Kentucky official cleared in probe of wedding

Kentucky official cleared in probe of wedding

FRANKFORT, Ky. -- Lt. Gov. Steve Henry did not violate ethics rules when he used state employees to help stage his lavish wedding last year to Miss America Heather French, an ethics commission said in a report released Monday.

Dozens of state employees helped put together the wedding in October. But the Executive Branch Ethics Commission said it found no evidence employees were coerced into helping or did so on state time.

Nevertheless, Henry should have been more forthright in stressing to the employees the need to make a "clear distinction between their work for the commonwealth and their work on your wedding," the commission said.

Doctor pleads guilty to spiking woman's drink

DAYTON, Ohio -- A doctor accused of spiking his ex-girlfriend's drinks in an attempt to cause a miscarriage pleaded guilty Monday to reduced charges in a deal that will send him to prison for five years.

Dr. Maynard Muntzing II, 35, pleaded guilty to attempted felonious assault and contaminating a substance for human consumption.

Muntzing had been charged with four counts of attempted aggravated murder under a 1996 Ohio law that lets prosecutors seek a maximum of 10 years in prison on each count for trying to terminate a viable pregnancy.

Muntzing was accused of spiking the drinks of Michelle Baker with Cytotec, a stomach treatment drug that can trigger miscarriages. Baker said she was pregnant with Muntzing's child.

She later miscarried. The coroner's office said the cause of the miscarriage could not be determined.

Mademoiselle closing; economy blamed

NEW YORK -- Mademoiselle, a fashion magazine for young women that was first published in 1935, is going out of business.

"Unfortunately, current economic conditions have produced a situation where ... the magazine is no longer viable," Steven T. Florio, president of Conde Nast Publications Inc., said in a statement.

The November issue of Mademoiselle, which is due on newsstands next week, will be its last. Some of the magazine's 93 employees may get jobs in other parts of the company, a spokeswoman said.

The 1.1 million subscribers to Mademoiselle will begin receiving Glamour magazine, another Conde Nast publication, instead.

Advertising spending had already been dropping off this year because of an economic slowdown, and the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11 have many in the industry worried of an even worse decline.

Connecticut court won't reinstate gun lawsuit

BRIDGEPORT, Conn. -- The city of Bridgeport has no legal standing to pursue a lawsuit against weapons manufacturers to recover the costs of gun-related violence, the state Supreme Court ruled Monday.

Joining courts in other states, Connecticut's high court said Bridgeport had not suffered such direct losses from gun violence that it was legally able to pursue its case.

Bridgeport officials, like leaders in some 30 communities nationwide, had claimed financial losses as a result of violence involving firearms. Bridgeport, Connecticut's largest and poorest city, pegged its costs at $100 million, including police overtime and medical costs.

Bridgeport's suit named as defendants Smith & Wesson and Sturm, Ruger and Co. Inc., among others.

-- From wire reports