The US Supreme Court decided that people fined by federal agencies also can undergo criminal prosecution for the same conduct. The court agreed that three Oklahoma men can be prosecuted in a bank-failure case even though they already have paid civil fines for their actions. Defense lawyers warned the ruling could lead to abusive punishment. US retail sales rose a lackluster 0.2 percent in November, the Commerce Department said. In advance, economists had predicted a spending rise of about 0.5 percent but said the sluggish spending doesn't necessarily translate into weak profits for retailers in December.
Retail spending is watched carefully as an indicator of the economy's vigor.
The panel called Smaltz to testify about whether the Justice Department interfered with his work as an independent counsel. A former lobbyist for the Arkansas-based company has been charged with giving gifts and favors to Espy, who resigned in 1994. The money will come from the government's Technology Literacy Challenge Fund, which is designed to aid state and local efforts to improve teaching and learning with the use of technology. Unless population growth slows and farm production increases dramatically, there won't be enough food by 2025 for the world's projected 8 billion people, according to a Johns Hopkins University study. Food production would need to double by then to provide food security for the world's population, said Don Jinrichsen, who is the study's author and a United Nations Population Fund senior consultant.