USA
The Supreme Court refused to establish how much the federal government must pay in damages in two separate appeals stemming from the savings and loan bailout of the late 1980s. The justices declined to review a ruling that upheld $381 million in damages awarded against the government while denying an additional $527.5 million sought by California's Glendale Federal Bank, now part of Citigroup Inc. The high court also rejected the appeal of Tyrone Williams, a truck driver accused in the deaths of 19 illegal immigrants who died in the trailer he was hauling. Williams claims he was singled out because he's black to face a possible death sentence in a trial that begins in Houston Tuesday.
Police investigating the execution-style Chicago slayings of federal Judge Joan Humphrey Lefkow's husband and mother said Sunday they have received more than 600 tips from the public. They did not say how many had come in since the week-old case was featured Friday on the TV program "America's Most Wanted."
The cleanup of a leaking rail tanker car carrying toxic industrial waste was in its second day Monday in Salt Lake City, after 6,000 people were evacuated downwind of the spill. By early Monday residents were back in their homes, but officials were still trying to determine why information about the nitric acid contents conflicted with their own observations.
All but two of 13 small cars subjected to new crash tests were given "poor" ratings, according to results of a study released Sunday by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety. The Dodge Neon and Ford Focus were among models receiving the lowest of four ratings. The tests simulate a serious side impact. Only the Chevrolet Cobalt and Toyota Corolla rated "acceptable."
University of Colorado President Elizabeth Hoffman announced her resignation Monday after five years marked by controversy over a football recruiting scandal and an activist professor's comparisons of 9/11 victims to senior Nazi official Adolf Eichmann.
As President Bush hits the road again to push his much-debated strategy for personal retirement accounts, US Sen. Chuck Hagel (R) of Nebraska was expected to introduce his own version of new Social Security legislation. Hagel's bill would raise the age at which retirees could receive full benefits from age 67 to 68, beginning in 2023.
