Nation Digest
Agents shut casino over payroll debt

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LAS VEGAS — A landmark hotel-casino was closed indefinitely yesterday after federal agents shut down the casino floor and seized an estimated $500,000 to pay toward employee benefits.

The front doors were locked and yellow police tape greeted visitors to Binion's Horseshoe Hotel & Casino, a downtown Las Vegas fixture for 52 years and home to the popular World Series of Poker.

Some 900 Binion's employees were left without work after owner Becky Binion Behnen agreed to close the property until she could find enough money to reopen it, said Keith Copher, chief enforcement officer of the Nevada Gaming Control Board.

Agents were enforcing a court order against the property, which has not paid about $3 million in pension and health-insurance benefits since last summer for an estimated 400 union employees, said D. Taylor, secretary-treasurer of Culinary Union Local 226.

Cold snap in Northeast one for the record books

BOSTON — Temperatures dropped well below zero yesterday across the Northeast, making it the coldest day in a decade for some cities.

St. Johnsbury, Vt., led the list of records yesterday with a low of 27 below zero, the National Weather Service said. Unofficially, Saranac Lake, N.Y., reported 34 below.

Boston's Logan International Airport recorded a low of 3 below zero, two degrees chillier than the previous record for Jan. 10, set in 1875.

Other record lows included 19 below at Montpelier, Vt.; 16 below at Syracuse, N.Y.; 7 below at Scranton, Pa.; and 2 below at Bridgeport, Conn., the weather service said.

5 journalists defy judge, refuse to name sources

WASHINGTON — Five journalists have defied a federal judge's order and refused to disclose the names of confidential sources who provided information about former nuclear-weapons scientist Wen Ho Lee, the reporters' representatives said Friday.

U.S. District Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson on Oct. 9 ordered journalists at The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Associated Press and Cable News Network to reveal government officials who provided derogatory information about Lee, a chief suspect in an espionage case.

Lee has sued the Energy Department and the FBI to recover damages for alleged harm to his reputation. He pleaded guilty to a single felony count of copying classified documents onto computer tapes without authorization. The FBI acknowledged that it botched the investigation, and 59 felony counts were dropped.

FBI arrests passenger after bomb threat on plane

CHANTILLY, Va. — A passenger who said he had a bomb on board an American Airlines flight traveling to Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport was detained by the FBI yesterday after the plane was diverted to Dulles International Airport, a U.S. transportation official said.

The FBI said the passenger on Flight 4959, an American Eagle commuter plane, had demanded to be flown to Australia. "There was no indication that this incident was related to terrorism," a statement said.

Also ...

Mesaba Airlines, which funnels passengers to Northwest Airlines' hubs, canceled all its flights yesterday, leaving some airports without service and stranding passengers, as negotiations with its pilots ran hours past a strike deadline. ... A 24-year-old Army sergeant was removed from an American Airlines flight at Denver International Airport on Friday after an inert land mine was found in his checked baggage, the Transportation Safety Administration said.

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