Denver: Officials mull release of Columbine reports

Prosecutors say they plan to conduct two reviews of investigative reports on the 1999 Columbine High School shootings to recommend whether the documents can be made public.

Colorado Atty. Gen. Ken Salazar and Jefferson County Dist. Atty. Dave Thomas said releasing some documents may help answer lingering questions about the massacre.

“We need to get Columbine behind us and do it in a way that is open to the public,” Salazar said.

Salazar and Thomas said a task force will inventory reports, videotapes, physical evidence and other information and develop criteria to determine whether any can be released.

The task force will have no authority to demand release of records, but Salazar and Thomas said they hoped agencies holding the information would cooperate.

Washington, D.C.: Criminal investigation of Clinton gifts sought

A Republican lawmaker is asking Atty. Gen. John Ashcroft to open a criminal investigation into gifts to former President Clinton and Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y.

Rep. Doug Ose, R-Calif., chairman of a House Government Reform subcommittee, said his staff’s investigation found that the Clintons did not report some gifts and undervalued others.

In addition, Ose said the former first lady may have solicited gifts in violation of federal rules.

The Clintons took with them more than $400,000 worth of gifts when they left the White House a year ago. Julia Payne, spokeswoman for the former president, said they paid $86,000 for some of the gifts. The Clintons returned some items to the National Park Service after donors complained the gifts were for the White House and not the Clintons.

Spokesmen for the Clintons did not immediately return phone calls seeking comment.

Kentucky: Kindergartner killed running to catch bus

A 6-year-old kindergarten student was killed when she was run over by the school bus she was racing to catch.

No criminal charges were expected against driver Julia Williams in Tuesday’s death of Kristen Darnell in Gilbertsville, Marshall County Sheriff Terry Anderson said.

Kristen wasn’t outside when the bus stopped at her house, so Williams honked the horn, Anderson said.

When the girl didn’t appear, Williams drove down the street to her next stop, Anderson said.

Relatives in the house told Kristen that the bus was leaving, and she ran out to catch it, Anderson said. As the bus pulled away from the next house, Kristen fell and got caught under a back tire, Anderson said.

Washington, D.C.: Medicare report finds steep hike in costs

Out-of-pocket costs for Medicare recipients enrolled in health maintenance organizations rose by nearly 50 percent in a three-year period, a study shows.

The report from The Commonwealth Fund, a New York-based health research company, examined people enrolled in Medicare’s managed care plan known as Medicare Plus Choice from 1999 to 2001.

The sickest beneficiaries, who are also likely to have low incomes, had the highest increase in out-of-pocket costs.

Medicare’s managed plan enrollees in poor health spent an average of $2,088 out-of-pocket for prescription drugs last year a 56 percent increase from 1999, the report said. Enrollees in good health spent an average of $158 a 47 percent increase from 1999.

About 14 percent of Medicare’s beneficiaries are enrolled in health plans.