USA
A federal judge in Tampa, Fla., halted efforts to have a feeding tube reinserted in Terri Schiavo, declaring that her parents have not established a "substantial likelihood of success" for their legal arguments to save her. She has been in a vegetative state for 15 years and cannot feed herself. The tube was disconnected last Friday on orders of a state judge. That order, which followed years of contentiousness between Schiavo's husband and her parents, prompted an extraordinary effort over the weekend by congressional Republicans and President Bush to push through emergency legislation to allow a federal court to review the case. Lawyers for Bob and Mary Schindler, who believe their daughter could recover with treatment, immediately appealed Judge James Whittemore's decision to the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta.
Police were trying to determine a motive for the shooting rampage by a heavily armed Minnesota teenager who killed a security guard, a teacher, and six students before taking his own life. The incident occurred Monday at an Indian reservation high school in the state's northern reaches. It was the nation's worst episode of school violence since the 1999 Columbine High School massacre in Colorado, in which 13 people died. The gunman, identified as Jeff Weise, may have had neo-Nazi leanings, according to a report in the St. Paul Pioneer Press. The suspect also wounded 14 people, killed his grandfather, a policeman, and a woman after a domestic argument before gathering up the grandfather's firearms to use at Red Lake High School.
Rising energy and food prices caused the Labor Department's Producer Price Index, to rise 0.4 percent in February, the largest increase in three months, the government reported.
Graco, a maker of strollers, car seats, beds, and other children's products, has agreed to pay a record $4 million, the largest civil penalty yet imposed by the Consumer Product Safety Commission, which also planned to announce the recall of 1.2 million toddler beds made by the Exton, Pa., company between 1994 and 2001. Graco's failure to report product defects immediately was partly responsible for the large size of the penalty.
