The nation in brief

— QUOTE OF THE DAY “Can we survive this? Of course we can. It’s a $16 trillion economy.” Douglas Holtz-Eakin, a former director of the Congressional Budget Office, as the March 1 budget-cut deadline nears Article, 1A

Court asked to excise marriage law

WASHINGTON - The Obama administration is asking the Supreme Court to declare unconstitutional a section of federal law that recognizes only male-female marriages.

In a filing with the court, the administration says Section 3 of the Defense of Marriage Act denies legally married same-sex couples many federal benefits that are available only to legally married heterosexual couples. Federal tax and Social Security survivor’s benefits are among them.

In its brief, the administration said the provision “violates the fundamental constitutional guarantee of equal protection.”

The brief was filed as the justices prepare to hear arguments next month in a challenge to the 1996 law.

President Barack Obama last year said he personally supports gay marriage. He said in last month’s inaugural address that the law should treat gay people like anyone else.

Work ongoing on Keystone pipeline

OKLAHOMA CITY - A TransCanada spokesman says construction on the Oklahoma and Texas portion of the contentious Keystone XL oil pipeline is halfway complete.

The larger pipeline still waits for federal approval because it crosses the Canadian border, but TransCanada spokesman David Dodson said construction on the smaller segment should be finished by the end of the year.

He said about 850 workers in Oklahoma and 3,000 in Texas are working on the project in mostly temporary jobs.

The pipeline would transport 700,000 gallons of oil daily from the pipeline hub in Cushing, Okla., to refineries near Houston.

President Barack Obama rejected a permit for the project early last year but left the door open for a retry that the State Department is considering. The department is awaiting the results of a review of the project, and a decision could come by summer.

3 twisters confirmed in Mississippi

JACKSON, Miss. - Three tornadoes have been confirmed in the storms that moved across Louisiana and Mississippi on Thursday, though none caused injuries.

The National Weather Service says a tornado with winds as strong as 120 mph cut a 6-mile path in an area of Jefferson Davis County west of Bassfield, Miss. The storm, with a path as wide as 400 yards, destroyed a farm building and damaged homes and other structures. It was rated EF-2 on the Fujita scale.

Near Clayton, La., an EF-1 tornado left a 2.5-mile damage trail. Meteorologists say it had peak winds of about 90 mph.

Southwest of Collins, Miss., an EF-0 tornado with top winds of 80 mph left a 1-mile damage trail.

A tornado also hit Pineland, Texas, on Thursday, about 20 miles west of the Louisiana state line. It killed a 74-yearold woman when a tree fell onto her mobile home. It damaged as many as 25 houses.

’96 Olympics bomber pens memoirs

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. - Eric Rudolph, who is serving a life sentence for bombings that killed two people in Alabama and Georgia in the 1990s, has published his autobiography from prison with the help of his brother.

The book - titled Between the Lines of Drift: The Memoirs of a Militant - is hardly a best-seller. It ranked No. 24,040 in sales Friday at a website that allows authors to publish their own works. But the government said it will still try to seize any profits from sales, no matter the amount.

“He can’t derive any benefit at all from his crimes,” said Michael Whisonant, an assistant U.S. attorney who prosecuted Rudolph in the deadly 1998 bombing of an abortion clinic in Birmingham.

The 394-page book begins with Rudolph’s account of his capture in 2003 after more than five years on the run.

Rudolph’s brother Daniel K. Rudolph is listed as the publisher, and he is credited with the simple line drawings that illustrate the book.

Eric Rudolph, 46, pleaded guilty to detonating a bomb at a downtown park during the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta.

The blast killed a woman, and a man suffered a fatal heart attack after the explosion.

Front Section, Pages 4 on 02/24/2013

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