NEWS OF THE DAY
From Across the Nation
_1 Marriage equality: A federal judge has ordered a Kentucky county clerk to issue marriage licenses to same sex-couples. Rowan County Clerk Kim Davis was one of a handful of local elected officials across the country that stopped issuing marriage licenses after the U.S. Supreme Court legalized same-sex marriage nationwide in June. She said issuing a marriage license to a gay couple would violate her Christian beliefs and argued the U.S. Constitution protected her religious freedoms. Two gay couples and two straight couples in Rowan County sued her.
_2 “Kids for cash”: A federal judge has approved a $4.75 million settlement between a businessman at the center of a Pennsylvania juvenile justice scandal and youths sent to his detention centers by a corrupt judge. Robert Powell was sentenced to 18 months in prison for his role in the scandal that became known as “kids for cash,” a kickback scheme that led the Pennsylvania Supreme Court to vacate the convictions of thousands of juveniles. Powell testified he was forced to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars to former Luzerne County Judges Mark Ciavarella Jr. and Michael Conahan in return for their support of his two private juvenile facilities. The settlement agreement, approved Monday, covers at least 2,400 juveniles.
_3 Memphis officer killed: An ex-convict charged with fatally shooting a Memphis police officer during a struggle told a judge Wednesday that he is indigent and he was appointed a public defender. Tremaine Wilbourn, 29, is being held on $10 million bond on a firstdegree murder charge in the Aug. 1 death of Officer Sean Bolton. Police said when Bolton interrupted a drug deal, Wilbourn took out a gun and shot him multiple times.
_4 ATM theft: A second man who allegedly made off with a bag containing $150,000 in cash mistakenly left behind by ATM workers in New Jersey has been arrested, police said. Jamar Bludson, 35, and Alton Harvey, 42, of Hillside took the money that had been forgotten outside a Mahwah business on July 27, authorities said. Bludson jumped out of a van being driven by Harvey and grabbed the bag, police said. That theft and another — a van pulling into a nearby auto repair business and pilfering used tires — were captured on surveillance video.
_5 Texas execution: Texas inmate Daniel Lee Lopez got his wish Wednesday when he was executed for fatally striking a police lieutenant with an SUV during a chase in 2009. The lethal injection at the Huntsville prison was carried out after the U.S. Supreme Court rejected appeals from Lopez’s attorneys, who disregarded his desire to die and disagreed with lower court rulings that found he was competent to make that decision. As the drugs took effect, he took two deep breaths, then two shallower ones. Then all movement stopped. Lopez, 27, became the 10th inmate put to death this year in Texas, which leads the nation in executions. Nationally, he was the 19th prisoner to be executed.