DISTRICT BRIEFING

U.S. DISTRICT COURT

Leaking Battery Delays Return of Jurors, Workers

About 50 court employees, jurors and other officials were barred from returning to the E. Barrett Prettyman U.S. Courthouse for about an hour yesterday as fire officials investigated a sulfuric stench in the building.

Alan Etter, a spokesman for D.C. Fire and Emergency Medical Services, said workers who had left the courthouse at lunchtime were not allowed to return until after the source of the smell was found.

Etter said a minor leak in the court generator's battery caused the smell. No injuries were reported.

-- Keith L. Alexander

CLEAN AIR ACT

D.C. Joins Suit Filed Over Greenhouse Emissions

The District, New York City and 12 states are suing federal environmental regulators over greenhouse gas emissions from oil refineries, the New York attorney general's office said yesterday.

The suit, led by New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, claims that the Environmental Protection Agency violated the federal Clean Air Act by refusing to issue standards, known as new-source performance standards, for controlling global-warming pollution emissions from oil refineries.

The suit was filed in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit.

-- Reuters