The nation in brief

QUOTE OF THE DAY

“That’s not an economic plan. That’s just being a deadbeat.”

President Barack Obama on House Republicans’ demand for conditions to raise the U.S. debt ceiling Article, this page

Blog report draws 2nd Weiner confession

NEW YORK - New York mayor candidate Anthony Weiner acknowledged Thursday that he had engaged in inappropriate online communications with up to three women since leaving Congress two years ago.

Weiner, in a news conference at a Brooklyn soup kitchen, said that in total he had traded lewd messages with six to 10 women, including during the time he was a U.S. representative.

The remarks were his most detailed yet on his actions in the months after he resigned from office in June 2011. Weiner had left many voters with the impression that his lewd behavior had ceased after his resignation, but after another episode became public Tuesday, he acknowledged that his habit of sending messages to young women he met online had continued.

Weiner said he was still seeking professional help for his online behavior, which he did not believe was an addiction.

Weiner’s campaign appeared to be under siege Thursday after another report by the blog that Tuesday revealed his post-resignation relationship with a young woman from Indiana. The blog, called The Dirty, posted what it said were uncensored photographs of his genitals, taken from various angles, and said Weiner had sent the pictures to the woman.

High-profile leaders of his party have called on him to drop out of the mayor’s race, joined by the editorial boards of The New York Times, The Daily News and The Wall Street Journal.

Halliburton to plead guilty over spill files

WASHINGTON - Halliburton Energy Services has agreed to plead guilty to destroying evidence in connection with the 2010 Gulf oil spill, the Justice Department said in a news release Thursday.

Halliburton has agreed to pay the maximum fine, be on probation for three years and continue to cooperate with the government’s criminal investigation, according to the news release, which did not list the amount of the fine.

The Houston-based company has also made a $55 million voluntary contribution to the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation. It was not a condition of the court agreement, the news release says.

The company said in a statement Thursday night that it had agreed to plead guilty “to one misdemeanor violation associated with the deletion of records created after the Macondo well incident, to pay the statutory maximum fine of $200,000 and to accept a term of three years probation.”

Halliburton was BP’s cement contractor on the drilling rig that exploded in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010. The blowout triggered an explosion that killed 11 workers and spilled millions of gallons of oil into the Gulf.

Homeland-security pick denies visa claim

WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama’s choice to be the No. 2 official at the Department of Homeland Security used his appearance before a Senate panel Thursday to deny allegations that he helped a politically connected company obtain a foreign-investor visa.

The eight Republican members of the Senate Homeland Security Committee weren’t in the room for the nearly two-hour confirmation hearing.

Sen. Tom Coburn of Oklahoma, the panel’s ranking Republican, said in a written statement that he wouldn’t participate in the hearing until the allegations against Alejandro Mayorkas are resolved.

The nomination hit a snag this week after The Associated Press reported that the department’s inspector general is investigating Mayorkas’ role in helping secure a foreign-investor visa for Gulf Coast Funds Management, a company run by former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton’s brother Tony Rodham. The efforts on behalf of Gulf Coast purportedly occurred after the visa application had been denied and an appeal rejected.

O.J. Simpson pleads before parole board

CARSON CITY, Nev. - O.J. Simpson went before a parole board and pleaded for leniency on his armed robbery and kidnapping sentence Thursday as he expressed regret for his actions and described himself as being an upstanding inmate who earns pennies an hour keeping gym equipment sanitized and umpiring and coaching games in the prison yard.

Simpson also said he has become a counselor of sorts to fellow inmates doing time for similar crimes and noted that he has made amends with his victims in a botched heist of memorabilia in a hotel room in Las Vegas in 2007.

Parole officials did not immediately rule on his request. Simpson is eligible for parole on only one of his consecutive sentences.

Front Section, Pages 4 on 07/26/2013

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