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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Nation in brief: NYC murders near 40-year low

The Spokesman-Review

The city is on track to have fewer than 500 murders in 2007, the lowest amount in a 12-month period in more than 40 years, according to a published report Thursday.

There were 428 murders recorded as of Sunday – 412 killings and 16 crime victims who died from injuries suffered years ago, the New York Times reported on its Web site. That makes the city’s average slightly more than one per day.

Last year, the city reported 579 homicides through Dec. 24 – a nearly 10 percent increase from the year before.

The city’s homicide rate reached an all-time high of 2,245 in 1990, making it the murder capital of the nation. Since then, the rate has plummeted to levels not seen since the 1960s. There were 570 homicides in 2004, dropping to 539 in 2005.

In the first half of 2007, New York City had a 5 percent decline in violent crimes, 23,887, down from 25,132. The city also had a 4 percent drop in property crimes for the first half of the year, according to a recent state report.

LOUISVILLE, Ky.

Sex abuse victims to get payments

Final payments are going out to victims of sexual abuse in an $85 million class-action settlement with the Roman Catholic Diocese of Covington.

The settlement is between the diocese and more than 350 people abused by priests and diocese employees since the 1950s in 57 counties across a large swath of Kentucky.

It calls for victims to receive from $5,000 to $1 million based on the severity and duration of the abuse they suffered. Some money has also been set aside to pay for counseling for abuse victims.

The settlement master in the case approved the final payments last week, said attorney Stan Chesley, who represents the victims in the case.

Covington is across the Ohio River from Cincinnati. The diocese now spans 14 counties and has 89,000 parishioners.

MOUNT LEBANON, Pa.

Army won’t make vet repay bonus

A soldier whose injuries in Iraq forced him to leave the military won’t have to repay a portion of his sign-up bonus, the military said after the soldier received a letter from the Army asking him to do just that.

Former Pfc. Jordan Fox got a letter asking him to repay $2,800 of his $7,500 enlistment bonus, and officials were checking to see if other injured soldiers were sent similar notices, the Army said in a statement Wednesday.

Soldiers who are injured or become ill while on active duty can keep all sign-up bonuses due them, the Army said. But the Army hasn’t decided whether to pay Fox his unused leave, Army spokesman Major Nathan Banks said.

The statement came after Fox appeared on local and national TV and radio shows to talk about the letter.

Fox, 21, from the Pittsburgh suburb of Mount Lebanon, was partially blinded in his right eye and sustained a back injury in a roadside bomb explosion in Baquba in May.

He returned to the United States two months later and received a discharge.

“I was just completely shocked,” Fox said of the letter. “I couldn’t believe I’d gotten a bill in the mail from the Army.”