Washington, D.C.

Senate approves Snow as treasury secretary

The Senate approved President Bush’s nomination of John Snow as treasury secretary Thursday night after the railroad executive gave assurances he would review a department rule on pensions that opponents contend discriminates against older workers.

The nomination of the administration’s top economic spokesman was approved by voice vote after many senators had left the Capitol to begin a long three-day weekend.

Snow, the head of railroad giant CSX Corp. for the past 14 years, was picked by Bush last month to be his new treasury secretary after the ouster of Paul O’Neill in a shake-up of the administration’s economic team.

Kentucky

Offensive T-shirts lead to ban on solicitors

The University of Louisville banned credit card solicitors after students were offered racially offensive and sexually explicit T-shirts during an on-campus promotion.

The shirts were given away to students who applied for a credit card backed by Bank One during a campus visit last week. A caricature of a voluptuous black woman, a Bank One logo and “10 Reasons Why Beer is Better than a Black Man” appeared on the shirts.

Most of the reasons were sexually explicit and included “A beer can’t get you pregnant,” and “A beer doesn’t yell at your kids.”

Bank One was the only credit card vendor allowed on the Louisville campus. The university’s five-year, $1.9 million agreement expires today, and university officials planned to stop on-campus solicitation in their next contract.

Nevada

Stepfather charged with child abuse

A man was charged Thursday with child abuse for allegedly leaving his 3-year-old stepson at a Utah store and police said he was a possible suspect in the disappearance of the boy’s mother.

Investigators are treating the case of Jeannette Acord, missing for more than a week, as a homicide. Police said they feared for her safety based partly on evidence recovered from the Reno home she shared with her newlywed husband, Lyle Montgomery.

Montgomery, 42, was charged with misdemeanor child abuse for allegedly leaving the boy Saturday at a ShopKo department store in Salt Lake City, 500 miles from Reno.

Jonathan Jacob Corpuz’s identity was a mystery for days, until a Reno woman recognized him and called authorities.

Jonathan told Salt Lake City Police that Montgomery fired a gunshot at his mother but missed, according to a police affidavit filed for a search warrant for the family’s home.

Washington, D.C.

Pension program has $3.6 billion shortfall

The government program protecting the retirement income that workers earn in employer-sponsored pension plans posted a record $3.6 billion shortfall in 2002 after burning through its entire $7.7 billion surplus.

The Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp. said Thursday that the bulk of that $11.37 billion net loss last year — also the largest in the agency’s 28-year history — was from securing a record number of underfunded pension plans at bankrupt and financially troubled companies, particularly in the steel industry.

The corporation’s executive director, Steven A. Kandarian, said the insurance program still had sufficient assets to pay benefits to retirees “for a number of years.” But officials must find new ways to financially strengthen the program to meet future obligations, he said.