NATION/WORLD
Thursday, March 5, 2015
Defense admits Tsarnaev
was the Boston bomber
By DENISE LAVOIE
AP Legal Affairs Writer
BOSTON — The ques-
tion, for all practical purpos-
es, is no longer whether Dz-
hokhar Tsarnaev took part in
the Boston Marathon bomb-
ing. It’s whether he deserves
to die for it.
In a blunt opening state-
ment at the nation’s biggest
terrorism trial in nearly 20
years, Tsarnaev’s own law-
\HUÀDWO\WROGDMXU\WKDWWKH
21-year-old former college
student committed the crime.
“It WAS him,” said de-
fense attorney Judy Clarke,
one of the nation’s foremost
death-penalty specialists.
But in a strategy aimed at
saving Tsarnaev from a death
sentence, she argued that he
had fallen under the malev-
ROHQW LQÀXHQFH RI KLV QRZ
dead older brother, Tamerlan.
“The evidence will not
establish and we will not ar-
gue that Tamerlan put a gun
to Dzhokhar’s head or that
he forced him to join in the
plan,” Clarke said, “but you
will hear evidence about the
NLQG RI LQÀXHQFH WKDW WKLV
older brother had.”
Three people were killed
and more than 260 hurt when
two shrapnel-packed pres-
sure-cooker bombs exploded
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15, 2013. Tsarnaev, then 19,
was accused of carrying out
the attacks with 26-year-old
Tamerlan, who was killed in
a shootout and getaway at-
tempt days later.
Authorities contend the
brothers — ethnic Chech-
ens who arrived from Russia
more than a decade ago —
were driven by anger over
U.S. wars in Muslim lands.
Federal prosecutors used
their opening statements,
along with heartbreaking tes-
timony and grisly video, to
sketch a picture of torn-off
limbs, ghastly screams, pools
of blood, and the smell of
Page 7A
BRIEFLY
Can the Affordable Care Act survive
new challenge over tax subsidies?
WASHINGTON (AP) — Sharply divided along
familiar lines, the Supreme Court took up a politically
charged new challenge to President Barack Obama’s health
overhaul Wednesday in a dispute over the tax subsidies that
make insurance affordable for millions of Americans.
The outcome in what Justice Elena Kagan called “this
never-ending saga” of Republican-led efforts to kill the
Affordable Care Act appears to hinge on the votes of
Chief Justice John Roberts, whose vote saved the law
three years ago, and Justice Anthony Kennedy.
Roberts said almost nothing in Wednesday’s 85
minutes of lively back-and-forth, and Kennedy, who
voted to strike down the health law in 2012, asked
questions of both sides that made it hard to tell where he
might come out this time.
Otherwise, the same liberal-conservative divide that
characterized the earlier case was evident in the packed
courtroom with the same lawyers facing off as in 2012.
Millions of people could be affected by the court’s
decision. The justices are trying to determine whether
the law makes people in all 50 states eligible for federal
tax subsidies to cut the cost of insurance premiums.
Opponents say that only residents of states that set up
their own insurance markets can get federal subsidies to
help pay the premiums.
No federal charges in Ferguson
shooting, but police force criticized
AP photo by Michael Dwyer
Boston Marathon bombing survivor Marc Fucarile, center, and his wife Jennifer, left,
walk past protester Jose Briceno, right, as they leave federal court Wednesday in
Boston.
sulfur and burned hair in the
streets of Boston. They paint-
ed Tsarnaev as a cold-blood-
ed killer.
Tsarnaev planted a bomb
designed to “tear people
apart and create a bloody
spectacle,” then hung out
with his college buddies as
if he didn’t have a care in the
world, prosecutor William
Weinreb said.
“He believed that he was a
soldier in a holy war against
Americans,” Weinreb said.
“He also believed that by
winning that victory, he had
taken a step toward reaching
paradise.”
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for the prosecution were two
women who lost legs in the
attack, including Rebekah
Gregory, who walked slowly
WR WKH VWDQG RQ DQ DUWL¿FLDO
limb.
“I remember being thrown
back, hoisted into the air,”
said Gregory, who had gone
to watch the marathon with
her 5-year-old son, Noah.
³0\¿UVWLQVWLQFWDVDPRWK-
er was, where in the world
was my baby, where was my
son?”
She said she looked down
at her leg: “My bones were
literally laying next to me
on the sidewalk and blood
was everywhere.” She saw
other peoples’ body parts all
around her, and “at that point,
I thought that was the day I
would die.”
