News in Brief: A National Roundup

A New York state judges ruling that a Long Island utility company paid too much in property taxes has threatened the financial security of the Shoreham-Wading River school district.

The decision, handed down this month, means that the 2,166-student district must reimburse the Long Island Lighting Company for taxes the company paid on a nuclear-power plant that never opened.

The utility paid 90 percent of the district's annual budget--which is $30.1 million this year--for two decades. There were ample funds to cover violin lessons for kindergartners, trips to Spain for Spanish classes, and Hudson River...