NATION IN BRIEF

Mayor's Order Calls for Diversity In New Orleans Recovery Work

NEW ORLEANS -- New Orleans Mayor C. Ray Nagin (D) issued an executive order Monday requiring that large businesses use as many local and minority-owned firms as possible when they seek millions of dollars in tax incentives and grants for Hurricane Katrina recovery.

Nagin's executive order requires applicants for the incentives to involve 50 percent local businesses and 35 percent female- or minority-controlled businesses whenever possible.

A similar requirement has been in place for government contracts, but the mayor's order expands it to businesses applying for assistance promised by various federally funded recovery programs that are administered by the city and the state.

In the immediate aftermath of the storm, many local firms complained that the main beneficiaries of large government contracts for emergency cleanup and recovery were out-of-state businesses and workers.

Husband Waives Extradition In Nevada Official's Slaying

HAMPTON, Va. -- The husband of Nevada's late state controller waived extradition Monday to face first-degree murder charges in her death.

Chaz Higgs, 42, was arrested Friday in Hampton, where he had been staying with relatives. He is accused of injecting Kathy Augustine, 50, with a lethal dose of muscle relaxant in July.

In Nevada, Clark County District Attorney David Roger said that investigators plan to exhume the body of Kathy Augustine's first husband, 63-year-old Charles Augustine, who died three years ago, to look for traces of the same drug that authorities say killed her.

Higgs, a nurse, had been caring for Charles Augustine. Three weeks after his death, Higgs and Kathy Augustine were married.

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· UNITED NATIONS -- Secretary General Kofi Annan has submitted a form disclosing his financial records to the U.N. Ethics Office after initially refusing to do so, the United Nations said. Annan is not required to fill out the new U.N. financial disclosure form because he is technically not a staff member, but days after his refusal to do so became public, he submitted the form. The information it contains will not be made public.

· LAS VEGAS -- Four public school campuses were locked down while police searched for a teenager who was spotted at a high school with a gun, authorities said. No shots were fired, and police said they had no indication the teen -- a former student who had been banned from Mojave High School -- had threatened anyone. School police reported finding a .25-caliber handgun behind a nearby church; police gave up their search in the suburb of North Las Vegas after more than three hours.

· ST. LOUIS -- Ameren Corp. agreed to pay federal regulators a $15 million fine for the reservoir collapse that unleashed more than a billion gallons of water from a hydroelectric plant, officials said. The collapse destroyed a state park and injured a family last year. It was the largest fine of its kind levied by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, officials said. The commission, whose previous heftiest fine was $500,000, determined Ameren knew of critical problems at the reservoir for months before the collapse, officials said.

· LEXINGTON, Ky. -- Doctors upgraded the condition of James Polehinke, the co-pilot who survived the Aug. 27 crash of Comair Flight 5191, and a hospital spokeswoman said he may be able to leave the hospital as early as this week to begin rehabilitation.

-- From News Services