No-call list signs up new numbers again today

WASHINGTON -- The national do-not-call list will resume accepting phone numbers today from people who do not want to be bothered by telemarketers.

The Federal Trade Commission shut down new registration last week after a federal court ordered the agency to stop operating the list of more than 52 million phone numbers. But the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver temporarily blocked the lower court's decision Tuesday, allowing the registry to restart.

The FTC said Wednesday that consumers can register home or cell phone numbers with the free government service by visiting the Web site www.donotcall.gov or calling 1-888-382-1222, beginning today at 8 a.m. EDT.

Consumers who registered before Aug. 31 can file complaints about telemarketers at the same Internet site and toll-free number, starting Saturday at 6 p.m. EDT.

People who add new numbers have to wait three months before filing a complaint and it might take that long for them to see a reduction in telemarketing calls.

Redistricting makes progress in Texas

AUSTIN -- Texas House and Senate negotiators reached an agreement in principle Wednesday to redraw the state's congressional boundaries, settling a dispute among Republican lawmakers.

After days of closed-door meetings, legislators reached a deal after U.S. House Majority Leader Tom DeLay met with officials in the Capitol for three straight days this week.

Delay has been leading a GOP effort to increase the number of Republicans in the state's Congressional delegation.

The final sticking point for negotiators was over how to draw districts in west Texas to the satisfaction of individual lawmakers.

"It is my hope that we can have a final map that we can show you tomorrow morning," Republican Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst said.

A spokesman for House Speaker Tom Craddick said that the lawmaker was awaiting the final changes from the Senate negotiators. "We think it's OK, but we want to make sure we agree with them," said Bob Richter, Craddick's spokesman.

Feds OK meatpacker Farmland Foods sale

WASHINGTON -- The Justice Department is allowing the sale of now-bankrupt Farmland Industries Inc.'s pork business, rejecting arguments that whoever buys it will be closer to a monopoly of the pork industry.

Smithfield Foods Inc., the largest pork processor in the nation, wants to buy the Kansas City, Mo.-based company's Farmland Foods division for $363.5 million. A competitor, Cargill Inc., recently offered to buy it for $385 million.

Senate Finance Committee Chairman Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, and Sen. Tim Johnson, D-S.D., asked antitrust regulators at the Justice Department to look into the sale of Farmland to Smithfield, arguing that the government should block it to prevent Smithfield from getting too firm a grip on the meat market.

"It's disheartening that the Justice Department won't intervene in the bankruptcy court's sale of Farmland Foods," Grassley said Wednesday.

Judge won't postpone Stewart civil case

NEW YORK -- Saying Martha Stewart is no John Gotti, a judge refused prosecutors' request to delay civil cases against the style maven despite claims that the litigation could damage a criminal obstruction of justice case.

In public documents obtained Wednesday, U.S. District Judge John E. Sprizzo ruled prosecutors cannot stop civil lawyers from interviewing 15 witnesses. Prosecutors claim the interviews will give Stewart's criminal defense lawyers an unfair advantage.

"This is not the strongest obstruction case I have ever seen, just going by your own U.S. attorney's comments on it," Sprizzo, who is presiding over the civil cases, told lead criminal prosecutor Karen Seymour at a Sept. 30 hearing. "This is not John Gotti."

Gotti, who died last year, presided over the Gambino crime family before he was prosecuted on charges that put him in prison for life.

-- From wire reports