Iowa
Campaign lies criminalized
Legislators voted Wednesday to make lying on the campaign trail a crime, and to crack down on increasingly popular "push polls" designed to slur rival candidates.
The House unanimously approved the measure to make "false information in political material" a crime and sent it to the Senate, where it is expected to be approved next month in Des Moines.
The measure would prohibit candidates from saying things about a rival that a candidate "knows to be untrue, deceptive, or misleading." Those convicted could be sentenced up to a year in jail, or fined $1,500.
In push polls, callers representing themselves as legitimate pollsters offer negative often outrageous information about a rival.
WASHINGTON, D.C.
Social Security garnisheed
Hundreds of thousands of older Americans are about to get smaller Social Security checks until their debts to the federal government are paid. The new and largely unpublicized initiative is part of an effort to collect some of the $31.3 billion that individuals owe federal agencies.
The first people to be hit, starting in May, will be 55,000 defaulters on Veterans Affairs mortgage loans and small business, disaster and student loans.
In October, the Treasury Department will garnishee the Social Security checks of 232,000 IRS debtors.
It's the first time Social Security payments have been targeted to repay federal debts. Authority to do so is contained in an obscure section of the 1996 Debt Collection Improvement Act.
WASHINGTON, D.C.
Air conditioners recalled
An Ohio company is recalling about 17,000 air conditioners that may short-circuit and catch fire. White Consolidated Industries Inc. of Cleveland and the Consumer Product Safety Commission announced the recall of the 240-volt air conditioners on Wednesday.
No injuries have been reported, but the company has received one report of an air conditioner short circuiting and catching fire, resulting in $14,000 in damage, the safety commission said.
Consumers can call the company toll-free at (866) 897-5612 with questions or to request free repairs.
WASHINGTON, D.C.
Nissan air bags probed
At least 29 people say deploying passenger side air bags in late model Nissan Altimas seriously injured their eyes, causing blindness in some cases.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has opened an investigation looking at the 1994 and 1995 models. There are about 325,000 of the vehicles on the road.
Most of the injured passengers told the agency they were wearing a seat belt and not sitting too close to the dashboard when the air bag deployed in a minor or moderate crash. The drivers were not seriously injured in each case.
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