White House: Obama to nominate San Antonio Mayor Julian Castro to be housing secretary
White House: Obama to nominate San Antonio Mayor Julian Castro to be housing secretary
CHICAGO — President Barack Obama will nominate San Antonio Mayor Julian Castro to become housing secretary and will tap Shaun Donovan, his current housing chief, to run the budget office, a White House official said Thursday.
Obama was expected to announce his latest Cabinet shuffle at the White House on Friday after returning from an overnight trip to Chicago. He was to be joined by Castro, a 39-year-old Democratic up-and-comer, and Donovan, 48, who has led the Department of Housing and Urban Development since the start of Obama’s presidency in 2009. In keeping with White House practice, the official who disclosed the appointments would only speak on condition of anonymity ahead of a pending personnel announcement.
Tenn. governor signs bill to allow electric chair if injection drugs unavailable
NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Tennessee has decided how it will respond to a nationwide scarcity of lethal injection drugs for death-row inmates: with the electric chair.
Republican Gov. Bill Haslam signed a bill into law Thursday allowing the state to electrocute death row inmates in the event prisons are unable to obtain the drugs, which have become more and more scarce following a European-led boycott of drug sales for executions.
Tennessee lawmakers overwhelmingly passed the electric chair legislation in April, with the Senate voting 23-3 and the House 68-13 in favor of the bill.
Richard Dieter, the executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center, said Tennessee is the first state to enact a law to reintroduce the electric chair without giving prisoners an option.
UN approves sanctions against al-Qaida-linked terrorist group Boko Haram
UNITED NATIONS — The U.N. Security Council officially declared Boko Haram a terrorist group linked to al-Qaida on Thursday and imposed sanctions against the Islamist extremists who have carried out a wave of deadly attacks and the recent abduction of nearly 300 schoolgirls in Nigeria.
U.S. Ambassador Samantha Power welcomed the council’s action, calling it “an important step in support of the government of Nigeria’s efforts to defeat Boko Haram and hold its murderous leadership accountable for atrocities.”
Nigeria, which is serving a two-year term on the council, asked the Security Council committee monitoring sanctions against al-Qaida to add Boko Haram to the list of al-Qaida-linked organizations subject to an arms embargo and asset freeze.
Legal battle over gay marriage spreads to 30 states across US
SIOUX FALLS, S.D. — Federal lawsuits filed this week in Montana and South Dakota leave just one state — North Dakota — with a gay marriage ban that’s not facing some form of legal challenge.
State marriage bans have been falling around the country since the U.S. Supreme Court last year struck down part of the federal Defense of Marriage Act. Now, in 30 states, judges are being asked whether gays should have the right to marry.
“Even though it’s happening all around us in other states, this is us, this is real,” Nancy Rosenbrahn of Rapid City, S.D., told The Associated Press Thursday.
In 19 states and the District of Columbia, gay couples can already wed, with Oregon and Pennsylvania becoming the latest to join the list this week when federal judges struck down their bans and officials decided not to appeal.
By wire sources