The nation in brief

Wednesday, January 15, 2014

QUOTE OF THE DAY

“The last week has certainly tested this administration. Mistakes were clearly made. And as a result, we let down the people we are entrusted to serve. I know our citizens deserve better.”

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, apologizing again during his State of the State address for a political scandal involving some of his aides and appointees Article, this page

With shotgun, N.M. boy blasts 2 at school

ROSWELL, N.M. - A 12-year-old New Mexico boy drew a shotgun from a band-instrument case and shot and wounded two classmates at his middle school Tuesday morning before a teacher talked him into dropping the weapon and he was taken into custody, officials and witnesses said.

Gov. Susana Martinez said a boy was critically injured and a girl was in serious condition after the shooting at Berrendo Middle School in Roswell.

The students were in the gym, where she said they typically hang out before classes start during cold and inclement weather. The 12-year-old pulled a shotgun and opened fire there about 8 a.m.

Officials at University Medical Center in Lubbock, Texas, said an 11-year-old boy was flown there in critical condition and a 13-year-old girl was en route in serious condition. Information from nurses treating the boy indicates he was the shooter’s target, hospital spokesman Eric Finley said.

Border drones get calls to do police duty

WASHINGTON - Federal, state and local law-enforcement agencies are increasingly borrowing border-patrol drones for domestic surveillance operations, newly released records show.

Customs and Border Protection, which has the largest U.S. drone fleet of its kind outside of the Defense Department, flew nearly 700 such surveillance missions on behalf of other agencies from 2010 to 2012, according to flight logs released recently in response to a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit filed by the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a civil-liberties group.

The records show that the border-patrol drones are being commissioned by other agencies more often than was previously known. Most of the missions are performed for the Coast Guard, the Drug Enforcement Administration and immigration authorities. But they also aid in disaster relief and the search for marijuana crops, methamphetamine labs and missing people.

Civil libertarians have argued that drones could lead to persistent visual surveillance of Americans on private property. Government lawyers have argued, however, that there is no meaningful legal distinction between the use of unmanned and piloted aircraft for surveillance.

The Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee is scheduled to hold a hearing on the subject today.

Water back on for 39% near W.Va. spill

CHARLESTON, W.Va. - Downtown businesses and restaurants reopened Tuesday after last week’s chemical spill, but people in and outside the city limits waited yet another day for officials to tell them their tap water was safe.

By Tuesday night, about 39 percent of West Virginia American Water’s customers had been allowed to use their water again after a chemical spilled into the Elk River on Thursday. The emergency closed schools, restaurants and businesses because they, along with about 300,000 residents, were told not to drink, shower or even wash clothes with the contaminated water.

More than 200 restaurants had reopened where the ban was lifted, said Amy Shuler Goodwin, a spokesman for Gov.

Earl Ray Tomblin. All hospitals but one had running water by Tuesday, Tomblin said.

Water distribution stations continued to hand out water and the water company said it could be days before the entire system is back.

Chicago granted firearms-ban extension

CHICAGO - Chicago on Tuesday won a six-month delay of a federal court ruling that invalidated the city’s ban on gun sales, giving it time to draft a new law.

U.S. District Judge Edmond Chang in Chicago granted the city’s request for an extension at a court hearing.

In a Jan. 6 ruling, Chang struck down the ordinance, which was adopted in 2010 after the U.S. Supreme Court invalidated a more broad-based city law banning possession of firearms. He said the new law was also unconstitutional because while it allowed Chicagoans to have guns, it didn’t allow their purchase.

“Our goal is to create the strictest regulations that protect our residents and also comply with the court order without undermining the progress we have made in reducing violent crime throughout our city,” Mayor Rahm Emanuel said in a statement after the court granted the delay.

Front Section, Pages 4 on 01/15/2014