Washington, D.C.

Government to begin arming cargo pilots

The government said Tuesday that it would begin recruiting cargo pilots to carry guns in the cockpit for the first time, extending to them a right enjoyed by passenger pilots for almost a year.

Congress created the program to deputize pilots as federal law enforcement officers in late 2002, but excluded cargo pilots at the last minute. A year later, cargo pilots successfully lobbied Congress to allow them to join passenger pilots, who fly the same planes that they do.

The Transportation Security Administration says it is now ready to accept applications online. Classes for pilots who volunteer and pass the psychological testing will begin in the spring, said Mark Hatfield, TSA spokesman.

A little more than a thousand passenger pilots have been trained and deputized, Hatfield said. The TSA recently doubled the number of 50-person classes it holds every week, to 100 pilots, and will have thousands more graduated by the end of the year, he said.

Washington, D.C.

Halliburton subsidiary to reimburse Pentagon

A Halliburton Co. subsidiary has agreed to reimburse the Pentagon an additional $11.4 million for potential overcharges on meals served at military dining facilities in Iraq.

A Pentagon official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said on Tuesday that Halliburton’s Kellogg Brown & Root subsidiary notified the Pentagon on Monday that it would reimburse the $11.4 million for meals served at four dining facilities. That is in addition to $16 million it had already agreed to reimburse for other potential overcharges at a Kuwait dining facility.

The Defense Contract Audit Agency has begun checking the meal service contract costs for the 53 remaining military dining facilities run by subcontractors for Kellogg Brown & Root in Kuwait and Iraq.

Massachusetts

Congressmen join marriage debate

Massachusetts’ U.S. House delegation has sent state lawmakers a letter urging them to defeat a constitutional amendment that would define marriage as a union between a man and a woman.

The all-Democratic delegation argued that changing the constitution was not the appropriate way to resolve differing opinions about gay marriage, which the state’s highest court appeared to endorse in a historic November ruling.

“We are firmly committed to protecting the rights of religions to recognize only such marriage or other unions that they deem legitimate,” said the three-paragraph letter, which was signed by all 10 members of the delegation. “But it has long been the case that states recognize marriages between people that would not meet various religious tests.”

The letter was expected to arrive in lawmakers’ mailboxes today.

San Francisco

Ford reaches settlement in fatal rollover crash

Ford Motor Co. has agreed to pay $23.7 million in punitive damages to the survivors of three people killed in a 1993 Ford Bronco rollover accident.

In 1999, Ford was hit with a $290 million jury verdict, which was reduced to $23.7 million by a California appeals court in November.

“We believe the remaining award is excessive and improper, but Ford decided to pay the judgment to resolve this 10-year-old case about a vehicle that was sold more than a quarter-century ago,” Ford attorney Theodore J. Boutrous Jr. said Tuesday.

The case involved the crash of a 1978 Ford Bronco. The Bronco’s roof was made partly of steel and fiberglass.

As the vehicle rolled, the steel collapsed, killing Ramon Romo, the front-seat passenger. The fiberglass also broke loose, striking and killing his wife and their 16-year-old son. The couple’s three other children were injured.