Nation briefs 3/25/06

Four students injured in Colo. school bus accident

WIGGINS, Colo. -- A school bus collided with a cattle truck in heavy fog early Friday, injuring four students and sending animals spilling onto a northeastern Colorado highway in a chain-reaction wreck, officials said. The students, including a 6-year-old boy, were taken to a hospital in Greeley with minor injuries, school and state patrol officials said. The bus had just turned onto U.S. Highway 34, right in front of the truck, state patrol Trooper Sgt. Rob Marone said.

Planners raise funds for disabled vets memorial

WASHINGTON -- Soldiers returning with missing limbs and shattered bodies from Iraq and other conflicts will have a place of honor among the memorials of the nation's capital. Planners are raising money for a new site -- nestled among the tributes to fallen war heroes from World War II, Korea and Vietnam -- to salute roughly 3 million disabled veterans. The American Veterans Disabled for Life Memorial is expected to open in the next three to four years on a two-acre site near the National Mall, just steps from the Capitol.

DOJ: NSA could listen in on confidential calls

WASHINGTON -- The National Security Agency could have legally monitored ordinarily confidential communications between doctors and patients or attorneys and their clients, the Justice Department said Friday of its controversial warrantless surveillance program. Responding to questions from Congress, the department also said that it sees no prohibition to using information collected under the NSA's program in court. "Because collecting foreign intelligence information without a warrant does not violate the Fourth Amendment and because the Terrorist Surveillance Program is lawful, there appears to be no legal barrier against introducing this evidence in a criminal prosecution," the department said in responses to questions from lawmakers released Friday evening.

FEMA won't reopen no-bid Katrina contracts

WASHINGTON -- FEMA has broken its promise to reopen four multimillion-dollar no-bid contracts for Hurricane Katrina work, including three that federal auditors say wasted significant amounts of money. Officials said they awarded the four contracts last October to speed recovery efforts that might have been slowed by competitive bidding. Some critics, however, suggested they were rewards for politically connected firms. Acting FEMA director R. David Paulison pledged last fall to rebid the contracts. This week, FEMA said the contracts wouldn't be rebid after all. In fact, they have been extended, said Michael Widomski, a spokesman for the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

-- From wire reports