>U.S. signs on to native rights
WASHINGTON -- President Barack Obama said Thursday that the United States will sign a United Nations non-binding declaration on the rights of indigenous peoples, a move that advocates called another step in improving Washington's relationship with Native Americans.
Mr. Obama announced the decision during the second White House Tribal Conference, where he said he is "working hard to live up to" the name that was given to him by the Crow Nation: "One Who Helps People Throughout the Land."
The United States is the last major country to sign on to the U.N. declaration, which was endorsed by 145 countries in 2007. A handful of countries, including the United States, voted against it because of the parts of the provision that say indigenous peoples "have the right to the lands, territories and resources which they have traditionally owned, occupied, or otherwise used and acquired."
That language does not override national law, and Canada and New Zealand, which also initially opposed the declaration, said in recent months that they would support it.
WASHINGTON -- People with a record of sexual misconduct are often able to land positions in public and private schools as teachers, volunteers or contractors, slipping through a system of background checks meant to thwart them, federal investigators reported Thursday.
Among the 15 cases the Government Accountability Office reviewed was that of former Manassas. Va., teacher Kevin Ricks, who pleaded guilty this year to abusing a male student and faces various other state and federal charges. The Washington Post in July disclosed questions about Mr. Ricks, his school employment record and his alleged sexual advances against several students.
Eleven of the 15 cases, the GAO reported, showed that offenders who had previously targeted children were able to obtain positions in schools.
"Even more disturbing," the report concluded, they were able in at least six cases to use those positions to abuse more children.
WASHINGTON -- A Commerce Department task force called for the creation of a "Privacy Bill of Rights" for online consumers and the establishment of an office within the department that would work to strengthen privacy policies in the United States and coordinate initiatives with other countries.
The department's Internet Policy Task Force, in a report released Thursday, said the "Privacy Bill of Rights" would increase transparency on how user information was collected online, place limits on the use of consumer data by companies and promote the use of audits and other forms of enforcement to increase accountability.
The new protections would expand on the framework of Fair Information Practice Principles that address data security, notice and choice -- or the privacy policies many users agree to on websites -- and rights to obtaining information on the Internet.
WASHINGTON -- President Barack Obama may exempt air-traffic controllers, among the highest-paid workers in government, from his proposed federal pay freeze because their wages are covered by a collective-bargaining agreement.
The 15,677 controllers, who earn an average of $136,000 a year, received 3 percent annual raises in base pay under a three-year contract negotiated last year with the Federal Aviation Administration. The agreement reversed cuts imposed during President George W. Bush's administration. Controllers are atypical among federal workers because they bargain with their agency over pay.
Mr. Obama faces a choice between upsetting controllers with a freeze or other federal workers by creating an exemption, said William Swelbar, a research engineer at MIT. "I would be incredibly surprised if this president didn't abide by a collective-bargaining agreement," he said.
Mr. Obama proposed a two-year pay freeze for about 2 million federal workers on Nov. 29 to save about $60 billion over a decade and help rein in the budget deficit. The House approved the plan on Dec. 8, and it is pending in the Senate.
MCALESTER, Okla. -- Oklahoma officials executed a convicted murderer Thursday using a drug combination that includes a sedative commonly used to euthanize animals, after a nationwide shortage of a key ingredient forced the state to tinker with the usual formula.
John David Duty was pronounced dead at 6:18 p.m. at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary. The 58-year-old, who was sentenced to die for strangling his cell mate nearly a decade ago, is believed to be the first person in the United States whose execution included the use of pentobarbital.
JANESVILLE, Minn. -- A 26-year-old man thought he was doing a good deed when he gave a 70-year-old woman a ride to a Minnesota bank.
But police say the woman robbed the bank, and the man was her unsuspecting getaway driver.
The man told The Free Press of Mankato that he thought the woman, who rents an apartment from his mother, was going to the bank to withdraw cash to pay her rent.
Instead, employees of the Elysian State Bank reported Wednesday that an "elderly woman" told the teller she had a gun, demanded money and left with an undisclosed amount.
Police stopped the car and took both into custody before determining the woman acted alone.
The Star Tribune reported the woman had a hammer but no gun. She's in jail, pending charges.
SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- California is on the verge of creating the first system in the nation to give polluting companies such as utilities or refineries financial incentives to emit fewer greenhouse gases.
They hope their plan will inspire other states to follow, while officials in the state -- the world's eighth-largest economy -- discuss plans to link the new system with similar ones under way or being planned in Canada, Europe and Asia.
The state's air quality board began hearing testimony Thursday and will likely vote on the regulations today.
WASHINGTON -- Anti-terrorism teams will start random inspections of passengers' bags and packages to try to protect the region's Metro rail and bus system from attack, officials said Thursday.
Police using explosives-screening equipment and bomb-sniffing dogs will pull aside for inspection about every third person carrying a bag, Metro Transit Police Chief Michael Taborn said. The searches might be conducted at one location at a time or at several places simultaneously. If people refuse, they will be barred from entering the rail station or boarding a bus with the item, Mr. Taborn said. The inspections will be conducted "indefinitely," he said.
Mr. Taborn told Metro's board of directors about the plan during a meeting Thursday. Metro had planned to implement random searches in 2008 during times of elevated threat levels, but never conducted any.
COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Ohio State University is notifying about 760,000 people whose personal information was stored in the university's computer server that a data breach could put them at risk for identity theft.
The university began sending letters Wednesday to current and former faculty and staff members, students and applicants, telling them hackers had broken into the server that stored their names, Social Security numbers, dates of birth and addresses.
The university said that although there was no evidence that the information had been used for identity theft, it was nonetheless offering a year of free credit protection to everyone whose data was on the server.
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