June 3 (Reuters) - The following are the top stories in the Wall Street Journal. Reuters has not verified these stories and does not vouch for their accuracy.
* The Phoenix VA Health Care System, at the heart of the crisis at the Department of Veterans Affairs, is among a number of VA hospitals that show significantly higher rates of mortality and dangerous infections than the agency's top-tier hospitals, internal records show. (http://r.reuters.com/xus79v)
* Two years after three major book publishers settled a major civil antitrust lawsuit with the federal government, the Justice Department has gone back to the publishers asking about any recent pricing discussions they may have had with others in the industry, say people familiar with the situation. (http://r.reuters.com/mes79v)
* New federal caps on carbon emissions unveiled by the Environmental Protection Agency on Monday would force sweeping changes in the U.S. electric system but wouldn't deliver the knockout blow to coal that mining companies and some power producers had feared. The proposed regulations give both states and utilities credit for reductions they already have made, including moving from coal to more natural gas and deploying renewable energy. (http://r.reuters.com/cus79v)
* Pilgrim's Pride Corp raised its offer for Hillshire Brands Co by more than $1 billion, according to people familiar with the matter. The new offer from Pilgrim's, a unit of Brazilian meat giant JBS SA, values the Chicago-based meats and desserts company at $55 a share, or more than $6.7 billion. (http://r.reuters.com/mur79v)
* United States Steel Corp said it would temporarily close plants in Texas and Pennsylvania and blamed illegally-priced imports, raising the volume on trade disputes with China and South Korea. The steel-maker's decision to close its plants will affect 260 workers. (http://r.reuters.com/fus79v)
* A dozen companies including Google Inc, J. Crew Group Inc, and Deere & Co acknowledged they or their suppliers may have obtained metals from mines in a region known to use mining to fund armed militias, according to filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. (http://r.reuters.com/jus79v)
* The Pentagon on Monday awarded Lockheed Martin Corp a $915 million contract for the first phase of its Space Fence, a radar system that would track more of the fast-growing field of debris in space that threatens satellites and manned spacecraft. (http://r.reuters.com/pus79v)
* Live Nation Entertainment Inc's Ticketmaster agreed to a tentative settlement in a 2003 class action lawsuit that, if approved, would offer to issue roughly $400 million in credit to 50 million ticket buyers. (http://r.reuters.com/rus79v)