QUOTE OF THE DAY

“In Oklahoma’s haste to conduct a science experiment on two men behind a veil of secrecy, our state has disgraced itself before the nation and world.”

Ryan Kiesel of the American Civil Liberties Union, after the botched lethal injection of one inmate led the state’s governor to postpone a second execution and call for an investigation Article, 1A

Ohio suit targets gay-marriage ban

CINCINNATI - Civil-rights attorneys filed a lawsuit Wednesday asking a judge to strike down Ohio’s gay-marriage ban as unconstitutional and allow same-sex couples to wed in the state, echoing arguments that have led judges to throw out gay-marriage bans in five other states.

The lawsuit was filed in federal court in Cincinnati on behalf of six gay Ohio couples who say they are in love and want to get married.

Like other successful challenges to statewide marriage bans across the country, the attorneys who filed the lawsuit are arguing that Ohio’s ban, passed by voters in 2004, violates the equal-protection and due-process clauses of the U.S. Constitution.

Lisa Peterson Hackley, a spokesman for Attorney General Mike DeWine, said in a statement that the office “is prepared to defend the state’s constitution and statutes regarding marriage.”

Virginia derailment spills oil into river

LYNCHBURG, Va. - Several CSX tanker cars carrying crude oil derailed in downtown and caught fire along the James River in Lynchburg, leading to the evacuation of nearby buildings, but no injuries, city officials said.

The city, on its website and Twitter account, posted that firefighters on the scene made the decision to let the fire burn out and urged motorists and pedestrians to avoid the area. It tweeted that the tanker cars were carrying crude oil and that three or four were breached. The city said 13 or 14 tanker cars were involved in the derailment.

The city said there was no effect on the drinking water for its 77,000 residents from spillage into the James River. However, city officials for Richmond said its public utilities department is drawing from an old canal system instead of the James River as a precaution.

The National Transportation Safety Board said it is sending investigators to the scene.

Military’s benefits intact after vote

WASHINGTON - An Army corporal would get a full housing allowance to rent an off-base apartment while a military family will see little change in grocery costs at the commissary as an election-year Congress rebuffed Pentagon efforts to trim military benefits.

The House Armed Services personnel subcommittee voted unanimously Wednesday to leave intact the current military healthcare system, the housing allowance and much of the Pentagon’s $1.4 billion in direct subsidies to the commissaries.

The panel’s action marked the first step in the defense budget process on Capitol Hill, with the full Armed Services Committee expected to approve the bill next week.

Facing diminished budgets, three defense secretaries and senior officers have maintained that the cost of personnel benefits have become unsustainable and threaten the Pentagon’s ability to prepare the force for warfare.

Front Section, Pages 3 on 05/01/2014