Mediation

A federal judge said Wednesday that a group of retired players led by Hall of Famer Carl Eller faces an uphill battle as it seeks to press forward with a lawsuit over unresolved issues stemming from the NFL lockout. U.S. District Judge Susan Richard Nelson convened a status conference in St. Paul, Minn., to decide whether it would be worthwhile to order the three sides to sit down again next week with U.S. Magistrate Judge Arthur Boylan, who brokered the agreement that ended the lockout but did not settle the retirees' still-pending lawsuit.

Negotiators for the Neshaminy School District and its teachers union had positive talks for more than two hours Thursday night without any breakthroughs, school board member William O'Connor said. The talks were conducted through state mediator John Cairns, who met with each side separately at the district offices in Maple Point Middle School. The union did not offer a counterproposal to the district's July 18 offer, O'Connor said, and talked about using the salary steps in its proposal.

Talks to end the NFL lockout will resume with the court-appointed mediator in New York today and could continue through Thursday, a person familiar with the negotiations told the Associated Press. The person spoke to the AP yesterday on condition of anonymity, because the discussions are supposed to remain confidential. The mediator, U.S. Magistrate Judge Arthur Boylan, originally had ordered representatives of the league's owners and players to meet with him tomorrow in Minneapolis.

While NFL owners and players appear to be inching toward a resolution of the league's long lockout, a group of retired players is clamoring to be more involved in the discussions. The group filed a class-action complaint against the owners and current players in federal court yesterday, saying they have been excluded from the mediation sessions taking place in an attempt to end the lockout. Named plaintiffs including Hall of Famers Carl Eller, Franco Harris, Marcus Allen and Paul Krause are asking U.S. District Judge Susan Richard Nelson to put a halt to the mediation she ordered and declare that the current players cannot negotiate on behalf of those who are retired.

TRIPOLI, Libya - Moammar Gadhafi insists he will not leave his country, South Africa's president said Tuesday after meeting with the embattled Libyan ruler. Gadhafi's departure is the key demand of rebel forces battling his troops. The hard lines of the two sides and the competing, high-level visits illustrated the virtual stalemate in the conflict. NATO aircraft bomb the Libyan capital night after night, and military forces from the two sides battle, but little is changing on the ground.

Mediation will lessen courts' backlog Former Sen. Arlen Specter is right ("Way out of courts' gridlock," May 23): We need to make greater use of mediation and arbitration. Although there is some use of both now, we should do what a number of jurisdictions have done: make mediation mandatory in all cases before you have the right to a jury trial. In my former practice in Missoula, Mont., this was a requirement, and 85 percent of all cases were settled. Imagine what that would do for our backlog.

By Arlen Specter With the U.S. Senate's judicial confirmation process choked by filibusters and gridlock, the federal courts in Pennsylvania are riddled with vacancies. In Harrisburg's district alone, half the judgeships are open - even though Sen. Bob Casey and I made recommendations to fill those seats, as well as vacancies in the Philadelphia and Pittsburgh districts, almost a year ago. Alexis de Tocqueville was correct more than 150 years ago when he said almost every controversy in the United States seems to wind up in court.

SAN'A, Yemen - The head of a coalition of Persian Gulf countries seeking to broker an end to Yemen's political crisis gave up Wednesday and left the country, opposition and government leaders said. Yemen is reeling from three months of street protests demanding the ouster of President Ali Abdullah Saleh after more than three decades in power. The Gulf Cooperation Council sought to mediate a deal for Saleh to leave power in exchange for immunity from prosecution. Saleh snubbed the deal last month, prompting a visit from the coalition's head, Abdul-Latif al-Zayyani, to try to break the impasse.

The NFL and its locked-out players wrapped up another round of court-ordered mediation yesterday without any signs of a new agreement and the clock ticking on the 2011 season. Officials and attorneys for both sides said they will return for more closed-door talks with U.S. Magistrate Judge Arthur Boylan on June 7, 4 days after a key appeals court hearing in St. Louis on the legality of the lockout. NFL lead negotiator Jeff Pash and former Vikings standout Carl Eller both said the talks went well, but there was no indication of any progress toward a new collective bargaining agreement.

The NFL and its locked-out players launched a second round of mediation yesterday, this time under a court order to try and figure out a solution to their labor dispute. Commissioner Roger Goodell, Carolina Panthers owner Jerry Richardson and New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft were among those on hand for the closed-door session at the federal courthouse in Minneapolis. NFLPA executive director DeMaurice Smith was joined by attorneys, linebackers Ben Leber and Mike Vrabel, as well as Hall of Fame defensive end Carl Eller.