Former ATF boss broke rules, inquiry finds

The man who recently departed as director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives ordered his staff to help with his nephew's high-school homework, wasting the agency's time and violating ethics rules, an inquiry found Wednesday.

The nephew's project — a documentary about the ATF that took 10 months to complete — was one of a half-dozen examples of lapses in judgment Carl Truscott committed before he resigned in August, says the report by Justice Department Inspector General Glenn Fine.

The report found that only the high-school project demonstrated mismanagement by Truscott, whose employees accused him of wasting federal funds, taking costly trips and creating a hostile work environment. Still, investigators described themselves as troubled by Truscott's leadership, hiring practices and financial decisions, including his plan to spend $100,000 on gym equipment for the ATF's new headquarters.

Truscott could not be reached for comment Wednesday.

Fort Lauderdale, Fla.

$11.3 million: Price of online slams

A children's-services referral provider was awarded $11.3 million in damages from a mother who posted critical Internet messages after seeking her advice.

The defendant, Carey Bock, called Sue Scheff a "con artist," "crook" and "fraud" in messages posted on a site used by parents with troubled children at boarding schools. The dispute arose after Bock sought help withdrawing her sons from a school in Costa Rica. Scheff said she referred Bock to a consultant, and the two disagreed over access to information.

The award for Scheff, founder of Parents Universal Resource Experts, is among the largest for a lawsuit claiming Internet defamation, according to legal analysts and an attorney involved in the case.

Scheff attorney David Pollack said Wednesday that the award "signals that there is a limit" to the material that can be used on the Internet. "You can't just destroy somebody's life, destroy somebody's reputation and make blatant false statements about somebody and have there be no consequence," he said.

Albany, N.Y.

RJR accepts changes to flavored cigarettes

R.J. Reynolds has agreed to stop marketing flavored cigarettes such as "Twista Lime" and "Mocha Taboo" that critics say are targeted at children, the company and state officials said Wednesday.

The tobacco company settled an investigation of its domestic sales and marketing without paying any penalty. It agreed to stop identifying flavored cigarettes with candy, fruit, desserts, or alcoholic-beverage names, imagery or ads, according to a statement from New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer. The company also will stop using scented promotional material, including scratch-and-sniff samples.

But a deal struck with 40 states exempts the company's new experimental "smoking lounge" in Chicago and allows the company to sell flavored cigarettes in the future with revised packaging that doesn't use sweet imagery.

Anchorage

Prudhoe Bay trouble to last several days

The nation's largest oil field will produce very few barrels over the next several days as operator BP scrambles to fix an electrical problem.

So far, the loss of 300,000 barrels a day of Alaskan output has not rattled oil markets.

BP said electrical shorts that shut down Prudhoe Bay on Tuesday followed three days of dust storms, and then rain, which coated insulators on high-voltage lines with mud. Spokesman Daren Beaudo said that the company is removing the mud from the insulators and that the oil field will come on line in phases, but he could not specify when production would be fully restored.

Also

The Amish school in Nickel Mines, Pa., where a gunman shot 10 girls last week, killing five, is expected to be demolished today, a fire department official said.

Compiled from The Associated Press