U.S. to examine Colorado prisons
WASHINGTON – Senior U.S. officials say a Defense Department team will be visiting a state and a federal prison in Colorado to assess their possible use as housing for detainees from Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
The move comes as part of the Obama administration’s plan to close the detention center. Officials say that the team will visit the Colorado State Penitentiary in Canon City and a medium-security federal prison in Florence.
The Pentagon team also has surveyed the Disciplinary Barracks at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas and a Navy brig in Charleston, South Carolina.
Education secretary says he is resigning
WASHINGTON – Arne Duncan, who followed President Barack Obama to Washington to serve as his education secretary, announced Friday he will step down following a seven-year tenure marked by a willingness to plunge head-on into the heated debate about the government’s role in education.
Sidestepping a confirmation fight in Congress, Obama tapped John King Jr., a senior Education Department bureaucrat, to run the department while leaving the role of secretary vacant for the remainder of his presidency.
Duncan is one of Obama’s longest-serving Cabinet members.
Associated Press
