IN BRIEF
WASHINGTON — As attorney general Loretta Lynch assumes a portfolio that includes fighting terrorism, preventing cyberattacks and dealing with police and race — issues strikingly similar to what she's dealt with as top federal prosecutor for much of New York City and its eastern suburbs.
She inherits a Justice Department consumed by efforts to stop the flow of Islamic State recruits to Syria and prevent destructive computer crimes against American corporations. And she arrives with the department at the center of an ongoing national dialogue on relations between police and minority communities, something she pledged at her confirmation hearing to address.
The Senate's long-delayed confirmation on Thursday of Lynch, 55, makes her the first African-American woman to hold the position.
NEW YORK — In the 1970s, Bruce Jenner was a symbol of American masculinity as an Olympic champion. Nearly 40 years later, in an extraordinary television interview, Jenner told the world that he identifies as a woman and has felt gender confusion since he was a boy.Jenner let his hair down — literally loosening a ponytail and letting his hair flow past his shoulders — at the start of his two-hour interview with ABC News' Diane Sawyer that was televised Friday. “Yes, for all intents and purposes, I am a woman.”For the transgender community, it was a moment as significant as Ellen DeGeneres' coming out as a lesbian was for gays nearly 20 years ago. DeGeneres tweeted support to Jenner, saying the former Olympian was “saving lives and opening minds.”“My whole life has been getting me ready for this,” said Jenner, 65, known to a younger generation as the patriarch of television's omnipresent Kardashian clan. “It's not just the last few years as they've been treating me as a joke.”
ORLANDO, Fla. — Three years after a Florida A&M University drum major died after being hazed, the last defendants facing charges in his death were convicted of manslaughter and felony hazing in a case that shined a light on the violent ritual within the school's famed marching band.The six-member jury deliberated for 2½ hours Friday before reaching a verdict.Benjamin McNamee, 24; Darryl Cearnel, 28; and Aaron Golson, 22, were the final three defendants charged in 26-year-old Robert Champion's death in 2011. Defense attorneys said they will likely appeal.
HONOLULU — A bill that would make Hawaii the first state to raise the legal smoking age to 21 cleared the Legislature on Friday and is headed to the governor.The bill would prevent adolescents from smoking, buying or possessing both traditional and electronic cigarettes.“It's definitely groundbreaking legislation,” said Jessica Yamauchi, executive director of the Coalition for a Tobacco-Free Hawaii, which pushed for the bill. “It's amazing to be the first state in something. That's very exciting for us.”Gov. David Ige hasn't yet decided whether he will sign the bill.
