The day’s top national and international news
GOP's Sen. Murkowski Backs Same-Sex Marriage
AP
Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska on Wednesday has thrown her support behind legalizing same-sex marriage, joining GOP Sens. Rob Portman of Ohio and Mark Kirk of Illinois in backing the right of gay and lesbian couples to wed. Her announcement comes days before the Supreme Court is set to issue decisions on the federal Defense of Marriage Act and California’s ban on same-sex marriage. "When government does act, I believe it should encourage family values,” Murkowski wrote in an op-ed explaining her position. "I support the right of all Americans to marry the person they love and choose." A veteran GOP senator, Murkowski had previously said her views on same-sex marriage were "evolving," using the language President Barack Obama had once used to describe his own position before endorsing marriage rights.
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"Violent" Sports Gambling Ring Busted by FBI
No Remains Found in Jimmy Hoffa Body Search: FBI
AP
Driver Charged in Death of Soccer Fan Dribbling to Brazil
Getty Images / Scott Olson
An Oregon man, who police say fatally struck Richard Swanson, the man who was on a mission to dribble a soccer ball from Seattle to Brazil for the World Cup, was arrested Monday on a charge of criminally negligent homicide, NBC News reported. Swanson, 42, was walking along busy U.S. 101 on May 14, when he was struck from behind by a pickup truck. Scott Van Hiatt stayed at the scene and has been cooperative, police said, but would not elaborate on the circumstances that led to the crash. Swanson started his journey in Seattle on May 1 partly to promote the Berkeley, Calif.-based One World Futbol Project, which donates durable blue balls to people in developing countries. In an interview with a Seattle TV station, Swanson joked that he hoped he wouldn't be run over on the coastal road. "I'll be on Highway 101, but I'll also try to utilize any of the trails that run along the coast, just trying to get off the beaten path, there's a lot of cars and just not get run over," he said.
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Volunteers Sought to Monitor Police Surveillance
Feds Mull Overhaul of Phone Surveillance Program
AP
The National Security Agency is considering whether to stop stockpiling records of Americans' phone calls, the most controversial element of its just-leaked data surveillance programs, U.S. officials told Congress on Tuesday. The feds could instead let telecom companies keep the data until intelligence officials have a specific reason to review it for possible connections to terror plots, the officials told the House Intelligence Committee on Tuesday. NSA chief Gen. Keith Alexander said the agency would re-examine "how we actually do this program." The NSA's collection of millions of phone records was disclosed earlier this month after a former NSA contractor, Edward Snowden, leaked documents on the program to The Guardian. Under the program, the NSA doesn't eavesdrop on calls but rather collects the metadata on the calls — the phone numbers, times and length of each call.
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Immigration Bill Would Trim Deficit by $200B: Report
AP
The Senate's immigration reform bill would trim the federal budget deficit by $197 billion over the next decade and would give about 8 million undocumented immigrants legal status, the Congressional Budget Office said in a report released Tuesday. Those numbers were a boon to supporters of the bipartisan bill now facing debate in the Senate — a bill conservatives have deemed dead on arrival in the Republican-led House and which House Speaker John Boehner called "laughable" Tuesday. The much-anticipated new CBO report also estimated that while passing the bill would create new federal outlays of $262 billion in the first decade, it would also increase revenues — primarily from creating new income and payroll taxes — by $459 billion. The report also estimated that in the decade thereafter, deficits would drop by another $700 billion. Sen. Chuck Schumer, a "Gang of Eight" sponsor of the bill, called the report "a huge momentum boost for immigration reform."
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India to Shut Down Last Telegraph Service in July
Getty Images/Tetra images RF
While at least 90 percent of Americans use cell phones to communicate, people in India still rely on the telegraph service to reach certain corners of the country. But that is soon to change. The country's 160-year old telegraph company, BSNL, will deliver its last telegram on July 14, leaving lawyers, soldiers and government officials without a trusty communication tool. The Indian government will shut down the service, which played a key role in the mid-nineteenth century during the British Raj, due to losses of $23 million a year connected to the rising popularity of text messages and smartphones. Telegram companies still exist as part-Web services, but India is the last country to use the service on a large scale -- 5,000 telegrams are sent sent in India per day. In the U.S., the Western Union delivered its last telegram in 2006.
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Chicago Hospital Allows Visiting Hours for Pets
Journalist Michael Hastings Dies at 33
Michael Hastings, the journalist best known for the 2010 Rolling Stone profile that led to Gen. Stanley McChrystal's resignation, died in a car crash in Los Angeles, according to his employers at BuzzFeed and Rolling Stone. Reporters and others he worked with through the years took to social media to pay their respects. Hasting's Rolling Stone piece "Runaway General," which featured McChrystal, then head of the U.S.-led coalition in Afghanistan, criticizing the Obama administration's handling of the war. McChrystal handed in his resignation to the White House days after the article was published. Hastings was 33 years old.
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Liberals Brace for High Court Decision on Voting Rights
AP
Liberals are bracing for a Supreme Court decision soon that could limit the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and experts and advocates are debating on what to do if the court strikes down a central part of the law, NBC News reported. In the case before the high court, Shelby County, Ala., is challenging Section 5 of the act under which some states, mostly those in the South with a history of discrimination, are required to get permission from the Department of Justice or federal court before making changes to voting laws. County lawyers argue that the coverage formula relying on data from the 1960s and 1970s to determine which states fall under the provision is outdated. This charges Congress with the task of deciding which states to cover and which ones to leave free of federal supervision. Click through to read what legal experts and advocates are saying about this debate.
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"Radioactive-Looking" Sinkholes
Steven Reitz - Reddit
Yahoo: 13,000 Data Requests From Law Enforcement in Six Months
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Man Arrested in Connection With UTA Threat
NBC 5
Phony "FBI" Virus Holds Computers Hostage
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Overseas criminal organizations are using a new computer scam that installs a virus which freezes a computer, holds it as ransom, and then demands the user pay as much as $450 to unlock it, NBC 5 Investigates reported. A 17-year-old from Chicago is among the victims. Sarah, whose name has been changed to protect her identity, was recently searching for an animated picture through Google’s Image Search tool when she says someone took control of her computer. The computer malware flashed child pornography at her, then her picture -- taken by her own web camera -- flashed up on her computer screen. Attached to her photo was a phony FBI notice claiming that she had committed a felony by viewing child pornography. The FBI notice also demanded that Sarah pay a fine of $450 with a prepaid money card within 72 hours in order to get her frozen computer unlocked. FBI officials said people should not pay the fee and should replace their hard drives completely to ensure that the virus is off a computer.
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