Copyright 1994 Chicago Sun-Times, Inc.
Chicago Sun-Times
December 12, 1994,MONDAY,FINAL MARKETS
SECTION: NEWS;PLUS NEWS;Pg. 3
LENGTH: 522 words
BODY:
PARAMEDIC OVERTIME: The Supreme Court today let stand a ruling that requires Chicago to provide overtime pay for its Fire Department paramedics, despite a warning that the action could affect city treasuries nationwide. The court, without comment, turned away the city's argument that federal law does not require it to provide such overtime pay for paramedics. A landmark 1985 Supreme Court decision said Congress has almost unlimited power to force state and local governments to comply with the Federal Fair Labor Standards Act, which sets minimum wage and overtime requirements.
In another decision, the justices turned down appeals from anti-abortion activists who say they wrongly are being sued as racketeers for blocking access to clinics and other efforts to stop women from having abortions. The justices, without comment, let stand a ruling that kept alive a nationwide, class-action lawsuit by the National Organization for Women and others against several anti-abortion groups and some of their members, including some in Chicago.
STAMP INCREASE: It's official: Stamp prices go up Jan. 1. The Postal Service's governing board today voted unanimously to put the new rates--including a 32-cent first-class stamp--into effect at 12:01 a.m. Jan. 1.
S.C. MOM INDICTED: A grand jury spent less than three hours today before indicting Susan Smith on murder charges for the drownings of her two young sons. Smith, 23, is accused of pushing her car down a boat ramp into John D. Long Lake near Union, S.C., on Oct. 25 while her children were strapped into their car seats. She claimed that her children, 3-year-old Michael and 14-month-old Alex, were kidnapped in a carjacking. She made several tearful appeals on national television for the return of the children before confessing nine days later that she had drowned them.
BOMB MAILED FROM CALIF.: The anarchist known as Unabomber mailed from California the bomb that killed an advertising executive, the FBI said today. The FBI laboratory in Washington determined that the bomb had a return address and postmark from San Francisco, agency officials said in a statement handed out at a news conference in the West Coast city. "Details regarding the return address are not being released at this time due to pending investigation," the statement said. "The postmark is still being reconstructed and evaluated." Evidence links Saturday's killing of Young & Rubicam executive Thomas Mosser to 14 other explosions over 16 years, but the identity of the bomber and the reason Mosser was targeted remain a mystery.
O.J. CASE: The judge in the O.J. Simpson trial today refused to remove a member of the prosecution team, rejecting defense arguments that a prosecutor unfairly had access to grand jury information. In a written ruling, Superior Court Judge Lance Ito said "there appears to be no conflict of interest" with Deputy District Attorney Chris Darden, who headed the grand jury probe of Simpson friend Al "A.C." Cowlings. "There is nothing in the record which would support any finding of fundamental unfairness or lack of due process," Ito wrote.