Pennsylvania

Last of Rent-Way executives sentenced

The last of three Rent-Way Inc. executives charged in a securities fraud scandal has been sentenced, bringing to a close a case that sent the nation’s second-largest rent-to-own furniture company into turmoil.

Jeffrey Underwood, the former senior vice president, was ordered to serve two years of probation and pay a $7,000 fine.

It was the lightest of the three sentences, an acknowledgment of Underwood’s cooperation with federal investigators. Underwood could have been sentenced to prison and fined as much as $1 million.

Washington, D.C.

Help the less fortunate, Bush says in address

President Bush urged Americans to seek out ways to help the needy during the holiday season, and he took credit for a rise in volunteerism nationwide.

“This holiday season, I ask every American to look for a challenge in your own community, and step forward to lend a hand,” Bush said Saturday in his weekly radio address.

Bush cited a government report issued this week that found more people in the United States volunteered their time in the past year.

“This increase in volunteering is evidence of the new culture of service we are building in America, especially among young people,” the president said.