Briefs package

***BUSINESS: Note Jobs report brief and Google Earth pot bust brief****

WASHINGTON

Delayed U.S. jobs report out today

After a 2 ½ -week delay, the government today will issue the September employment report. The government was unable to issue most data during the shutdown. The jobs report will carry less weight than usual, because the shutdown has likely slowed growth and hiring. And the September figures are certain to be revised two weeks later, when the government reports on October hiring. Economists forecast that today’s report will show employers added 180,000 jobs in September, according to FactSet. That would be up from August’s gain of 169,000. The unemployment rate is expected to remain at 7.3 percent.

HAITI

Quake camp population falls below 200,000

A humanitarian agency for the United Nations said Monday the number of Haitians still displaced by the 2010 earthquake has dropped below 200,000. The agency said 171,974 people now live in the gloomy shelter camps. That marks an 89 percent decline since the camp population peaked in July 2010 at 1.5 million people. The drop stems from a combination of violent evictions, voluntary departures and efforts to house people through rental subsidies.

OHIO

Veteran’s SpongeBob gravestone removed

A cemetery says a slain Iraq War veteran’s SpongeBob SquarePants headstone has no place on its historic grounds. Kimberly Walker’s headstone was made in the likeness of the popular cartoon character and erected at Spring Grove Cemetery in Cincinnati on Oct. 10. Her family said they were told to remove it the next day even though the cemetery previously approved the design. The family said the towering $13,000 headstone was perfect for Walker, who loved SpongeBob. Walker was killed in Colorado this year, allegedly by her boyfriend.

SYRIA

Assad casts doubt on peace talks

Syrian President Bashar Assad cast doubt Monday on the chances of holding a long-delayed international peace conference to end the country’s civil war, saying the factors that would help such talks succeed do not exist. Assad brushed aside the renewed efforts to coax the government and its opponents to the negotiating table, telling Lebanon’s Al-Mayadeen TV in an interview that “the factors that would help in holding (the conference) are not in place if we want it to succeed.” He said it’s not clear who would represent the opposition, or what credibility the opposition’s representatives would have inside Syria.

OREGON

Police use Google Earth in pot bust

A view from space helped police bust a medical marijuana garden with too many plants in Southern Oregon. Authorities received a tip that Curtis W. Croft, 50, was bragging about the pot he was growing on his property outside Grants Pass. Investigators used Google Earth to find out what they could see. Authorities said online satellite images taken in June showed dozens of plants in neat rows, so drug agents sent up an aircraft for a closer look and checked state medical marijuana records. Croft was registered to grow for five people, which amounts to 30 mature plants. Authorities said a police raid in September seized 94 plants. Croft was arraigned on drug charges last week and released.

PENNSYLVANIA

Ex-Penn St. president seeks lawsuit delay

Former Penn State President Graham Spanier wants a judge to put his planned defamation lawsuit against former FBI Director Louis Freeh on hold until after Spanier’s criminal trial in the Jerry Sandusky child sex abuse scandal. Spanier’s lawyers contend that continuing with the civil case would undercut it. In a court brief Monday, his lawyers said people who are potential witnesses in both cases might assert their right against self-incrimination and refuse to testify if the still-unscheduled criminal trial is pending. Freeh, in a highly critical July 2012 report, concluded that Spanier, football coach Joe Paterno and other high-ranking university administrators had failed to protect children against Sandusky, a former assistant football coach who is serving a 30- to 60-year prison term.

OREGON

Man accused of pointing laser at aircraft

An Oregon man pleaded not guilty Monday to charges of aiming a laser pointer at two commercial airliners. Stephen Francis Bukucs, 39, a private security guard who lives in Portland, entered the plea in federal court in Portland. The suspect was indicted and arrested last week. Prosecutors said he admitted pointing a green laser light at aircraft at least 25 times and said he did it “for excitement.” The lasers can temporarily blind pilots.