The nation in brief

QUOTE OF THE DAY

“It was like a movie - a horrible, horrible movie.”

Monique Barnes, an inmate at the jail in Escambia County, Fla., who said she was knocked off her bunk by a gas explosion that killed two inmates and hurt more than 180 people Article 5A

Suit seeks to unlock secret court orders

WASHINGTON - The Obama administration has failed to turn over documents under public-records requests detailing still-secret court orders about the scope and legality of National Security Agency surveillance, according to a lawsuit filed Thursday in federal court.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation, a civil-liberties group, said the Justice Department failed under its legally prescribed deadline to hand over documents in four requests since last year under the U.S. Freedom of Information Act. The requests sought, among other documents, secret opinions from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court exploring whether the National Security Agency violated the law in collecting Americans’ Internet communications.

A Justice Department spokesman said Thursday that the agency was “committed to a transparent and open government, and makes every attempt to comply with Freedom of Information requests in a timely and efficient manner while ensuring that classified or sensitive information is not improperly released.”

House vote blocks members’ pay raise

WASHINGTON - House lawmakers voted for the sixth year in a row on Thursday to deny themselves the cost-of living pay increase that they would otherwise automatically receive next January.

The move would freeze congressional salaries at $174,000 a year and is attached to legislation to fund Congress’ budget, which passed the House by a 402-14 vote.

Lawmakers haven’t received a pay raise since January 2009.

All four members of Arkansas’ House delegation - all Republicans - voted to block the increase.

Bipartisan changes enacted in 1989 gave lawmakers a big pay increase in exchange for dropping the much-criticized practice of accepting money from outside interest groups for speeches.

That legislation also awarded lawmakers annual cost-of-living pay increases, which also meant that lawmakers no longer had to cast votes to raise their pay.

638 arrested as street gangs are targeted

WASHINGTON - More than 600 suspected gang members have been arrested in the Homeland Security Department’s largest crackdown on street gangs, Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials said Thursday.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, along with local authorities in 179 cities, arrested 638 suspected gang members over a month long period in March and April.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement said 78 suspected gang members were arrested on federal charges and 447 others currently face only state charges. The enforcement agency arrested 113 others on administrative immigration charges.

More than 400 of those arrested had violent criminal histories, including seven people wanted on murder charges. Immigration and Customs Enforcement did not identify all those arrested or the charges they face.

Arrests were made across the country, including in Dallas, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Maryland and New Mexico.

Front Section, Pages 3 on 05/02/2014

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