Senate votes to repeal workplace safety rules
In a show of solidarity with business, the Republican-controlled Senate voted Tuesday to overturn Clinton administration rules aimed at combating workplace injuries caused by repetitive motion.
The 56-44 vote came hours after the Bush administration publicly threw its support behind the measure, saying the regulations would impose a "vague and cumbersome" and costly burden on business.
The vote sent the measure to the House, where GOP leaders were weighing a plan to call for a vote as early as today. Passage there would give Bush his first chance to sign substantive legislation since taking office little more than six weeks ago.
The regulations, covering 608 pages, were issued by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration in January, four days before former President Clinton left office. They are to take effect in October.
Predatory lending
Citigroup acquisition faces federal charges
A company recently acquired by Citigroup Inc. used extensive deceptive lending practices to manipulate people into buying overpriced mortgages and credit insurance, the Federal Trade Commission charged Tuesday.
Government officials said they were seeking hundreds of millions of dollars for victimized consumers.
Associates First Capital Corp., bought in November by Citigroup, convinced consumers to consolidate their debts into a single loan usually a home-equity loan with the promise of lower monthly interest payments, according to a lawsuit filed in federal court.
The new loans, however, often came with substantial fees that made them even more expensive than the original debt.
Television
AOL Time Warner merges networks
AOL Time Warner announced Tuesday it would merge the WB broadcast network and the Turner cable networks into one group led by the WB's chief executive, Jamie Kellner.
The move creates the country's largest television group, with the WB, TBS, TNT, Turner Classic Movies, the Cartoon Network and all of the CNN networks under Kellner's watch.
Kellner founded the WB in 1993 with Warner Bros. and the Tribune Co. He was president of the Fox Broadcasting Co. from 1986 to 1993.
Publishing
California paper awaits 'unspecified' layoffs
Blaming a dramatic fall in help-wanted ad revenue and other signs of Silicon Valley's economic slowdown, the San Jose Mercury News is planning to lay off an unspecified number of workers.
Early-retirement offers may help, but "we will be unable to achieve the level of expense reduction we are seeking to achieve without layoffs," chairman and publisher Jay Harris said in a memo to the staff Monday. The paper has 1,700 employees.
All departments will be scrutinized as the paper decides whom to let go over the next two to three weeks, Harris said.
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