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NATION IN BRIEF

Ark. student Katharine Wood (AP)

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Bid System Proper, Official Says

DETROIT -- The head of the city's economic development office defended its practices after a report that a longtime friend of Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick won millions of dollars in contracts while secretly consulting with the mayor's top aide. George Jackson, president of Detroit Economic Growth Corp., said that the city's bidding process is not influenced by politics, and that Bobby Ferguson did not have an inside track to the bidding process.

Medical Records Sold as Scrap

SALT LAKE CITY -- The medical records of 28 Florida hospital patients were sold last month at a Salt Lake City surplus store for about $20, a newspaper reported. The records were sold to a schoolteacher looking for scrap paper for her fourth-grade class, the Deseret Morning News reported. The records contained medical histories, phone numbers, addresses, Social Security numbers and insurance data.

-- From News Services

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