The Seattle Times

December 4, 2001, Tuesday Fourth Edition

SECTION: ROP ZONE; News; Pg. A4; Across the Nation

Across the Nation

Bush wants a higher lid on U.S. debt

WASHINGTON -- Bush administration officials have told Congress they want to raise the limit on government borrowing as early as this month, in a fresh indication of the federal budget's declining health.

The officials have made no formal request but have said without action, the current $5.95 trillion debt limit could be breached by March, congressional aides said yesterday. The overall national debt stands at $5.825 trillion, $125 billion below the limit.

But quick action on raising the limit would be difficult, congressional aides said. Democrats probably would use debate over the request to spotlight what they say has been fiscal mismanagement by President Bush, including his push for this year's tax cut. High court accepts case filed by older, laid-off workers

WASHINGTON -- With layoffs expected at many companies hit by recession, the Supreme Court said yesterday it will decide whether older workers may sue over cutbacks that seem to hit them hardest.

The court will review claims by fired utility workers in Florida, who claim more than 70 percent of those laid off during company reorganizations in the early 1990s were 40 or older.

A ruling against the workers would mean that to win future age-bias cases, older workers would have to prove that employers intended to discriminate. That is often a harder case to make than the one at issue in the Florida lawsuit, which claims that layoffs that seem to be evenhanded on their face really fell disproportionately on older workers.

In another case, the court refused to consider reinstating government restrictions on the number of subscribers cable companies can have.

Female Air Force pilot sues over clothing rule

WASHINGTON -- The Air Force's highest-ranking female fighter pilot sued yesterday to try to overturn a policy requiring servicewomen to wear restrictive Muslim clothing when off base in Saudi Arabia.

Female military personnel in Saudi Arabia must wear black head-to-foot robes and ride in the back seat of cars when off base. They can leave base only if they are accompanied by a man.

Lt. Col. Martha McSally says the policy is unconstitutional. It discriminates against women and violates their religious freedom, forcing them to wear clothing and follow customs mandated by a religion other than their own, her lawsuit says.

McSally said the regulations undermine her authority as an officer and require her to send the false message that she believes women are subservient to men.

Ex-Klansman faked in test of competency, experts say

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. -- Two mental-health experts testified yesterday that a former Ku Klux Klansman appeared to fake poor memory during tests on his competency to stand trial in a 1963 church bombing that killed four black girls.

Circuit Judge James Garrett previously ruled that Bobby Frank Cherry, 72, was mentally incompetent to be tried in the bombing, the deadliest crime of the civil-rights era. But Garrett set the hearing at the prosecution's request to weigh evaluations of Cherry made during 10 weeks of confinement at a state mental-health facility.

Cherry, of Mabank, Texas, is accused of being part of a group of Klansmen who planted a bomb that ripped through the downtown Sixteenth Street Baptist Church on Sept. 15, 1963, killing Denise McNair, 11, and 14-year-olds Addie Mae Collins, Cynthia Wesley and Carole Robertson.