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WASHINGTON (AP) — Today's announcement of a $35 million fine against General Motors isn't nearly enough, in the view of a consumer safety advocate. The fine results from GM's delay in acting to fix ignition switches that have been linked to at least 13 deaths. Clarence Ditlow of the Center for Auto Safety says he wants to see the Justice Department impose a much stiffer penalty. He'd like to see a fine of $1 billion or more -- along with individual criminal charges against GM engineers and their superiors.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Over lunch at a local burger joint, President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden have been promoting government-financed work projects today. They were joined for lunch near the White House by four workers from a $9 million reconstruction project a few miles away. The project included nearly $7 million in federal aid. Obama says projects like that can be endangered if Congress doesn't act by the end of the summer. (a0805)
WASHINGTON (AP) — The White House is welcoming moves by pro-Russian insurgents to leave government buildings they had seized in eastern Ukraine. Spokesman Jay Carney calls it a "welcome development." Local patrols by steelworkers have forced the pro-Russian insurgents to pull out of the government buildings they had seized in the Ukrainian city of Mariupol (mah-ROO'-pahl). The move is a setback to forces that have established footholds in eastern Ukraine and are opposed to the interim Ukrainian government in Kiev.
DANBURY, Conn. (AP) — Jeb Stuart Magruder, the man who claimed to have heard President Richard Nixon order the Watergate break-in, has died. He was 79. A funeral home in Connecticut says Magruder died May 11 of complications from a stroke. Magruder spent seven months in prison for lying about the involvement of Nixon's re-election committee in the 1972 break-in at Washington's Watergate complex. The burglary eventually led to the president's resignation. Magruder later became a minister and a church fundraising consultant.
WOLFEBORO, N.H. (AP) — The town manager and board of selectmen in the predominantly white New Hampshire town of Wolfeboro have officially joined residents in demanding the resignation of a police commissioner who uttered a racial slur about President Barack Obama. The town manager posted a message on the town's website calling on 82-year-old Robert Copeland to resign the post he was re-elected to in March. More than 100 residents packed a town government meeting yesterday to demand Copeland's resignation. Copeland has said he won't apologize for using the racial slur at a local restaurant, saying Obama meets his criteria for it.
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