| Famed Gulf War General Schwarzkopf dies Dec 28th 2012, 01:42  WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Retired U.S. General Norman Schwarzkopf Jr, who headed coalition forces that drove Iraqi President Saddam Hussein's army out of Kuwait in Operation Desert Storm, has died, a U.S. official said on Thursday. He was 78. The highly decorated four-star general died at 2:22 p.m. ET at his home in Tampa, Florida, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity. The cause of death was not immediately known. Schwarzkopf, a burly Vietnam War veteran known as Stormin' Norman, commanded more than 540,000 U.S. ...
|  | Former President George H.W. Bush remains in intensive care Dec 28th 2012, 01:12  AUSTIN, Texas (Reuters) - Former President George H.W. Bush remained in the intensive care unit of a Houston hospital on Thursday, but his longtime chief of staff issued a reassuring message, urging the media and the public to "put the harps back in the closet." Bush, 88, a Republican who during his one term in office led a coalition of nations that ejected Iraqi forces from Kuwait in 1991, was admitted to Methodist Hospital November 23 for bronchitis. He was transferred to intensive care on Sunday after setbacks including a persistent fever, family spokesman Jim McGrath has said. ...
| | Chicago sued for alleged discrimination against black teachers Dec 27th 2012, 23:56 CHICAGO (Reuters) - The Chicago Teachers Union has sued the nation's third largest school district, saying Mayor Rahm Emanuel's campaign to reform or close underperforming public schools discriminates against African-American teachers and staff. The federal lawsuit filed on Wednesday and announced on Thursday is the latest battle with the city since teachers staged a week-long strike in September. It alleges that more than half of the tenured teachers fired in the most recent round of school closings and turnarounds were African American. ... | | Florida man pleads guilty to smuggling dinosaur bones Dec 27th 2012, 23:43  NEW YORK (Reuters) - A Florida man described by federal prosecutors as a "one-man black market in prehistoric fossils" pleaded guilty on Thursday to smuggling dinosaur skeletons into the United States. Eric Prokopi was accused of importing and selling stolen artifacts including a nearly complete Tyrannosaurus Bataar skeleton and skeletons of a duckbilled Saurolophus Angustirostris from Mongolia and a flying Oviraptor from China, according to the office of U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara in Manhattan. ...
| | NY's top court to hear challenge to Bloomberg taxi plan Dec 27th 2012, 23:42  ALBANY, New York (Reuters) - The New York Court of Appeals has agreed to review a decision that blocked New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg's plan to raise over $1.4 billion by selling 2,000 new taxi medallions. Three taxi groups in May sued to overturn the plan, saying it would destroy the livelihoods of thousands of drivers. In August, the State Supreme Court's Acting Justice Arthur Engoron found that the Bloomberg administration violated the state constitution's "home rule" provisions by asking state lawmakers, instead of the City Council, to pass the taxi plan. ...
| | After Newtown, Americans want their guns, with some restrictions Dec 27th 2012, 23:29  (Reuters) - Nearly seven in 10 Americans support the idea of placing strong or moderate limits gun ownership following the mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School, a Reuters/Ipsos poll said on Thursday. But laws that permit citizens to carry concealed weapons or use lethal force for protection while in public were just as popular, the poll said. The Reuters/Ipsos poll, which surveyed 1,477 Americans online between December 23 and 27, highlighted the difficulty U.S. ...
| | Iraq war veteran charged with killing his Wisconsin cop wife Dec 27th 2012, 22:37 MILWAUKEE (Reuters) - A decorated U.S. Iraq War veteran was charged on Thursday with gunning down his wife, a Wisconsin police officer, in a parking lot as she was on patrol duty the day before Christmas. Benjamin Sebena, 30, who faces one count of first-degree intentional homicide, is accused of shooting his wife, Jennifer, 30, five times outside a fire station in the Milwaukee suburb of Wauwatosa early Monday. Benjamin Sebena "laid in wait" for his wife for several hours and when she left the building, he shot her, according to the criminal complaint. ... | | Free condoms to be dispensed by Philadelphia high schools Dec 27th 2012, 22:35 PHILADELPHIA (Reuters) - There will be something new in many Philadelphia high schools when students return to class next week - free condoms. Under a city plan, free condom dispensers will be placed in 22 of Philadelphia's 51 high schools after winter break, part of an initiative aimed at battling the spread of sexually transmitted diseases between students. Parents who do not want their children involved in the program can opt out, school district spokesman Fernando Gallard said on Thursday. ... | | New York City faces $811 million budget gap in FY 2014: report Dec 27th 2012, 21:57  (Reuters) - New York City faces an $811 million budget shortfall in fiscal year 2014 and lowered revenue projections in part because of Superstorm Sandy, the city's Independent Budget Office said on Thursday. The city's tax revenue collections are likely to grow by just 3.4 percent in fiscal 2014 to $44.8 billion. That figure is $347 million lower than the IBO projected in May, it said. The dimmer outlook is due to slower expected economic growth, particularly in the banking and securities industries, the IBO said. ...
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