Wednesday, March 30, 2011
Va. Tech fined $55K
RICHMOND, Va.
Virginia Tech will have to pay the maximum $55,000 fine for violating federal law by waiting too long to notify students during the 2007 shooting rampage but will not lose any federal student aid, the U.S. Department of Education announced Tuesday.
Department officials wrote in a letter to the school that the sanction should have been greater for the school’s slow response to the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history. The $55,000 fine was the most the department could levy for Tech’s two violations of the federal Clery Act, which requires timely reporting of crimes on campus.
Japan: Not enough safeguards at plant
TOKYO
Japan’s government admitted Tuesday that its safeguards were insufficient to protect a nuclear plant against the earthquake and tsunami that crippled the facility and caused it to spew radiation, and it vowed to overhaul safety standards.
The struggle to contain radiation at the Fukushima Dai-ichi complex has unfolded with near-constant missteps — the latest including two workers drenched with radioactive water despite wearing supposedly waterproof suits.
Judge halts Wis. bargaining law
MADISON, Wis.
A Wisconsin judge on Tuesday barred state officials from any further implementation of a law that strips most public workers of nearly all their collective- bargaining rights.
Dane County Circuit Judge Maryann Sumi issued an emergency injunction prohibiting enactment of the law earlier this month. But the Legislative Reference Bureau published the law anyway Friday.
Publication typically is the last step before a law takes effect, but it’s unclear if the bureau’s action amounted to that; the law’s supporters say it did, but opponents say the secretary of state had to designate a publication date.
Gunmen kill 56 in Iraq hostage siege
BAGHDAD
Gunmen wearing military uniforms over explosives belts charged into a government building in Saddam Hussein’s hometown Tuesday in an attack that left 56 people dead, including 15 hostages who were shot execution-style.
The five-hour standoff in Tikrit ended only when the attackers blew themselves up in one of the bloodiest days in Iraq this year.
American troops who were nearby as part of an advising mission with Iraqi forces responded to the attack, and some U.S. soldiers suffered minor wounds, said military spokesman Col. Barry Johnson.
Missing BP laptop has personal data
NEW ORLEANS
A BP employee lost a laptop containing personal data belonging to thousands of Louisiana residents who filed claims for compensation after the gulf oil spill, a company spokesman said Tuesday.
BP spokesman Curtis Thomas said the oil giant mailed out letters Monday to roughly 13,000 people whose data was stored on the computer, notifying them about the potential data-security breach and offering to pay for their credit to be monitored. The company also reported the missing laptop to law enforcement, he said.
9 dead after IV infections in Ala.
MONTGOMERY, Ala.
Nine Alabama hospital patients who were treated with contaminated intravenous feeding bags have died, and the maker has pulled the product off the market, state health officials said Tuesday.
Ten others treated with the bags that provide nutrients through IV tubes also were sickened by the outbreak of serratia marcescens bacteria, health officials said.
Associated Press