Obama Lays Out Vision -- Pope To Appear -- Dorner Manhunt Results In Standoff -- Senate Panel Approves Hagel -- Shooting Suspects Come Clean -- Senate Reauthorizes VAWA -- Asteroid To Miss Earth
OBAMA URGES ACTION ON EXPANSIVE AGENDA
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| Getty Images |
WASHINGTON—President Barack Obama outlined an ambitious agenda in his State of the Union address Tuesday that included raising the minimum wage, increasing spending on infrastructure, attacking climate change and passing gun-control legislation.
Mr. Obama repeated his earlier calls for reducing the budget deficit through a mix of tax increases and spending cuts. He also said he would support "modest reforms" in programs including Medicare, as long as wealthy Americans contribute as well. And he said he would reduce troop levels in Afghanistan by half over the next year, an acceleration of the U.S. departure and an effort to wind down America's longest war.
POPE TO APPEAR FOR FIRST TIME SINCE BOMBSHELL ANNOUNCEMENT OF RESIGNATION
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| Getty Images |
VATICAN CITY – Pope Benedict XVI is making his first public appearance since his bombshell announcement of his resignation, presiding over his weekly general audience and Ash Wednesday services.
Thousands of people are expected to fill the Vatican audience hall on Wednesday morning for the audience, which will be his second to last public audience before stepping down Feb. 28.
EX-LAPD OFFICER BELIEVED TO BE DEAD
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| KABC-TV PHOTO |
BIG BEAR LAKE, Calif. (AP) — The manhunt for a former Los Angeles police officer suspected of going on a killing spree converged Tuesday on a mountain cabin where authorities believe he barricaded himself inside, engaged in a shootout that killed a deputy and then never emerged as the home went up in flames.
A single gunshot was heard from within, and a law enforcement official told The Associated Press Tuesday evening that officials had found a charred body. Later, San Bernardino County sheriff's spokeswoman Jodi Miller said that the remains had been found inside the burned-out cabin.
SENATE PANEL APPROVES HAGEL NOMINATION
WASHINGTON — After a combative two-hour debate, the Senate Armed Services Committee approved the nomination of former Sen. Chuck Hagel as defense secretary Tuesday, sending it to the full Senate.
But the 14-11 vote, which broke down along partisan lines, was just the beginning of a process this week that seemed certain to further expose a deep rift between Republicans and Democrats over President Barack Obama's foreign policy prerogatives.
At times, the hearing slipped into an accusatory and bitter back-and-forth, with Republicans such as Ted Cruz of Texas going as far as to suggest that Hagel had accepted money from enemy nations such as North Korea, while Democrats like Bill Nelson of Florida said Republicans had undermined the integrity of both Hagel and the committee.
CHICAGO SUSPECTS IN MURDER CONFESS TO SLAYING TEEN
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| Chicago Police Department |
The two men charged in the January shooting death of Chicago teenager Hadiya Pendleton were gang members who were looking for revenge when they opened fire on the 15-year-old and a group of her friends in a South Side park, according to a statement one of them has given to Chicago police.
Michael Ward, 18 and Kenneth Williams, 20 were both charged with first degree murder Monday in the Jan. 29 homicide, which took the life of the honors student who had just days before performed as a majorette in the presidential inauguration parade with her school. Additional charges include attempted murder and aggravated battery with a firearm. At a Tuesday hearing, both were ordered held without bail.
SENATE VOTES TO REAUTHORIZE VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN ACT
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| Associated Press |
The Senate has agreed to reauthorize the Violence Against Women Act, showing bipartisan support for a measure that would revamp domestic violence programs and extend the law’s protections to gays and lesbians and women on tribal reservations.
The 78-to-22 vote puts pressure on the GOP-held House to also act to renew the 19-year-old measure, which Congress has twice reauthorized but which lapsed in 2011 amid partisan disputes over key provisions.
ASTEROID TO MISS EARTH BY "15 MINUTES"
This coming Friday, Feb. 15, asteroid 2012 DA14 will pass within 17,200 miles—or 15 minutes—of Earth, according to scientist Bill Nye.
While the asteroid, which Nye said is comparable in size to the one responsible for the 1908 Tunguska event, is expected to pass harmlessly by, Nye said it is a very close shave relatively speaking.
"This one will miss us by about 15 minutes," Nye explained. "Fifteen minutes difference and that's it."
If it were not for those 15 minutes, life for millions of people could end.
"If such a meteor were to hit Atlanta or New York City or Boston, that would be it for those municipalities," Nye said.
As much as 1,200 square miles would be destroyed, Nye added.
According to Nye, there are approximately 100,000 "Earth-crossing" asteroids and, for the first time in human history, the possibility exists that something could be done should one threaten Earth.
"It is something that we as humans all over the world ought to get involved in," he said.
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