Retired police officer held in theater slaying
WESLEY CHAPEL, Fla. – Authorities say a retired Tampa police officer has been charged with fatally shooting a man during an argument over cellphone use at a Florida theater.
Pasco County Sheriff’s spokeswoman Melanie Snow says that two couples had been watching “Lone Survivor” Monday at a movie theater in Wesley Chapel, north of Tampa. She says 71-year-old Curtis Reeves asked 43-year-old Chad Oulson to stop texting.
Pasco County Sheriff’s spokesman Doug Tobin says that argument led to the shooting. Oulson and his wife, Nichole, were taken to a Tampa-area hospital where he later died. His wife’s injuries weren’t considered life-threatening.
The sheriff’s office says an off-duty Sumter County deputy detained Reeves until police arrived.
Reeves has been charged with second-degree murder.
Negotiators complete $1.1T budget plan
WASHINGTON – Top congressional negotiators Monday night unwrapped a bipartisan $1.1 trillion spending bill that would pay for the operations of government through October and finally put to rest the bitter budget battles of last year.
The bill would avert spending cuts that threatened construction of new aircraft carriers and next-generation Joint Strike Fighters.
It maintains rent subsidies for the poor, awards federal civilian and military workers a 1 percent raise and beefs up security at U.S. embassies across the globe.
The GOP-led House is slated to vote on the measure Wednesday,
Democrats expand probe of traffic jams
TRENTON, N.J. – Democrats in New Jersey sharpened their aim at Republican Gov. Chris Christie on Monday, forming special legislative committees to explore the role politics played in traffic jams last fall and announcing that the investigation has grown into an abuse of power probe.
The intensifying investigation, which threatens to undermine Christie’s second term and his chances at a 2016 presidential run, revealed last week that high-ranking Christie aides and appointees were involved in ordering lane closings in September as apparent political payback that led to massive gridlock in the town of Fort Lee.
A new special Assembly committee, given subpoena power and a special counsel, will be charged with finding out how high the plot went up Christie’s chain of command, said a leading state Democrat, Assembly Majority Leader Lou Greenwald.
Associated Press
