3 agents out in wake of Secret Service prostitution scandal
WASHINGTON — Moving swiftly, the Secret Service forced out three agents Wednesday in a prostitution scandal that has embarrassed President Barack Obama. A senior congressman welcomed the move to hold people responsible for the tawdry episode but warned “it’s not over.”
The agency announced three agents are leaving the service even as separate U.S. government investigations were under way.
The Secret Service did not identify the agents being forced out of the government or eight more it said remain on administrative leave. In a statement, it said one supervisor was allowed to retire and another will be fired for cause. A third employee, who was not a supervisor, has resigned.
The agents were implicated in the prostitution scandal in Colombia that also involved about 10 military service members and as many as 20 women. All the Secret Service employees who were involved had their security clearances revoked.
“These are the first steps,” said Rep. Pete King, R-N.Y., chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, which oversees the Secret Service. King said the agency’s director, Mark Sullivan, took employment action against “the three people he believes the case was clearest against.” But King warned: “It’s certainly not over.”
Romney, Obama trade barbs over economy
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Their battle joined, challenger Mitt Romney savaged President Barack Obama’s handling of the economy on Wednesday while the commander in chief commiserated up close with victims of the recession and warned that Republicans would only make matters worse.
“Obama is over his head and swimming in the wrong direction” when it comes to the economy, Romney said in a scorching speech delivered across the street from the football stadium where the president will deliver his Democratic National Convention acceptance speech this summer.
“Even if you like Barack Obama, we can’t afford Barack Obama,” the former Massachusetts governor declared, an evident reference to the president’s ability to transcend at least some of the public’s dissatisfaction with the pace of the recovery. Romney quoted liberally — and mockingly — from Obama’s 2008 campaign pledges to repair the economy.
At the same time, Obama sketched his case for re-election in swing-state Ohio, where he met with unemployed workers who have enrolled in job training programs. Then he spoke at the Lorain County Community College.
“Right now, companies can’t find enough qualified workers for the jobs they need to fill” locally, he said. “So programs like this one are training hundreds of thousands of workers with the skills that companies are looking for. And it’s working.” By contrast, he said, between the years 2000 and 2008, Republican policies produced “the slowest job growth in half a century … and we’ve spent the last three and a half years cleaning up after that mess.”
Retired Illinois couple claims final share of record lottery jackpot
RED BUD, Ill. — Merle Butler routinely laughed off what became the well-worn exchange among locals in Red Bud the instant word swept through the tiny southern Illinois village that a Mega Millions lottery ticket bought there scored a share of a record $656 million jackpot.
“Are you the winner?” someone would ask.
“Yeah, sure, I won it,” the retired Butler played along each time.
Little did anyone in the 3,700-resident town know Butler wasn’t kidding.
On Wednesday, 19 days since that drawing, Butler and his wife, Patricia, finally stepped in front of news cameras and reporters to publicly claiming their $218.6 million stake of the jackpot — the secret the famously private retirees and grandparents had no trouble keeping for so long.
By wire sources
