Briefly

Washington, D.C.

Toxic pollution rises 5 percent in 2002

The volume of toxic pollutants released into the environment in the United States rose 5 percent in 2002, the first increase since 1997, the government reported Tuesday.

Those two years are the only ones to show an increase since the Environmental Protection Agency began keeping track of the billions of pounds of pollution under a 1986 law. In 1997, the increase was 6 percent, according to EPA figures.

Some 4.79 billion pounds were released in 2002, the latest year for which figures are available, not including releases from metal mining, the EPA reported.

Washington, D.C.

More lawsuits filed for music file-swaps

The music industry filed copyright infringement lawsuits against 480 computer users Tuesday, the latest round of litigation by recording companies against suspected online music file-swappers.

The cases were filed against 213 people in St. Louis, 206 in Washington, 55 in Denver and six in New Jersey, according to the Recording Industry Association of America.

In all, a total of 3,429 people have been sued by the recording industry since its legal campaign against individual computer users began in September. At least 600 of those cases were eventually settled for roughly $3,000 each. None of the cases has yet gone to trial.

Alabama

Trial deal reached in bombing cases

A federal judge approved a plan Tuesday to try serial bombing suspect Eric Rudolph in Birmingham but pick jurors from throughout northern Alabama, instead of just a three-county area around the state’s largest city.

U.S. District Judge Lynwood Smith approved the joint proposal that had been agreed to by defense attorneys and federal prosecutors. Rudolph had been seeking a change of venue.

Rudolph is accused of setting the Jan. 29, 1998, bomb outside New Woman All Women Health Care that killed officer Robert Sanderson and critically injuring nurse Emily Lyons.

Rudolph also is charged in the bombing that killed a woman in Atlanta’s Olympic park in 1996 and a pair of bombings in Atlanta in 1997, outside a gay nightclub and an office building that housed an abortion clinic. He became a fugitive after the Birmingham bombing and was arrested last year in Murphy, N.C.

Washington, D.C.

Rollover measure for savings advances

Families who set aside money for child care in tax-free accounts wouldn’t have to worry about forfeiting unspent dollars at the end of the year under a bill passed by the House on Tuesday.

House lawmakers passed a bill by voice vote allowing families to roll over to the next year up to $500 in unused child care savings held in a flexible spending account.

Flexible spending accounts let employees set aside a portion of their salaries, before paying taxes, to pay for child care and health care expenses. Current laws require those employees to forfeit unused money at the end of the year.