two sex offenders

Posted: 05 Jun 2012 02:52 PM PDT

SEATTLE (Reuters) - A Washington state man arrested in the shooting deaths of two sex offenders told investigators he had planned to keep killing sex offenders until police stopped him, authorities said. Patrick Drum, 34, who is scheduled to appear in court on Wednesday, faces two counts of murder in the shooting deaths, which occurred over the weekend in the Olympic Peninsula in the far northwest part of Washington state. One of the two men killed, Gary Blanton, 28, was a roommate of Drum's, authorities said. He also knew the other local man he is accused of killing, Jerry Ray, 56, they said. ...

Mississippi man to be executed for killing four children

Posted: 05 Jun 2012 01:17 PM PDT

TUPELO, Mississippi (Reuters) - Mississippi is scheduled to execute a man on Tuesday for the 1990 murders of four of his young nieces and nephews, and family members said their pleas for a reprieve have not swayed the state's governor. Henry Curtis Jackson Jr, 47, fatally stabbed two nieces and two nephews - aged 2 to 5 years - while he searched for money to steal from a safe kept in his mother's home near Greenwood, authorities said. ...

Brazil's Odebrecht sues Florida over Cuba, Syria law

Posted: 05 Jun 2012 01:45 PM PDT

MIAMI (Reuters) - The U.S. subsidiary of Brazilian construction and engineering conglomerate Odebrecht has filed a lawsuit challenging a recently signed Florida law barring local governments from hiring companies that do business in Cuba or Syria. The lawsuit, filed on Monday in Miami federal court, claims the measure is "unconstitutional and unenforceable" and argues the federal government, not states, has the authority to enact laws involving foreign policy. ...

Kia recalls 72,568 Rio cars in U.S. due to sensor issue

Posted: 05 Jun 2012 09:59 AM PDT

(Reuters) - Kia Motors is recalling 72,568 Rio small cars in the United States to address a potential sensor problem that could lead to the front passenger airbag deploying unnecessarily. Kia, an affiliate of Hyundai Motor, is recalling the cars from model years 2006 through 2008 because of possible cracking of a printed circuit in the front passenger seat sensor mat that could lead to the system not being able to detect whether a child passenger is in the seat, according to documents filed with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. ...

Boston seeks to cut car usage with free airport bus

Posted: 05 Jun 2012 02:40 PM PDT

(Reuters) - Boston's Logan International Airport will become the first major airport in the United States to offer free transportation to downtown in an effort to cut car travel and alleviate a parking shortage at the fourth-busiest passenger hub in the Northeast. The three-month pilot program beginning Wednesday will waive the $2 fare on the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority's Silver Line buses that take passengers from the airport, the 19th busiest in the U.S., to South Station in central Boston. ...

NY middleman gets 2-1/4 years prison in insider case

Posted: 05 Jun 2012 12:12 PM PDT

(Reuters) - The middleman in a U.S. insider trading scheme that prosecutors said produced about $37 million of illegal profit was sentenced to 2-1/4 years in prison on Tuesday, one day after an accomplice received the longest sentence ever imposed in such a scheme. Kenneth Robinson, a 46-year-old mortgage broker, had pleaded guilty in April 2011 to two counts of securities fraud and one count of conspiracy. ...

J&J to stop selling controversial vaginal implants

Posted: 05 Jun 2012 10:58 AM PDT

WASHINGTON/NEW YORK (Reuters) - Johnson & Johnson said it would stop selling vaginal mesh implants after a raft of lawsuits about the devices causing complications such as infection. The diversified healthcare agency and numerous other device makers have been sued in recent years by patients who allege organ damage and other injuries from such devices, many of which are used to support weakened vaginal muscles. There are over a thousand lawsuits pending against Ethicon Inc, the J&J unit that makes the devices. J&J spokesman Matthew Johnson said on Tuesday that the company has asked the U.S. ...

