Obamas pay $112,214 in taxes

Obamas pay $112,214 in taxes

WASHINGTON

President Barack Obama made less in 2012 than in any other year since taking office, with about 40 percent of the nearly $609,000 in income that he and first lady Michelle Obama reported coming from book sales.

Obama, who renewed his call for higher taxes on the wealthy in the budget he released Wednesday, paid $112,214 in taxes last year, putting his effective federal tax rate at 18.4 percent. The Obamas donated almost one-quarter of their income to charity, helping to lower their overall tax bill, according to tax returns released by the White House.

Discharge urged for Navy officer

GROTON, Conn.

A former submarine commander who faked his death to end an extramarital affair should be honorably discharged from the Navy, a panel of officers recommended Friday after a daylong hearing in which the officer said he accepted “full and total accountability” for his behavior.

Cmdr. Michael P. Ward II, a married 43-year-old, sent his mistress in Virginia an email in July posing as a fictitious co-worker named Bob and saying Ward had died unexpectedly. Ward was relieved of his duties aboard the USS Pittsburgh in August a week after he’d taken command and has received a letter of reprimand for adultery and other military violations.

Syrian troops widen offensive

AL-QASR, LEBANON

Syrian soldiers backed by warplanes battled rebels for control of strategic hilltop villages near the Lebanese border Friday, as government troops step up counterattacks against opposition forces threatening regime supply lines on the country’s frontiers.

Bomb blasts and shots fired into the air to mourn a fallen Syrian government soldier could be heard on the Lebanese side of the border as fighting raged around Qusair, a contested central Syrian town near a key highway between Damascus and the coast.

The battles there came as government forces launched a second offensive against rebels in the province of Daraa on the Jordanian border, where the opposition has been making steady advances in recent weeks.

Bill would ease marijuana conflict

SEATTLE

A bill introduced in Congress on Friday would fix the conflict between the federal government’s marijuana prohibition and state laws that allow medical or recreational use.

California Republican Rep. Dana Rohrabacher said his bill, which has three Republican and three Democratic sponsors, would ensure that state laws on pot are respected by the feds.

The measure would amend the Controlled Substances Act to make clear that individuals and businesses, including marijuana dispensaries, who comply with state marijuana laws are immune from federal prosecution.

$4M in jewelry stolen from store

FAIRFIELD, Conn.

A gang of thieves made off with more than $4 million in loot from a Fairfield jewelry store after an elaborate heist that began with the kidnapping of two store employees at an apartment more than 40 miles away, Connecticut police said Friday.

Four or five men wearing masks and gloves broke into the apartment in Meriden on Thursday and bound and gagged four people, including the manager and another employee of a Lenox Jewelry store in Fairfield, police said.

The employees were then taken at gunpoint in the manager’s BMW and driven about 40 miles from Meriden to the store in Fairfield, police said.

Associated Press