The U.S. Navy says it’s deploying the USS Theodore Roosevelt and a guided-missile cruiser Normandy to the Gulf of Aden to ensure the vital shipping lanes in the volatile region remain open and safe. The two U.S. warships had been stationed in the Persian Gulf. The decision comes amidst fighting between Yemen’s government and Houthi rebels allied with Iran. A Saudi-led air campaign has been targeting the Houthis. Western governments believe Iran supplies the Houthi militants in Yemen with weapons, which Iran denies. Last week, the UN Security Council imposed an arms embargo on the Houthis. Jackie Northam, NPR News, Washington.

 

A Detroit-area police officer who was shown on video hauling a man out of his car and repeatedly punching him in the head has been charged with assault. Wayne County prosecutor Kym Worthy says while the job of an officer can be dangerous, abuse of authority cannot be tolerated. Worthy outlining the charges against fired officer William Melendez with the Inkster department:   

“Count 1, misconduct in office, which is a five-year felony. Count 2, mistreatment of a prisoner, which is a five-year felony. And the third charge is assault with intent to do great bodily harm less than murder which is a ten-year felony.”

Dashcam video shows Floyd Dent being pulled from his car by two officer during the January 28th stop and shows him being punched by Melendez. A drug charge against Dent will be dropped. 

 

Baltimore police say there’s no evidence that officers physically assaulted a black man who died after being taken into custody there, but NPR’s Jennifer Ludden reports they still don’t know how the man suffered a life-ending injury to a spinal cord.

Officials say shortly after Freddie Gray was arrested a week ago, he asked for an inhaler, but they say an autopsy Monday shows the cause of death was a spinal injury. Because Gray was alone in back of a police transport van, they say they don’t know how that injury happened. Commissioner Anthony Batts says he shares the public’s frustration. 

“We too are part of this community, and we hear, I hear the outrage. I hear the concern and also hear the fear.”

Batts says the officers involved have been suspended. He’s also requiring new training in first aid and CPR. The police investigation will be completed May 1st and sent to state prosecutors. Jennifer Ludden, NPR News. 

 

Multinational conglomerate General Electric is reported to be in early discussions with Wells Fargo about selling its entire $74bn commercial lending business. According to Reuters, individuals familiar with the discussions who asked not to be identified due to the confidential nature of the talks also say GE may be talking with other parties. 

 

Stocks rebounded from their losses at the end of last week. The Dow Jones Industrial Average up 208 points today at 18,034. The Nasdaq gained 62 points. The S&P500 closed up 19 points. 

 

You are listening to NPR News in Washington. 

 

Defense contractor Raytheon is going to pay $1.9bn to purchase cybersecurity company Websense from a private equity firm. The deal through Vista Equity Partners is aimed at making a defense-grid cyber protection program available to commercial companies, while the Massachusetts-based Raytheon is best-known for its military defense systems. 

 

Winners of the Pulitzer Prize were announced today. In addition to awards for journalism of year, Pulitzer has also bestowed on the best books. NPR’s Lynn Neary reports. 

Writer Anthony Doerr's best-selling novel All the Light We Cannot See won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. It’s the story of a young French girl and a German boy during World War II. Doerr told NPR he wanted to look at the war from a new angle. 

“And for me, I just thought I would try to dwell very specifically on these two children, as they move through the war.”

The Non-fiction award went to Elizabeth Kolbert for The Sixth Extinction, which explores how humans have affected the environment. David Kerzer’s The Pope and Mussolini won for biography. Elizabeth Fenn of the History Prize for Encounters at the Heart of the World and poetry award went to Digest by Gregory Pardlo. Lynn Neary, NPR News, Washington. 

 

When it comes to fish pedicures, the nation’s highest court is declining to wade in so to speak. Justices today refusing to hear an appeal from an Arizona salon owner Cindy Vong, who wanted the court to intervene into the dispute over whether she could offer pedicures using fish that nibble dead skin from people’s feet. Local regulators decide to stop her from offering the service saying the fish could not be sanitized between users. The state appeals court rejected Vong’s claim her constitutional due process rights were violated.