IN BRIEF
WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama's attorney general nominee, Loretta Lynch, is facing Senate questioners as she seeks to become the first black woman to hold the nation's top law enforcement job.
In the first Republican-led confirmation session of the Obama administration, Lynch was to appear today before the Senate Judiciary Committee as it opens two days of hearings on her nomination.
Lynch, the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of New York, would replace Eric Holder, who announced his resignation last fall after leading the Justice Department for six years.
She already has earned praise from several GOP senators for her impressive credentials and accomplishments, and is widely expected to win confirmation. But first she will face tough questions from Republicans who now control the Senate.
SPRINGVILLE, Utah — A Utah couple and their three children who were found dead in their home last fall overdosed on drugs after the parents told friends and family they were worried about the apocalypse, authorities said Tuesday.Police also found old letters written by the mother to a Utah inmate serving time for killing family members in the name of God, slayings chronicled in the 2003 Jon Krakauer book “Under the Banner of Heaven.”Benjamin and Kristi Strack and three of their four children — ages 11, 12 and 14 — were found dead in September in a locked bedroom of their Springville home. All five were tucked into covers in and around their parents' bed.At a news conference Tuesday, Springville Police Chief J. Scott Finlayson said investigators have concluded their probe and determined the family members died from drug toxicity from either methadone, heroin or a combination of drugs, including those found in cold medicine.Authorities determined the parents committed suicide. The younger two children's deaths were ruled homicides, although Finlayson said there were no signs of a struggle.
SAN FRANCISCO — Wells Fargo Bank officials vowed to reopen a popular corporate museum in the heart of San Francisco's financial district after thieves smashed a stolen SUV through its front door and made off with historic gold nuggets.The museum is a destination for schoolchildren and tourists and includes two restored stagecoaches, a working telegraph and other gold rush-era memorabilia.The thieves rammed a Chevrolet Suburban through the museum's revolving door around 2:30 a.m. Tuesday. One of them held a security guard at gunpoint while the others took up to 10 ounces of gold nuggets worth an estimated $10,000 from a display case.The three men escaped in a four-door sedan driven by an accomplice. The security guard was not harmed in the robbery, and no damage came to the iconic stagecoaches, bank spokesman Ruben Pulido said.“Rest assured, the museum will reopen, so it can continue to serve the thousands of visitors and Bay Area residents who visit it each year,” Pulido said. Wells Fargo opened its first branch on the site in 1852, he said.The tactic mirrored three other smash-and-grab thefts involving vehicles in the San Francisco Bay Area since May. Police said they are investigating whether there's a connection.