Tiny remnants of war found in Omaha Beach sand

Posted: 05 Jun 2012 09:53 AM PDT

AUSTIN, Texas (Reuters) - When Texas geologist Earle McBride visited Omaha Beach in Normandy, France, in 1988, four decades after D-Day, the visible remnants of the Allied Forces' invasion there had long ago vanished. But he and a colleague would later discover the history of the June 6, 1944, invasion of Normandy's beaches - which marked a turning point in World War Two - lingered in the sand in the form of tiny pieces of shrapnel only visible under a microscope. ...

On U.S. car license plates, DAMNIML8 is OK, TOILET is not

Posted: 05 Jun 2012 09:40 AM PDT

(Reuters) - When Whitney Calk sought a personalized license plate from a Tennessee state agency to tout her vegetarian ideals, she was annoyed when she was told no. Turns out the letters ILVTOFU can be construed to mean more than enjoying bean curd. "When I see T-O-F-U, I see tofu," says Calk, who requested the so-called vanity plate from the Tennessee Department of Revenue last September. "I can't control the way anyone else interprets that," said Calk, 26, an animal rights activist from Murfreesboro, Tennessee. ...

Same-sex marriage cases loom for Supreme Court

Posted: 05 Jun 2012 04:04 AM PDT

(Reuters) - For advocates and foes of same-sex marriage, two names have suddenly taken center stage in the legal universe: Kennedy and Romer. Kennedy - that would be associate U.S. Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy - is the court's perennial swing vote. Romer - as in Romer v. Evans - is the 1996 decision penned by Kennedy that struck down a Colorado amendment barring the state from passing laws to protect homosexuals and bisexuals. ...

Government, schools to clarify loans for students

Posted: 05 Jun 2012 08:06 AM PDT

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Obama administration and 10 private colleges and state university systems are taking steps this week aimed at improving transparency about the cost of college, including loans and options for repaying them. An administration official said Vice President Joe Biden on Tuesday will lead a meeting with university and college presidents whose institutions serve 1.4 million students, or about 5 percent of college enrollees. They will focus on the need to provide "clear and useful information" about the costs of college to students and their families, the official said. ...

Disney junk-food ad ban latest move to slim U.S. kids

Posted: 05 Jun 2012 03:50 PM PDT

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Media and entertainment giant Walt Disney Co's new steps to limit junk food advertising on TV shows geared toward children is the latest salvo in the nation's fight against childhood obesity. But it left critics questioning whether the moves were enough to cut the growing waistlines of U.S. youth. The new initiative, announced on Tuesday in a high-profile event featuring first lady Michelle Obama, will end some junk-food advertising on Disney television, radio and online programs intended for children under the age of 12. ...

Appeals court to reveal gay marriage case plan

Posted: 05 Jun 2012 12:01 AM PDT

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - An appeals court will say on Tuesday whether it will revisit the constitutionality of California's Proposition 8 gay marriage ban or clear the way for the U.S. Supreme Court to take up the issue. A three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in February that the ban discriminated against gays and lesbians. It rejected the key argument by ban supporters that Proposition 8 furthered "responsible procreation. ...

F-35 production quality worries Senate panel

Posted: 05 Jun 2012 06:57 PM PDT

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee on Tuesday questioned the quality of production on the Lockheed Martin Corp F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, citing a "potentially serious issue" with its electronic warfare capability. "The committee is ... concerned about production quality and whether it is sufficient to ensure the delivery of JSF aircraft to the U.S. and its allies at an affordable price," the committee said in a report accompanying its fiscal 2013 defense budget bill. ...

New York Governor urges end to labor dispute ahead of Belmont Stakes

Posted: 05 Jun 2012 05:59 PM PDT

Evidence in Clemens trial "lacking": forensic expert

Posted: 05 Jun 2012 05:58 PM PDT

Mississippi man executed for killing four children

Posted: 05 Jun 2012 05:17 PM PDT

Fatigue, poor driving record blamed for fatal N.Y. bus crash

Posted: 05 Jun 2012 05:17 PM PDT

NJ Catholic boys school faces child sex abuse allegations

Posted: 05 Jun 2012 04:52 PM PDT

J.C. Penney ad puts gay Texas couple in spotlight

Posted: 05 Jun 2012 04:53 PM PDT