NATION IN BRIEF : WASHINGTON, D.C. : Bush Acts to Avert Crippling Rail Strike

President Bush, trying to avoid a “crippling nationwide rail strike,” named an emergency board to help settle bargaining disputes between 11 unions and most of the nation’s major railroads. The action effectively imposes a 60-day cooling-off period on management and labor. Rising health care costs had been a major holdup in contract negotiations, which had been going on for two years. Nearly 300,000 trackmen, engineers, signalmen and other railroad workers at about 15 of the nation’s largest freight railroads are affected. A rail strike could cause more than 500,000 layoffs within two weeks in industries served by railroads, the White House said.