WASHINGTON -- In a giant auction, the federal government has agreed to sell for pennies on the dollar most of the 120,000 formaldehyde-tainted trailers it bought nearly five years ago for Hurricane Katrina victims. But the sale of the units, perhaps the most visible symbol of the government's bungled response to the hurricane, has triggered a new round of charges that it is endangering future buyers for years to come.

Consumer advocates and environmentalists are outraged that the government resold products it deemed unsafe to live in, saying warning stickers attached to the units will not keep people from misusing them.

Besides formaldehyde, units may be plagued by mold, mildew and propane gas leaks, FEMA acknowledged.

ORANGE COUNTY, Calif. -- Economist Janet L. Yellen, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, is President Barack Obama's pick to become vice chairman of the Federal Reserve Board, the White House said Friday.

Ms. Yellen is a former University of California-Berkeley professor who headed President Clinton's council of economic advisers in the 1990s.

WASHINGTON -- Black and Latino men are more likely to receive longer prison sentences than their white counterparts since the Supreme Court loosened federal sentencing rules, a government study has concluded.

The study by the U.S. Sentencing Commission reignited a long-running debate about whether federal judges need to be held to mandatory guidelines in order to stamp out what might appear to be inherent biases and dramatically disparate sentences.

For years, legal experts have argued over the disparity in sentencing between black and white men. The commission found that the difference peaked in 1999 with blacks receiving 14 percent longer sentences. By 2002, however, the commission found no statistical difference.

After the January 2005 U.S. v. Booker decision gave federal judges much more sentencing discretion, "those differences appear to have been increasing steadily," with black men receiving sentences that were up to 10 percent longer than those imposed on whites, the commission said.

ANKENY, Iowa -- The Obama administration will probe consolidation in the agriculture industry and enforce antitrust laws where it finds excessive market power hurting competition, Attorney General Eric Holder said Friday.

Mr. Holder and Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack spoke in Ankeny, Iowa, at the first of five workshops on competition and regulation in the agriculture industry. Mr. Holder said they have already received 15,000 comments on the subject.

Consolidation in meat, packing and seed markets have lowered food prices while pressuring growers and threatening the life of rural economies, Mr. Vilsack said.

LOS ANGELES -- A fugitive and convicted drug dealer who allegedly helped a "bling ring" sell off luxury items stolen from the homes of young celebrities including Lindsay Lohan and Paris Hilton, pleaded no contest Friday to several felonies, authorities said.

Jonathan Ajar, known as "Johnny Dangerous," was the fence for the items stolen in at least 10 burglaries, authorities said.

NEW YORK -- Lawyers and city officials expressed confidence Friday that they can get ground zero responders to sign on to a settlement that would pay up to $657 million to workers who developed health problems after toiling in the ruins of the World Trade Center.

If 95 percent of workers don't say yes in three months, the deal is off.

With 10,000 plaintiffs involved, success isn't assured. Only $575 million of the settlement is guaranteed. Some will qualify for only the minimum payment of $3,250. Any award could be depleted by a third or more once the plaintiffs' lawyers take a cut.

A representative of one victims' group expressed reservations Friday that deal doesn't contain enough cash.

Washington correspondent Daniel Malloy writes the "Pittsburgh On The Potomac" blog exclusively at PG+, a members-only web site of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Our introduction to PG+ gives you all the details.