In the Nation
Report: No voter fraud by ACORN
WASHINGTON - The Congressional Research Service said in a new report that it could not find any instances in which people improperly registered to vote by the activist group ACORN showed up at the polls on Election Day.
The report was commissioned by Reps. John Conyers Jr. (D., Mich.) and Barney Frank (D., Mass.), both committee chairmen, in response to criticism of the group, including videos showing ACORN employees advising two conservative activists who posed as a pimp and a prostitute.
Republicans have accused the group, which registers minorities and low-income residents who traditionally vote Democratic, of voter fraud. ACORN chief executive officer Bertha Lewis has called such allegations "an utter fabrication."
The research service report said it found no instances in which someone registered by ACORN under a phony name had tried to vote. It also found no instances in the last five years of ACORN's misusing federal funds. - Bloomberg News
Disney park cited in fatal collision
WASHINGTON - The Occupational Safety and Health Administration cited Walt Disney World for safety violations in the death of a monorail driver in a July collision at the Florida theme park.
The U.S. agency said in an e-mailed statement yesterday that it proposed $44,000 in penalties against the company, including $7,000 for a serious violation related to the fatality - the maximum allowed for such a citation.
"Disney should have put procedures in place that would have prevented the fatal crash from occurring," OSHA head David Michaels said in the statement.
The driver, 21, was killed when two monorail trains collided while switching tracks, OSHA said. A Disney World spokesman said the OSHA findings were being reviewed.
- Bloomberg News
Eatery to rise with ground zero tower
NEW YORK - Fresh bread will soon be baking high above ground zero. The new World Trade Center got its first restaurant yesterday: a sandwich shop atop the Freedom Tower under construction.
As the sun rose over the site of the 9/11 attack, a lift on a hydraulic jack hoisted the Subway restaurant up the skyscraper that marks the rebirth of the trade center's 16 acres. The shipping containers-turned-eatery, which will serve construction workers, will open in January and keep moving up as the tower is built to 105 floors.
That was about the height of Windows on the World, the dining landmark atop one of the original twin towers. The Freedom Tower, which has five floors so far, is scheduled to be finished by 2013. - AP
Elsewhere:
The Obama administration said it was going forward with a contentious plan to round up about 2,500 wild horses in Nevada. A spokeswoman for Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said herds in the Calico Mountains Complex are overpopulated and need to be reduced to protect the horses and the rangelands that support them.