The nation in brief

Saturday, December 14, 2013

QUOTE OF THE DAY

“The Lord knows, but he’s not telling just yet.”

Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, when asked whether he will make another run for the Republican presidential nomination in 2016 Article, 1A

Colorado girl shot, pupil kills himself

CENTENNIAL, Colo. - A teenager opened fire Friday with a shotgun at a suburban Denver high school, wounding a fellow student before killing himself.

Arapahoe County Sheriff Grayson Robinson said the shooter entered Arapahoe High School in Centennial armed with a shotgun and looking for a teacher he identified by name. The teacher immediately left the school when he learned the student was looking for him, Robinson said.

The wounded student, a 15-year-old girl, underwent surgery and was in critical condition. Authorities originally said a second student was wounded, but Robinson said Friday night that the other girl was only covered in blood from the injured student and wasn’t hurt.

Robinson identified the shooter as Karl Halverson Pierson, 18. The sheriff did not elaborate on a possible motive except to say Pierson had a “confrontation or disagreement” with the teacher.

The school is about 8 miles east of Columbine High School in Littleton, where two teenage shooters killed 12 classmates and a teacher before killing themselves in 1999.

The shooting also came a day before the anniversary of the school massacre in Newtown, Conn., where a gunman killed 20 children and six adults at Sandy Hook Elementary School.

School 4: Innocent in rape by athletes

STEUBENVILLE, Ohio - Four eastern-Ohio school workers entered innocent pleas Friday to charges stemming from a grand jury investigation into other purported crimes spurred by the rape of a 16-year-old girl by two high school football players.

The four include Mike McVey, Steubenville’s top school official, whose attorney promised to fight the charges.

Special Judge Patricia Ann Cosgrove accepted the innocent pleas and let the four remain free without bond.

McVey and three others are charged with trying to thwart the investigation into the August 2012 rape of the West Virginia girl by the football players. The players were convicted in March and sentenced to the state’s juvenile detention system.

Partisan tensions take Senate break

WASHINGTON - The partisan tension that has brought business in the Senate to a crawl eased Friday as Democrats and Republicans said they were calling a weekend cease-fire that will allow them to move on to more pressing issues next week such as the unfinished budget and defense bills.

By Friday, senators had endured two late-night sessions in a row. Because senators were on the floor at virtually all hours, they worked in shifts.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., announced late Friday morning that he would allow senators to go home for the weekend and return Monday evening to continue voting on a backlog of President Barack Obama’s nominees. By Tuesday they could start debating the budget bill, a bipartisan pact that passed the House on Thursday. They also would likely vote on the nomination of Janet Yellen to lead the Federal Reserve.

Front Section, Pages 3 on 12/14/2013