UAW set to strike if deal not reached

Detroit

UAW set to strike if deal not reached

The United Auto Workers set a deadline for 8 a.m. PDT today to strike General Motors if a new contract isn't reached, even as the two sides continued bargaining late Sunday, according to a union Web site.

Spokesman Dan Flores said Sunday night that GM was working with the union to resolve issues.

The UAW's contract was set to expire Sept. 14, but the union has been extending it on an hour-by-hour basis since then.

A local UAW official said earlier Sunday that negotiators have wrapped up work on most issues and were determining how much money GM must put into a trust fund for retiree health care that will be managed by the UAW. The official spoke on the condition of anonymity because the talks are private.

The health-care fund — Voluntary Employees Beneficiary Association, or VEBA — would be a groundbreaking change for the auto industry and has been the major issue in this year's negotiations.

Washington

Paper acknowledges MoveOn's discount

After two weeks of denials, The New York Times acknowledged it should not have given a discount to MoveOn.org for a full-page ad assailing Gen. David Petraeus.

The liberal advocacy group should have paid $142,000 for the ad calling the U.S. commander in Iraq "General Betray Us," not $65,000, the paper's public editor wrote Sunday.

Clark Hoyt said in his column that MoveOn was not entitled to the cheaper "standby" rate for advertising that can run any time over the following week because the Times promised the ad would run Sept. 10, the day Petraeus began his congressional testimony. "We made a mistake," Times spokeswoman Catherine Mathis was quoted as saying.

MoveOn, saying it had no reason to believe it was paying "anything other than the normal and usual charge," said Sunday that it would send the Times $77,000 to make up the difference.

The Times also violated its own advertising policy, which bars "attacks of a personal nature," Hoyt reported. He wrote that the episode "gave fresh ammunition to a cottage industry that loves to bash The Times as a bastion of the 'liberal media.' "

Also

Weather: Tropical Storm Jerry formed Sunday in the Atlantic Ocean and was about 1,045 miles west of Azores but posed no immediate threat to land, the National Hurricane Center said. In the Pacific, Ivo was downgraded from a tropical storm to a depression.

Tornado toll: Max M. McColm, 77, who was struck by debris and suffered brain damage when a tornado destroyed Greensburg, Kan., in May has died, making him the 12th victim of the storm, his family said.

Animal cruelty alleged: A Denver man was in custody in St. Paul, Minn., after police said he ripped the head off a tame duck that lived in an ornamental pond in the lobby of an Embassy Suites Hotel. He was jailed on suspicion of felony animal cruelty and was to be charged today.

Worker dies: An 18-year-old fell into a vat of sulfuric acid and died after apparently being overcome by fumes, said police in Redwood City, Calif. His body was discovered by his father Sunday at a circuit-board factory where they both worked.

Seattle Times news service