The nation in brief

— QUOTE OF THE DAY “I doubt he has the dignity nor the guts to do it.” Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., who called on House Speaker John Boehner to visit

damaged neighborhoods in New York, after the House refused to take up an aid package for states that sustained damage in Hurricane Sandy Article, 1AClinton goes home after clot treatment

WASHINGTON - Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton has been released from a New York hospital where she was treated for a blood clot in her head.

Clinton spokesman Philippe Reines said her doctors advised her that she has been making progress on all fronts and are confident she will make a full recovery.

He said Clinton is appreciative of the excellent care she received at New York-Presbyterian Hospital and is eager to get back to work. A date for her return to the State Department has not been set.

Clinton, 65, was hospitalized Sunday for treatment of a blood clot stemming from a concussion she suffered earlier in December. While at home battling a stomach virus, Clinton had fainted, fallen and struck her head, a spokesman said.

In fatal crash, teen said to be OK’d to fly

JASPER, Ala. - A teen pilot killed along with two friends in an Alabama plane crash had his own key to the aircraft and had flown it many times, his mother said Wednesday, denying authorities’ assertion that the plane had been taken without permission.

Sherrie Smith said her 17-year-old son Jordan Smith was the one flying the plane that went down in the Alabama woods Tuesday night. The Federal Aviation Administration said the Piper PA 30 crashed less than a mile from the Walker County Airport in Jasper, northwest of Birmingham.

Smith said the owner of the plane had let her son fly it many other times and had given the youth his own key.

Walker County sheriff’s Chief Deputy James Painter said earlier Wednesday that authorities believed the three teenagers took off in the plane without permission “and were sort of joy-riding it.”

Walker County Coroner J.C. Poe said the other two people killed in the crash were Brandon Tyler Ary, 19, and Jordan Seth Montgomery, 17.

Airport manager Edwin Banks said Smith “was not qualified to fly at night.” Banks also said Smith had flown single-engine planes in the past, but the plane in the crash was a double-engine aircraft.

Relatives of slain reject movie invite

DENVER - Relatives of those killed at a Colorado movie theater rejected an invitation Wednesday to attend its planned reopening, calling it a “disgusting offer” that came at a terrible time - right after the first Christmas without their loved ones.

The parents, grandparents, cousins and widow of nine of the 12 people killed in the July shooting said they were asked to attend an “evening of remembrance” followed by a movie when the Aurora theater reopens Jan. 17.

They released a letter sent to the theater’s owner, Cinemark, in which they criticized the Plano, Texas-based company for not previously reaching out to them to offer condolences and refusing to meet with them without lawyers.

Cinemark had no immediate comment.

Also Wednesday, prosecutors and defense lawyers said they are ready for a hearing next week in which prosecutors will outline their case against James Holmes, who is charged with killing 12 people and wounding 70 during the midnight showing of the Batman movie The Dark Knight Rises on July 20.

Vegas dealer charged in girl’s slaying

LAS VEGAS - A blackjack dealer was charged with kidnapping and murder Wednesday in the death of her ex-boyfriend’s daughter, adding to existing felony charges she faces in a slashing attack against a co-worker at a Las Vegas Strip casino.

Brenda Stokes Wilson, 50, picked up 10-year-old Jade Morris to go Christmas shopping last month, but instead took her to a vacant lot and killed her, police said.

Prosecutor Robert Daskas told a judge that DNA tests found the child’s blood on clothing Stokes Wilson wore that day and on the driver’s-door handle and steering wheel of the car she borrowed.

Stokes Wilson’s lawyer, Tony Liker, said his client intends to plead innocent to the charges against her.

Police and family members think the actions were sparked by jealousy. They have said Stokes Wilson thought the child’s father, Philip Morris, had recently begun dating Joyce Rhone, the woman cut at the casino.

“There was nothing going on” between his son and Rhone, said Jade’s grandfather, Philip Tucker.

Front Section, Pages 4 on 01/03/2013

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