The nation in brief

QUOTE OF THE DAY “It’s a direct assault on our jobs and on public postal services.” Mark Dimondstein,

president of the American Postal Workers Union,

on the U.S. Postal Service opening retail counters staffed by Staples employees Article, this page School suspect’s lawyer disputes reports

PHILADELPHIA - A 17-year-old boy charged as an adult in the shooting of two students inside a school gym isn’t responsible for the crime, his attorney said.

Charges against Raisheem Rochwell were based on surveillance video and witness information from the shooting Friday afternoon at Delaware Valley Charter High School, police said. One bullet from a gun Rochwell was holding hit two students, wounding each in an arm, police said.

But Rochwell’s attorney, Amato Sanita, disputed that account.

“I’ve not seen that, I’m not aware of that, and from the information I have, I do not believe that is accurate,” Sanita said of the police version of events. He added that Rochwell “is not the person who will ultimately be responsible for this act.”

Although police have stopped short of calling the shooting accidental, Sanita suggested it was.

“Anything you’re hearing out there, this is nothing that involves anything intentional,” Sanita said. “We can make those comments right now, and that’s it.”

California wildfire mostly contained

GLENDORA, Calif. - Firefighters said Sunday that they were making steady progress in surrounding a wildfire near Los Angeles that destroyed several homes.

The Los Angeles County Fire Department said the blaze was 78 percent contained, with full containment expected Wednesday.

Meanwhile, hundreds of residents who fled the blaze in suburbs about 25 miles northeast of downtown Los Angeles returned home Saturday evening as red-flag warnings of extremely dangerous fire conditions expired. Officials cautioned that dry winter conditions remain a threat for the region.

Crews focused on securing fire lines around the roughly 3-square-mile blaze and looked ahead to rehabilitating the burn area to prevent erosion and possible mudslides, said U.S. Forest Service spokesman Robert Brady.

Obama: ‘Pot’ risk similar to alcohol

WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama said he doesn’t think marijuana is more dangerous than alcohol, “in terms of its impact on the individual consumer.”

“As has been well documented, I smoked ‘pot’ as a kid, and I view it as a bad habit and a vice, not very different from the cigarettes that I smoked as a young person up through a big chunk of my adult life. I don’t think it is more dangerous than alcohol,” the president said in an interview with The New Yorker magazine.

Smoking marijuana is “not something I encourage, and I’ve told my daughters I think it’s a bad idea, a waste of time, not very healthy,” Obama said.

Obama’s administration has given states permission to experiment with marijuana regulation, and laws passed in Colorado and Washington legalizing marijuana recently went into effect.

But Obama urged a cautious approach to changing marijuana laws, saying that people who think legalizing the drug will solve social problems are “probably overstating the case.”Arrests rise to 14 in California protest

FULLERTON, Calif. - Police have arrested a 14th person after a protest against the acquittal of officers in the beating death of a homeless man, authorities said Sunday.

The protest in Fullerton turned violent when a few of the 200 participants attacked a television news camera operator Saturday.

Initially, one person was arrested for assault, two for vandalism and 10 for refusing to follow police orders to disperse.

Fullerton police Sgt. Jeff Stuart said Sunday that a 14th protester was arrested later, after trying to steal from a nearby supermarket. More arrests are possible, he said.

The protesters objected to a verdict earlier this month that absolved two Fullerton police officers in the 2011 death of Kelly Thomas, whom police had kneed and jolted with a stun gun.

Front Section, Pages 3 on 01/20/2014

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