The nation in brief

Wednesday, April 2, 2014

QUOTE OF THE DAY

“Is this year’s House Republican budget, with its even more extreme budget cuts, really just a bad April Fools’ Day joke?”

Rep. Steny Hoyer, D-Md., after Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., unveiled a $1.014 trillion budget plan that envisions revamping the tax code and social safety net Article, this page

Under probe cloud, D.C. mayor trails rival

WASHINGTON - The mayor of the nation’s capital was trailing his top challenger in initial returns from the city’s Democratic primary Tuesday, with many voters saying the city needed a fresh start amid a federal investigation of the mayor’s 2010 campaign.

With 38 percent of precincts reporting, D.C. Councilman Muriel Bowser had 44 percent of the vote to 34 percent for Mayor Vincent Gray. Bowser has argued that the mayor is distracted by the possibility of criminal charges against him.

Five people involved with Gray’s 2010 campaign have pleaded guilty to felonies. Three weeks ago, federal prosecutors said for the first time that Gray knew about an illegal, $668,000 slush fund that helped him get elected. The mayor has denied wrongdoing and has not been charged. Gray said he is hoping for high turnout in less affluent areas where he remains popular.

Utility charged in ’10 Bay Area explosion

SAN FRANCISCO - Pacific Gas and Electric Co. was charged Tuesday with federal felony counts involving safety violations linked to a deadly 2010 natural-gas pipeline explosion in the San Francisco Bay Area.

The indictment charges the utility with 12 felony violations of federal pipeline safety laws, which could carry a total possible fine of $6 million or more if the court decides it somehow benefited financially from the disaster.

Federal prosecutors allege that the utility knowingly relied on erroneous and incomplete information when assessing the safety of the pipeline that eventually ruptured, sparked a fireball and leveled 38 homes in San Bruno.

The indictment accuses the company of failing to act on threats in its pipeline system even after the problems were identified by its inspectors.

Pacific Gas and Electric Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Tony Earley said Tuesday that the company is holding itself accountable and is deeply sorry.

Let Indiana gays wed for now, court urged

Indiana’s ban on gay marriage should be blocked while a suit seeking to overturn the law is pending, four couples told a U.S. judge, continuing a national push for recognition of same-sex weddings.

The couples, two seeking to wed in Indiana and two who were married out of state, sued Indiana Gov. Mike Pence, a Republican, on March 7 to overturn the state’s Defense of Marriage Act, contending it is unconstitutional. On Monday, they asked U.S. District Judge Richard Young in New Albany, Ind., to issue orders halting enforcement of the measure.

The law, which limits marriage to a union between a man and a woman and says same-sex marriages that are lawful elsewhere are void in Indiana, “enables and enshrines” discrimination, according to the couples’ filing.

Indiana Attorney General Greg Zoeller, a Republican, said last month that he would defend the ban both at the trial level and in any ensuing appeals.

Bryan Corbin, a spokesman for Zoeller, declined Tuesday to comment on the bid for a court order, saying any response will come in court papers.

Plaintiffs Melissa Love and Erin Brock want permission to marry in Indiana, as do Michael Drury and Lane Stumler, according to their complaint. The other couples, Jo Ann Dale and Carol Uebelhoer, and Jennifer Redmond and Jana Kohorst, seek recognition of weddings performed in Massachusetts and New York, where same-sex marriage is legal.

Guardsman: Guilty in Ohio explosive case

COLUMBUS, Ohio - An Indiana Guardsman who pleaded guilty Tuesday to having homemade explosive devices in his vehicle in Ohio played the role of an enemy fighter when he helped train troops departing for war zones and wanted to make the job as real as possible, his attorney said.

Over time, Andrew Boguslawski started to add explosives to the training and gradually became reckless in his approach to the homemade weapons, his lawyer Steve Nolder said.

Boguslawski, who goes by his middle name, Scott, pleaded guilty to possessing unregistered explosives in his car when he was stopped in Ohio in January. He faces 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine at sentencing, which has not been set.

State police in Ohio stopped Boguslawski in January for doing 88 mph in a 70 mph zone on Interstate 70.

Boguslawski, 44, conducted the training at Muscatatuck Urban Training Center near Butlerville, Ind., Nolder said.

The Indiana National Guard, which operates the center, declined to comment on Boguslawski’s work there because it’s part of the criminal investigation. Boguslawski remains a member of the Indiana Guard, spokesman Lt. Col. Cathy VanBree said by email.

Front Section, Pages 4 on 04/02/2014