SEC upgrades Frist probe to a formal investigation
Washington – The Securities and Exchange Commission, which is examining a stock sale by Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, has upgraded its initial informal inquiry to a formal investigation.
The change means the agency can issue subpoenas for documents rather than just requesting them. Federal prosecutors also are investigating the Tennessee Republican’s recent sale of stock in HCA Inc. about two weeks before its price dropped. Frist’s family founded the large hospital operating company.
It is customary in potential cases of insider trading for the agency to initiate a formal inquiry so investigators can obtain telephone and financial records and other documents.
Frist ordered the stock sold from several blind trusts this summer, about two weeks before HCA issued a disappointing earnings forecast that drove its share price down almost 16 percent by mid-July.
He sold the stock at a time when top executives and directors of HCA – including the chief executive and the treasurer – also were selling off shares worth a total of $112 million.
Aides to the majority leader, who is widely considered a potential presidential candidate in 2008, say he ordered his trustee to sell his shares to avoid any appearance of a conflict of interest.
SALT LAKE CITY
Utah State grounds its 36 passenger vans
Utah State University on Wednesday grounded its fleet of large passenger vans for a month-long safety check after a rollover on an interstate killed eight students and their instructor.
Glenn Ford, Utah State’s vice president of business and finance, grounded the school’s 36 passenger vans pending inspection.
One of the school’s 15-passenger vans flipped and crashed Monday after blowing a tire, killing eight agriculture students and an instructor returning from a field trip to observe a safflower harvest.
NEW YORK
Ground zero museum nixed by governor
Bowing to pressure from furious Sept. 11 families, Gov. George Pataki on Wednesday removed a proposed freedom museum from the space reserved for it at ground zero, saying the project had aroused “too much opposition, too much controversy.”
The decision followed months of acrimony over the International Freedom Center, with Sept. 11 families and politicians saying that the museum would overshadow and take space from a separate memorial devoted to the 2,749 World Trade Center dead and would dishonor them by fostering debate about the attacks and other world events.
SAN FRANCISCO
University settles animal-welfare suit
The University of California at San Francisco agreed to pay $92,500 to settle allegations it mistreated research animals, including penning them in dirty cages, overbreeding monkeys and not providing enough anesthetic to a sheep during surgery.
In settling, the university did not admit to any wrongdoing.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture had charged the university last year with 61 animal-welfare violations committed between 2001 and 2003.
Five years ago, the school paid a $2,000 fine for depriving a monkey of water in behavior experiments.
BRIGHTON, England
Government to ban junk food in cafeterias
In Britain’s schools, chocolate and potato chips will soon be history.
The government announced plans Wednesday to ban school cafeterias from serving poor- quality hamburgers and hot dogs, and to outlaw vending machines selling soft drinks, chocolate bars and potato chips to students.
Education Secretary Ruth Kelly told the annual conference of the governing Labor Party that “the scandal of junk food served every day in school canteens must end.” She said the ban would take effect next September.
The move will require new legislation that is likely to limit the amount of sugar, fat and salt in school meals. Rules stipulate only that school meals must contain “vegetable” and “protein” portions.
SAO PAULO, Brazil
Cops find $4.3 million taken in bank heist
Brazilian police recovered about $4.3 million of the $70 million stolen last month in a heist from Brazil’s Central Bank, making five arrests Wednesday in one of the world’s biggest bank robberies.
Authorities raided a middle- class home in the northeastern city of Fortaleza, where the bank heist occurred, and found the money hidden in a hole in the floor, federal police said in a statement.
Police were still counting the money, but spokeswoman Patricia Ferreira said the initial estimate was that $4.3 million had been recovered.
