Tuesday, September 18, 2012

Chicago teachers end strike, school to resume Wednesday

Chicago teachers end strike, school to resume Wednesday


Chicago teachers end strike, school to resume Wednesday

Posted: 18 Sep 2012 05:59 PM PDT

Robinson and other members of the Chicago Teachers Union celebrate the end of their strike in ChicagoCHICAGO (Reuters) - Chicago public school teachers voted on Tuesday to end their strike and resume classes in the third-largest U.S. school district, ending a confrontation with Mayor Rahm Emanuel that focused national attention on struggling urban schools. Some 800 union delegates representing the 29,000 teachers and support staff in Chicago Public Schools voted overwhelmingly to resume classes on Wednesday after more than two hours of debate. "I am so thrilled that people are going back," Chicago Teachers Union President Karen Lewis said. ...


Judge rules Arizona can enforce strict provision to immigration law

Posted: 18 Sep 2012 05:50 PM PDT

PHOENIX (Reuters) - Arizona police can begin enforcing a controversial "show-your-papers" provision of a state law aimed at cracking down on illegal immigration that was upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court, after a federal judge lifted an injunction against the law on Tuesday. U.S. District Judge Susan Bolton, in a written order, lifted an injunction blocking the measure, which requires police to check the immigration status of people they stop and suspect are in the country illegally. ...

Bank of America website slows; Prophet film threat made

Posted: 18 Sep 2012 01:33 PM PDT

(Reuters) - Bank of America Corp's online banking site suffered intermittent problems on Tuesday amid threats on the Internet that a group was planning to launch cyber attacks on the bank and other U.S. targets to protest a film that has stirred unrest in the Middle East. Someone claiming to represent "cyber fighters of Izz ad-din Al qassam" said it would attack the Bank of America and the New York Stock Exchange as a "first step" in a campaign against properties of "American-Zionist Capitalists." "This attack will continue until the Erasing of that nasty movie. ...

California governor signs work injury insurance bill

Posted: 18 Sep 2012 01:40 PM PDT

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - California Gov. Jerry Brown signed a bill on Tuesday that will increase disability benefits for workers injured on the job while reining in the rising cost of their workers' compensation insurance premiums. Lawmakers approved the bill last month on the last day of their regular session after Brown personally appealed to them to support it. The last time leaders of the most populous U.S. state had revised the workers' compensation system was in 2004 under then-governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. The legislation signed by Brown had the support of labor and business groups. ...

Justice Department speeding arrests of tax refund thieves

Posted: 18 Sep 2012 03:54 PM PDT

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Justice Department launched a new effort on Tuesday to combat identity theft used to steal income tax refunds, granting federal prosecutors authority to quickly arrest suspects. Federal U.S. attorneys now need approval from the Justice Department Tax Division before starting a prosecution in criminal tax cases. But the agency said that effective October 1, attorneys may bypass the Justice review process and authorize arrests immediately in ID theft tax cases. ...

U.S. activist says he was deceived over anti-Muslim film

Posted: 18 Sep 2012 06:27 PM PDT

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - An American Coptic Christian activist whose California TV facility was used to make an anti-Islamic film that touched off protests across the Muslim world said he was deceived by the film's producer about its inflammatory content. In a statement posted on the blog of a prominent American anti-Islamic activist, Joseph Nassralla, founder of a Duarte, California-based group called Media for Christ, said he was a victim of "disinformation and smear" and the film's principal producer had altered its content without his knowledge. ...

Mother of boy who died at San Diego-area mansion asks to reopen case

Posted: 18 Sep 2012 06:09 PM PDT

CORONADO, California (Reuters) - The mother of a 6-year-old boy who died in a historic California mansion where a pharmaceutical mogul's girlfriend was found hanged pleaded tearfully with city officials on Tuesday to reopen the investigation, saying she believed her son was killed. Dina Shacknai told members of city council in Coronado, California, that she believes her son's death at the Spreckles mansion last summer was a homicide and not an accident as authorities have ruled. ...

