Senate rejects plan to help asbestos firms handle suits
Washington – The Senate rejected on Tuesday evening a delicately crafted bill to relieve companies from mounting asbestos lawsuits, effectively killing the legislation in a significant setback for the White House and the Senate’s Republican leadership.
In a 58-41 vote, an alliance of liberals and fiscal conservatives defeated the legislation on a parliamentary maneuver. Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., reserved the right to bring the legislation back for another vote later this year, but that appeared highly unlikely, and lobbyists involved said the measure appeared dead. The House of Representatives never took it up.
The defeat leaves unresolved one of the country’s most vexing legal problems – the explosion of lawsuits by asbestos victims and their families against companies that produced or used the carcinogenic fire-retardant material. About 600,000 lawsuits are pending, and as many as 75,000 new cases are filed annually.
The legislation would have created a $140 billion trust fund for victims, paid by companies and their insurers. Among those the fund would have helped compensate are asbestos victims who cannot collect any money now because the company at fault has declared bankruptcy or is out of business.
Conservatives objected to the size of the fund and to the possibility that it could require an infusion of taxpayers’ money sometime in the future. Liberals complained that the fund would inadequately compensate victims.
PHOENIX
Forest Service bags thinning near canyon
The federal government has canceled plans to set controlled fires and conduct forest thinning on more than 17,000 acres of old-growth timber near the North Rim of the Grand Canyon.
The U.S. Forest Service called off the project because so much time had elapsed since it was first proposed that new studies of the area’s bird populations would be required, said a spokeswoman for the Kaibab National Forest.
Environmentalists sued in federal court to stop the project, alleging the plan would not restore the health of the forest and wildlife would not be protected.
NORWALK, Ohio
Parents who allegedly caged kids indicted
A couple accused of forcing some of their 11 adopted children to sleep in cages were indicted Tuesday for child endangerment, authorities said.
Michael and Sharen Gravelle also are accused of falsifying adoption applications and lying under oath, said Huron County Prosecutor Russ Leffler.
The Gravelles have denied mistreating the children, ages 1 to 15. They have been fighting to regain custody since the children were placed in foster care last fall after a county social worker likened the wood and chicken-wire cages to kennels.
BOSTON
Victim in bar attack alleges EMT gay bias
One of the men attacked in a gay bar by a hatchet-wielding teenager filed a complaint with the state alleging that paramedics gave him substandard treatment because he is gay.
Robert Perry was hit in the head with the hatchet and shot in the back by Jacob Robida, 18, who later killed himself during a police chase. Two other men also were injured in the attack early Feb. 2 in the Puzzles Lounge.
In a complaint filed with the Massachusetts Department of Public Health, Perry says the New Bedford paramedics took too long in taking him to a hospital, were abusive and shared medical information with his family without his permission.
CAIRO
Egyptian parliament OKs law to delay vote
The Egyptian parliament voted Tuesday to postpone local elections for two years despite opposition from the U.S. and a leading fundamentalist group, a state-owned newspaper and lawmakers said. President Hosni Mubarak issued a decree calling for the law last week.
“The law was approved by a majority, and the government succeeded in refuting the opposition’s objections,” according to today’s edition of Al-Gomhuria.
BEIJING
Party figures show depth of corruption
The Chinese Communist Party disciplined more than 115,000 members for corruption and related violations last year and turned more than 15,000 of them over to the courts for prosecution, the government said Tuesday. The numbers, from the party’s Central Discipline Inspection Commission, provided a high-level hint at the breadth of the corruption that has arisen in China.
