Democracies never rest

March 05, 2015 - Daily News Briefing

The democratic process might look messy at times, but it continuously improves itself.

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Dzhokhar Tsarnaev went on trial for his life Wednesday in the Boston Marathon bombing with his own lawyer bluntly telling the jury he committed the crime. But she argued that he had fallen under the influence of his older brother. "It WAS him," Judy Clarke, one of the nation's foremost death-penalty defense attorneys, said of Tsarnaev in a startling opening statement in the biggest terrorism trial in the US since the Oklahoma City bombing nearly 20 years ago.

The Justice Department won't prosecute a former Ferguson, Missouri, police officer in the shooting death of an unarmed black 18-year-old, but in a scathing report released Wednesday faulted the city and its law enforcement for racial bias and unconstitutional practices. Federal officials concluded there was no evidence to disprove former officer Darren Wilson's testimony that he feared for his safety, nor were there reliable witness accounts to establish that Michael Brown had his hands up in surrender when he was shot.

Mexican police and soldiers on Wednesday arrested the man widely considered to be the most important leader of the Zetas drug cartel, Omar Trevino Morales, a federal official said. The official, who was not authorized to be quoted by name due to government policy, said the man known as "Z-42" was arrested in a pre-dawn raid in San Pedro Garza Garcia, a wealthy suburb of the northern city of Monterrey.

Microsoft co-founder and philanthropist Paul Allen and his research team have found the wreckage of a massive Japanese World War II battleship off the Philippines near where it sank more than 70 years ago, he said Wednesday. The apparent discovery of the Musashi, one of the largest battleships in history, comes as the world marks the 70th anniversary of the war's end. Allen and the team aboard his superyacht M/Y Octopus found the ship on Sunday, more than eight years after their search began, Allen said in a statement.

Women who come to the US from China to give birth to automatic American citizens may not be breaking the law by doing so, but it's illegal to lie about why they're coming into the country. That was the clear message federal agents sought to send when they searched three dozen California homes Tuesday in what may have been the biggest federal crackdown yet on so-called maternity tourism. The raids came as homeland security agents investigated three rings catering to such women, who must tell the truth about their visits on visa applications, authorities said.

US businesses added more than 200,000 jobs in February for the 13th straight month, a private survey found. It was the latest sign that strong hiring should boost the economy this year. Payroll processor ADP says companies added 212,000 jobs last month, a solid gain, though down from 250,000 in the previous month. January's figure was revised up from 213,000.

“The object of the Monitor is to injure no man, but to bless all mankind.” – Mary Baker Eddy

The Daily News Briefing is published Monday through Friday by The Christian Science Publishing Society in Boston, Massachusetts.

To send a comment to the Editor, email editor@csmonitor.com.

“The object of the Monitor is to injure no man, but to bless all mankind.” – Mary Baker Eddy

The Daily News Briefing is published Monday through Friday by The Christian Science Publishing Society in Boston, Massachusetts.

To send a comment to the Editor, email editor@csmonitor.com.

Subscribe Now to read this post!

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