Nation digest 01/12/02

High court will review Kansas City ADA case

WASHINGTON -- The Supreme Court agreed Friday to decide if cities can face big-dollar punitive damage verdicts for not accommodating the disabled.

The eventual ruling could have implications for cities nationwide that have tried, some more successfully than others, to make their buildings and services friendly to the disabled in compliance with the 1990 Americans with Disabilities Act.

At issue is government protection from lawsuits like the one Jeffrey Gorman, a paraplegic, filed against Kansas City, Mo., police after he was injured while being taken to jail for trespassing at a bar.

Bush bypasses Senate to make appointments

WASHINGTON -- Circumventing Senate opposition, President Bush signed recess appointments Friday for conservatives Otto Reich as the chief U.S. diplomat in Latin America and Eugene Scalia as the top lawyer for the Labor Department.

Because Bush exercised his authority while Congress was in recess, Reich and Scalia, son of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, will be allowed to serve until Congress recesses again at the end of the year.

Top presidential appointments are subject to Senate confirmation. The Senate's Democratic leaders refused to consider Scalia or Reich before the chamber adjourned last month until Jan. 23.

Alleged threat to Jeb Bush being probed

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. -- Gov. Jeb Bush on Friday downplayed an alleged threat against him, saying he had "total confidence" in his security officers.

Bush said security around him had increased "a little bit" but that there was no evidence anyone in the Capitol was in any danger.

Neither Bush nor Tim Moore, head of the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, would reveal specifics about the threat, which was detailed in a letter sent to Bush last month by a Broward County Jail inmate.

An initial newspaper report said the alleged threat was a terrorist plot to blow up the governor. Moore said that was not the case.

N.J. troopers reach plea deal in turnpike shooting

TRENTON, N.J. -- A lawyer said Friday that two state troopers who shot and wounded three unarmed minority motorists during a 1998 traffic stop on the New Jersey Turnpike have reached a plea bargain with state prosecutors.

The troopers, John Hogan and James Kenna, are expected to plead guilty to a lesser charge Monday, defense lawyer Robert Galantucci said. Both are charged with aggravated assault and Kenna also faces an attempted murder charge.

Sources familiar with the case said on condition of anonymity that the plea bargain would allow the troopers to avoid jail.

The incident sparked widespread debate about racial profiling by law enforcement officers across the country.

Grocery refuses to take coins, citing anthrax fear

PORTSMOUTH, N.H. -- A father who scraped up $3.13 in change to buy baby food was foiled when a grocery store refused to accept the coins, citing a fear of anthrax.

Anthony Ouellette went to another store and used a coin-counting machine to tally his 150 rolled pennies and $1.63 in loose change.

"I didn't want to go through that again because it's kind of embarrassing," said Ouellette.

Manager Darin Artus said the company began rejecting rolled coins after anthrax scares at other supermarkets, where rolled coins concealed a powdery substance.

-- From wire reports