The nation in brief

QUOTE OF THE DAY “We have to get this right 110 percent of the

time; the bad guys only have to get lucky once.” Kieran Ramsey, assistant special agent in charge of the FBI’s Boston office, on security preparations for the forthcoming Boston Marathon on April 21 Article, this page

Methodist bishop drops gay-union case

NEW YORK - A bishop in the United Methodist Church on Monday dropped the case against a retired minister accused of breaking church law by officiating his son’s same-sex wedding - a decision that came just months after another minister was defrocked for the same reason.

The Rev. Thomas Ogletree, 80, a former dean of the Yale Divinity School, said he’s grateful his church had decided not to put him on trial for what he called “an act of pastoral faithfulness and fatherly love.”

Bishop Martin McLee, who made the announcement at a news conference, called on church officials to stop prosecuting other pastors for marrying same-sex couples. McLee, who leads the church’s New York district, said he would cease trials over the issue in his area and would organize a broad discussion among Methodists over gay relationships.

In December, the Rev. Frank Schaefer, a Methodist minister from Pennsylvania, was defrocked after he officiated at his son’s same-sex wedding.

Force ID of Holmes source, justices asked

DENVER - Lawyers for the man charged with killing 12 people in a Colorado movie theater asked the U.S. Supreme Court to require a Fox News reporter to identify her sources for a story about the defendant.

The attorneys said Monday they asked the justices to review a New York state court ruling that Colorado cannot force New York-based reporter Jana Winter to reveal who told her that James Holmes sent his psychiatrist a notebook containing violent images before the July 2012 attack.

Holmes’ lawyers say whoever spoke to Winter violated a gag order.They also say that officers might have lied when they denied under oath being Winter’s sources, undermining their credibility as potential trial witnesses.

New York state’s top court ruled in December that Winter did not have to testify in Colorado because she is protected by her home state’s shield law, which says reporters do not have to identify confidential sources.

DC mayor accused of ‘shadow campaign’

WASHINGTON - District of Columbia Mayor Vincent Gray knew about an off-the-books “shadow campaign” to support his 2010 bid for the office and personally requested the funds from an influential businessman, federal prosecutors said Monday.

Gray, who’s seeking a second term and faces seven challengers in the district’s April 1 Democratic primary, dismissed the allegations as false and said he thought all the fundraising for his campaign was legitimate.

The allegations were revealed in court documents detailing the activities of Jeffrey Thompson, the multimillionaire former owner of a well-connected accounting firm who pleaded guilty Monday to two conspiracy charges.

According to the documents, Gray met Thompson for dinner at the apartment of another admitted conspirator in August 2010 and presented Thompson with a one-page budget of $425,000 needed for get-out-the-vote efforts. Thompson agreed to pay that amount by funneling it through another company, the documents said.

Gray has not been charged with a crime, and on Monday he reiterated his longstanding denial of any wrongdoing.

High court won’t hear Episcopal rift case

FALLS CHURCH, Va. - The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday declined to intervene in a dispute between the Episcopal Church and a conservative northern Virginia congregation that left the denomination in a rift over homosexuality and other issues, ending a seven-year legal battle over a historic church.

The justices rejected an appeal from The Falls Church Anglican, one of seven Virginia congregations that broke away from the Episcopal Church in 2006 and has now aligned itself with the more conservative Anglican Church of North America.

The breakaway congregation claimed a right to keep the church building and surrounding property, and in 2008 a Fairfax County judge sided with it. But the Virginia Supreme Court overturned that ruling and sent the case back for reconsideration. In 2011, the judge who first sided with the conservative congregation sided with the Episcopal Church. Monday’s decision by the Supreme Court leaves that ruling intact.

Front Section, Pages 4 on 03/11/2014

Upcoming Events