‘I am sorry for the lives I’ve taken’: Boston Marathon bomber apologizes for the first time ADVERTISING ‘I am sorry for the lives I’ve taken’: Boston Marathon bomber apologizes for the first time BOSTON (AP) — Moments before a judge
‘I am sorry for the lives I’ve taken’: Boston Marathon bomber apologizes for the first time
BOSTON (AP) — Moments before a judge sentenced him to death, Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev broke more than two years of silence Wednesday and apologized to the victims and their loved ones for the first time. “I pray for your relief, for your healing,” he said.
“I am sorry for the lives that I’ve taken, for the suffering that I’ve caused you, for the damage that I’ve done — irreparable damage,” the 21-year-old former college student, speaking haltingly in his Russian accent, said after rising to his feet in the hushed federal courtroom.
After Tsarnaev said his piece, U.S. District Judge George O’Toole Jr. quoted Shakespeare’s line “The evil that men do lives after them. The good is often interred with their bones.”
“So it will be for Dzhokhar Tsarnaev,” the judge said, telling Tsarnaev that no one will remember that his teachers were fond of him, that his friends found him fun to be with or that he showed compassion to disabled people.
“What will be remembered is that you murdered and maimed innocent people and that you did it willfully and intentionally,” O’Toole said.
Senate passes trade legislation, hands Obama major second-term win
WASHINGTON (AP) — In a triumph of divided government, the Republican-controlled Congress passed major trade legislation Wednesday that was long-sought by President Barack Obama but vehemently opposed by most lawmakers in his party.
The measure to strengthen Obama’s hand in global trade talks cleared the Senate on a vote of 60-38, and will go to the White House for his signature — less than two weeks after it was temporarily derailed in the House in an uprising of Democratic lawmakers who argued it would cost American jobs.
A companion bill, to renew an expiring program of federal aid for workers disadvantaged by imports, passed by voice vote less than an hour later. Final approval in the House is expected on Thursday.
The rapid sequence of events capped the end of a back-and-forth struggle that played out slowly over months, with Obama, Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., on one side, and the union-backed Democratic leadership of the House and Senate on the other.
The pace accelerated dramatically less than two weeks ago, when House Democrats prevailed in an early showdown that sent the White House and congressional GOP leaders into a rescue operation.
As South Carolina grieves, Alabama governor lowers Confederate battle flag ‘like the swastika’
COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — The Confederate flag flew high Wednesday outside the South Carolina Statehouse, but a large drape kept mourners from seeing it as they filed past the open casket of a veteran black lawmaker and pastor.
The slayings of state Sen. Clementa Pinckney and eight others inside their historic black church is prompting national soul-searching over historic but divisive symbols. The makeshift drape obscuring the secessionist battle flag only emphasized how quickly this symbol of Southern pride has fallen into official disrepute.
Alabama Gov. Robert Bentley became the first southern governor to use his executive power to remove Confederate banners, as four flags with secessionist symbols were taken down Wednesday from a large monument to rebel soldiers outside that state’s capitol.
“It has become a distraction all over the country right now,” Bentley said. The iconic Confederate battle flag in particular “is offensive to some people because unfortunately, it’s like the swastika; some people have adopted that as part of their hate-filled groups.”
In South Carolina, making any changes to “heritage” symbols requires a two-thirds supermajority of both houses of the state legislature, and while lawmakers voted overwhelmingly for a debate later this summer, few wanted to risk ugly words during a week of funerals.
Power slowly being restored in storm-ravaged areas of PA, NJ after storms topple trees, poles
TRENTON, N.J. (AP) — Utility crews were working around the clock to clear toppled trees and other debris as power was slowly being restored to the hundreds of thousands of people in the Northeast who were affected by a fast-moving ferocious storm system that caused two deaths.
The line of storms — which packed heavy rains, lightning and dangerous winds — also knocked down transmission lines and wires as it thundered through eastern Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Connecticut on Tuesday night.
In Pennsylvania, PECO said about 121,000 homes and businesses remained without power late on Wednesday afternoon. In New Jersey, nearly 180,000 homes and businesses were without electricity around the same time.
Officials said full service might not be restored to some customers until the weekend. For others, it may even be longer.
Forecasters were trying to determine whether straight line winds or a tornado caused most of the damage. The National Weather Service said a 71 mph wind gust was recorded at Philadelphia International Airport.
