In the news

Tuesday, February 25, 2014

Eric Holder, the attorney general, told The New York Times that state attorneys general who believe that laws in their states banning same-sex marriage are discriminatory are not obligated to defend them.

Mel Reynolds, 62, a former Democratic congressman from Illinois, was deported to the U.S. after paying a fine for violating Zimbabwe’s immigration laws, his lawyers said.

Anders Behring Breivik, the Norwegian mass killer serving a 21-year sentence for killing 77 people in a bombing and shooting rampage in July 2011, failed to convince police of his claims that he is being held under illegal conditions, with authorities rejecting his complaint.

Ben Bernanke, 60, who stepped down last month after eight years as chairman of the Federal Reserve, said he is planning a memoir focusing on not just the 2008 financial crisis but also the resulting recession.

Angelina Jolie, the actress and United Nations special envoy, visited Lebanon to draw attention to the challenges facing thousands of Syrian refugee children and to highlight the displacement Syria’s three year conflict has created, officials said.

Mark Kessler, 42, the former police chief of Gilberton, Pa., who posted videos of himself online shooting borough-owned automatic weapons and cursing liberals and others, leading to his suspension and departure, said his nascent reality-TV show could feature a militia-style group he started last month.

President Barack Obama will propose a 1 percent pay raise next year for federal workers, the White House said, which would give civilian federal workers a 1 percent raise for a second year in a row after three years of pay freezes.

Catalina Clouser, an Arizona woman who left her 5-week-old baby in a car seat on the roof of her car when she drove off last year after leaving the home of friends after she had smoked marijuana, with the infant later found in the middle of an intersection in good condition, pleaded guilty to child abuse and misdemeanor DUI and will be sentenced March 26.

Milton Wolf, a Kansas radiologist trying to oust three-term U.S. Sen. Pat Roberts in the Republican primary, apologized for posting graphic images of gunshot victims on his Facebook page.

Front Section, Pages 1 on 02/25/2014