A leading U.S. health expert said Monday that while `"there are encouraging signs'' of a leveling off in the severity of the swine flu threat, it's still too early to declare the problem under control.  "I'm not ready to say that yet,'' Dr. Richard Besser, acting director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said when asked about indications by Mexican health authorities that the disease has peaked there. Besser did tell network television interviewers that "what we're seeing is an illness that looks very much like seasonal flu. But we're not seeing the type of severe disease that we were worrying about.'' He noted that roughly 36,000 people die each year in this country from the winter flu, so it's still a serious matter. . . .

U.S. officials said that it's too early to say the swine-flu threat is receding, even though there are some signs the outbreak may not be as serious as originally feared. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said Monday the outbreak could die down with warmer weather only to roar back during fall flu season. And she said the public shouldn't be alarmed if the World Health Organization declares that the new virus has officially begun a pandemic, meaning it has spread pretty much globally. That word describes "geography, not severity'' and thus wouldn't change U.S. steps to stem infections that have been confirmed in 380 people in more than half the states, she said. Another top U.S. health official said "there are encouraging signs'' of a leveling off in the severity of the threat, but added that it's still too early to declare the problem under control. . . .

Wanted: Supreme Court justice. Judicial experience not required. Not only is experience as a judge not a requirement under the Constitution, some of the senators who will conduct confirmation hearings for Justice David Souter's replacement think it's time for a nominee who hasn't served on the federal appeals court. For all nine of the current justices, the appeals court was a final stepping stone to the Supreme Court. "I would like to see more people from outside the judicial monastery, somebody who has had some real-life experience, not just as a judge,'' said Vermont Sen. Patrick Leahy, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee. Leahy and other senators appearing on Sunday's news shows said someone with a wide breadth of experience -- women and minorities in particular -- would be a plus. . . .

Education Secretary Arne Duncan is a man on a mission: to hear what teachers, students and parents in at least 15 states think about No Child Left Behind, the controversial education law championed by former President George W. Bush. Duncan is visiting schools in West Virginia Tuesday, the first stop in the first steps toward reviewing and reforming the program. President Barack Obama has pledged to overhaul the law, but he has been vague about how far he would go, or whether he would scrap it altogether. "I don't know if 'scrap' is the word,'' Duncan told reporters last week. "Where things make sense, we're going to keep them. Where things didn't make sense, we're going to change them.'' . . .

Due to a virus attack on our computers, The Skanner will be distributing this week's paper to newsstands on Friday.
Our normal Thursday web update will also be pushed back until Friday afternoon. ...

OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) -- Nearly two years after newspaper editor Chauncey Bailey was gunned down in broad daylight, the leader of a community self-help group Bailey was investigating is scheduled Wednesday to answer charges that he ordered the murders of Bailey and two other men. ...

WASHINGTON (AP) _ A small group of powerful House Democrats has asked the Justice Department to investigate whether American Indian tribes are engaging in modern-day racial segregation against black "freedmen'' who are descendants of former tribal slaves.
The lawmakers, including House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers of Michigan and former civil rights leader John Lewis of Georgia, say five major tribes have been systematically removing freedmen from their membership or relegating them to second-class status without voting rights and other benefits.
In a letter sent last week, they asked Attorney General Eric Holder to investigate whether the tribes are violating treaties and breaking the law....

Jerry Thompson says he was just trying to help out when a distant, elderly relative started having trouble caring for herself in her home last year. Clio Simpson, 90 at the time, had no immediate relatives nearby after her husband passed away. Jerry and his mother Loretta say they became alarmed at finding strangers in Simpson's house during a chance visit...

In February 2007, businessman Bruce Feathers was considered as an "instrumental" symbol of small businesses' rising prosperity, ... Now that passion for making sure minority businesses are able to land the big contracts has unexpectedly boomeranged back to hurt his business in a conflict with city officials now headed for the courtroom...

In Salem, lawmakers are discussing a bill that would allow juries to know the punishment a defendant is likely to receive if convicted of a Measure 11 offense.
The proposed law, Senate Bill 296, would instruct judges to tell juries the mandatory minimum sentences that could result from a guilty verdict...