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CHICAGO — Sixty-seven people, ranging from mortgage brokers to attorneys, have been charged in the Chicago-area portion of a sweeping nationwide crackdown on mortgage fraud, officials announced last week.

"The hundreds of millions of dollars of fraud, particularly home-mortgage fraud, that we're seeing around the country not only damages financial institutions but more importantly makes life more difficult for ordinary citizens," First Assistant U.S. Attorney Gary Shapiro said at a news conference.

The Illinois announcement came as Justice Department officials in Washington unveiled Operation Malicious Mortgage, a national crackdown on an estimated $1 billion in mortgage fraud.

Illinois is among the top 10 states for mortgage fraud, said Bob Shields, the assistant special agent in charge of the FBI's Chicago office.

OTTUMWA — Metal thieves are stealing veteran grave markers in Ottumwa to apparently sell for scrap.

Dozens of markers, some made of brass, were discovered Thursday morning at Shaul Cemetery and the city-owned Ottumwa Cemetery.

Shaul Cemetery trustee John Winblade said a mowing crew found the markers in two piles. He believes no place locally would accept such a haul, and metal companies would call police if someone walked in with an armload of cemetery items.

Richard Marks of the Ottumwa Cemetery said he believes the thieves piled up the markers with the intention of coming back to get them.

JASPER — MasterBrand Cabinets Inc. has begun rehiring for 260 positions that were eliminated earlier in the year because of slumping sales.

The new hires come after the U.S. Department of Commerce said home construction fell 13.5 percent since the layoffs were announced in December.

MasterBrand spokesman Dan Bowles says the company has tried to be aggressive in pursuit of new clients.

The company has been producing cabinets in Dubois County since 1954. It manufactures 13 brands, including Aristokraft and Decora.

SPRING LAKE — A gas station cashier took matters into her own hands when a man tried to drive off without paying for his fuel for the third time in less than a week.

Twenty-one-year-old Jessica Sudy jumped into the man's car as he was leaving the station in Spring Lake.

Sudy said she recognized him early Wednesday because he had driven off without paying for gas on the previous Friday and again on Monday.

The 4-foot-9 cashier wrote down the car's license number and then hopped inside as he drove away, hoping that might stop him. It didn't, but she got out a block away.

Police located the suspect, a 22-year-old Fruitport man, through the vehicle's registration.

MINNEAPOLIS — Two halves of a sparkling new Interstate 35W freeway bridge stretch toward each other over the Mississippi River, separated by a gap of about 200 feet that shrinks with each day as workers toil around the clock.

The old bridge collapsed last Aug. 1, killing 13 people and severing a critical link in the state's largest city. But for the companies replacing it, the goal is more than just restoring traffic flow — finishing ahead of schedule could mean up to $27 million in extra payouts.

That "carrot" has the new bridge on track to open as early as September, three months before it must be finished under the builders' contract with the state.

"Things are getting done in days and weeks that normally take months and years," said Kevin Gutknecht, spokesman for the Minnesota Department of Transportation. "But the bottom line is there's 141,000 cars a day that have to go someplace else right now, and that's hard on everyone."

Project planners considered an alternate approach known as accelerated bridge construction, but that carries much higher costs.

GALLATIN — Black bears haven't been seen in northern Missouri since the 1840s.

But it appears at least one is roaming those parts now. Conservation agents confirm that tracks discovered near Gallatin belong to a juvenile bear, possibly the same one spotted north of Stewartsville on Thursday.

An agent said a resident six miles north of Stewartsville reported that his dogs were barking at a bear treed in his yard. It is not known where the bear came from, but Missouri's breeding population is south of Interstate 44 from Joplin to St. Louis.

Agent Jason Braunecker said a young male bear trying to establish a territory can cover a lot of ground. He also said the bear may be a pet that escaped or was turned loose.

FARGO — A convicted drug dealer who wants to sell his story will have 30 years in a federal prison to write the ending.

Michael San Miguel Jr. of Jamestown was sentenced Friday for his role in a drug conspiracy that was dubbed "Operation White Buffalo," a reference to Jamestown's famous albino buffalo.

An angry U.S. District Judge Ralph Erickson chastised San Miguel for thinking he could be famous, too.

"This defendant, at some point, thinks he's something more than a two-bit drug dealer," Erickson said, snarling at San Miguel.

"There's nothing special about this case. There's nothing special about what you're doing," Erickson said.

San Miguel, 29, pleaded guilty in March to four felony counts, including conspiracy and continuing criminal enterprise. Authorities said he supervised at least 14 people in Stutsman County who sold large quantities of marijuana, cocaine and methamphetamine.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Christopher Myers called San Miguel "the pied piper of Jamestown" for his ability to recruit other drug dealers.

CINCINNATI — More commercial trucks traveling on Ohio highways are hitting overpasses, backing up motorists for miles and costing the state three times the usual amount for emergency repairs.

A crash last week on Interstate 75 near Dayton marked the 15th time a vehicle hit and damaged an overpass since June 2007, according to the Ohio Department of Transportation.

The agency has spent $1.9 million in the past year on emergency repairs — up from a recent average of about $600,000 a year, spokesman Scott Varner said.

The increase in overpass accidents means officials have used most of a surplus carried over from past repair budgets, Varner said. When possible, the state tries to recover its costs through insurance providers or truck-operating companies.

It's unclear why bridge accidents are on the rise. Increased truck traffic and a desire to save fuel by carrying larger loads might play a role in some cases, government and industry representatives suggested.

KELOWNA, British Columbia — British Columbia and Washington state have signed an agreement to streamline cross-border travel in advance of the 2010 Vancouver Olympics.

The deal, announced Friday, still must be approved by the U.S. and Canadian governments.

Under the agreement, the province and state will work to speed border-crossing times with extra staffing, more inspection booths and new technology, including using enhanced driver's licenses embedded with computer chips. They also will work to have the new licenses accepted by the federal governments as a valid document for Canada-U.S. air travel.