Across the Southeast

Grand jury will hear insurer bribery case

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. - A federal grand jury will hear testimony next month on allegations that a former executive for Florida's state-run insurer took bribes to steer business to adjusters handling claims filed because of last year's hurricanes.

The state Department of Financial Services confirmed this week that federal prosecutors were beginning a criminal investigation of Citizens Property Insurance Corp. and its former chief operating officer, R. Paul Hulsebusch.

The allegations surfaced in mid-September in a lawsuit filed by a Houston-based adjusting firm. Universal Risk Insurance Services of Houston alleged that Mr. Hulsebusch accepted at least $25,000 in goods as a bribe from an adjuster who then won a contract to handle claims for Citizens.

Burial place rests on which woman is wife

FAYETTEVILLE, N.C. - The final resting place for a retired sergeant might be determined by a judge as two women battle over which was his wife at the time of his death.

John E. "Sarge" Burrell died in July. Valerie Burrell, of Atlanta, married Mr. Burrell in 1989, said her lawyer Thomas Holt.

Hazelene Burrell, of Fayetteville, married Mr. Burrell in 1954 and had three children with him. She disputes records that indicate they might have been divorced in 1969.

His body is at Wiseman Mortuary in Fayetteville while the women fight over whether to bury him in a veterans cemetery in Spring Lake or Atlanta.

700 evacuees must move out of hotels

RALEIGH, N.C. - About 700 evacuees from Hurricane Katrina are still staying in hotels in North Carolina nearly three months after the storm crashed into the Gulf Coast.

The evacuees had been told last week to move into mobile homes or apartments by Dec. 1, but the Federal Emergency Management Agency has pushed the deadline to Dec. 15. The 10 other states housing the most Katrina evacuees are operating under a Jan. 7 deadline.

North Carolina is using FEMA money to reimburse cities and counties helping Katrina victims find housing and start new lives, said Patty McQuillan, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Crime Control and Public Safety, which is overseeing FEMA payments.

FEMA will stop paying evacuees' rent by March 1, Ms. McQuillan said.

County requires tests for lead poisoning

GREENSBORO, N.C. - Doctors in Guilford County will be required to test all children younger than 6 for lead poisoning, and children enrolling in child-care facilities will need to show proof they have been tested under strict regulations passed this week.

The county's health board passed the new lead ordinance unanimously.

"I'm thrilled," said Alyson Best, who heads the county's lead-poisoning prevention program. "I think it will make a tremendous difference, and not only in Guilford County. ... Other counties look to us, and I'm hopeful that they will adopt something like this."

- Edited from wire reports