Federal agents in Texas break up Mexico migrant smuggling ring

Posted: 18 Sep 2012 03:59 PM PDT

SAN ANTONIO (Reuters) - Twenty people were indicted in connection with an immigrant smuggling ring led by the Zetas drug cartel that moved several hundred people a month from Mexico to Texas, federal officials said on Tuesday. Sixteen of the 20 suspects were arrested on Monday and Tuesday in Texas, officials said. Jerry Robinette of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in San Antonio said the gang would steal vehicles from Texas and use them to sneak immigrants to safe houses stretching from the Rio Grande to Austin. ...

Amanda Knox's ex-boyfriend say they Skype, had nervous reunion

Posted: 18 Sep 2012 03:15 PM PDT

Amanda Knox pauses emotionally while speaking during a news conference at Sea-Tac International Airport, Washington(Reuters) - American Amanda Knox, the former college student cleared of murder by an Italian court last year, remains in touch with the ex-boyfriend with whom she was initially convicted of killing her roommate in Italy, the former boyfriend said on Tuesday. "We Skype sometimes," Raffaele Sollecito told ABC's Katie Couric in an interview, referring to the popular video conference software. "We exchange emails." Sollecito said Knox "sang a song for me during our last Skype conversation." Sollecito's book about the case and his relationship with Knox, "Honor Bound," was published on Tuesday. ...


Volunteer firefighter accused of setting blaze in Idaho forest

Posted: 18 Sep 2012 03:50 PM PDT

Handout photo of a firefighter carrying a chainsaw while watching a burn operation in Boise National Forest near the community of FeathervilleSALMON, Idaho (Reuters) - A volunteer firefighter in Idaho was arrested on Tuesday on suspicion of deliberately setting a forest fire that has destroyed one home and was threatening hundreds of others northeast of Boise, the state capital. The suspect, Nathaniel Fay Bartholomew, 18, of Boise, was jailed on a single count of arson in connection with a blaze that has charred 250 acres of rugged state-managed Ponderosa pine, brush and grasslands since erupting Monday afternoon, officials said. ...


NY Nassau County budget delays sewer deal, not refunds

Posted: 18 Sep 2012 03:52 PM PDT

(Reuters) - A proposed $2.79 billion budget for 2013 for New York's Nassau County delays by a year a plan to raise at least $700 million with a private-public partnership for the local sewer authority but advances property tax refunds, according to documents issued on Tuesday. The new budget plan is just slightly smaller than the current $2.8 billion budget for the year that ends on December 31. Mangano so far has failed to persuade state overseers that a public-private partnership for the sewer and wastewater authority will help solve Nassau's long-term financial problems. ...

Recovery lags for many metro areas mid-year: report

Posted: 18 Sep 2012 12:51 PM PDT

(Reuters) - The 100 largest metropolitan areas in the U.S. saw their rate of economic expansion slow down in the second quarter of 2012 from the first quarter, with cities in the Northeast hit hardest, according to a report on Tuesday. Cities across the country have been struggling to regain their financial footing after the recession left them with depressed property tax revenue collections, cuts in state aid and increased demands for services. ...

Chicago teachers end strike, school to resume Wednesday

Posted: 18 Sep 2012 04:37 PM PDT

Robinson and other members of the Chicago Teachers Union celebrate the end of their strike in ChicagoCHICAGO (Reuters) - Chicago public school teachers voted on Tuesday to end their strike and resume classes in the third-largest U.S. school district, ending a confrontation with Mayor Rahm Emanuel that focused national attention on struggling urban schools. Some 800 union delegates representing the 29,000 teachers and support staff in Chicago Public Schools voted overwhelmingly to resume classes on Wednesday after more than two hours of debate. "I am so thrilled that people are going back," Chicago Teachers Union President Karen Lewis said. ...


Nine people accuse Philadelphia church of sexual abuse

Posted: 18 Sep 2012 01:53 PM PDT

PHILADELPHIA (Reuters) - Eight men and a woman publicly accused Roman Catholic priests and the Archdiocese of Philadelphia on Tuesday of child sex abuse, saying they found courage to come forward after the conviction in June of a top church official in the wide-ranging pedophilia scandal. The nine filed civil lawsuits accusing the Archdiocese and church officials of conspiring to conceal incidents of sex abuse, failing to address the problem and ignoring complaints about abusive clergy, according to attorneys who announced the cases at a news conference in Philadelphia. ...

