CHICAGO
54 public schools
targeted for closure
Chicago Public Schools officials said Thursday they plan to close 54 schools in an effort to address a $1 billion budget shortfall and improve a struggling educational system — a plan that drew the ire of parents and teachers. District CEO Barbara Byrd-Bennett and Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel say the closures are necessary because too many CPS buildings are half-empty. The nation’s third-largest district, CPS has about 403,000 students but has seats for more than 500,000, officials say. But opponents say the closures will disproportionately affect minority children and endanger students who may have to cross gang boundaries to attend school. The plan will affect about 30,000 students.
Influential commissioner
convicted of tax evasion
An influential Chicago Democrat was convicted Thursday after only two hours of jury deliberations on charges of tax evasion for not declaring as income campaign cash he gambled away on slot machines. The tough-talking, rhetorically gifted former Cook County commissioner William Beavers, 78 — who once boasted about the extent of his influence in and around Chicago by describing himself as a “hog with big nuts” — kept his eyes fixed on the clerk as the verdict was read but showed no emotion. Beavers lost $500,000 over three years at Indiana’s Horseshoe Casino, writing himself one $2,000 campaign check after another on daylong binges.
DENVER
Same-sex unions
signed into law
Civil unions for gay couples got the governor’s signature in Colorado on Thursday, punctuating a dramatic turnaround in a state where voters banned same-sex marriage in 2006 and restricted protections for gays two decades ago. Cheers erupted as Democratic Gov. John Hickenlooper signed the bill during a ceremony at the History Colorado Center near the state Capitol. Dozens of gay couples and others looked on, with many chanting “Equal! Equal!” The law takes effect May 1.
CONNECTICUT
Officials to release
new details on massacre
The chief state’s attorney has agreed to release additional information to the public about the state police investigation into the Newtown elementary school massacre, Gov. Dannel P. Malloy said Thursday. Malloy voiced concern that certain information about the Dec. 14 shooting rampage at Sandy Hook Elementary School was disclosed by a top state police commander at a recent law enforcement seminar in New Orleans. The seminar was designed for law enforcement professionals only, but sensitive information dealing with the tactical approaches used by first responders to the Sandy Hook shootings was discussed. The additional information about the investigation will be released by March 29.
WASHINGTON
Technicality overturns
man’s drug conviction
The Washington state Supreme Court on Thursday overturned the conviction of a man who was arrested on drug charges because the officer who saw the alleged crime was not the arresting officer. Under state law, unless a specific statutory exception applies, only an officer who is present during the offense may arrest a suspect for a misdemeanor or a gross misdemeanor. Exemptions include traffic infractions where an officer can ask another to arrest the driver.
CALIFORNIA
Suit aims to protect
bees from pesticides
Commercial beekeepers and environmental organizations filed a lawsuit Thursday against federal regulators for not banning the use of two pesticides they say harm honeybees. In the suit, filed by the Center for Food Safety in the U.S. District Court in San Francisco, the group asks the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to suspend the use of insecticides clothianidin and thiamethoxam — known as “neonicotinoids,” a class of chemicals that act on the central nervous system of insects.
KENTUCKY
Ohio attorney disbarred
for involvement in scam
An Ohio attorney known as the godfather of the modern class-action lawsuit was disbarred Thursday by the Kentucky Supreme Court, which said Stanley Chesley acted unethically in a $200 million settlement involving the makers of the diet drug fen-phen. The high court concluded that Chesley, who was based in Cincinnati, crossed the ethical line in settling a dispute over health effects stemming from use of the drug. Chesley rose to legal prominence more than 30 years ago when he won $50 million for victims of the Beverly Hills Supper Club fire, a May 1977 blaze that killed 165 and injured 116 in northern Kentucky.
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