Social Security to stop mailings

Social Security to stop mailings

WASHINGTON

Those yearly statements that Social Security mails out — here’s what you’d get if you retired at 62, at 66, at 70 — will soon stop arriving in workers’ mailboxes. It’s an effort to save money and steer more people to the agency’s website.

The government is working to provide the statements online by the end of the year, if it can resolve security issues, Social Security Commissioner Michael Astrue said. If that fails, the agency will resume the paper statements, which cost $70 million a year to mail, he said.

12 children killed in school shooting

RIO DE JANEIRO

A gunman roamed the halls of an elementary school in Rio de Janeiro on Thursday and killed 12 children, lining them up against a wall and shooting them in the head at point-blank range as he shouted, “I’m going to kill you all!”

It was the worst school shooting in Brazil — and would have been deadlier if the gunman had not been shot in the legs by a police officer, who said the man then fell down some stairs and shot himself in the head.

Images taken with a cellphone and posted on YouTube showed students fleeing wildly, screaming for help, many with their white and blue school shirts soaked in blood.

Blast near center was accidental

SANTA MONICA, Calif.

An explosion Thursday shattered windows at a synagogue and Jewish school and sent a 300-pound pipe into the roof of a house where a child was sleeping, prompting police to evacuate several blocks before experts determined that the blast was caused by an accident, not a bomb.

The explosion next to the Chabad House Lubavitch of Santa Monica “was not terrorist-related at all and appears to be some kind of industrial accident,” fire Capt. Mark Bridges said. No injuries were reported.

Someone was trying to remove a large pipe that was stuck in concrete near an alley, but the chemical mixture they used created pressure and launched the 4-foot-long pipe and plug of concrete into the air, Bridges said.

hObama lauds trade agreement

WASHINGTON

President Barack Obama on Thursday praised a newly finalized free-trade agreement with Colombia as good for the U.S. economy and American workers.

During an Oval Office meeting with Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos, Obama said the pact would boost U.S. exports to Colombia by $1 billion per year and support thousands of American jobs.

The Obama administration announced a breakthrough on the long-stalled trade deal Wednesday after the Colombian government agreed to take additional steps to protect workers’ rights.

Girls Gone Wild founder cleared

PANAMA CITY, Fla.

An all-woman federal jury decided Thursday that Girls Gone Wild founder Joe Francis is not liable for the emotional distress four anonymous plaintiffs claimed to have suffered from appearances in one of his videos.

The lawsuit claimed Francis exploited them by filming them flashing their breasts and engaging in other sexual activities in Panama City. It also claimed the women were ridiculed, ostracized and forced to leave school when videos were released.

Associated Press