Judge rules Arizona can enforce strict provision to immigration law

Posted: 18 Sep 2012 03:36 PM PDT

PHOENIX (Reuters) - Arizona police can begin enforcing a controversial "show-your-papers" provision of a state law aimed at cracking on illegal immigration, which was upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court, after a federal judge lifted an injunction against the law on Tuesday. U.S. District Judge Susan Bolton, in a written order, lifted an injunction blocking the measure, which requires police to check the immigration status of people they stop and suspect are in the country illegally. ...

Alaska to pay residents smallest oil trust dividend since 2005

Posted: 18 Sep 2012 03:45 PM PDT

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (Reuters) - Alaska will pay nearly every one of its residents $878 next month as an annual dividend from the state's oil-wealth trust fund, the lowest yearly amount since 2005, state officials said on Tuesday. The reduced payout, announced by state Revenue Commissioner Bryan Butcher in Anchorage, reflects stock-market losses in recent years, as the dividend is calculated using a five-year weighted average of investment earnings. The dividend is lower than the $1,174 paid out last year and is the lowest since each Alaskan got $845.76 in 2005. ...

Government wins temporary freeze of military detention order

Posted: 18 Sep 2012 08:41 AM PDT

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The government won an emergency suspension of a ruling that blocked the indefinite military detention of terrorism suspects after arguing it would hurt America's ability to fight wars overseas. An appeals court order late on Monday granted a temporary stay sought by the Justice Department after a judge had ruled unconstitutional part of a statute that authorizes indefinite military detention for people deemed to have "substantially supported" al Qaeda, the Taliban or "associated forces." The government had asked the 2nd U.S. ...

Pennsylvania Supreme Court returns voter ID case to lower court

Posted: 18 Sep 2012 01:44 PM PDT

(Reuters) - The Pennsylvania Supreme Court ordered a lower court on Tuesday to reconsider its decision upholding a new state voter ID law, saying it should be blocked if voters would be shut out this Election Day by hurdles to obtaining ID cards. The court battle over the law passed last March by the Republican-led legislature in Pennsylvania, considered a key swing state in the upcoming presidential election, is being watched closely on both local and national levels. ...

NCAA names task force to oversee $60 million Penn State fine

Posted: 18 Sep 2012 12:18 PM PDT

(Reuters) - A 10-member task force has been named to oversee distribution of the record $60 million fine Penn State will pay because of the Jerry Sandusky child sex scandal, the NCAA said on Tuesday. Funds from the fine will follow guidelines set up by the new Child Sexual Abuse Endowment Task Force, the National Collegiate Athletic Association said in a statement. The money will fund programs to combat child sexual abuse and help victims. The task force will set policy and hire an administrator who will choose which nonprofit groups get the money each year, said the NCAA, which governs U.S. ...

U.S. court says tax-exempt groups can keep donors secret

Posted: 18 Sep 2012 12:39 PM PDT

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A U.S. appeals court ruled on Tuesday that tax-exempt groups spending millions on election-time ads this campaign season can keep their donors secret, turning aside an attempt by a Democratic congressman to force disclosure. The unanimous decision reversed a ruling by a lower court in March that had sent scores of tax-exempt groups scrambling for ways to protect their donors' names and continue to run ads ahead of the November 6 presidential and congressional elections. ...

Fat and getting fatter: U.S. obesity rates to soar by 2030

Posted: 18 Sep 2012 12:52 PM PDT

An overweight woman watches a street performer at Venice Beach in Los AngelesNEW YORK (Reuters) - If Americans stick to their eating and exercise habits, future historians will look back on the early 21st century as a golden age of svelte. Using a model of population and other trends, a new report released on Tuesday by the Trust for America's Health and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation projects that half of U.S. adults will be obese by 2030 unless Americans change their ways. The "F as in Fat" report highlights the current glum picture of the U.S. obesity epidemic, in which 35.7 percent of adults and 16. ...


