WASHINGTON
House OKs line-item veto
House Republicans put aside their usual antipathy toward President Barack Obama on Wednesday to give the president, and his successors, the line-item veto, a constitutionally questionable power over the purse that long has been sought by presidents of both parties. A minority of Democrats joined in casting a 254-173 vote in favor of allowing the president to pick out specific items in spending bills for elimination. Currently, the chief executive must sign or veto spending bills in their entirety. Opposition came from members of the Appropriations Committee, which is responsible for putting together the annual spending bills. They argued that the bill upsets the constitutional separation of powers balance in favor of the executive branch. The bill now goes to the Senate, where its prospects are uncertain.
MIDDLETOWN, N.Y.
Gunfight at courthouse
A man killed in a gunfight with security officers at a courthouse Wednesday was convicted a week ago of menacing the city mayor’s daughter and was angry at the mayor, according to authorities and court documents. Timothy Mulqueen, 43, opened fire with a 12-gauge shotgun in the lobby of his hometown courthouse at about 9 a.m. Officers returned fired as people in the building dove under desks and scrambled for the rear door, authorities said. One of the officers suffered a graze wound to the arm.
MOUNTAIN CITY, TENN.
Snub linked to slayings
A father who was upset after a Tennessee couple deleted his adult daughter as a friend on Facebook has been charged in the shooting deaths of the couple, authorities said Wednesday. The victims had complained to police that Marvin’s Potter’s daughter was harassing them after they deleted her as a friend on the social networking site, Johnson County Sheriff Mike Reece said Wednesday. Potter, 60, has been charged with two counts of first-degree murder in last week’s slayings of Billy Payne Jr. and his girlfriend, Billie Jean Hayworth. The couple was shot to death in their Mountain City home in the far northeast corner of the state. Their 8-month-old baby was found unharmed in Hayworth’s arms.
Compiled from wire reports.
