Saying 'no' grows

December 17, 2015 - Daily News Briefing

Drug use among young Americans is falling or steady across all categories, though more progress is needed.

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The White House and lawmakers of both parties grudgingly embraced a massive government-wide budget deal Wednesday combining more than a trillion dollars in year-end spending with hundreds of billions in tax cuts for businesses, families and special interests of every kind. Leaders planned to push it to final passage by week's end and quickly adjourn for the holidays, ending a tumultuous year on Capitol Hill. The sprawling package will keep federal agencies funded through Sept. 30 of next year, staving off a government shutdown that was to begin next Tuesday at midnight under the latest in a series of short-term spending bills, this one being passed by Congress on Wednesday.

The number of people executed in the United States continues its decline, with 2015 being the lowest on record since 1991, a fact attributable to states sentencing capital punishment with less frequency, defendants gaining access to better legal counsel, and lethal drugs becoming harder to source. As of Dec. 15, 28 inmates had been executed this year, according to The Death Penalty Information Center (DPIC), a nonprofit organization that opposes the death penalty and keeps data on the policy. That number is down from 35 last year and a sharp contrast to the 98 who were executed in 1999. Additionally, 49 criminal defendants received death sentences this year, a decline of about a third from 2014 and the lowest it has been since the early 1970s, The Associated Press reports.

When parents, teachers, and children in Los Angeles and New York City woke up Tuesday morning, they were in for very different days: different from a typical school day, with anxiety and security concerns spiking thanks to school threats received Monday night, but also different from each other, as Angelenos sat tight at home, and New York children marched off to class as usual. School officials' sharply contrasting responses to similar threats, received via email on Monday evening, prompted immediate comparisons and, at times, criticism. Although police on both sides of the country ultimately determined the messages to be a hoax, information gaps, local worries, and word-by-word analysis guided America's two largest K-12 districts toward their separate decisions: in New York, 1.1 million kids went to class, while hours later, the families of Los Angeles' 640,000 pupils scrambled to find childcare after all of the district's 900 schools were closed for the day.

In the history of the United States Military Academy, there have been 75 commandants for the Corps of cadets: military leaders who direct future officers' famously rigorous training and discipline. And now, for the first time, West Point's 4,200 cadets will be led by a woman: Brig. Gen. Diana M. Holland, a veteran of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. The high-profile appointment comes amid a major sea change in the US military, less than two weeks after the Pentagon announced that female soldiers would be eligible for combat roles.

The Arctic got another alarming report card, and now the national weather agency of the United States is asking everyday people to pitch in and help their troubled northerly neighbor. The Arctic Report Card, released Tuesday, noted average air temperatures warmed over Arctic land reaching 2.3 degrees Fahrenheit above average for the year ending in September, the highest recorded since observations began in 1900.

Motorists logged 273.5 billion miles on US roads in October, a 2.4 percent increase over last year and the most ever for the month, according to data released on Wednesday by the US Department of Transportation. The fresh numbers are the latest piece of evidence showing a sustained US road revival that has been fueled by a rout in global petroleum prices and a growing economy. The national average price for gasoline on Wednesday was $2.01 per gallon, down from $2.52 a year ago, according to AAA, the motorists' advocacy organization. This year through October, motorists traveled 3.12 trillion vehicle miles on US roads, a 3.4 percent increase over last year.

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