Minneapolis: Superintendent returns $30,000 salary raise
Minneapolis Supt. Carol Johnson has given back a $30,000 pay raise, saying she cannot accept it given the budget cuts her district is facing.
The gesture was made Tuesday at a school board meeting where Johnson outlined more than $30 million in cuts that included eliminating busing for high school students, freezing wages for support staff members and increasing class sizes by one student beyond the level promised voters in a 2000 levy referendum.
Johnson's salary will remain at $160,000.
Johnson said she knew her decision to return her salary increase would not solve its budget problems.
"But I felt every one of us had to examine how we can help support getting out of the budget shortfall," she said. "Every dollar the district spends has to be considered as part of what we have to review."
Washington, D.C.: Bush wants to restore food stamp benefits
The Bush administration, seeking to reverse part of the 1996 welfare overhaul, on Wednesday proposed to restore food stamp benefits to 363,000 legal immigrants who have lived in the country for at least five years.
Under current rules, adult immigrants must have worked in the country for at least 10 years or be a refugee or member of the military to qualify for benefits. There is no work requirement in the White House proposal, which will be part of President Bush's 2003 budget.
The administration's plan would cost $2.1 billion over 10 years. The White House has not said how it would pay for the proposal. The food-stamp program costs about $17 billion annually.
Food stamp rolls fell from 25.5 million in 1996, when Congress overhauled the welfare system, to below 17 million early last year. By October, the number swelled to 18.4 million.
New Jersey: Deer hunt ban lifted
A judge on Wednesday lifted a ban that had blocked the start of a controlled deer hunt in suburban Princeton Township.
Attorneys for the animal rights groups who asked for the temporary restraining order said they would appeal the decision today.
Superior Court Judge Neil H. Shuster also transferred a lawsuit challenging Princeton's deer management plan to an appeals court, where a similar case is pending.
That lawsuit, also filed by the animal rights activists, contends that a plan to thin out the herd by having hired sharpshooters hunt at night with rifles fitted with silencers is cruel to the deer and would endanger residents.
An overabundance of deer has caused traffic accidents and damage to crops. The township's management plan aims to reduce the herd from 1,600 to 400 over five years. Last year, 324 deer were killed.
Texas: Execution is first of four this month
A man who stalked teen-age girls was put to death Wednesday night in Huntsville for killing one of the girls' mothers during a burglary in 1994.
Michael Moore, 38, a nine-year Navy veteran, confessed to killing Christa Bentley, 35, after he was apprehended the morning of the slaying in Copperas Cove, about 50 miles southwest of Waco.
Authorities said Moore had compiled a notebook including names and addresses of some 300 girls, including Bentley's daughter. He said he went through high school yearbooks and "made a list of the most attractive girls and started following them around."
A state appeals court halted Moore's execution in March, a day before it was scheduled. In November, the same court dismissed his final appeal.
Moore was the first of four Texas inmates scheduled to die this month. Seventeen were executed last year.
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