California

Greenspan defends Fed’s 1990s policy

Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan defended himself Saturday against a criticism of his tenure, saying policy-makers would have damaged the economy in the late 1990s had they tried to burst that era’s speculative stock market bubble.

“The notion that a well-timed incremental tightening could have been calibrated to prevent the late 1990s bubble while preserving economic stability is almost surely an illusion,” Greenspan said in a speech at the American Economic Assn. annual meeting in San Diego.

For the Fed to have influenced the level of stock prices significantly during the boom, Greenspan said, short-term interest rates would have had to have been ratcheted up high enough to risk severe damage to the economy.

Miami

Plea agreement near for teen charged in death

A teenager whose life sentence for murdering a 6-year-old playmate was thrown out will sign paperwork accepting a plea deal today, further clearing the way for his release from prison, his mother’s lawyer said Saturday.

Lionel Tate spoke with his mother, Kathleen Grossett-Tate, in a conference call Saturday, said Henry Hunter, Grossett-Tate’s lawyer.

Hunter said Tate, who turns 17 this month, would sign papers agreeing to plead guilty to second-degree murder and receive a sentence of three years in prison — most of which he has already served. He also will serve a year of house arrest and 10 years of probation.

Tate was 12 when he punched, kicked and stomped to death 6-year-old Tiffany Eunick. His lawyers had argued that he was imitating the pro wrestling moves he saw on television.

California

Mourners remember mudslide victims

Mourners swayed to rousing hymns and wailed as they watched a slide show Saturday recalling 12 people — many of them children — who were swept away in a Christmas Day flash flood at a church campground in the San Bernardino Mountains.

More than a thousand people attended the service at Church of God Prophecy.

The victims were attending a Christmas gathering at St. Sophia Camp, a Greek Orthodox facility, when the mudslide roared through.

A separate Christmas Day flash flood at the nearby Devore KOA campground killed two people, including the campground manager.