LITTLE ROCK — District of Columbia prosecutors received scores of e-mails from citizens upset because NBC television journalist David Gregor y was not criminally charged for displaying a high-capacity ammunition magazine on his Meet the Press show. Prosecutors received roughly 50 e-mails demanding that Gregory be charged, plus more than 150 others expressing anger in the days after officials decided to not prosecute him. The Associated Press obtained the messages through a public-records request. The e-mails were sent by people from around the country, including some self-identified gun owners and Second Amendment supporters, who accused prosecutors of hypocritically and unevenly enforcing the district’s strict gun laws and of giving Gregory preferential treatment.Some said the decision underscored the absurdity of strict gun laws and set a bad legal precedent; others sarcastically asked if they’d be similarly shielded from prosecution if they brought ammunition magazines to the nation’s capital. The display of the ammunition magazine attracted immediate scrutiny, coming just more than a week after a gunman opened fire at an elementary school in Connecticut, killing 20 children and six adults, and presented a high-profile test for prosecutors about how to enforce strict municipal gun laws in the massacre’s wake. A Meet the Press spokesman declined to comment on the reaction to the decision.
Sarah Ferguson, the former wife of Prince Andrew; British singer songwriter James Blunt; and Israeli television psychic Uri Geller are among the latest to strike a deal with Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp. over phone hacking. The three were among 17 hacking victims who settled Friday with News Corp. subsidiary News Group Newspapers over its campaign of illegal espionage. Others on the list include actor Hugh Grant - whose settlement was first announced in December - as well as Doctor Who actor Christopher Ecclestone, former government minister Geoffrey Robinson, TV presenter Jeff Brazier and singer Kerry Katona. Murdoch’s News of the World tabloid was at the center of the scandal. Prosecutors say the paper’s senior management conspired to hack hundreds of victims’ phones, including senior government ministers, sports stars, Hollywood royalty, and even crime victims in a bid to win scoops and boost sales.
Front Section, Pages 2 on 02/09/2013