Wisconsin AG wants stay of ruling that struck down union law

Posted: 18 Sep 2012 10:17 AM PDT

CHICAGO (Reuters) - Wisconsin's attorney general asked a court on Tuesday to suspend a ruling striking down the state's controversial collective bargaining law while his office appeals the decision. Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen filed the request in Dane County Circuit Court, where a judge last week ruled the 2011 law was unconstitutional because it violated union members' free speech, association and equal protection rights. Van Hollen asked the court to stay the ruling while he appeals the case to the Wisconsin Court of Appeals because last week's decision is likely to be overturned. ...

Fanning furor, Justice Scalia says appeals court judge lied

Posted: 17 Sep 2012 08:53 PM PDT

Justice Scalia testifies on Capitol Hill in WashingtonNEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia on Monday escalated a war of words with a prominent appeals court judge, saying the judge lied in a recent criticism of Scalia's judicial philosophy. Scalia, 76, the longest-serving justice and a leading conservative on the court, said Judge Richard Posner, of the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, lied in a review in August of a book co-authored by Scalia. ...


As power plants use less coal, Alpha Natural cuts jobs

Posted: 18 Sep 2012 06:19 AM PDT

(Reuters) - Coal miner Alpha Natural Resources Inc is cutting 1,200 jobs, roughly 9 percent of its workforce, as increased use of natural gas for power generation dents demand. The company, which is shifting its focus to more lucrative steel-making coal, is temporarily closing eight mines in Virginia, West Virginia and Pennsylvania. The mine closures and production curtailments will reduce annual coal output by about 16 million tons, the company said. It produced 1.1 billion tons in the United States in 2011. ...

Students return to Louisiana State University after bomb scare

Posted: 17 Sep 2012 08:19 PM PDT

NEW ORLEANS (Reuters) - Students at Louisiana State University were allowed to return to their dorms late on Monday after police swept residential halls on the campus following a bomb threat. Dining and recreational facilities also were reopened, LSU said in a statement. "LSU and law enforcement personnel continue to methodically search the campus and have been returning buildings to normal operations throughout the evening," the statement said. "There are fewer than 20 buildings left to search and LSU will continue to update the campus community as information becomes available," it said. ...

Witnesses say woman claimed to be at "Fatal Vision" murders

Posted: 18 Sep 2012 06:47 PM PDT

WILMINGTON, North Carolina (Reuters) - Several witnesses testified on Tuesday that a now-dead woman with a history of drug abuse told them she was at the home of an Army doctor on the night his family was killed 42 years ago, evidence he hopes will bolster his claim that he is innocent of the notorious murders that inspired a best-selling book. Former Green Beret Jeffrey MacDonald, 68, is serving three life sentences for the deaths of his pregnant wife and two young daughters in their Fort Bragg, North Carolina, apartment in February 1970. ...

U.S. activist says he was deceived over anti-Muslim film

Posted: 18 Sep 2012 06:27 PM PDT

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - An American Coptic Christian activist whose California TV facility was used to make an anti-Islamic film that touched off protests across the Muslim world said he was deceived by the film's producer about its inflammatory content. In a statement posted on the blog of a prominent American anti-Islamic activist, Joseph Nassralla, founder of a Duarte, California-based group called Media for Christ, said he was a victim of "disinformation and smear" and the film's principal producer had altered its content without his knowledge. ...

Mother of boy who died at San Diego-area mansion asks to reopen case

Posted: 18 Sep 2012 06:09 PM PDT

CORONADO, California (Reuters) - The mother of a 6-year-old boy who died in a historic California mansion where a pharmaceutical mogul's girlfriend was found hanged pleaded tearfully with city officials on Tuesday to reopen the investigation, saying she believed her son was killed. Dina Shacknai told members of city council in Coronado, California, that she believes her son's death at the Spreckles mansion last summer was a homicide and not an accident as authorities have ruled. ...

