Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, September 2, 1994 TAG: 9409020081
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: B11 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
WASHINGTON - The federal government on Thursday rejected the timber industry's petition to remove the Northern spotted owl from the list of protected threatened species in California.
The bird remains at risk in the Pacific Northwest despite evidence that its population is doing much better in California than once thought, the Interior Department's Fish and Wildlife Service said.
Nevertheless, the Northern spotted owls in California do not constitute a population segment distinct from Northern spotted owls elsewhere in the species' range - a legal requirement for its removal from the list, the service said.
Gilbert Murray, president of the forestry association, said that by rejecting its petition, Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt had decided ``to ignore the best available science and take the easy way out.''
- Associated Press\ Harassment suit nets secretary $7.1 million
SAN FRANCISCO - A former secretary at the world's largest law firm who said she was sexually harassed was awarded $7.1 million in punitive damages on Thursday.
Last week, Rena Weeks was awarded $50,000 in general damages from lawyer Martin Greenstein and the law firm Baker & McKenzie.
In a second phase that ended Thursday, the same jury awarded Weeks $7.1 million in punitive damages, $6.9 million of which will be paid by the firm. Greenstein will owe $225,000.
- Associated Press
Briefly ...
Four employees sued the Resolution Trust Corp., the S&L cleanup agency, on Thursday, alleging that the agency has engaged in a pattern of retaliation against them for trying to expose problems.
The federal government will increase payment rates for Medicare patients in rural hospitals by 4.7 percent beginning Oct. 1, the Department of Health and Human Services announced Thursday.
by CNB