In the Nation

PENNSYLVANIA

Judge strikes Obama immigration action

A federal judge in Pittsburgh is declaring that President Obama's executive actions on immigration are unconstitutional.

U.S. District Judge Arthur Schwab says Obama's order in November designed to spare millions living illegally in the United States from deportation amounts to "unilateral legislative action." Schwab, a George W. Bush appointee, issued his opinion Tuesday in a criminal case involving a Honduran immigrant in Pittsburgh.

The administration has said the policy does not apply to criminal cases. The Justice Department said Schwab had no basis for his opinion because no one in the case had challenged the president's actions.

Schwab's opinion puts forth some of the same arguments made by Texas and 23 other states in their challenge to Obama's actions on immigration. - AP
MASSACHUSETTS

Parade open to gays

For the first time in its history, Boston's St. Patrick's Day parade will let a gay group participate. The South Boston Allied War Veterans Council, which has long resisted including gay groups and which won a U.S. Supreme Court decision in 1995 upholding its right to ban them, voted 5-4 Monday night to let the group OutVets march next year. - AP

OHIO

Suit over store death The family of a black man fatally shot by a white officer as he held an air rifle in an Ohio Wal-Mart has sued the officers involved, the police chief, Wal-Mart Stores, and the City of Beavercreek. John Crawford III was shot Aug. 5 inside the store in the Dayton suburb. Police responded after a 911 caller reported Crawford was waving what appeared to be a firearm. The family has sought a federal investigation to see if race was a factor. A city official called the shooting justified. - AP