Indiana's attorney general is suing a northern Indiana lumber recycling plant with a history of environmental and worker-safety violations.

The lawsuit filed Monday in Elkhart County seeks preliminary and permanent injunctions to halt open dumping of wood wastes at VIM Recycling Inc.'s Elkhart operation. It also asks a judge to order VIM to remove waste materials and debris from its property.

Company spokesman Tom Holt says VIM is "extremely surprised" by the lawsuit. He says the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has agreed to allow VIM to place wood from the recreational vehicles and manufactured housing industries on asphalt at its property.

A judge says a motion to prohibit the use of pre-emptory jury strikes in the trial of a man accused of killing a Kansas abortion provider is premature.

Sedgwick County District Judge Warren Wilbert on Tuesday denied a defense motion to prohibit the strikes but said he would deal with such issues on a person-by-person basis during trial.

Fifty-one-year-old Scott Roeder is charged with shooting Dr. George Tiller on May 31 at the abortion doctor's Wichita church. Roeder has confessed to shooting Tiller, which he says was necessary to save unborn children.

Earlier Tuesday, Wilbert denied a defense motion for a change of venue for the trial.

A financial review that turned up "excessive and questionable spending" at the Kentucky League of Cities has been turned over to state and federal law enforcement agencies.

State Auditor Crit Luallen said Thursday she forwarded the report to law enforcement "because of the nature and complexity of the exam's findings."

Those findings included high pay for executives of the quasi-governmental organization that is primarily funded by public money, conflicts of interest in spending, undocumented credit card expenses and gifts from vendors, including admission to a Las Vegas strip club for three League staff members.

The audit team of state financial experts found 19 positions in the organization paid more than $100,000 — some far more, thanks to raises over the past seven years.

Auditors noted that the executive director's salary had risen since 2002 from $170,000 to $331,000, and that the deputy executive director's pay rose over the same period from $141,00 to $255,000. They also noted a raise that took the chief insurance services officer salary from $124,000 to nearly $239,000.

Lyondell Chemical Co. settled a lawsuit brought by its unsecured creditors against bank lenders to help the chemical company reorganize in bankruptcy. The creditors don't support the agreement.

The settlement, which still needs court approval, resolves a lawsuit brought by the creditors on behalf of Lyondell against the company's bank lenders related a 2007 buyout, Lyondell spokesman David Harpole said in a phone interview.

Creditors' lawyer Steven Pohl said while his clients don't support the deal, under bankruptcy law Lyondell owns the creditors' claims and has the right to settle.

“Its especially unusual on the eve of a trial for the debtor to come in and settle when the parties have spent four months getting ready for trial,” said Pohl in a phone interview.

The proposed settlement would give the creditors a cash payment of $300 million when Lyondell exits bankruptcy, and establish a litigation trust to fund lawsuits against third parties. The accord was reached after a mediator, whose appointment was announced Nov. 9, failed to resolve the dispute, Harpole said.

“This clears the path for us to move forward with filing an amended disclosure statement and exiting bankruptcy,” Harpole said.

Lyondell's creditors and lenders accepted the appointment of mediator Myron Trepper “for the purpose of facilitating settlement discussions,” U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Robert Gerber said in court papers filed Nov. 9. The lawsuit, filed July 22, sought a trial to determine damages.

The lawsuit claimed Lyondell's 2007 buyout, financed with $22 billion in borrowings, left the company with too much debt and caused it to fail a year later. The suit names Lyondell's parent, Netherlands-based LyondellBasell Industries AF, and banks including ABN Amro Bank NV, Citibank NA, Goldman Sachs Group Inc., Merrill Lynch & Co. and UBS AG.