In brief: Cain camp denies harassment

WASHINGTON – Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain’s campaign denied allegations Sunday that he was twice accused of sexual harassment while he was the head of the National Restaurant Association in the 1990s.

In a statement to the Associated Press, his campaign disputed a Politico report that said Cain had been accused of sexually suggestive behavior toward at least two female employees.

The report said the women signed agreements with the restaurant group that gave them five-figure financial payouts to leave the association and barred them from discussing their departures. Neither woman was identified.

The report was based on anonymous sources and, in one case, what the publication said was a review of documentation that described the allegations and the resolution.

Cain’s campaign told the AP the allegations were not true and amounted to unfair attacks.

“Inside-the-Beltway media have begun to launch unsubstantiated personal attacks on Cain,” spokesman J.D. Gordon said in a written statement. “Dredging up thinly sourced allegations stemming from Mr. Cain’s tenure as the Chief Executive Officer at the National Restaurant Association in the 1990s, political trade press are now casting aspersions on his character and spreading rumors that never stood up to the facts.”

Asked if Cain’s campaign was denying the report, Gordon said, “Yes.”

“These are baseless allegations,” Gordon said in a second interview. “To my knowledge, this is not an accurate story.”

Anthrax widow, feds reach deal

MIAMI – The widow of a Florida tabloid photo editor who died in the 2001 anthrax mailings has reached a settlement in her lawsuit against the U.S. government.

Maureen Stevens, of Lake Worth, and the government have reached a tentative agreement that must be approved by the Justice Department, according to court documents filed late last week in West Palm Beach federal court.

In her lawsuit, originally filed in 2003, Stevens had claimed that the government was negligent in failing to stop someone working at an Army infectious disease lab from creating weapons-grade anthrax used in letters that killed five people and sickened 17 others. Her husband, Robert Stevens, was the first victim.

Details of the settlement were not disclosed. Stevens’ lawsuit had sought as much as $50 million in damages.