The nation in brief

— QUOTE OF THE DAY

“Speaking is difficult, but I need to say something important.Too many children are dying.Too many children.We must do something.” Former Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, who said “the time is now” for Congress to take action on guns Article, 1A3 shot in Phoenix; 1 dies; suspect fleesPHOENIX - A gunman opened fire at a Phoenix office complex Wednesday, killing one person, wounding two others and setting off a manhunt. Police warned the public that the suspect was “armed and dangerous.”

Authorities identified the suspect as Arthur Harmon, who they said opened fire at the end of a mediation session. They identified a man who died hours after the Wednesday morning shooting as 48-year-old Steve Singer.

Police say a 43-year-old man was listed in critical condition and a 32-year-old woman suffered injuries that weren’t life-threatening.

Police didn’t immediately release the names of the wounded. But a Phoenix law firm, Osborn Maledon, said one of its lawyers, Mark Hummels, was among the wounded.

The firm said he “was representing a client in a mediation” when he was shot.

According to court documents, Harmon was scheduled to go to a law office in the same building where the shooting took place for a settlement conference in lawsuit he filed last April against Scottsdale-based Fusion Contact Centers LLC.

The company had hired him to refurbish office cubicles at two call centers in California, but a contract dispute arose.

Senator denies he was with prostitutes

WASHINGTON - Sen. Robert Menendez’s office said Wednesday that he traveled three times on a plane owned by a prominent Florida political donor but the trips were paid for and reported appropriately. The New Jersey Democrat’s office also said unsubstantiated allegations the senator engaged in sex with prostitutes in the Dominican Republic are false.

The FBI searched the West Palm Beach, Fla., office of the donor - eye doctor Salomon Melgen - on Tuesday night and early Wednesday. It wasn’t known why the FBI was searching Melgen’s offices.

Records filed in Palm Beach County show an Internal Revenue Service lien against Melgen of more than $11.1 million for unpaid taxes from 2006 through 2009. Previous liens for taxes from 1998 to 2002 were subsequently withdrawn, records show.

The Daily Caller, a conservative website, reported shortly before the November election that Menendez traveled on Melgen’s private plane to the Dominican Republic to engage in sex with prostitutes.

Menendez’s office said that any accusations of engaging with prostitutes “are manufactured by a politically motivated right-wing blog and are false.”

At FBI headquarters in Washington, spokesman Jason Pack said the bureau “cannot comment on the existence or status of an investigation.” Justice Department spokesman Tracy Schmaler also declined to comment.

Execution still Fort Hood case option

FORT HOOD, Texas - The Army psychiatrist charged in the Fort Hood shooting rampage still faces a possible death penalty if convicted in the worst mass shooting on a U.S. military installation, a judge ruled Wednesday.

The judge, Col. Tara Osborn, was expected to rule later on Maj. Nidal Hasan’s request to plead guilty to 13 counts of premeditated murder in the 2009 attack on the Texas Army post. However, Army rules prohibit a judge from accepting a guilty plea in a death-penalty case, so her earlier ruling Wednesday indicates he would not be allowed to plead guilty as long as that punishment option remains on the table.

The American-born Muslim also is charged with 32 counts of attempted premeditated murder.

Barges allowed past leaking one

JACKSON, Miss. - The Coast Guard is letting vessels pass through a closed section of the Mississippi River at Vicksburg as it evaluates how traffic would affect efforts to remove and clean up oil from a leaking barge, a Coast Guard spokesman said Wednesday.

Chief Petty Officer Paul Roszkowski told The Associated Press that a 16-mile stretch of the river remained technically closed four days after two barges struck a railroad bridge, even though some barges are being allowed to pass.

A few barges were allowed to pass - “methodically and slowly” - so crews could assess the effects on cleanup operations.

Petty Officer 1st Class Matt Schofield said Wednesday that the Coast Guard had started pumping oil from the leaking barge onto another barge.

Front Section, Pages 4 on 01/31/2013

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