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Nation briefs: Cruise ship worker overboard off Florida

Compiled from news dispatches

January 2, 2009

Rescue workers were still looking last night for a man who tumbled 82 feet overboard shortly after midnight New Year's Eve. Co-workers reported the man, an off-duty member of the cruise ships's entertainment staff, as going overboard about 50 minutes after ringing in the New Year on the Carnival Sensation, 20 miles east of Vero Beach, Fla. He is the second person in a week to go over the rail of a cruise ship. Jennifer Ellis Seitz, 36, of Winter Haven went off the Norwegian Pearl into the Gulf of Mexico on Christmas. Relatives said they believe she might have jumped.

The Justice Department has reached more than a dozen business-related settlements since the presidential election with more in the pipeline for January, prompting lawyers and interest groups to assert that companies are seeking more favorable terms before the new administration arrives. The climate for settlements could grow more harsh when Obama appointees seize the reins at the Justice Department, corporate lawyers say. They point to statements by Attorney General-designate Eric Holder, who told an audience last month that he would expand the focus of federal prosecutors into corporate suites.

Portland, Ore., became the nation's largest city with an openly gay mayor yesterday as a longtime City Hall insider took the oath of office. Sam Adams, 45, was sworn into office at 12:01 a.m. with his mother and his partner in the City Hall crowd. Adams won the job seven months ago in a primary race by capturing 58 percent of the vote. None of his opponents raised his sexuality in the race. Neither did he. "This is a testament to how fair-minded Portlanders are that it wasn't an issue," he said.

Washington state's three main east-west mountain passes have been closed by snow and avalanche danger and are likely to remain so into today, the state transportation department said. Another storm was expected to dump more snow on the Cascade Mountains overnight, which will keep the danger of avalanches high for mountain highways across Stevens, Snoqualmie and White passes.