Nebraska abolishes death penalty after Legislature votes to override Gov. Ricketts’ veto
Nebraska abolishes death penalty after Legislature votes to override Gov. Ricketts’ veto
LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — Nebraska abolished the death penalty on Wednesday over the governor’s objections in a move pushed through the Legislature with unusual backing from conservatives who oppose capital punishment.
Senators in the one-house Legislature voted 30-19 to override Gov. Pete Ricketts, a Republican who supports the death penalty. The vote makes Nebraska the first traditionally conservative state to eliminate the punishment since North Dakota in 1973.
Nebraska joins 18 other states and the District of Columbia in banning the ultimate punishment.
Some senators said they philosophically support the death penalty, but are convinced the state will never carry out another execution because of legal obstacles. Nebraska hasn’t executed an inmate since a 1997 electrocution, and the state has never done so with its current lethal injection protocol.
Nebraska lost its ability to execute inmates in December 2013, when one of the three lethal injection drugs required by state law expired.
New rules for streams, ponds: Obama touts pollution protection; GOP sees federal overreach
WASHINGTON (AP) — New federal rules designed to better protect small streams, tributaries and wetlands — and the drinking water of 117 million Americans — are being criticized by Republicans and farm groups as going too far.
The White House says the rules, issued Wednesday, will provide much-needed clarity for landowners about which waterways must be protected against pollution and development. But House Speaker John Boehner declared they will send “landowners, small businesses, farmers, and manufacturers on the road to a regulatory and economic hell.”
The rules, issued by the Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, aim to clarify which smaller waterways fall under federal protection after two Supreme Court rulings left the reach of the Clean Water Act uncertain. EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy said the waters affected would be only those with a “direct and significant” connection to larger bodies of water downstream that are already protected.
The Supreme Court decisions in 2001 and 2006 left 60 percent of the nation’s streams and millions of acres of wetlands without clear federal protection, according to EPA, causing confusion for landowners and government officials.
The new rules would kick in and force a permitting process only if a business or landowner took steps to pollute or destroy covered waters.
AP sources: IRS believes identity thieves who stole personal tax information are from Russia
WASHINGTON (AP) — IRS investigators believe the identity thieves who stole the personal tax information of more than 100,000 taxpayers from an IRS website are part of a sophisticated criminal operation based in Russia, two officials told the Associated Press.
The information was stolen as part of an elaborate scheme to claim fraudulent tax refunds, IRS Commissioner John Koskinen told reporters. Koskinen declined to say where the crime originated.
But two officials briefed on the matter said Wednesday the IRS believes the criminals were in Russia, based on computer data about who accessed the information. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to publicly discuss the ongoing criminal investigation.
An IRS spokeswoman said Wednesday the agency couldn’t comment on the investigation.
The revelation highlights the global reach of many cyber criminals. And it’s not the first time the IRS has been targeted by identity thieves based overseas.
Devil-may-care culture, inherent danger push BASE jumpers into remote regions with no rules
BOISE, Idaho (AP) — BASE jumpers, by nature, just want to be free.
Their sport is inherently death-defying, growing at the bleeding edge of high-risk extreme sports, and they tend to be hostile to any attempt at containing their passion.
In the U.S., their devil-may-care culture has been pushed out of urban areas, national parks and anywhere else where limits are imposed. Jumpers flock instead to the few remote areas hungry enough for tourist revenue to let them do their thing. Some say their outlaw status makes one of the world’s most dangerous sports even more risky, and needs to change.
“BASE jumping isn’t a crime,” argues Alan Lewis of Knoxville, Tennessee, who was skydiving before he tried BASE jumping 10 years ago. “It’s not allowed in most places, so we’re faced with having to trespass or do jumps at night, which isn’t as safe. I think we’re kind of getting frustrated at the whole situation.”
BASE jumping — which stands for jumping not from planes, but from fixed locations including buildings, antenna, spans or Earth— has produced stunning online videos of people parachuting from buildings and wingsuit fliers zooming shockingly close to the treetops — mostly recorded outside the United States.