Chicago to pay $5.5M over police torture

Chicago to pay $5.5M over police torture

CHICAGO

Chicago’s leaders took a step Wednesday typically reserved for nations trying to make amends for slavery or genocide, agreeing to pay $5.5 million in reparations to the mostly African-American victims of the city’s notorious police torture scandal and to teach schoolchildren about one of the most-shameful chapters of Chicago’s history.

Chicago already has spent more than $100 million settling and losing lawsuits related to the torture of suspects by detectives under the command of disgraced former police commander Jon Burge from the 1970s through the early 1990s. The city council’s backing of the new ordinance marks the first time a U.S. city has awarded survivors of racially motivated police torture the reparations they are due under international law, according to Amnesty International.

Tornadoes in Okla., Kansas, Nebraska

OKLAHOMA CITY

A tornado grazed Oklahoma City and its suburbs Wednesday, threatening rush-hour drivers and prompting schools to hold children in safe rooms until the danger passed. No injuries were reported.

The twister damaged homes at Bridge Creek and Blanchard, southwest of Oklahoma City, but Wednesday’s storms were far weaker than nature’s worst. Tornadoes also were spotted in rural parts of Kansas and Nebraska. There was no widespread destruction.

Former Speaker of House Wright dies

DALLAS

Former U.S. House Speaker Jim Wright, the longtime Texas Democrat who became the first House speaker in history to be driven out of office in midterm, has died at age 92.

The World War II veteran and author, often praised for his eloquence and oratorical skills, was living in a nursing home when he died early Wednesday, according to the Harveson and Cole funeral home in Fort Worth. Funeral arrangements were pending.

Wright represented a Fort Worth-area congressional district for 34 years, beginning with his election in 1954.

He was the House’s Democratic majority leader for a decade, rising to the speakership in January 1987, to replace Tip O’Neill.

Netanyahu forms coalition government

JERUSALEM

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu completed the formation of a new coalition late Wednesday, putting him at the helm of a hard-line government that appears to be set on a collision course with the U.S. and other key allies.

Netanyahu reached a deal with the nationalist Jewish Home party shortly before a midnight deadline, clinching a slim parliamentary majority and averting an embarrassing scenario that would have forced him from office.

Oil train derails

BISMARCK, N.D.

A train that derailed and caught fire early Wednesday in rural North Dakota was hauling crude from the state’s oil patch, raising questions about whether new state standards intended to reduce the volatility of such shipments are sufficient.

The six tank cars that exploded into flames were a model slated to be phased out or retrofitted by 2020 under a federal rule announced last week.

No injuries were reported in the derailment.

Associated Press