Tennessee

Gore remembers mother as role model for women

Former Vice President Al Gore remembered his mother at her funeral Saturday as an inspiring role model for women who believed education was the “key to freedom in life.”

“She wanted everyone to personally feel the enlightenment from knowledge that she had felt in her own life,” Gore said of Pauline LaFon Gore, who died Wednesday at the age of 92.

“It was her deep conviction that education opens the door to a new way of understanding the world and provides the key to freedom in life.”

More than 200 people attended the funeral at the United Methodist Church in Carthage, a small town about 50 miles east of Nashville where the Gore family owns a farm.

Nebraska

Mutual of Omaha CEO, chairman Weekly dies

Jack Weekly, who rose from an entry-level data processing job to chairman and chief executive officer of Mutual of Omaha Insurance Co., one of the industry’s giants, has died at the age of 73.

Weekly died late Friday after being hospitalized after a fall Wednesday, the company announced Saturday.

“Jack Weekly was not only an astute businessman and inspirational leader, he was one of the most ethical, honest and caring people I met,” Mutual of Omaha President Dan Neary said.

Weekly also was chairman of the Health Insurance Association of America in the early 1990s and led efforts to preserve the private health insurance industry at a time when the Clinton administration was proposing a major overhaul.

Iowa

Judge awards $1 billion in anti-spamming suit

A federal judge in Davenport has awarded an Internet service provider more than $1 billion in what is thought to be the largest judgment against spammers.

Robert Kramer, whose company provides e-mail service for about 5,000 subscribers in eastern Iowa, filed suit against 300 spammers after his inbound mail servers received up to 10 million spam e-mails a day in 2000, according to court documents.

U.S. District Judge Charles R. Wolle filed default judgments Friday against three of the defendants under the Federal Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act and the Iowa Ongoing Criminal Conduct Act.

AMP Dollar Savings Inc. of Mesa, Ariz., was ordered to pay $720 million and Cash Link Systems Inc. of Miami, Fla., was ordered to pay $360 million.

Kentucky

Radio show lets relatives call inmates

Inmates across the nation can receive some Christmas cheer from faraway relatives through a radio call-in show that will be aired nationwide this year.

WMMT-FM in Whitesburg, which is popular among big-city inmates being held in isolated prisons in Appalachia, will host a call-in show Monday so that people can offer holiday wishes to inmates from Red Onion in Virginia to Folsom in California.

Prisoners also are invited to call in for the program, which is slated to run from 6 p.m to 9 p.m.

The project is a public service to inmates who are being held in prisons hours from home and who might not otherwise receive a visit from relatives, said Nick Szuberla, a WMMT personality.