Nation
Ferguson council OKs plan for policeFERGUSON, Mo. — The Ferguson City Council has unanimously agreed to accept a U.S. Justice Department plan to overhaul its embattled police force and municipal court system after a brief attempt to revise the deal led to a federal lawsuit.Elected leaders in the St. Louis suburb where the fatal police shooting of Michael Brown Jr. helped spark the Black Lives Matter movement voted Tuesday night to approve the DOJ consent decree.Brown’s father, who attended the meeting but didn’t speak publicly, shook hands with Ferguson’s mayor and several council members after the vote.The agency and Ferguson reached a tentative agreement in late January after months of negotiations, but the council rejected the plan in February over cost concerns, prompting the Justice Department to sue the next day.The lawsuit remains pending as a federal judge must still approve the preliminary agreement.
Nurse: Quarantine suit should go onNEWARK, N.J. — A nurse who sued New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and state health officials after she was quarantined at a hospital because she had contact with Ebola patients in West Africa is asking a judge not to throw out the lawsuit.Attorneys for Kaci Hickox responded Tuesday to the government’s attempt in January to have the federal civil rights lawsuit tossed.Hickox’s reply says her constitutional rights against unlawful seizure, unnecessary restraints and due process were violated.State lawyers say health workers acted with public safety in mind when they had her quarantined.Hickox was working with Doctors Without Borders in Sierra Leone during the deadly Ebola outbreak in 2014. She was stopped when she arrived at Newark Liberty International Airport and questioned before being quarantined. She tested negative for Ebola.
Fla. woman fights to keep pet alligatorLAKELAND, Fla. — A Florida woman is fighting to keep her 6-foot-long pet alligator in her home.The 125-pound reptile named Rambo wears clothes, rides on the back of a motorcycle and has a bedroom in Mary Thorn’s home in Lakeland.Thorn has had a license for the alligator for 11 years, but it recently grew to 6 feet. Wildlife officials say that size alligator must have 2.5 acres. Thorn said that even if she had land available, Rambo can’t be left outdoors because of sensitivity to sunlight.Thorn takes Rambo to schools and charity events to teach people about reptiles. She says she has trained him not to bite.Florida wildlife commission spokesman Gary Morse says Thorn’s case is under investigation.
Obama opts to bar drilling off coastWASHINGTON — In a major reversal, the Obama administration said Tuesday it will bar oil drilling off America’s Atlantic Coast, a move cheered by environmentalists and consistent with the president’s aggressive steps to combat climate change.Interior Secretary Sally Jewell said the decision “protects the Atlantic for future generations.” She said the administration had listened to thousands of people in coastal communities from Florida to New England who said, “Now is not the time to start leasing off the Atlantic Coast.”However, business groups and most Republicans criticized it as another example of what they call executive overreach.Republicans and industry groups have criticized Obama for imposing what they say are unnecessary regulations on drilling, especially on federal lands.
