Nation Glance

Police seek motive of gunman who killed 3 at Michigan State

EAST LANSING, Mich. – The 43-year-old gunman who killed three students and wounded five others at Michigan State University had no apparent connection to the campus, police said Tuesday as they searched for a motive for shootings that terrified the community for hours.

Investigators were sorting out why Anthony Mcrae fired inside an academic building and the student union just before 8:30 p.m. Monday. An hourslong lockdown at the campus in East Lansing ended when he killed himself miles away while being confronted by police.

The shooting happened the day before the fifth anniversary of the Parkland, Florida, school shooting that killed 17 and is the latest in what has become a deadly new year in the U.S.

“We have to do something to stop the gun violence that’s ripping apart our communities,” President Joe Biden said in a speech Tuesday, mentioning Michigan State.

Meanwhile, a school district in Ewing Township, New Jersey, closed for the day after investigators said that Mcrae, who lived in the area years ago, had a note in his pocket indicating a threat to schools there. But it was determined there was no credible threat, local police said later in a statement shared by the superintendent.

Latest downed objects could well be ‘benign,’ US says

WASHINGTON – The three still-unidentified aerial objects shot down by the U.S. in the past week likely had merely a “benign purpose,” the White House acknowledged Tuesday, drawing a distinction between them and the massive Chinese balloon that earlier traversed the U.S. with a suspected goal of surveillance.

“The intelligence community is considering as a leading explanation that these could just be balloons tied to some commercial or benign purpose,” said White House national security spokesman John Kirby.

Officials also disclosed that a missile fired at one of the three objects, over Lake Huron on Sunday, missed its intended target and landed in the water before a second one successfully hit.

The new details came as the Biden’s administration’s actions over the past two weeks faced fresh scrutiny in Congress.

First, U.S. fighter jets didn’t shoot down what officials described as a Chinese spy balloon until after had crossed much of the United States, citing safety concerns. Then the military deployed F-22 fighters with heat-seeking missiles to quickly shoot down what likely were harmless objects.

Pence to fight special counsel subpoena on 2020 election

WASHINGTON – Former Vice President Mike Pence is planning to fight a subpoena by the special counsel overseeing investigations into efforts by former President Donald Trump and his allies to overturn the results of the 2020 election, according to people familiar with his thinking.

Pence and his attorneys are planning to cite constitutional grounds as they prepare to resist special counsel Jack Smith’s efforts to compel his testimony before a grand jury. They argue that because Pence was serving in his role as president of the Senate on Jan. 6, 2021 as he presided over a joint session of Congress to certify the election results, he is protected from being forced to address his actions under the Constitution’s “speech-or-debate” clause that shields members of Congress.

“I think he views it as essential protection of his Constitutional role,” said Marc Short, a close adviser to Pence who served as his White House chief of staff.

Short compared Pence’s position to the one he took on Jan. 6 when he refused to go along with Trump’s unconstitutional scheme to try to overturn the results of the 2020 election, as well as Pence’s rejection of using the 25th Amendment to remove Trump from office in the aftermath.

“The vice president of the United State is the president of the Senate and the fact is the functions of Jan. 6 were specific to that role,” he said of Pence, who has been laying the groundwork for a likely presidential campaign that would put him in direct competition against his former boss.

California Sen. Feinstein says she won’t run for reelection

LOS ANGELES – Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein, whose groundbreaking political career shattered gender barriers from San Francisco’s City Hall to the corridors of Capitol Hill, said Tuesday she won’t seek reelection in 2024.

The senator, who turns 90 in June, is the oldest member of Congress and has faced questions in recent years about her cognitive health and memory, though she has defended her effectiveness representing a state that is home to nearly 40 million people.

The announcement came after several prominent Democrats, including U.S. Reps. Katie Porter and Adam Schiff, already had declared Senate campaigns. With Feinstein a now 30year veteran of the Senate, there hasn’t been a wide open competition for her seat in decades.

Feinstein plans to remain in Congress through the end of her current term. Speaking to reporters in Washington on Tuesday, she said “there’s times for all things under the sun.”

“I think that will be the right time, towards the end of next year,” she said.

U-haul driver blames ‘invisible object’ for deadly rampage

NEW YORK — A man who went on a deadly rampage with a U-haul truck Monday in New York City was suffering from an apparent mental health crisis and said he started mowing people down after seeing an “invisible object” coming toward him, police said Tuesday.

Weng Sor, 62, was charged Tuesday with murder and attempted murder in the attack, which unfolded over a harrowing 48 minutes over a large swath of Brooklyn’s bustling Bay Ridge neighborhood. Police eventually pinned the truck against a building after a miles-long chase.

One person was killed and eight people were injured as the U-haul truck veered onto sidewalks and plowed into bicyclists, moped riders and at least one pedestrian, hitting people at various points along a circuitous route. The truck also rammed a police car, and the officer inside was among the injured.

The scope and length of the destruction led to questions about the NYPD’S response and whether the pursuit — which at one point involved a police car speeding after the U-haul up onto the sidewalk as a man dove to safety — put more people in harm’s way.

Sor, a troubled man with a history of violence and mental illness, told police that seeing an “invisible object” set him off, Chief of Detectives James Essig told reporters Tuesday. Sor’s family said he’d stopped taking his medication, Essig said.

“He states when he’s driving his van he sees an ‘invisible object’ come towards the car. At that point, he says, ‘I’ve had enough’ and he goes on his rampage,” Essig said. “There was no object.”

Sor, who lived in Las Vegas with his mother, came to New York last week after spending time in Florida and was pulled over twice in the U-haul in the days prior to the attack, police said. He remained in police custody and was expected to be arraigned Tuesday night or Wednesday.

Nissan recall: Air bag can knock steering wheel emblem loose

DETROIT — Nissan is recalling more than 463,000 older vehicles because the emblem on the steering wheel can come loose when the air bag is deployed and injure drivers.

The recall mainly in North America covers certain Frontier small pickups, Titan large pickups and Xterra, Pathfinder and Armada SUVS from 2008 through 2011. Also included are Quest minivans from 2008 and 2009, as well as about 11,000 parts used for service.

Nissan says it has four reports alleging injuries due to the problem.

The company hasn’t developed a repair yet. Customers will get an interim letter in early April, followed by a letter telling them when to go to a dealer for service.