ORANGE CITY, Fla. - Police and school officials nationwide have been duped into spending tax money for a bogus hand-held drug and weapons ``tracker,'' federal authorities say.
Texas officials unsealed an injunction against Quadro Corp. on Wednesday that bars the company from selling the Quadro Tracker.
The tracker - a 4-inch-tall unit with an antenna that waves gently from side to side until it points to the hunted substance - is said to detect objects by their molecular frequencies. They were priced at about $1,000 each.
WASHINGTON - The White House and congressional leaders signaled a willingness to add elements of their once-ambitious budget-balancing plans to a pending debt-ceiling bill.
The package would include yet-to-be-negotiated spending and tax cuts. While any new measure would be but a shadow of the original Republican proposal, the compromise would let both sides declare at least partial victory.
HAYDEN, Ariz. (AP) - A powerful explosion in a copper mine smelter injured three men, including one who suffered serious burns.
The cause of the explosion Wednesday was not immediately known, but state Assistant Mine Inspector Bill Hawes said something blew up in the smelter's converter, a piece of equipment that purifies copper ore.
OKANOGAN NATIONAL FOREST - An environmental group has outbid two timber companies for the right to log a portion of national forest land in Eastern Washington, and the group is planning an unusual timber harvest: It won't cut down a single tree.
But the government says it will reject the $28,875 bid unless the group promises to log the 275 acres of fire-scarred trees in a forest near the Methow Valley.
CHICAGO - Several years ago, John Christopher and Lindahl Brothers Inc. worked out a sweet deal for themselves that left a mountain of a problem for West Side residents, according to city officials.
Now, environmentalists and community activists contend, the city and the road builder have worked out another attractive deal: Lindahl, even as it begins clearing the 17-acre illegal dump it helped create, could improve its bottom line in the process.
BROOKHAVEN, Miss. (AP) - He won his case, and he's ``tickled to death,'' but John Grisham is still going back to the hobby that made him a celebrity.
The attorney turned author of ``The Firm'' and ``The Pelican Brief'' set aside work on his next novel ``Runaway Jury'' to try his first case in seven years.
HOUSTON (AP) - The two young lovers met at a Christmas party. With heavy makeup framing her exotic almond-shaped eyes and her long, dark hair piled high, Cindy Garcia looked at least 14. Pedro Sotelo, just 5-foot-3, looked no older than 16.
They were smitten. And neighbors didn't give it a second thought when they saw the couple holding hands and kissing as their courtship progressed.
WASHINGTON (AP) - At least some of the generally unpopular Richard Nixon commemorative stamps are worth thousands of dollars.
An estimated 160 stamps were misprinted with the portrait off center and Nixon's name upside down, according to Linn's Stamp News, a newspaper for collectors.
Linn's reported that an unnamed resident of northern Virginia purchased the misprinted stamps. It estimated the value of the stamps is as much as $8,000 each.
