“I know that there’s still a long road ahead. There’s going to be many many many more dates ahead. But right now it feels like we can take a breath and kind of actually breathe again.”

The jury reached its unanimous decision in favor of the death penalty after three days of deliberations. The 21-year-old was convicted on 30 federal counts earlier this month. The appeals are expected to take years to work through the courts. 

 

Federal investigators say the Amtrak train that derailed Tuesday in Philadelphia killing eight may have been hit by something. NTSB leading investigator Robert Sumwalt says one of the assisting conductors told him she thinks she heard the engineer say that something hit the train. 

“She reported that approximately three to four minutes after departing Philadelphia, she said she heard the engineer talking to a SEPTA engineer. She recalled that the SEPTA engineer had reported to the train dispatcher that he had either been hit by a rock or shot at.”

Sumwalt interviewed the engineer and two assisting conductors today, but he says the engineer, while cooperative, can’t remember the crash. 

 

One of Osama bin Laden’s most trusted lieutenants has been sentenced to life in prison. As NPR’s Dina Temple-Raston reports, his case is the third major international terrorism case resolved in New York in the past year. 

Khaled al-Fawwaz ran an al-Qaeda terrorist training camp in Kenya, helped to launch the 1998 East Africa embassy bombings and helped to arrange two American television interviews with Osama bin Laden. The announcement of his life sentence could provide more ammunition for critics, who say that the military commissions at Guantanamo Bay aren’t necessary. He’s the third prominent terrorist to be sentenced to life in an American civilian courtroom in the past year. Dina Temple-Raston, NPR News. 

 

A nearly $612bn defense bill passed the House today despite a veto threat by the president. Democrats oppose the policy bill because they say it paves the way to cut domestic programs. A bipartisan budget deal from four years ago places caps on defense and domestic spending, but the defense bill gets around the limits by putting $89bn into an emergency war-fighting fund that’s exempt.  

 

Wall Street was a mixed territory by the closing bell today. The Dow gaining 20 points to close at 18,272. The Nasdaq was down 2 points to close at 5,048. The S&P500 up 1 point at 2,122—that’s a second record close. 

 

This is NPR News. 

 

House Republicans have introduced a two-month extension of the federal highway and mass transit program just weeks before it was scheduled to expire. Congress wants a long-term extension of the program, but can’t agree on how to pay for it. Lawmakers say they hope the short-term extension will be approved next week before Congress leaves for the Memorial Day holiday. Officials worry that without a cash infusion, summer construction projects throughout the country would be suspended. 

 

The new British Parliament has more open gay and lesbian members than any other country in the world. NPR’s Ari Shapiro reports from London they make up about 5% of the lawmakers in Westminster. 

Thirty-two lawmakers in Parliament now openly identify as lesbian, gay or bisexual. That’s a big increase from last time when there were 26. The Liberal Labour Party has 13 out lawmakers. The Conservative Tory Party nearly matches them with 12. The rest are Scottish Nationalists. No other country comes close to these numbers. There are 12 in Sweden and 10 in the Netherlands. At this point the percentage of gays in British Parliament is roughly equal to their relative size in the general population. That’s a milestone that women have not yet reached. Women make up half the population, but less than 1/3 of British lawmakers. Ari Shapiro, NPR News, London. 

 

Blue Bell Creameries says it will lay off more than 1/3 of its workforce after listeria illnesses were linked to its ice cream. That prompted a recall of all of its products. The company says more than 1,400 employees will lose their job. Another 1,400 will be furloughed. Blue Bell Creameries’ production plants remain closed.