QUOTE OF THE DAY “It’s been a long time since it’s done this, so people kind of weren’t expecting it.” Fire Chief Mike Knight of Pelham, Ala.,
after heavy rain hit and dozens of residents had to be rescued from flooded homes Article, 2A
Obama reveals grant-winning schools
WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama traveled to a high school in the Washington suburbs Monday to announce the winners of $107 million in grants intended to update curricula to better integrate work experiences and real-world learning opportunities.
“We want to invest in your future,” Obama told students at Bladensburg High School in Maryland, one of the winners.
Bladensburg was one of 24 recipients of the awards, which are intended to finance partnerships of local education agencies and employers. The White House said it hoped the program would enhance job-shadowing and mentoring opportunities, make it easier for students to enter high-demand industries like information technology, health care and other science and technology sectors, and expand credits available for students working toward postsecondary degree certificates.
Bladensburg is one of three high schools in Prince George’s County, Md., that will share $7 million. Also receiving $7 million each are school districts in New York City; Los Angeles; Denver; Indianapolis; and Clinton, S.C.
Drug-secrecy appeal lost, killer set to die
HOUSTON - The execution of a Texas death-row inmate was back on schedule Monday after a federal appeals court ruled that the state doesn’t have to reveal where it gets its lethal-injection drug.
The ruling from the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals means Ramiro Hernandez-Llanas, 44, is set for execution Wednesday for killing a rancher who had employed him.
Attorneys for Hernandez-Llanas and another inmate, Tommy Lynn Sells, had filed a lawsuit last week saying they needed the name of the drug supplier to verify the drug’s potency. They said they feared the prisoners could suffer unconstitutional pain and suffering if the drug weren’t tested.
The state argued it was protecting the company from threats of violence.
A lower court initially sided with the inmates, but the 5th Circuit reversed that ruling last week for Sells, who was executed Thursday after the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the appeals court decision.
Attorneys have decided not to appeal Monday’s ruling to the U.S. Supreme Court because the high court turned down the same request from Sells last week, according to Maurie Levin, among the lawyers who filed the drug-secrecy lawsuit.
Instead, his lawyers have turned to the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles.
House view: Crime by IRS official possible
WASHINGTON - The chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee said investigators have uncovered evidence that a former Internal Revenue Service official potentially committed crimes as part of the agency’s scrutiny of Tea Party groups.
Rep. Dave Camp, R-Mich., set a committee vote for Wednesday on whether to refer Lois Lerner, who used to lead the agency’s tax-exemption division, to the Justice Department “for possible criminal prosecution.”
Camp did not specify what laws Lerner may have broken.
Lerner’s lawyer, William Taylor III, has said she broke no laws.
Camp’s committee has been investigating the IRS for nearly a year. Unlike other House committees, Ways and Means has access to confidential taxpayer information as part of its investigation.
If the committee votes to refer Lerner to the Justice Department, the committee is expected to make the referral public.
Victim named, mudslide toll rises to 33
EVERETT, Wash. - The death toll from the landslide that hit the Washington town of Oso rose to 33 on Monday, according to the Snohomish County medical examiner’s office, which said all but three have been identified.
The latest name added to the list is Billy L. Spillers, 30, of Arlington. Like the others, he died of multiple blunt-force injuries in the March 22 slide that crushed the residential area along the North Fork of the Stillaguamish River about 55 miles northeast of Seattle.
His name had been on the list of missing.
The number of missing on Monday was 12, said Shari Ireton, spokesman for the Snohomish County sheriff’s office.
Front Section, Pages 4 on 04/08/2014