Striking workers accept contract

SYRACUSE - Syracuse China workers voted to accept a three-year labor contract Monday, ending a strike that began more than a month ago.

About 30 percent of the work force will return to work Tuesday to resume production at the dinnerware plant. The entire work force should be back to work within a week.

The plant's 250 workers have been on strike since March 31 over wages, pensions and health insurance.

By a 150-70 vote, members of Local 381 of the Glass, Molders, Pottery, Plastics and Allied International Union agreed to a wage freeze after the company agreed to keep most wages high by using incentives.

Judge won't dismiss man's house lawsuit

ALBANY - A federal judge refused to dismiss part of a Republican businessman's claim Monday that a New York state agency had maliciously targeted his new house in the Adirondacks.

In a ruling from the bench, U.S. District Court Judge Thomas McAvoy said Arthur Spiegel's claim of selective enforcement could proceed but rejected two other arguments made by the North Country businessman, according to Marc Violette, a spokesman for Attorney General Eliot Spitzer. McAvoy ruled the APA had proceeded fairly and legally in enforcing a building restriction, Violette said.

Officials from the park agency issued a stop-work order in February for a home being built in North Elba by Spiegel, who owns an import-export business.

The agency claimed the 10,000 square-foot house, standing about 50 feet high, violated three provisions of its building permit that limit height, restrict tree cutting and require ridge setback.

Spitzer: Executives knew of bad advice

ALBANY - New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer on Monday said he has evidence that H&R Block executives not only knew they were pushing customers to buy money-losing retirement account plans, but penalized employees who refused to recommend them.

Spitzer amended his March suit against the giant tax preparation company with copies of e-mails that he said show managers disregarded complaints from tax preparers about misleading marketing of the retirement product called Express IRA.

The internal documents also showed that tax preparers were told “sell more IRAs” or “there's the door.”

The company said in a statement that it will be “vindicated once we've had our day in court.”

Ex-chief accused

of setting fires

MILAN - A former fire chief in the Hudson Valley was accused Monday of setting nine brush fires in the past three months. Eric Thorley, 47, who led the Milan Fire Department for five years, was charged with nine counts of arson and nine counts of reckless endangerment.

Current fire Chief Jeffrey Galm said Thorley was “one of the last people I would ever expect to be involved.”

Thorley was a founding member of the fire department and served as a volunteer from 1974 until his arrest.

Boy Scout leader pleads to sex abuse

NEW YORK - A Boy Scout leader pleaded guilty Monday to sexually abusing two members of his troop at his home and in a church, prosecutors said.

The scoutmaster, Ronald E. Occhipinti, was accused of molesting the 13-year-old boys several times between Sept. 1, 2003, and Aug. 6, 2005, and taking explicit photographs of them, Queens District Attorney Richard Brown said. He was promised a sentence of 20 years in prison in exchange for his guilty plea.

One of the boys was abused at the Queens church where Troop 183 held its meetings; the other was molested at Occhipinti's home, Brown said.

- From wire reports