The nation in brief

QUOTE OF THE DAY

“Politics is not rocket science. … It’s either a focus on people or a focus on keeping yourself in power by keeping the people so torn up and upset that they can’t think anymore.”

Former President Bill Clinton, who said political attack ads could discourage practical voters and result in a more ideologically rigid electorate Article, this page

Kin release video of father’s fatal arrest

OKLAHOMA CITY - The family of a man who died after a struggle with police outside an Oklahoma movie theater released a cellphone video Tuesday that shows five officers restraining the man face down on the ground, with one officer holding his head down.

Minutes later, Nair Rodriguez, who shot the nearly six-minute video of her husband, Luis Rodriguez, outside a Moore theater earlier this month, starts to scream as he’s placed on a stretcher.

“Papa! Is he OK? He doesn’t move. He doesn’t move!

You kill him! You kill him! You killed my husband! Please somebody tell me that he’s alive!” she screams. A police officer assures Nair Rodriguez that her husband is alive and that medical personnel will take care of him.

Early on Feb. 15, police responded to a report of a domestic disturbance and tried to question Luis Rodriguez, Moore Police Chief Jerry Stillings said at a news conference last week. Rodriguez was pepper-sprayed before officers used two pairs of handcuffs to restrain him as he was face down on the ground, Stillings said.

Boehner, Obama meet, talk immigration

WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama and House Speaker John Boehner met at the White House on Tuesday as lawmakers weigh the administration’s call to revamp U.S. immigration law.

Boehner, an Ohio Republican, deflected most questions on the meeting as he walked back into the Capitol.

White House spokesman Jay Carney said the two met for about an hour and discussed issues including immigration, trade promotion authority and California drought relief.

A Boehner aide, speaking on condition of anonymity, said other matters they discussed included manufacturing, flood insurance, the president’s health-care law, Afghanistan, the appropriations process, wildfire suppression and the highway bill.

Boehner and Obama agreed it is important to work together on issues where they find common ground, the Boehner aide said.

The meeting took place a week before Obama is set to send his budget proposal for fiscal 2015 to Congress.

In return, U.S. boots 3 Venezuelan envoys

WASHINGTON - The United States has expelled three Venezuelan diplomats in response to similar action against three U.S. consular officials in Caracas.

Venezuelan envoys First Secretary Ignacio Luis Cajal Avalos, First Secretary Victor Manuel Pisani Azpurua and Second Secretary Marcos Jose Garcia Figueredo were given 48 hours to leave the U.S., State Department spokesman Jen Psaki said Tuesday.

Venezuela President Nicolas Maduro expelled three U.S. diplomats from Caracas on Feb. 17, saying they were supporting opposition plots to overthrow him.

Psaki cited U.S. concerns about Venezuela’s record on human rights and support for democracy but said Washington remains open to a diplomatic relationship with Maduro. But she said that for the U.S. to move forward with that process, Venezuela “needs to show seriousness.”

This month, Venezuelan opponents of Maduro have been staging countrywide protests that the government says have left at least 15 people dead and wounded about 150.

Airline fine over post-crash failure a first

LOS ANGELES - In the first penalty of its kind, federal transportation officials on Tuesday docked Asiana Airlines $500,000 for failing to promptly contact passengers’ families after a deadly crash last year at San Francisco International airport.

The U.S. Department of Transportation said it took the South Korean airline five days to contact the families of all 291 passengers. In addition, a required crash hotline was initially routed to an automated reservations line.

Never before has the department concluded that an airline broke U.S. laws requiring prompt and generous assistance to the loved ones of crash victims.

Three people died and dozens were injured on July 6 when Asiana Flight 214 clipped a seawall while landing.

Front Section, Pages 4 on 02/26/2014

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