Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: MONDAY, March 19, 1990                   TAG: 9003222464
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: ?????????????????   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                 LENGTH: Medium

COURT WON'T DECIDE FATE OF SPOTTED OWL

The justices, without comment, let stand a ruling that threw out part of a lawsuit seeking to protect the owl from the asserted threat posed by logging operations in the old forests of western Oregon.

A medium-sized, mostly nocturnal bird, the spotted owl nests almost exclusively in the towering forests of the Northwest, where some trees are about 1,000 years old. Many of the forests are on federal land.

So-called old-growth timber is among the most coveted by the industry, and dozens of mill towns in the Northwest are economically dependent on logs cut in federal forests.

The National Forest Products Association contends that protecting the owl could eliminate, directly or indirectly, 280,000 jobs. But conservationists say those estimates are "hysterical" and peg the potential job loss at 2,300.

In other action, the court:

Rejected an appeal by Puerto Rico officials fined more than $30 million for failing to move quickly enough to relieve prison overcrowding.

The court, without comment, left intact a ruling that the commonwealth's belated efforts to ease the problem are not reason enough to cancel the fines.

Agreed to decide whether a federal anti-counterfeiting law may be used to crack down on the sale of used cars with phony mileage readings.

The court said it will hear an appeal by the manager of a Pennsylvania car dealership sentenced under the law to six months in prison.

Refused to hear appeals stemming from a $200 million settlement of price-fixing charges against the nation's leading manufacturers of folding cartons.

The court, without comment, let stand a ruling that redistributed a $6 million surplus from the settlement in one of the biggest antitrust cases ever.

Refused to hear a Bush administration appeal aimed at making it costlier for an organization called the National Security Archive to compile information.

The archive is a non-profit organization that collects information on national security and foreign policy and makes it available to the public in various ways. It has filed thousands of FOIA requests for government records.

The court, without comment, let stand a ruling that gives the archive the same preferential status under the Freedom of Information Act that other news media enjoy.