WASHINGTON – A crucial deadline looms a half-year away for thousands of anxious Americans weighed down by credit card and other debt following congressional passage of a measure making it tougher to erase obligations in bankruptcy. The most sweeping rewrite of U.S. bankruptcy laws (search) in a quarter-century, pushed for …
Read More »
NEW YORK – Liz Smith (search) is making news of her own. Newsday (search) says her contract has expired, but the gossip columnist disagrees. In a memo to Newsday employees on Thursday, editor John Mancini said that Smith’s March 31 column was her last for the Long Island newspaper. “Liz, …
Read More »
DANBURY, Conn. – This middle-class New England suburb is nowhere near an international border but it still has the illegal immigration problems familiar to cities like San Diego and Tucson, Ariz. Mayor Mark Boughton (search) blames the government for his town’s inability to cope with 15,000 illegal immigrants, approximately 19 …
Read More »
WASHINGTON – The apparent shutdown of a nuclear reactor in North Korea (search) is raising concerns among Bush administration officials that Pyongyang has completed the task of producing spent fuel rods laced with weapons-grade plutonium. But a U.S. official familiar with the situation said there could be at least two …
Read More »
NEW YORK – Randy Johnson (search) shut down Boston in his New York debut, dominating his new team’s old rival. He outpitched David Wells, got help from Hideki Matsui and a rejuvenated Jason Giambi (search) and led the Yankees over the World Series (search) champions 9-2 Sunday night in the …
Read More »
LOS ANGELES – On a chilly March night in San Francisco 50 years ago, a suburban housewife stood in the spotlight at the avant-garde Purple Onion night club and rapid-fired jokes about managing a household with five children and an indolent husband she called Fang. Female standup comics had never …
Read More »
BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. – Brad Pitt (search) is among the A-list celebrities featured in new public service announcements for a campaign led by U2 singer Bono (search) to fight poverty and AIDS. The campaign was not immediately asking for donations but simply raising awareness and recruiting new advocates, Bono said …
Read More »
FLORHAM PARK, N.J. – Global Crossing Ltd. (GLBC) on Monday said it settled a three-year investigation launched by the Securities and Exchange Commission (search) into the telecommunication company’s business practices and those of its top three executives. The SEC issued a cease-and-desist order against Global Crossing and three executives: former …
Read More »
WASHINGTON – John R. Bolton (search) appeared a step closer to confirmation as ambassador to the United Nations despite scathing testimony Tuesday by a former State Department intelligence chief that he was a “serial abuser” of analysts who disagreed with his hard-line views. A committee vote to send President Bush’s …
Read More »
NACO, Ariz. – Clusters of citizens who volunteered to watch for illegal immigrants and smugglers dotted a swath of the Mexican border as their monthlong effort to bolster authorized patrols got under way in earnest. Volunteers for the Minuteman Project (search) had a limited presence on the border during the …
Read More »