Ethics and appearances

May 21, 2014 - Daily News Briefing

Almost every day, another question is raised about the ethics of intelligence gathering.

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Pennsylvania’s ban on gay marriage was overturned by a federal judge Tuesday in a decision that legalizes same-sex marriage throughout the Northeast. US District Judge John E. Jones III called the plaintiffs – a widow, 11 couples, and one of the couples’ two teenage daughters – courageous. “We are a better people than what these laws represent, and it is time to discard them into the ash heap of history,” Jones wrote of the 1996 state ban. Jones declined to put his ruling on hold during a potential appeal by the governor’s office, which defended the ban in court.

Two car bombs exploded at a bustling bus terminal and market in Nigeria’s central city of Jos on Tuesday, killing at least 46 people and wounding dozens, police said. There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the twin car bombs, but they bore the hallmarks of Boko Haram, an Islamic extremist group. The second blast came half an hour after the first, killing some of the rescue workers who had rushed to the scene, which was obscured by billows of black smoke.

Opening another legal attack on the NFL over the long-term health of its athletes, a group of retired players accused the league in a lawsuit Tuesday of cynically supplying them with powerful painkillers that kept them in the game but led to serious complications down the road. The lawsuit, which seeks unspecified damages, charges the NFL with chasing profits over protecting its players’ health.

The House passed the closest thing so far this year to an infrastructure bill – a $12 billion-plus bipartisan measure authorizing 34 water projects, ranging from flood protection in California and North Dakota to deepening the Port of Savannah and widening a Texas-Louisiana waterway that services the oil industry. The Water Resources Reform and Development Act passed Tuesday on a 412-to -4 vote. Lawmakers shook off criticism from conservative and watchdog groups such as Heritage Action and Taxpayers for Common Sense that argued the bill should have done more to rein in wasteful government spending.

A former aide to Gov. Chris Christie whose job included getting reelection endorsements from mayors said Tuesday that he was “dumbfounded and disappointed” to learn that a northern New Jersey mayor was apparently targeted in a political payback plot orchestrated by Christie loyalists. The former aide, Matt Mowers, spoke to New Jersey lawmakers investigating the traffic jam scandal that’s engulfed the governor’s administration. Mowers is the fifth person subpoenaed to testify before the Democratic-led panel. He worked in Christie’s office and on last year’s reelection campaign and is now the executive director of New Hampshire’s Republican Party.

General Motors said Tuesday it’s recalling 2.4 million vehicles in the US as part of a broader effort to resolve outstanding safety issues more quickly. The latest action brings to 13.6 million the number of vehicles GM has recalled this year, a new record for the automaker. GM’s previous record of 10.75 million cars and trucks was set in 2004, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. GM agreed last week to pay a $35 million federal fine for concealing deadly defects in small-car ignition switches for more than a decade. The company says at least 13 people have died in crashes linked to the problem, but trial lawyers suing the company say the death toll is at least 53. GM said no fatalities were linked to the recalls announced Tuesday.

Forced labor produces illegal profits of $150 billion a year, the United Nations labor agency said Tuesday as it appealed for global eradication of the abuse. The report by the International Labor Organization offered the agency’s fullest picture yet of an underground economy built on the involuntary toil of an estimated 21 million workers. It found that nearly two-thirds of the estimated profits, $99 billion, come from sexual exploitation, including prostitution and pornography. Women were most commonly the victims of forced employment in sex-related trades and domestic chores, while men and boys were more commonly exploited in agricultural, mining, and construction work, it found.

Oscar Pistorius will start a period of psychiatric evaluation at a government institution next week, a judge ruled on Tuesday as she postponed the star athlete’s murder trial until June 30. A panel of mental-health experts is now to decide if the double-amputee runner can be held criminally responsible for killing his girlfriend.

Prince Charles says the need for change to ensure the well-being of the planet has come into sharper focus for him since he became a grandfather last year. He listed challenges facing the world Tuesday as part of a four-day trip to Canada.

Compiled from wire service reports

“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.

Compiled from wire service reports

“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.

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