GUATEMALA CITY

Guatemala president speaks of legalizing use of drugs

U.S. inability to cut illegal drug consumption leaves Guatemala with no option but to consider legalizing the use and transport of drugs, President Otto Perez said Monday, a remarkable turnaround for an ex-general elected on a platform of crushing organized crime with an iron fist.

Perez said he will try to win regional support for drug legalization at an upcoming summit of Central American leaders next month. He got his first public support Monday at a security meeting with El Salvador President Mauricio Funes, who said he too is willing to consider legalization.

Perez’s proposal comes as drug cartels have taken over large parts of Guatemala and other Central American countries, fueling some of the highest murder rates in the world.

ORLANDO, Fla.

Bus driver stood guard during beating, suit claims

The driver of a bus on which Florida A&M University drum major Robert Champion was beaten to death in November stood guard while he was assaulted by fellow band members, according to a lawsuit filed Monday in Orlando by Champion’s family.

According to the lawsuit, bus driver Wendy Millette saw Champion vomiting in the parking lot of the Rosen Plaza hotel, then forced him back onto the bus, telling him he’d be OK. After he boarded the bus again, the lawsuit contends, he was subjected to more hazing.

NEW YORK

AT&T launches new policy for managing data usage

Mike Trang likes to use his iPhone 4 as a GPS device, helping him get around in his job as an Orange County, Calif. property manager.

But in the past few weeks, AT&T Inc. put a virtual wheel clamp on his phone. Web pages wouldn’t load and maps wouldn’t render.

The reason: AT&T considers Trang to be among the top 5 percent of the heaviest cellular data users in his area. Under a new policy, AT&T has started cutting their data speeds as part of an attempt to manage data usage on its network.

AT&T has some 17 million customers with “unlimited data” plans that can be subject to throttling, representing just under half of its smartphone users.

Trang’s iPhone was throttled just two weeks into his billing cycle, after he’d consumed 2.3 gigabytes of data. He pays $30 per month for “unlimited” data. Meanwhile, Dallas-based AT&T now sells a limited, or “tiered,” plan that provides 3 gigabytes of data for the same price.

AT&T spokesman Mark Siegel said that as of last summer, the top 5 percent of data users were using 2 gigabytes of data per month. But he also said the company doesn’t actually throttle all of the top 5 percent “unlimited” data users. Last month, the figure was only 0.5 percent, or about 200,000 people, he said.

WASHINGTON

Romney keeps fundraising bundlers’ names to himself

Despite criticism of Fannie Mae by Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney, his campaign accepted nearly $280,000 in donations raised by a registered lobbyist who once represented the government mortgage giant and whose clients now include a private equity firm and the drug company Pfizer.

Yet Romney has not identified all of his so-called fundraising “bundlers” who have raised hundreds of thousands of dollars, even after President Obama’s re-election campaign released the names of his top fundraisers.

Rick Santorum and Newt Gingrich also haven’t disclosed their bundlers. Ron Paul’s campaign has said it doesn’t use them.

The lack of disclosure prevents voters from knowing who wields influence within a presidential campaign.

Romney may be keeping the names of his bundlers under wraps to avoid drawing attention to the emphasis his campaign is placing on large individual contributions and the role that Wall Street and the financial services industry are playing in helping to generate money, said Anthony Corrado, a campaign finance expert and a professor of government at Colby College in Maine.

“Essentially $38 million of the $57 million he raised came from people who gave $2,500,” Corrado said. “That, to me, suggests a significant amount of bundling activity because those are the people capable of soliciting the larger checks.”