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UNDERAGE PREGNANCY

Miss. House OKs bill on reporting of sex abuse

JACKSON, Miss. (AP) The Mississippi House has passed a bill aimed at stopping sexual abuse of minors, including cases of underage girls being impregnated by men in their 20s or older.

House Bill 16 passed 106-9 Thursday after a lengthy debate.

Supporters call it the Child Protection Act and Child Rape Protection Act.

Among other things, it says fetal tissue would have to be preserved for DNA testing if a girl younger than 14 has an abortion. The test would determine if an adult impregnated the girl.

This is the first bill to come up for debate in the month-old legislative session. Republican Gov. Phil Bryant says he will sign the bill if senators also pass it.

STUDENT VISA ABUSES

State Dept. pulls designation for visa sponsor

JACKSON, Miss. (AP) The State Department has revoked a company's ability to arrange visas for foreign college students to work at a Pennsylvania candy factory that packed Hershey chocolates.

The students spent weeks protesting working conditions, complaining of hard labor and pay deductions for rent that left them with little money.

A State Department official said Thursday the non-profit Council for Education Travel USA, known as CETUSA, lost its visa designation on Jan. 30 nearly six months after the workers began protesting.

A message left for CETUSA was not immediately returned.

The State Department's action comes a year after an Associated Press investigation exposed widespread abuses in the J-1 Summer Work Travel Program. It annually allows more than 100,000 foreign college students to work in the U.S. for up to four months.

MISSISSIPPI MEDICAID

Bryant aims to stretch Medicaid by payment changes

JACKSON, Miss. (AP) Gov. Phil Bryant wants to perform a magic trick of sorts reform Mississippi's Medicaid program so that it doesn't cost any more state money next year. Program officials were expecting costs to increase by 16 percent.

The essence of making funds stretch is changing how the state pays hospitals to care for Medicaid patients. That group is mostly poor children, but includes some parents, disabled adults, and senior citizens.

Medicaid will cost Mississippi $763 million this year. Bryant, in releasing his budget Tuesday, called it "the elephant in the phone booth."

Democratic lawmakers are questioning whether Bryant is just camouflaging cost cutting, which could mean less care for patients or less money for hospitals.

The hospitals, for their part, are withholding judgment, saying they want to see details.

CHILD PORN-SENTENCE

Arizona man gets 33 1/3 years in child porn case

OXFORD, Miss. (AP) A 51-year-old Arizona man has been sentenced to 33 and 1/3 years in prison for bringing child pornography into the State of Mississippi.

U.S. Attorney Felicia C. Adams said U.S. District Judge Michael P. Mills sentenced Gregory Edward Vernon, of Florence, Ariz., on Thursday and ordered the sentence to run consecutive to a 13-year sentence he received in Arizona on April 21 to sexual exploitation of a minor and dangerous crime against a child.

Adams' office says Vernon was arrested in Tunica on an Aug. 8, 2006, warrant from Arizona. At the time of his arrest, authorities said he had a computer in his possession that contained images and movies of child pornography that jurors later found he had brought into the state.

MS-TIRE SWINDLE

Maryland man sentenced in Miss. tire swindle

OXFORD, Miss. (AP) A Maryland businessman has been ordered to pay back $6.89 million and serve 40 months in federal prison after pleading guilty in an embezzlement scheme.

Sanjeet "Sonny" Veen, 47, of Potomac, Md., pleaded guilty last year to defrauding Dunlap & Kyle Co., a Batesville, Miss., firm that operates 54 locations of Gateway Tire and Service Center in seven states. In sentencing Thursday, Senior U.S. District Judge Glen H. Davidson also ordered Veen to serve three years of supervised release after the prison term.

Dunlap & Kyle paid Veen to import tires, but Veen faked invoices and blamed foreign manufacturers when no tires arrived.

Veen's company was also involved in 2010 in a Maryland federal civil suit over tire importing.

FOREST RESTORATION

$40 million for new forest restoration projects

WASHINGTON (AP) The Obama administration has announced $40 million is going to new forest restoration projects intended to boost timber production and create jobs while making forests healthier and less vulnerable to wildfire.

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said Thursday over the next three years the 10 projects from Oregon to North Carolina will expand the number of acres thinned and restored on national forests by 20 percent and increase timber production by 25 percent. They will maintain or generate 1,550 jobs.

Mike Anderson of The Wilderness Society, a conservation group, says this represents the first time full funding has gone to a program enacted by Congress in 2009.

Ann Forest Burns of the American Forest Resource Council says the projects recognize that timber production is an important part of restoring healthy forests.