Managers, guardsmen filling in in Minnesota

ST. PAUL, Minn. -- National Guardsmen changed bedpans and high-ranking state officials opened mail and sent out faxes Tuesday on the second day of a strike by up to 28,000 Minnesota state employees.

Gov. Jesse Ventura asked thousands of managers to do their employees' jobs to help keep the government going after Minnesota's two largest public-employee unions walked out over pay and benefits. It was the first such strike in 20 years.

In the workers' place, state troopers fielded 911 calls, Commerce Commissioner Jim Bernstein helped open mail, and Deputy Treasurer John Manahan processed checks.

"Knowing that your office does this and knowing how to do this are two different things," Manahan said.

State officials said 22,003 workers went on strike Monday and another 3,486 crossed picket lines. The rest of the workers eligible to strike had not been scheduled to work Monday. Tuesday's numbers were not yet available.

Suits filed over mercury traces in vaccines

PORTLAND, Ore. -- A coalition of law firms went to court across the nation Tuesday, trying to force the pharmaceutical industry to study whether vaccines containing a trace of mercury cause autism and other brain damage in young children.

The lawsuits were filed as class actions and led by an Oregon woman who says her 3-year-old son, William, became autistic after getting vaccinations containing mercury in a preservative, thimerosal.

"We had a happy, healthy little boy until that last set of shots," Tory Mead said. "It's been devastating. Our lives have been shattered."

Michael Williams, the lead attorney, said drug companies did not tell doctors how much mercury was in the vaccines until Congress ordered the Food and Drug Administration to find out in 1997.

"They were shocked to find out it was way above the safe level for an adult, let alone babies or very young children," Williams said.

Growing gap in wages, cost of rental housing

WASHINGTON -- A one-bedroom apartment is cheaper in Arkansas than in any other state. Yet even there, the income from a minimum-wage job is too little to afford a roof over a family's head, an advocacy group's analysis of government statistics says.

The average U.S. worker must earn at least $11.28 an hour to afford the rent on a modest one-bedroom apartment, or $13.87 an hour for two bedrooms, according to the annual "Out of Reach" report by the National Low Income Housing Coalition, released Tuesday.

That's less than the nation's $16.97-an-hour median paycheck in 2000, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. But it is far more than the minimum wage, set by federal law at $5.15 an hour but slightly higher in 10 states and the District of Columbia. Last year, 2.7 million Americans worked for the hourly minimum wage -- about 2 percent of all workers, not counting those with annual salaries at the same level.

The study is based on the Department of Housing and Urban Development's determinations of "fair market rents" in 3,779 states, metropolitan areas and counties or New England towns.

Feds upgrade probe into Altima air bags

WASHINGTON -- The government has upgraded its investigation into older model Nissan Altimas after 75 people said they were hurt by the force of a deploying air bag.

Most suffered facial injuries, including 32 who had eye damage after the passenger-side air bag deployed in a crash. At least one person lost an eye.

Most of the injured passengers said they were wearing seat belts. Dierdre Dickerson, a spokeswoman for Nissan North America Inc., said they may not have been sitting in the proper position or may have had an object in front of their eyes, such as a soft drink can or their hand.

"Air bags are very powerful and they have to be to save lives. Sometimes there are injuries that result," she said Tuesday.

She said the Altima is safe and has passed all internal and government tests for air bags.

-- From wire reports