“I could hear Noah, I
don’t know how, but I could
hear my little boy. He was
saying, ‘Mommy, Mommy,
Mommy,’ over and over
again,” she recalled. “I said a
prayer. I said, ‘God, if this is
it, take me, but let me know
that Noah is OK.”’
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picked up her son and put
him down beside her. Break-
ing down in tears, she testi-
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boy, she saw a woman dead
on the pavement.
A shaggy-haired, goateed
Tsarnaev slouched in his seat
and showed little reaction
as the case unfolded. Apart
from a question or two, the
defense did not cross-exam-
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witnesses.
About two dozen victims
who came to watch the case
took up one entire side of the
courtroom, listening somber-
ly to details of the carnage.
Several hung their heads and
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Prosecutors also showed
the jury a gruesome video
of people lying in pools of
blood. The footage was punc-
tuated by screams, moans
and the crying of a boy. The
ground was strewn with ball
bearings and chunks of met-
al, and smoke wafted over
the victims.
Members of the jury
watched somberly. Several
grimaced, especially at the
sight of a gaping hole in a
woman’s leg.
Emails subpoenaed in Benghazi probe
the American people deserve
all of the facts.”
A lawmaker on the com-
WASHINGTON — A
mittee, Rep. Martha Roby,
congressional committee in-
R-Ala., described Clinton’s
vestigating the terror attacks
email practices as “a careful-
on a U.S. mission in Libya
ly calculated system to avoid
is expected to subpoena the
using public, government-ar-
emails of Hillary Rodham
chived email.”
Clinton, who used a private
The questions about Clin-
DFFRXQW H[FOXVLYHO\ IRU RI¿-
ton’s email left the Obama
cial business when she was
administration in an awk-
secretary of state — and used
ward position. At one point,
a computer email server now
the State Department direct-
traced back to her family’s
ed reporters to contact Clin-
New York home.
ton, who has not publicly
The
Republican-led
AP Photo/Alex Brandon, File
House Select Committee on In this Sept. 12, 2012 file photo, then-Secretary of State commented about her emails.
Benghazi planned the sub- Hillary Rodham Clinton speaks at the State Depart- The White House said it was
her responsibility to make
poenas to demand addition- ment in Washington.
VXUH DQ\ HPDLOV DERXW RI¿-
al material from Clinton,
congressional aides told The have given Clinton — who is surrendering everything re- cial business weren’t deleted
Associated Press. The aides expected to run for president quired that was in her control. from her private server.
Congress said it learned
Meanwhile, the AP said it
spoke on condition of ano- in the 2016 campaign — sig-
nymity because they were QL¿FDQWFRQWURORYHUOLPLWLQJ last summer about Clin- was considering legal action
not authorized to publicly access to her message ar- ton’s use of a private email under the Freedom of Infor-
DFFRXQW WR FRQGXFW RI¿FLDO mation Act against the State
discuss the committee’s ac- chives.
The practice also would State Department business Department for failing to
tions.
The development on Cap- complicate the State Depart- during its investigation of the turn over some emails cov-
ering Clinton’s tenure as the
itol Hill came the same day ment’s legal responsibilities Benghazi attacks.
“It doesn’t matter if the nation’s top diplomat after
AP reported the existence of LQ ¿QGLQJ DQG WXUQLQJ RYHU
a personal email server traced RI¿FLDOHPDLOVLQUHVSRQVHWR server was in Foggy Bottom, waiting more than one year.
back to the Chappaqua, New any investigations, lawsuits Chappaqua, or Bora Bora,” The department has never
York, home of Clinton. The or public records requests. House Speaker John Boeh- suggested that it doesn’t pos-
unusual practice of a Cab- The department would be ner said. “The Benghazi Se- sess all Clinton’s emails.
LQHWOHYHO RI¿FLDO UXQQLQJ in the position of accepting lect Committee needs to see
her own email server would Clinton’s assurances she was all of these emails, because
Associated Press
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against same-sex marriage
BIRMINGHAM,
Ala.
(AP) — Alabama’s stand
against same-sex marriage
regained ground Wednesday
after the state’s highest court
ruled that its ban remains
legal, despite federal court
pressure to begin issuing li-
censes to gays and lesbians.
But advocates said they’re
not giving up either — and
that the justices in Montgom-
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history’s losing side.
The Alabama Supreme
Court ordered county probate
judges to uphold the state ban
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U.S. Supreme Court, which
hears arguments in April on
whether gay couples nation-
wide have a fundamental
right to marry and whether
states can ban such unions.
