SPRINGFIELD, Ill. — Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn's signature on legislation getting rid of the death penalty provoked an extraordinary array of emotions Wednesday — almost all of them intense.

A Chicago woman whose teenage son was gunned down in 2006 said the killer, who has never been caught, should not be allowed to breathe the same air she breathes.

“I am a Christian. I never believed in killing nobody else,” Pam Bosley said, explaining her change of heart after her son was shot outside a church. “But the pain you suffer every single day, I say take them out.”

Charles Simmons knows that pain. The Peoria resident lost three relatives in a house fire that prosecutors say was arson. But Simmons said his religious beliefs argue against executing the killer — plus, he considers life in prison a harsher punishment.

WASHINGTON — NPR's president and CEO resigned Wednesday in an effort to limit the damage from hidden camera footage of a fellow executive deriding the tea party movement as “seriously racist.” Conservatives called the video proof that the network is biased and undeserving of federal funds.NPR's board had pushed for the resignation of Vivian Schiller, whom conservatives also criticized in October for firing analyst Juan Williams over comments he made about Muslims. She was not in the video, which was posted Tuesday by a conservative activist, but she told The Associated Press that staying on would only hurt NPR's fight for federal money.“We took a reputational hit around the Juan Williams incident, and this was another blow to NPR's reputation. There's no question,” she said.

BELL, Calif. — It was a scandal, residents frequently complained, that made their modest Southern California city the laughingstock of the nation.In the end, however, it was the voters of the gritty, working-class suburb of Bell in the shadow of Los Angeles who had the last laugh.They stormed their polling places in huge numbers Tuesday and threw out the entire city council after most of its members were charged with fraud.“It's a beautiful new day in Bell,” said Alberto Alvardo, flashing a wide smile as he stood behind the meat counter of his El Nuevo Mundo market on Wednesday.For 52 years, the white-haired Alvarado has done business in Bell, which he also calls home. It was only during the past few years that he saw his property taxes and business license fees begin to rise every year, until his taxes topped those of people in Beverly Hills.Then police began ordering his customers' cars to be towed right out of his parking lot.It was all part of a scam, authorities say, to keep money flowing so officials could pay themselves six-figure salaries and loan themselves millions more that they paid back by cashing in exorbitant amounts of vacation time.

MONTPELIER, Vt. — Sun-kissed and amused by the brouhaha, Vermont Gov. Peter Shumlin returned from a Caribbean getaway with no apologies for keeping his vacation destination a secret or for going there without his security detail.The first-term Democrat’s whereabouts became the subject of speculation and news reports after staff members said they either didn’t know where he was or wouldn’t say after he left Thursday.Adding to the public interest in his whereabouts, Vermont got walloped by its biggest-ever March snowstorm, which dumped more than two feet of snow in places and closed schools and some state government offices.Shumlin revealed Wednesday that he had been to the island of Dominica in the West Indies and that he had purposely asked his staff not to disclose it — so he could be a private citizen and so the island wouldn’t be subjected to the hubbub of a visiting dignitary.