Hundreds of women sue Merrill Lynch NEW YORK (AP) - Marybeth Cremin recalls her boss at Merrill Lynch saying women couldn't combine work and family. Other women were told they earned less than men because their husbands could support them. Now Cremin and more than 900 other current and former employees of the big securities firm have joined forces. In advance of a deadline Tuesday, they've filed claims of discrimination as part of the settlement of a class-action lawsuit that is shaking the financial services industry. For one thing, the number of claimants is three to four times what plaintiffs' lawyers had expected when Merrill settled the suit last June. The settlement is also helping change the way discrimination cases are handled on Wall Street. Until recently, nearly all cases were handled through industry arbitration - a system criticized as biased in favor of companies. Under the settlement, Merrill Lynch became the first Wall Street firm to end mandatory arbitration for civil rights claims. ### Talks continue over redwoods pact SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) - Hours before a midnight deadline, government authorities and Pacific Lumber Co. executives met Monday to try to revive a $480 million plan to turn ancient redwood groves into a public preserve. Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt, state resources officials and company executives and lawyers were involved in the negotiations. "I hope they'll change their minds," Vice President Al Gore said during his visit to Oakland. "We think what was proposed is good for the American people, good for California, good for the environment and good for this company." The deal would have had Pacific Lumber and an allied logging firm sell 10,000 acres of the Headwaters Forest - including about 5,000 acres of old-growth redwoods - to the U.S. and California. Some of the trees are 1,500 years old. After years of negotiations, Pacific Lumber rejected the government's final offer on Friday, saying proposed restrictions on logging near streams and wildlife habitats in other comp! any properties would ruin it financially. ###
