In the Nation

CALIFORNIA

Ex-wife loses embryo ruling

A woman must abide by an agreement with her ex-husband that she would destroy five frozen embryos if the couple divorced, despite her contention that they now represent her last chance to have children, a California judge ruled Wednesday.

San Francisco Judge Anne-Christine Massullo said in a tentative decision that the agreement trumps the woman's desire to keep the embryos. Mimi Lee had argued that cancer made it risky for her to get pregnant.

Ex-husband Stephen Findley wanted to discard the embryos and worried in part that Lee would use any children to take financial advantage of him.

A Pennsylvania court in 2012 awarded frozen embryos to a woman who also said they may be her only way to have a child because of cancer. - AP
NEW YORK

$2.6B for city's homeless

New York Mayor Bill de Blasio on Wednesday announced a $2.6 billion housing investment to help New York City's homeless, declaring the city won't wait for state help. Over the next 15 years, the city will pay for creation of 15,000 "supportive housing" units. There are nearly 58,000 people in shelters and a few thousand more estimated to be on the streets. - AP

WASHINGTON

Relief for research chimps

The National Institutes of Health is sending its last research chimps into retirement, as soon as a federal sanctuary has room. The government already had said use of chimps as test subjects was coming to an end. In 2013, the NIH said it would retire most of the several hundred chimps still living at research labs. But it set aside 50 on standby in case they were needed for a public-health emergency or some other extreme situation. - AP