Chicago teachers end strike, school to resume Wednesday

Posted: 18 Sep 2012 05:59 PM PDT

Robinson and other members of the Chicago Teachers Union celebrate the end of their strike in ChicagoCHICAGO (Reuters) - Chicago public school teachers voted on Tuesday to end their strike and resume classes in the third-largest U.S. school district, ending a confrontation with Mayor Rahm Emanuel that focused national attention on struggling urban schools. Some 800 union delegates representing the 29,000 teachers and support staff in Chicago Public Schools voted overwhelmingly to resume classes on Wednesday after more than two hours of debate. "I am so thrilled that people are going back," Chicago Teachers Union President Karen Lewis said. ...


Judge rules Arizona can enforce strict provision to immigration law

Posted: 18 Sep 2012 05:50 PM PDT

PHOENIX (Reuters) - Arizona police can begin enforcing a controversial "show-your-papers" provision of a state law aimed at cracking down on illegal immigration that was upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court, after a federal judge lifted an injunction against the law on Tuesday. U.S. District Judge Susan Bolton, in a written order, lifted an injunction blocking the measure, which requires police to check the immigration status of people they stop and suspect are in the country illegally. ...

Fat and getting fatter: U.S. obesity rates to soar by 2030

Posted: 18 Sep 2012 12:52 PM PDT

An overweight woman watches a street performer at Venice Beach in Los AngelesNEW YORK (Reuters) - If Americans stick to their eating and exercise habits, future historians will look back on the early 21st century as a golden age of svelte. Using a model of population and other trends, a new report released on Tuesday by the Trust for America's Health and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation projects that half of U.S. adults will be obese by 2030 unless Americans change their ways. The "F as in Fat" report highlights the current glum picture of the U.S. obesity epidemic, in which 35.7 percent of adults and 16. ...


Federal agents in Texas break up Mexico migrant smuggling ring

Posted: 18 Sep 2012 03:59 PM PDT

SAN ANTONIO (Reuters) - Twenty people were indicted in connection with an immigrant smuggling ring led by the Zetas drug cartel that moved several hundred people a month from Mexico to Texas, federal officials said on Tuesday. Sixteen of the 20 suspects were arrested on Monday and Tuesday in Texas, officials said. Jerry Robinette of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in San Antonio said the gang would steal vehicles from Texas and use them to sneak immigrants to safe houses stretching from the Rio Grande to Austin. ...

Justice Department speeding arrests of tax refund thieves

Posted: 18 Sep 2012 03:54 PM PDT

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Justice Department launched a new effort on Tuesday to combat identity theft used to steal income tax refunds, granting federal prosecutors authority to quickly arrest suspects. Federal U.S. attorneys now need approval from the Justice Department Tax Division before starting a prosecution in criminal tax cases. But the agency said that effective October 1, attorneys may bypass the Justice review process and authorize arrests immediately in ID theft tax cases. ...

NY Nassau County budget delays sewer deal, not refunds

Posted: 18 Sep 2012 03:52 PM PDT

(Reuters) - A proposed $2.79 billion budget for 2013 for New York's Nassau County delays by a year a plan to raise at least $700 million with a private-public partnership for the local sewer authority but advances property tax refunds, according to documents issued on Tuesday. The new budget plan is just slightly smaller than the current $2.8 billion budget for the year that ends on December 31. Mangano so far has failed to persuade state overseers that a public-private partnership for the sewer and wastewater authority will help solve Nassau's long-term financial problems. ...

Volunteer firefighter accused of setting blaze in Idaho forest

Posted: 18 Sep 2012 03:50 PM PDT

Handout photo of a firefighter carrying a chainsaw while watching a burn operation in Boise National Forest near the community of FeathervilleSALMON, Idaho (Reuters) - A volunteer firefighter in Idaho was arrested on Tuesday on suspicion of deliberately setting a forest fire that has destroyed one home and was threatening hundreds of others northeast of Boise, the state capital. The suspect, Nathaniel Fay Bartholomew, 18, of Boise, was jailed on a single count of arson in connection with a blaze that has charred 250 acres of rugged state-managed Ponderosa pine, brush and grasslands since erupting Monday afternoon, officials said. ...


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