In the news

Chris Christie, the Republican governor of New Jersey who has tried for years to lose weight, begged off a question at a news conference about Hostess shutting down, quipping, “I know it! You people are the worst! This is a setup! I am not answering questions on Twinkies, no, no, no, no, no, no. It’s bad that I even said the word ‘Twinkie’ from behind this microphone.”

Samuel Alito, a Supreme Court justice appearing at a Federalist Society dinner in Washington, defended the 2010 Citizens United decision, which helped fuel hundreds of millions of dollars of campaign spending by independent groups, on the grounds that the First Amendment protects political speech, whether from an individual or a corporation.

John Michael Young, a South Carolina man accused of killing two people more than a month ago and stuffing their bodies in barrels before dumping them into a lake, was charged with two counts of murder after deputies collected a chain saw and machetes from his home near Lake Hartwell.

Geoffrey McGann, 49, of Rancho Palos Verdes, Calif., was arrested at Oakland International Airport after security officers found him wearing an unusual watch they said could be used to make a timing device for a bomb but that McGann, who identified himself as an artist, described as art, authorities said.

Todd Akin, 65, the Missouri Republican congressman who lost his Senate race after his assertion in August that a woman’s body has the capacity to ward off pregnancy after “legitimate rape,” remarked that “there’s a natural mechanism to get over [his loss] called the mortgage payment. I’ve got to find what my next job is going to be.”

Front Section, Pages 1 on 11/18/2012

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