WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Retired Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens prodded Congress on Monday to act and presidential candidates to speak out on gun control at a time when gunmen are carrying out mass killings across the United States.

Stevens, 92, spoke to a luncheon hosted by a gun-control lobbying group where he referred to shootings such as a July rampage that killed 12 people in a Colorado movie theater.

WASHINGTON, Oct 10 (Reuters) – A federal court ruled on
Wednesday that South Carolina may not implement a photo ID law
for voters until 2013, in the latest setback for a mainly
Republican effort to establish identification rules in several
states before the Nov. 6 elections.

South Carolina joined Pennsylvania, Texas and Wisconsin as
states with voter ID laws that have been blocked or deferred by
state or federal judges.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A new South Carolina law that generally requires voters to show photo identification does not discriminate against racial minorities but cannot go into effect until the start of next year, a federal court ruled on Wednesday.

The U.S. District Court three-judge panel said too little time remains before the November 6 general election for state officials to implement the law this year. The decision was unanimous.

WASHINGTON, Oct 10 (Reuters) – A new South Carolina law that
generally requires voters to show photo identification does not
discriminate against racial minorities but cannot go into effect
until the start of next year, a federal court ruled on
Wednesday.

The U.S. District Court three-judge panel said too little
time remains before the Nov. 6 general election for state
officials to implement the law this year. The decision was
unanimous.

WASHINGTON, Oct 9 (Reuters) – The U.S. government’s criminal
case against the shuttered file-sharing website Megaupload will
go forward for now, a federal judge ruled in an order made
public on Tuesday.

The ruling deals a setback to Megaupload as the company and
its chief executive, Kim Dotcom, fight allegations that they
encouraged global copyright theft.

WASHINGTON, Oct 4 (Reuters) – Ninety-one people including
doctors, nurses and other medical professionals were charged
criminally in a new sweep of Medicare fraud involving seven U.S.
cities and $430 million in alleged false billing, officials said
on Thursday.

It was the government’s second big raid in recent months
after a similar effort in May alleged $452 million in fraud in
Medicare, the U.S. health program for the elderly and disabled.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Ninety-one people including doctors, nurses and other medical professionals were charged criminally in a new sweep of Medicare fraud involving seven U.S. cities and $430 million in alleged false billing, officials said on Thursday.

It was the government’s second big raid in recent months after a similar effort in May alleged $452 million in fraud in Medicare, the U.S. health program for the elderly and disabled.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The federal government will buy an Illinois prison that the Obama administration once considered as a successor to the detention camp at Guantanamo Bay, Attorney General Eric Holder said on Tuesday.

Holder said the Thomson Correctional Center will house U.S. inmates and that there are no plans to revive a 2009 effort to move some Guantanamo detainees to the United States.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. Justice Department’s internal watchdog faulted 14 federal agents and prosecutors on Wednesday for the botched anti-gun-trafficking effort known as “Operation Fast and Furious” but cleared Attorney General Eric Holder of any wrongdoing.

The report by the department’s inspector general, Michael E. Horowitz, prompted two senior officials to leave the government.

WASHINGTON, Sept 19 (Reuters) – The U.S. Justice
Department’s internal watchdog on Wednesday referred 14
employees, including senior official Lanny Breuer, for possible
internal discipline in connection with a botched gun probe in
Arizona.

A 471-page report was released following a 19-month review
by the department’s inspector general into “Operation Fast and
Furious,” which allowed about 2,000 potentially illegal firearms
to cross the border into Mexico.