In the Nation
Vote delays N.H. gay-marriage bill
CONCORD, N.H. - Same-sex marriage is on hold in New Hampshire.Gov. John Lynch has demanded changes before he will sign legislation that would make the state the sixth to allow gay and lesbian couples to marry. But yesterday, those changes failed by two votes in the state House.
The House voted instead to further negotiate with the Senate, which did approve the changes yesterday.
Lynch, a Democrat, said last week that he wanted language in the measure to better protect churches and their employees against lawsuits if their beliefs preclude them from conducting marriages of gay couples. - AP
Kagan: Don't revive leak lawsuit
WASHINGTON - The Obama administration urged the U.S. Supreme Court yesterday not to revive a lawsuit accusing former Vice President Dick Cheney and other officials in George W. Bush's White House of illegally disclosing a CIA agent's identity.Solicitor General Elena Kagan told the justices in a legal filing that the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit was right last summer to dismiss the suit by former agent Valerie Plame Wilson. Her identity was disclosed in a syndicated column in 2003, days after her husband, former Ambassador Joseph Wilson, publicly accused the Bush administration of twisting intelligence to help justify its invasion of Iraq.
The lawsuit also names former Bush political adviser Karl Rove and former Cheney chief of staff I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby. - Bloomberg News
Storms may delay shuttle landing
HOUSTON - Astronauts started conserving power on the shuttle Atlantis because bad weather in Florida may keep them in orbit longer than planned.Mission Control told the crew yesterday that the shuttle's heat shield was safe for landing, but that stormy weather could force tomorrow's landing at Cape Canaveral to be rescheduled.
If tomorrow's landing attempts are scrubbed, NASA can try again in Florida on Saturday; if that doesn't work, they have several options for a Sunday landing.
Astronauts had yesterday off after releasing the 19-year-old Hubble Space Telescope a day earlier. During a news conference from space, they said they were looking forward to coming home after the 11-day mission. Later yesterday, President Obama called Atlantis to congratulate the astronauts on their Hubble repair work. - AP
Elsewhere:
Five Birmingham, Ala., police officers were fired yesterday for beating an unconscious suspect ejected from a car after a chase, a January 2008 attack captured on a patrol car videotape that didn't surface publicly for a year. Police Chief A.C. Roper said the veteran officers, who were not identified, had acted in a "shameful" manner.
California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Attorney General Jerry Brown petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court yesterday to reinstate a California law banning the sale or rental of violent video games to minors. A federal appeals court in February struck down the law as a free-speech violation.
