Judge's Plan Faulted in Indian Trust Case

WASHINGTON (AP) -- In a victory for the government in a long-running dispute with American Indians, a federal appeals court threw out on Friday most of a judge's plan for making the Interior Department account for billions of dollars the Indians say they are owed. The appeals court told the judge he could no longer ``micromanage'' how the system gets fixed.

The ruling means Interior can propose its own plan rather than create a recipe based on ingredients preordered from the bench. U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth then would assess the result.