QUOTE OF THE DAY
“Every one of us has been touched by this attack on your beloved city, every one of us stands with you.”
President Barack Obama, in remarks at a service at Boston’s Cathedral of the Holy Cross, where he mourned those who died in the Boston Marathon bombings Article 1A
MIT officer gunned down; killer sought
A Massachusetts Institute of Technology police officer was shot and killed Thursday, prompting a partial closure of the campus as the Boston area reels from this week’s terrorist bombing.
The shooting was confirmed by a desk officer with the Cambridge, Mass., Police Department who asked not to be identified. The wounded officer was taken to Massachusetts General Hospital, according to campus newspaper The Tech, where he died.
Cambridge police and the Middlesex district attorney’s office said the officer was responding to a report of a disturbance when he was shot multiple times.
State police spokesman Dave Procopio said the shooting took place about 10:30 p.m. outside an MIT building.
Police were searching the campus and nearby public transportation and people were asked to stay clear of the Ray and Maria Stata Center.
“Although the situation is considered active and extremely dangerous, an investigation is underway,” according to the statement on the university’s website.
Officers from state and local law-enforcement agencies were on the shooting scene early today, along with some personnel wearing FBI jackets.
Charges say two plotted, killed in Texas
KAUFMAN, Texas - A former justice of the peace who was convicted of theft carried out a plot with his wife to kill the men who prosecuted him and ended his judicial career, authorities said Thursday.
Eric Lyle Williams, 46, and his wife, Kim Williams, are charged with capital murder in the the shooting deaths of Kaufman County District Attorney Mike McLelland and his wife, Cynthia, last month, and assistant prosecutor Mark Hasse in January, Sheriff David Byrnes announced at a news conference.
Authorities allege Williams was the gunman in the slayings. They say his 46-year-old wife was the getaway driver when her husband purportedly accosted Hasse on the street as he walked into work and fatally shot him. They said she was a passenger in late March when her husband drove to the McLelland home east of Dallas.
Eric Williams is being held in lieu of $23 million bond, and his wife is being held in lieu of $3 million bond. Online jail records do not indicate attorneys representing the couple.
House passes cyber-security legislation
WASHINGTON - The House on Thursday passed cyber-security legislation backed by companies including Boeing and AT&T, defying a veto threat by President Barack Obama’s administration over what it called inadequate privacy protections.
The bill gives companies immunity from lawsuits when they voluntarily share information, such as threats to computer networks and malicious source code, with each other and the U.S. government. It passed on a vote of 288-127. Arkansas’ full House delegation - all Republicans - voted for the legislation.
Congress is renewing a push to pass cyber-security legislation after warnings by U.S. intelligence officials that electronic attacks could disrupt the nation’s banks, utilities, telecommunications networks and other essential services. It isn’t clear whether the Senate will take up the House bill or offer its own version.
Labor nominee vows open mind, approach
WASHINGTON - Labor-secretary nominee Thomas Perez sought to assure senators Thursday that he would approach the job with an open mind and a willingness to work with business and labor groups alike to create new jobs.
“You will always have a person who has an open and balanced approach,” Perez told the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee of his plan for leading the Labor Department.
A report by top GOP lawmakers this week accused Perez of misusing his power to persuade the city of St. Paul, Minn., to withdraw a housing-discrimination case before it could be heard by the Supreme Court. In exchange, the Justice Department agreed not to intervene in two whistle-blower cases against St. Paul that could have won up to $200 million for taxpayers.
Perez told the committee he wanted St. Paul to drop its case because he feared the Supreme Court might strike down the government’s use of statistics to prove lending-discrimination cases.
Front Section, Pages 4 on 04/19/2013