Washington

American taxpayers see record refunds

Americans got nearly $150 billion in income tax refunds this spring, a record $1,900 on average. Tax cuts and the nation’s sour economy were two of the biggest reasons.

The Internal Revenue Service announced Thursday that the 77 million refunds processed through April 19 also set a record. The same was true for the 36.5 million refunds that taxpayers had deposited directly into their bank accounts.

The tax cut signed into law last year by President Bush had a lot to do with refunds that averaged $1,937, an increase of 13 percent from the previous year. Tax rates were reduced across the board and middle-class taxpayers got a $100 boost in the child tax credit.

New York

Federal judge: Death penalty unconstitutional

A federal judge Thursday said he was prepared to declare the federal death penalty unconstitutional on the grounds that too many condemned inmates turn out to be innocent.

U.S. District Judge Jed S. Rakoff said he would throw out the federal death penalty in the case of two men charged with drug and murder conspiracy unless the government could explain the number of wrongful convictions that wind up on death row.

He gave the government a final opportunity to present arguments before he issues a final ruling after May 31.

Citing post-conviction DNA testing that has freed 12 condemned inmates since 1985, Rakoff said that the possibility of an innocent person being executed would be “difficult to square with basic constitutional guarantees, let alone simple justice.”

Rakoff’s ruling would not affect the death penalty laws of individual states.

Connecticut

Traces of anthrax found at sorting facility

Trace amounts of anthrax were found on the ceiling of a postal sorting center where the deadly bacteria was found last year, a state official said Thursday.

The Wallingford facility was tested Sunday, and the positive samples were found in the ceiling above three of the four sorting machines that were contaminated last fall.

About 3 million spores were found in the complex last year during the investigation into the Nov. 21 death of Ottilie Lundgren, 94, of nearby Oxford, who died of inhalation anthrax.

San Diego

Death penalty sought for murder suspect

Prosecutors announced Thursday they would seek the death penalty for David Westerfield in the kidnapping and murder of 7-year-old Danielle van Dam, who disappeared from her home Feb. 1.

Westerfield, 50, a self-employed engineer, lived two doors from the Van Dam family in the Sabre Springs neighborhood.

Defense attorneys said that they would not seek to delay the trial, set to begin May 17.