QUOTE OF THE DAY

“I didn’t think the South got this cold.”

Marty Williams, a homeless man originally from Chicago,

who took shelter Tuesday at a church in Atlanta, where it hit a record low of 6 degrees Article, 1A

Jails probed, California sheriff to retire

MONTEREY PARK, Calif. - Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca announced his retirement Tuesday amid federal investigations of purported abuses in his jails and discrimination against minority groups in one of the communities his deputies patrol.

Baca said he would step down at the end of the month and wouldn’t seek re-election because he was concerned about the “negative perception” the coming campaign would have on his department.

“I didn’t want to have to enter a campaign that would be full of negative, contentious politicking,” said Baca, 71, in a statement outside sheriff’s headquarters. He has spent 48 years in the sheriff’s office since becoming a deputy. “I don’t see myself as the future; I see myself as part of the past.”

Last month, 18 current and former sheriff’s deputies were indicted, accused of beating inmates and jail visitors, falsifying reports and trying to obstruct an FBI probe of the nation’s largest jail system.

2 states to Obama: Make Sebelius show

COLUMBIA, S.C. - The attorneys general of South Carolina and Florida have asked the White House to arrange a meeting with Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius over prosecutors’ concerns about the healthcare overhaul.

In a letter provided Tuesday to The Associated Press, Alan Wilson of South Carolina and Pam Bondi of Florida asked President Barack Obama to direct Sebelius to meet with them, saying requests made directly to the secretary have gone unanswered.

“Due to the lack of response to the multitude of concerns shared with your Administration by numerous states over the last several months, we are requesting you to direct Secretary Sebelius to meet with the concerned attorneys general to address those issues,” the two Republican prosecutors wrote.

According to Wilson’s office, Tuesday’s letter marks the first time the attorneys general have reached out directly to the president. Neither the White House nor Sebelius’ office immediately responded Tuesday to requests for comment.

Wilson and Bondi are among 13 attorneys general who have previously written to Sebelius questioning whether there will be enough protection of consumer data in Obama’s signature health law.

Students back for 1st day since shooting

CENTENNIAL, Colo. - Arapahoe High School students in Colorado returned to class Tuesday for the first time since a fatal Dec. 13 shooting on campus, greeted by increased security and signs on each of their lockers telling them they are loved and valued.

Students hugged one another, laughed and gathered to talk. Some students discussed the ramped-up security inside the school. Others talked about whether they would take final exams made optional by administrators.

“It’s weird. I’m not used to all the cops,” Ryan Lamb, a senior at Arapahoe High, told The Denver Post. “There are five or six cops in there patrolling the halls. It makes sense, I guess.”

Students have not attended classes since senior Karl Pierson entered through a door that was propped open and fatally shot student Claire Davis before killing himself.

Investigators believe his intended target was a speech coach who had disciplined him.

Diplomat’s lawyers seek indictment delay

NEW YORK - U.S. prosecutors and lawyers for a diplomat whose arrest triggered an outcry in India are at odds over a possible plea deal.

A letter filed Tuesday by attorneys for Devyani Khobragade accused federal prosecutors in Manhattan of trying to pressure her into pleading guilty by next week. They renewed a request for an extension of the Monday deadline for an indictment “to eliminate pressure on the situation and permit efforts which are ongoing [to] resolve this matter.”

The letter came in response to a filing Monday by prosecutors saying they had “participated in hours of discussions in the hope of negotiating a plea that could be entered in court before Jan. 13.” The filing said there had been no response to the government’s latest offer.

Khobragade, 39, India’s deputy consul general in New York, has pleaded innocent to fraud charges alleging she claimed to pay her Indian maid $4,500 per month but actually gave her far less than the U.S. minimum wage.

Front Section, Pages 4 on 01/08/2014