BRIEFLY / Also...

* Nearly 30% of farmers who grew biotech corn last year violated planting restrictions designed to keep insects from becoming resistant to the crop, according to a survey conducted by the biotech industry and submitted to the Environmental Protection Agency. The planting rules require 20% of a farmers’ corn acreage to be of conventional varieties, and the conventional corn must be planted within half a mile of the biotech crops. The EPA imposed the restrictions a year ago and required the industry to do annual surveys of compliance.

* A federal judge in Charleston, S.C., threw out claims that R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Holdings Inc. was responsible for the lung-cancer death of a businessman before a jury could consider them. Claims against the Brown & Williamson Tobacco Corp. are alive, however, and are likely to be considered by a jury starting sometime next week, court officials added. The case isn’t seen as a big threat to the tobacco industry, given that it focuses on a single smoker’s claims and is being tried in a conservative, tobacco-producing state.

* ShopKo Stores Inc. said it’s shuttering 23 of its nearly 400 discount stores, mostly in the Midwest, and cutting 2,300 jobs, part of a restructuring plan approved by its board.

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