REGION

REGION
New scrapbooking store
CHAMPION -- All About Stamps & amp; Scrapbooking has opened at 177 Folsom St. The store, which is owned by Annette O'Connor, has a line of products for scrapbooking and stamping, including stamps, paper stock and stickers. It also provides classes, personalized invitations and a service that creates scrapbooks for people.
Colian's Stone Pit opens
SALEM -- Colian's Stone Pit, which provides landscaping stones and mulch, has opened at 7450 Salem-Unity Road. The store, which is owned by Tony Colian, carries decorative stone, limestone, paver stones and general landscaping stones.
NATION
Report: Tenet could face$1 billion in settlements
LOS ANGELES -- Tenet Healthcare Corp. could pay more than $1 billion to settle federal probes and hundreds of claims that doctors at its Redding hospital performed unnecessary heart surgeries, a newspaper reported Friday.
The nation's second-largest for-profit hospital chain is in preliminary discussions with government officials and lawyers representing more than 750 patients, the Los Angeles Times reported, citing sources familiar with the talks.
Tenet's practices, including its handling of Medicare billing, have been scrutinized for 18 months. The company already agreed to pay $54 million to settle government allegations that two doctors at its hospital in Redding performed unnecessary heart surgeries. It also earlier agreed to pay $30.75 million to settle an investigation involving a Tenet-owned hospital in Florida and a second nationwide probe.
Experts: Blackout leftsome cleaner air
COLLEGE PARK, Md. -- Last summer's great Northeast blackout had a silver lining -- cleaner skies downwind from the Midwestern power plants that were idled, researchers say.
Aircraft sampling in the 24 hours after the blackout found a 90-percent drop in sulfur dioxide and a 50-percent cut in ozone levels, while visibility increased by more than 25 miles, University of Maryland researchers report.
Maryland's top environmental official said the results prove what state officials have long argued -- the region suffers from air pollution created elsewhere. From May to September, University of Maryland researchers take measurements twice a day aboard a specially equipped airplane.
From Vindicator staff and wire reports