Lawmakers approve bill to strip smut from movies

WASHINGTON -- Fledgling technology that helps parents prevent children from watching movie scenes depicting sex, violence or foul language got a boost Wednesday from the House Judiciary Subcommittee. The panel voted 18-9 in favor of the Family Movie Act, which would assure manufacturers of DVD players and other devices using such technology that they would not be violating copyrights of the Hollywood producers of movies. The full House still must approve the bill; no similar proposal has yet been introduced in the Senate. Critics of the bill argued that it is aimed at helping one company, Utah-based ClearPlay Inc., whose technology is used in some DVD players to help parents filter inappropriate material by muting dialogue or skipping scenes.

Inmates riot, set fires at Colorado prison

OLNEY SPRINGS, Colo. -- Several hundred prisoners rioted at a privately run prison in southern Colorado, setting fires and leaving more than dozen people injured before it was quelled early Wednesday, authorities said. No guards were hurt, but an inmate with multiple stab wounds was airlifted to a Pueblo hospital, where his condition was unknown, said a spokeswoman for the state corrections department. Another inmate was shot in the foot by guards using rubberized bullets to quell the five-hour riot at the medium-security Crowley County Correctional Facility. The riot started in the recreation yard late Tuesday and grew to include several hundred prisoners.

Poultry plant fires 11 following chicken abuse

CHARLESTON, W.Va. --A poultry processing plant fired 11 workers on Wednesday, a day after an animal rights group released a secretly shot video of workers kicking, stomping and smashing chickens against walls at the West Virginia facility. Pilgrim's Pride, a supplier for KFC chicken restaurants, said three of those fired at its plant in Moorefield were managers and eight were hourly workers. The Pittsburg, Texas-based company said it has put quality assurance monitors on both shifts at the plant, and managers at its 24 other North American plants were told to educate workers about animal welfare policies.

House GOP wants to skip ban on popular pesticideWASHINGTON -- House Republicans want to make sure American farmers can continue using methyl bromide as a pesticide on crops, despite a nearly two-decade-old international environmental treaty. At a hearing Wednesday, they promoted a bill that would let the United States ignore the treaty's goal for a ban in 2005 on methyl bromide, a popular killer of insects, weeds and diseases. The United States is among nearly 200 countries that have signed the United Nations' 1987 Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer.

-- From wire reports