National Roundup

Pennsylvania Deal for mom who lost job after donating organ PHILADELPHIA (AP) -- A Philadelphia woman who lost her job after taking time off to donate a kidney to her son has been offered a deal that could allow her to work for the business again. Officials at the aircraft repair training company tell WTXF-TV that Claudia Rendon will be paid her normal salary until another position opens up at the Aviation Institute of Maintenance. Rendon can then re-apply. Rendon says she was told before taking time off that she might not have a job to come back to. She took the leave anyway after signing a paper acknowledging that fact. Rendon was told last week that she'd been replaced during her recovery from the surgery that gave one of her kidneys to her son, Alex. The WTXF report says Rendon has retained a lawyer. Connecticut Prosecutor holds results on Wesle yan suspect exam MIDDLETOWN, Conn. (AP) -- A Connecticut prosecutor on Tuesday declined to release the results of a recently completed psychiatric examination of a man charged with killing a Wesleyan University student. Middlesex State's Attorney Timothy Liston wouldn't discuss the evaluation of Stephen Morgan after Morgan made a brief appearance in Middletown Superior Court. A judge continued the case to Oct. 13. Morgan, 31, of Marblehead, Mass., is charged with murder in the shooting death of 21-year-old Johanna Justin-Jinich of Timnath, Colo., at a bookstore café near the Middletown campus in May 2009. His lawyers have filed court papers saying they will pursue a defense of mental disease or defect. Despite the expected defense, Morgan's lawyer, Richard Brown, said Tuesday that his client was competent to stand trial. Brown said he and Morgan are deciding whether to try the case before a jury or a three-judge panel, and he expects the trial to begin within the next few months. Authorities say Justin-Jinich and Morgan knew each other since at least 2007 when they attended New York University and she filed a harassment complaint against him. Morgan wasn't charged in that case. The shooting stunned and frightened the Wesleyan community. After the killing but before Morgan surrendered the day after, police announced they found a journal that spelled out Morgan's plans to kill Justin-Jinich and go on a campus shooting spree targeting Jews. Justin-Jinich's family is Jewish and her grandmother was a Holocaust survivor. Morgan's remarks prompted Wesleyan officials and police to lock down the campus. New York 9/11 families press court to get list of kin NEW YORK (AP) -- Several Sept. 11 victims' relatives have gone before a Manhattan judge. They hope to get a New York City-maintained list of next of kin for the nearly 2,800 people killed at the World Trade Center. A hearing began Wednesday in the relatives' lawsuit against the city. They oppose a plan to put about 9,000 unidentified pieces of victims' remains underground in the National September 11 Memorial & Museum. They want the list to poll families about the issue. City and memorial officials and some other victims' relatives say family members were consulted and OK'd the arrangement. The lawsuit proposes releasing the list to a retired judge. He'd send out a letter on the plaintiffs' behalf. The city says releasing the list would violate families' privacy. Florida Teachers union sues over merit pay law TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) -- Florida's teacher union has filed a lawsuit against a new law that requires merit pay for teachers and ends tenure for new hires. The Florida Education Association and the Sarasota Classified/Teachers Association filed the lawsuit Wednesday in Circuit Court in Tallahassee. The union claims the law is unconstitutional because it substantially changed performance evaluations and wages while denying teachers the right to effective collective bargaining on wages and employment conditions. Gov. Rick Scott signed the merit pay legislation in March. Former Gov. Charlie Crist vetoed a similar but more rigid bill last year after widespread protests by teachers. Republicans say a test-based merit pay plan will help attract and keep top teachers while eliminating tenure, which will enable school officials to get rid of the bad ones more quickly. Virginia Court hears one aspect of college booze ad case RICHMOND, Va. (AP) -- The issue of liquor advertising in college newspapers is before the Virginia Supreme Court. The justices heard arguments Wednesday on whether the state's definition of college papers includes publications that have a readership that's more than 50 percent age 21 and older. The answer to that question could determine whether the newspapers at the University of Virginia and Virginia Tech, which claim a mostly adult readership, are subject to the prohibition against alcohol ads. The U.Va. and Tech papers challenged the ban in federal court in 2006. A U.S. magistrate judge invalidated the ban but was reversed by a federal appeals court. Now the magistrate judge is asking the state Supreme Court to clarify the definition of a college newspaper. A ruling is likely in early November. Idaho State high court upholds teen's m urder conviction POCATELLO, Idaho (AP) -- The Idaho Supreme Court has upheld the murder conviction of a Pocatello teen found guilty of killing his classmate and the life sentence that went with it. But the high court threw out Brian Draper's conviction of conspiracy to commit first-degree murder, saying that jurors were given erroneous instructions on the conspiracy charge. Draper and another teen, Torey Adamcik, were convicted of stabbing fellow Pocatello High School student Cassie Jo Stoddart to death in 2006. All three were 16 at the time, and Draper and Adamcik were charged as adults. The Idaho State Journal reports that the Idaho Supreme Court ruling means that Bannock County prosecutors will have to decide whether to re-try Draper on the conspiracy charge. Published: Thu, Sep 15, 2011