$1.1b paid to firms of deceased farmers

The Department of Agriculture distributed $1.1 billion over seven years to the estates or companies of deceased farmers and routinely failed to conduct reviews required to ensure that the payments were properly made, according to a government report. In 181 cases from 1999 to 2005, the Government Accountability Office found that officials approved payments without any review 40 percent of the time. The report said they relied on heirs and companies to notify them of deaths. (Washington Post)

Missouri

ST. LOUIS -- About 200 people were trapped inside the 630-foot Gateway Arch for about two hours after an apparent power outage, authorities said. The power went out around 8:45 p.m. Saturday, stalling two trams filled with about 40 people each, said Mike Maris, deputy superintendent of the Gateway Arch. About 100 other people were stranded at the top of the monument of stainless steel, Maris said. He said the evacuation of the south tram, where one of nine cables may have broken, took about two hours. Captain Steve Simpson, a spokesman for the St. Louis Fire Department, said officials do not know what happened to the equipment. (AP)

Pennsylvania

PHILADELPHIA -- Five people were shot to death within six hours early yesterday, including three who were killed after an argument in a neighborhood bar, police said. The deaths bring the number of killings in the city this year to 232, on pace to be the highest rate in a decade. (AP)

Mississippi

JACKSON -- Two women and an armed man stormed a home wearing masks and kidnapped an infant one of the women had placed for adoption, authorities alleged yesterday. The baby was found unharmed at a military base three states away. Investigators found the 5-month-old girl early yesterday at Fort Bragg, N.C., and planned to file state kidnapping charges against her biological mother, Jamie Kiefer, and related charges against the child's biological aunt, Rikki Swann, said Special Agent Jason Pack, an FBI spokesman in Jackson. (AP)

Ohio

DAYTON -- The first American woman in space and a record-setting daredevil who was the first person to complete a solo balloon trip around the globe were among five people inducted into the National Aviation Hall of Fame. Sally Ride, 56, became the first US woman in space when she flew aboard the space shuttle Challenger in 1983. Steve Fossett, 63, the first person to fly around the world alone in a balloon and three years later became the first person to fly a plane solo around the world without refueling, said he plans to go to Argentina in November in an effort to break a glider record. (AP)