Copyright 2000 The Seattle Times Company
The
Seattle Times
December 15, 2000, Friday Fourth Edition
SECTION: ROP ZONE; News; Pg. A11
LENGTH: 589 words
HEADLINE:
Across the Nation
Health plans must cover contraceptives,
panel rules
BODY:
WASHINGTON--It is against federal
law for employers to exclude contraceptives from their
health-insurance plans if they cover other types of
preventative products or services, such as weight-loss drugs or blood-pressure
medicine, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission said.
The
interpretation by the EEOC, announced Wednesday night, addressed complaints
filed with the commission by two women who claimed their employers discriminated
against them by not providing health-insurance coverage for
contraceptives, but it could affect millions of other women
whose employers have refused to cover things such as birth-control pills.
Montana residents go home as gas-spill cleanup continues
HELENA,
Mont. -- Cleanup of an estimated 105,000 gallons of gasoline spilled from a
Conoco storage tank continued yesterday as about 400 people who had left nearby
homes and businesses returned to the area. About 100 workers were involved in
the cleanup, said Conoco spokesman John Bennitt.
The spill was first
estimated at about 60,000 gallons. It wasn't immediately clear what caused the
gasoline to flow from two holes about six feet from the top of the
840,000-gallon tank.
Half-million dollars paid for two Jefferson
documents
NEW YORK -- A Manhattan gallery owner paid more than half a
million dollars for two Thomas Jefferson manuscripts, one of which was featured
on the PBS television program "Antiques Roadshow."
Seth Kaller, of
Kaller's America Gallery, paid $280,750 for an 1817 document
outlining Jefferson's ideas for a public-school system, and
$225,750 for a 1783 handwritten letter and deed sent to
Philadelphia historian Ebenezer Hazard.
The documents, auctioned at
Sotheby's on Wednesday, were sold by descendants of the original recipients,
said Lauren Gioia, a spokeswoman for Sotheby's.
The 1817 15-page letter
was sent to Joseph Carrington Cabell, a member of the Virginia Legislature and
discussed plans for the University of Virginia.
Hazard was a postmaster
general and antiquarian who collected American historical documents. Jefferson
sent him a document in which Virginia released claims to the French territory of
Illinois--and a personal cover note that was discovered on "Antiques Roadshow"
in August 1999.
Winter storm ties up pre-holiday package delivery
An icy winter storm that left thousands without electricity or heat
across the central states and contributed to more than a dozen deaths this week
is also delaying the delivery of holiday packages, with a shipment backlog
stretching from Chicago to Dallas.
FedEx temporarily suspended its
money-back-guarantee for deliveries yesterday and a spokesman said it was too
early to tell how long the suspension would last.
Bad weather also
delayed UPS shipments, said John Manning, a spokesman in Dallas. The UPS
money-back guarantee does not apply for weather delays.
The weather has
been blamed in more than 10 deaths since Tuesday.
Malaysian pleads
guilty in animal-smuggling case
SAN FRANCISCO--A Malaysian
accused of acting as the kingpin of an international rare-animal smuggling
empire has pleaded guilty to U.S. charges that he arranged the illegal import
and sale of Komodo Dragons and other endangered animals.
Keng Liang
"Anson" Wong entered a guilty plea to some 40 counts of smuggling, conspiracy,
money laundering and violations of U.S. wildlife-protection laws. Wong agreed to
cooperate with federal prosecutors investigating the international trade of
endangered wildlife.
LOAD-DATE: December 16,
2000 
