Nation digest 09/17/03

U.S. infant mortality reaches record low

ATLANTA -- The U.S. infant mortality rate dropped to another record low in 2001, in part because of a decline in SIDS deaths, but is still higher than that of other industrialized countries, the government said Tuesday.

The U.S. rate in 2001 -- the latest data available -- fell to 6.8 deaths per 1,000 live births from 6.9 the previous year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The rate has declined 38 percent since 1983, when it was 10.9 per 1,000 live births. It has dropped to an all-time low in each of the last four years after a brief plateau in 1997 and 1998.

Court reviewing music industry's subpeonas

WASHINGTON -- A federal appeals court panel offered few hints Tuesday whether it will permit the music industry to continue using special copyright subpoenas to track and sue computer users who download songs over the Internet.

Judges from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia tossed tough questions at all sides, plainly wrestling with esoteric provisions of the disputed 1998 law that permits music companies and others to force Internet providers to turn over the names of suspected pirates.

The Recording Industry Association of America has issued at least 1,500 such subpoenas this summer. It has filed civil lawsuits against 261 people.

The decision is expected later this fall.

Employee faces charges in mutual fund case

NEW YORK -- State officials Tuesday filed the first criminal counts in their investigation of mutual fund trading practices, charging a former Bank of America employee with grand larceny and securities fraud.

New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer announced the charges against Theodore Sihpol III, 36, who surrendered to authorities Tuesday morning.

Spitzer said the charges were the first of several expected in the mutual fund probe he announced this month.

Authorities allege Sihpol was involved in late trading, or buying mutual fund shares at the 4 p.m. price after the market closes. Late trading is prohibited by New York law and SEC regulations.

Default rates steady for college student loans

The default rate on federally backed college loans hit an all-time low during the 2001 fiscal year, the Education Department said Tuesday.

The department said only 5.4 percent of college graduates who began making payments in fiscal 2001 defaulted on their debt. In the previous fiscal year, 5.9 percent of students with outstanding loans defaulted.

The peak default rate, 22.4 percent in 1990, occurred before federal legislation curtailed student loan abuse by beauty colleges, truck driving academies and other trade schools.

Department officials attributed the drop in defaults to improved credit counseling, more flexible repayment schedules and low interest rates.

ABC to continue Ritter's sitcom without him

LOS ANGELES -- ABC's "8 Simple Rules for Dating My Teenage Daughter" will continue despite star John Ritter's death and will show the TV family coping with the loss, the network said Tuesday.

"Everybody recognizes that John loved that show. ... He'd have wanted the show to continue," said Lloyd Braun, chairman of ABC Entertainment Television Group.

Braun and ABC Entertainment president Susan Lyne said the sitcom will debut next Tuesday as planned and that the network will air the three episodes Ritter filmed before his death last week.

After that, the series will go into repeats while writers retool it and production starts. No date was given for when the show will return to the air.

Ritter died Thursday of an undetected heart problem.

-- From wire reports