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Nation in brief
Compiled from Times wires Agencies wasted $19-billion, report saysA half-dozen of the largest federal agencies squandered $19-billion through erroneous payments last year, and the total amount wasted is probably far greater, congressional auditors said Friday. Improper Medicare payments accounted for more than half the money, according to a report by the General Accounting Office, the investigative and auditing arm of Congress. The government also paid out more than it should in housing subsidies and tax refunds. The mistakes occurred when government officials paid people twice, miscalculated the amount individuals should receive or sent checks to people who weren't eligible, according to the report. Mob informant sentenced on drug chargesNEW YORK -- Salvatore "Sammy the Bull" Gravano, the mob turncoat who put John Gotti away, was sentenced to the maximum 20 years in prison Friday for running a multimillion-dollar Ecstasy ring in Arizona. U.S. District Judge Allyne Ross departed from sentencing guidelines that recommended no more than 151/2 years, saying the former underboss of the Gambino crime family "has shown an utter lack of remorse." Gravano, a 57-year-old notorious killer who testified against Mafia kingpins, did not speak during the hearing. In 1994, Gravano received a five-year prison term for plotting 19 murders, receiving a break in exchange for his cooperation. His testimony helped put away 37 mobsters. Gravano later headed to Arizona under the Witness Protection Program. Tri-State owner logged uncremated remainsATLANTA -- Crematory operator Ray Brent Marsh kept a detailed log that allowed him to identify the human remains he stashed on his property, according to court documents. Marsh used this crude record as he helped investigators catalog the uncremated bodies discovered on his family's northwest Georgia property in February, the documents say. As they toured the crematory grounds, Marsh provided GBI agents the name he believed belonged to each corpse. The investigators would write the names on index cards, which were dropped on the corresponding bodies. Eventually 339 bodies were discovered at Tri-State Crematory. The details suggest Marsh was far more methodical in handling the bodies than seemed likely from previous depictions by officials, who portrayed him as hopelessly disorganized. The information is contained in an affidavit of a potential witness in civil litigation against Marsh, who has been charged with 334 counts of theft by deception and 64 counts of abuse of a corpse after the bodies were discovered strewn about, buried or stacked on the crematory property. In other news...POST OFFICE DOES BETTER: The Postal Service is finishing the fiscal year in better financial condition than anticipated. Postmaster General John E. Potter said Friday the agency expects to finish the fiscal year this month with a $1.2-billion loss. The post office had expected to lose $1.35-billion. SLA MEMBER WINS REPRIEVE: -- Former Symbionese Liberation Army fugitive Sara Jane Olson won a temporary reprieve Friday from California's attempt to increase her prison sentence for conspiring to blow up police cruisers in 1975. A judge agreed to hear her objections to the prison board's intentions to consider a new sentence in the case. DEPORTATION ORDER THROWN OUT: A judge has thrown out criminal charges and deportation proceedings against a man who brought his young nephew and niece to Michigan after their mother was murdered in their native Nigeria.
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From the Times wire desk
From the AP |
