WASHINGTON

TOBACCO REGULATION BLOCKED IN CONGRESS

House and Senate negotiators defeated an effort yesterday to have the Food and Drug Administration regulate tobacco products. The proposal was part of a corporate tax bill that would provide $130 billion in new tax breaks to businesses.

House negotiators rejected the idea, which had been included in a Senate version of the tax bill introduced in the conference committee trying to blend the two bills to go before the House and Senate for passage.

The Senate had linked tobacco regulation to legislation that would pay tobacco producers about $10 billion to give up their government quotas that government how much of the crop they can produce.

Defeat of the proposal came on an 8-3 vote of the House negotiators after senators on the conference committee approved adding FDA regulation by a 15-8 vote. The House bill included money for the buyout.

Senate supporters of FDA regulation were expected to make a later attempt to strip the buyout provision from the compromise bill before it comes up for approval by the conference committee. They argue that the two issues should not be separated given the public health need to strengthen efforts to prevent more children from becoming addicted to cigarettes.

– Associated Press

CONGRESS OVERTURNS COURT DECISION ON DISPUTED TRUCKER RULES

Congress overturned a court order and quietly reinstated a trucking industry-supported rule that allows drivers to stay behind the wheel longer between rest periods.

A federal court threw out the regulation last summer, saying the Bush administration had failed to consider its impact on truckers’ health.

The rule, which had been in effect for nine months, allows drivers to work up to 11 consecutive hours, one more hour than previously permitted, and to log a maximum of 77 hours over seven days, 17 more than before. It replaced a rule that had been in place since World War II.

In July, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia struck down the rule after it was challenged by the consumer group Public Citizen. The court allowed the rule to stay in place temporarily at the request of the agency that came up with it. The temporary delay in enforcing the court order remains in effect. The new law means the longer-hours rule will be permanent.

– Associated Press

SCIENCE

THREE AMERICANS WIN NOBEL PRIZE FOR EXPLAINING SUBATOMIC FORCE

Three Americans won the Nobel Prize in physics yesterday for revealing how forces in the atomic nucleus keep it from flying apart – a discovery that has brought science one step closer to a “grand unified theory” of how the universe operates at the subatomic level.

The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences awarded the $1.3 million prize to David J. Gross, H. David Politzer, and Frank Wilczek for a 1973 breakthrough that explained the unusual properties of the strong force, which binds the fundamental particles known as quarks into protons and neutrons.

Their work has helped science get closer to “a theory for everything,” the academy said. It said the three physicists discovered “something that, at first sight, seemed completely contradictory.”

They found that unlike electromagnetism and gravity, which grow more powerful as two particles get closer to each other, the strong force actually weakens as two quarks converge. It is as if the particles were connected by a rubber band that pulls them together more tightly as it stretches.

Mr. Wilczek is now a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Mr. Politzer is at the California Institute of Technology, and Mr. Gross is at the University of California at Santa Barbara.

– Associated Press

SOUTH

JUDGE REJECTS AMENDMENT BANNING GAY MARRIAGE

BATON ROUGE, La. – A state judge yesterday threw out a Louisiana constitutional amendment banning gay marriage, less than three weeks after it was overwhelmingly approved by the voters. District Judge William Morvant said the amendment was flawed as drawn up by the Legislature because it had more than one purpose: banning not only gay marriage but also civil unions.

The courts had rejected a similar argument before the September 18 election, saying it was premature. Michael Johnson, an attorney for supporters of the amendment, said he will appeal the ruling. Some 78% of those voting favored the amendment. The vote was part of a national backlash against gay marriage, which followed last year’s Massachusetts Supreme Court ruling allowing gay couples to wed.

The Louisiana Legislature pushed through the proposed ban in its session this spring. Louisiana already had a law against gay marriage, but conservatives warned that unless it was put in the state constitution, a Louisiana court could, in theory, one day follow the Massachusetts example.

Christian conservatives launched a vigorous grassroots campaign to secure passage. A gay rights group challenged the amendment on several grounds.

– Associated Press