Stuck between the state’s
highest court and a series of
federal rulings, many probate
East Oregonian
judges were at a loss early
Wednesday. Mobile Coun-
ty, one of the state’s largest,
initially announced that they
wouldn’t issue licenses to
anyone, straight or gay.
But by mid-day, gay rights
DGYRFDWHVFRXOGQ¶W¿QGDVLQ-
gle county still granting li-
censes to same-sex couples.
Montgomery
County
Probate Judge Steven Reed,
a Democrat and one of the
¿UVWWRFRPSO\ZLWK86'LV-
trict Judge Callie Granade,
said he was duty-bound to
turn gays and lesbians away
again, for now. But he also
suggested that he would join
a new round of appeals.
“I feel pretty safe in say-
LQJ ZH ZLOO EH ¿OLQJ VRPH-
thing with the court,” Reed
told The Associated Press.
“I don’t think we’ll be at the
end of it regardless of what
we do, until the (U.S.) Su-
preme Court rules.”
The all-Republican court
ruled 7-1 that Alabama’s 68
probate judges must stop is-
suing marriage licenses to
gay and lesbian couples, de-
spite a ruling by U.S. District
Judge Callie Granade in Mo-
bile that the ban is unconsti-
tutional.
They gave probate judges
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lieve otherwise, but speaking
out could be politically risky
in the deeply conservative
state, where Alabama’s jus-
tices and probate judges must
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Before Tuesday’s ruling,
48 of the state’s 67 counties
were acknowledging that
Alabama had become the
37th U.S. state where gays
can legally wed, according
to the Human Rights Cam-
paign, which advocates for
gay marriage nationwide.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Justice Department
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in the fatal shooting of an unarmed black 18-year-old on
Wednesday, but also issued a scathing report calling for
sweeping changes in city law enforcement practices it
called discriminatory and unconstitutional.
The dual reports marked the culmination of months-
long federal investigations into a shooting that sparked
weeks of protests and a national dialogue on race and law
enforcement as the tenure of Attorney General Eric Holder,
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In pairing the announcements, the Obama
administration sought to offset community
disappointment over the conclusion that the shooting of
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announced 26 recommendations, including training
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the use of ticketing and arrest quotas.
Holder called the federal report a “searing” portrait of
a police department that he said functions as a collection
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rights of minorities.
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incident set off the city of Ferguson like a powder keg,”
Holder said.
Children in Southern California
breathing easier, study says
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Smog-covered mountains,
JULWW\VLGHZDONVVPHOO\IXPHVIURPWUDI¿FFKRNHG
freeways. The Los Angeles area was a tough place to
breathe several decades ago. Now a study shows how
much that has changed, especially for the region’s
youngest residents.
Children in recent years breathed cleaner air and had
stronger lungs compared to those who were studied two
decades earlier, researchers found. The improved health
coincided with drastic reductions in pollution in the
Los Angeles basin and surrounding areas as air quality
regulators cracked down on emissions from tailpipes and
smokestacks.
While the research focused on Southern California, the
results suggest that other cities with dirty air may see a
health boost with a cleanup effort.
Since pollutants such as particulate matter and nitrogen
dioxide tend to be higher in cities, reducing “those
pollutants should lead to improved health for children
living in any urban environment,” said lead researcher
Jim Gauderman, a professor of preventive medicine at
the University of Southern California’s Keck School of
Medicine.
Australia offers Indonesia a prisoner
swap deal at 11th hour
CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — Australia has offered
Indonesia a prisoner swap deal in an 11th hour bid to save
the lives of two Australian drug smugglers who have been
transferred to an island prison where they are to be killed
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Foreign Minister Julie Bishop said on Thursday she
made the proposal to her Indonesian counterpart Retno
Marsudi who had agreed to convey it to President Joko
“Jokowi” Widodo. Bishop said she had yet to hear back.
An Australian newspaper reported Bishop had offered
to repatriate three convicted Indonesian drug criminals in
return for the lives of the Australians, Andrew Chan and
Myuran Sukumaran.
The Australians are among nine foreigners who are to
be executed soon.
Fabulous FISH
Friday
March 6 from 5 to 6:30 p.m.
@ the St. Anthony Hospital Blue Mountain Cafe
Fish Tacos - $7.75/Adults - $6.50/Seniors - $5.00/Children
All you can eat fish tacos served with rice, beans, and cole slaw.
Clam Chowder - $4.25
Heaping portion of house made clam chowder served in a bread bowl.
Baked Potato Bar - $4.00/with toppings - $3.00/with butter only
An extra-large baked potato filled with choice of toppings.
2801 St. Anthony Way, Pendleton, OR 97801