The nation in brief

QUOTE OF THE DAY “It seems to be the answer of the

administration whenever they’re caught doing something they shouldn’t be doing is ‘I didn’t know about it.’” Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, on the White House’s statement that President Barack Obama was unaware of the IRS targeting Tea Party and anti-tax groups Article, this pageJudge: Arizona killer’s lawyers must stay

PHOENIX - Defense attorneys for murderer Jodi Arias asked the judge to remove them from the case and declare a mistrial Monday, arguing the frenzy surrounding the case has created a modern-day witch hunt.

The judge denied both motions, and Arias planned to take the stand today. Jurors will find out then whether she tells them the same thing she told a local reporter: She’d rather be executed than spend her life in prison.

Defense attorneys told the judge they would call no witnesses after a key witness refused to take the stand because of death threats.

After Judge Sherry Stephens denied their mistrial request, Kirk Nurmi and defense lawyer Jennifer Willmott asked to withdraw. The judge promptly rejected that request, too.

Arias, a close friend from California and an ex-boyfriend had been expected to speak to jurors before the panel begins deliberating whether to sentence the 32-year-old woman to life in prison or execution for murdering her lover in 2008.

Justices to review prayer-limits case

WASHINGTON - The Supreme Court will consider the constitutional limits on prayers during legislative sessions, accepting an appeal from a New York town that starts most council meetings with a Christian invocation.

The justices on Monday said they will review a federal appeals court’s conclusion that the Rochester suburb of Greece was improperly affiliating itself with Christianity.

The New York-based 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said Greece’s selection process “virtually ensured a Christian viewpoint” at the vast majority of council meetings.

Under the informal invitation procedures then in place, every prayer-giver from 1999 to 2007 was a Christian clergy member, the three-judge panel said.

After two town residents complained, non-Christians delivered the invocation at four of the 12 board meetings in 2008.

Report: Fast and Furious leak retaliation

WASHINGTON - The U.S. attorney in Arizona violated Justice Department policy by providing Fox News with information apparently aimed at undercutting the credibility of a federal agent who helped reveal the botched arms-trafficking probe called Operation Fast and Furious, the Justice Department’s inspector general said Monday.

There was substantial evidence in the 2011 incident that then-U.S. Attorney Dennis Burke’s motive for disclosing a memo by federal agent John Dodson was retaliation, the inspector general’s report said. In testimony to a House committee just two weeks earlier, Dodson had raised serious concerns about Operation Fast and Furious.

In Dodson’s memo, he proposed a tactic similar to the one being used at the time in Operation Fast and Furious.

Dodson proposed acting in an undercover capacity to deliver firearms to a suspected firearms trafficker but taking no enforcement action upon delivering the firearms.

Dodson later told investigators that he and other agents of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives had proposed the transaction in hopes that it would shock their superiors into realizing what they were doing in Operation Fast and Furious. Instead, a superior approved Dodson’s proposal and Dodson sold six firearms to the suspect. Dodson later told investigators that he regretted delivering the firearms.

Group wants atheist books in parks, too

ATLANTA - A national atheist group said Monday that it will donate its literature for use in cabins and lodges in Georgia’s state parks after the governor’s recent decision to allow Bibles there.

David Silverman, president of the Cranford, N.J.-based American Atheists organization, said his group is just waiting for an answer from the state on what the best procedure is to donate several books, including one titled Why I Am An Atheist.

Asked if the state would allow it, Brian Robinson, a spokesman for Republican Gov. Nathan Deal, would only say that the governor’s office is working on regulations governing the distribution of materials with the Department of Natural Resources and the attorney general’s office.

Front Section, Pages 8 on 05/21/2013

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