No Deal

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Few dispute the horror of Rodney King's beating by four Los Angeles police officers last year. But assigning it a dollars-and-cents value has proved far more contentious. Last week King rejected the city council's first public offer -- a guaranteed $1.75 million, including a lump sum of $250,000 and a lifetime annuity of $75,000 -- to settle his lawsuit. The council, after a closed-door session, in turn spurned a settlement bid by King for $5.9 million. Next stop: the U.S. district court, where King's federal civil rights case will be tried.