Attorney Billy Murphy says the Gray family is gratified that an investigation of police pattern and practices will focus on the city police force. But police union President Gene Ryan says the probe should include Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake because she leads all city agencies including the Police Department. Gray family attorney Murphy calls Ryan’s statement odd and reckless.

“It would seem to me that the FOP would have an interest in building harmony instead of sowing the seeds of discord even further.”

Murphy adds the union should seize the opportunity to unite against police brutality. For NPR News, I’m Kenneth Burns in Baltimore. 

 

A senior United Nations official says only a lasting ceasefire in Yemen will enable aid workers to fully address what he termed the country’s monumental humanitarian challenge after six weeks of airstrikes and conflict. Saudi Arabia has offered a five-day pause in hostilities there to begin next week on the condition that Houthi rebels stop fighting. U.N. officials say a military pause would allow U.N. agencies to increase relief for tens of thousands of displaced people. 

 

A law meant to help Illinois ease out of its status as having the nation’s worst-funded pension system has been found unconstitutional. Amanda Vinicky of WUIS reports from Chicago. 

In a unanimous opinion, Illinois Supreme Court Justices struck down the pension overhaul. The reason? The law would have reduced public workers’ benefits despite a clause in the state constitution that says retirement benefits shall not be diminished or impaired. Lawyers for the state had tried to argue that Illinois should be able to break that promise because it’s in a fiscal emergency. But in its ruling, the court says, given that Illinois allowed the bulk of an income tax hike to expire this year, it cannot be said there are no alternative remedies available. The opinion says lawmakers have affectively forced retirees to bear alone burdens which should be borne by the state as a whole. For NPR News, I’m Amanda Vinicky in Chicago. 

 

Labor Department is reporting the April figure showed the U.S. economy added 223,000 non-farm payroll jobs. In the meantime, the unemployment rate compiled through a separate survey was down 0.1% to 5.4%. Most analysts view the number positively; however, economist Diane Swonk at Mesirow Financial says employers are still being conscious. 

“The recovery still being lumpy and that it’s been a bumpy road with titles. And I think that’s important for employers because without certain consistency, they don’t want to hire up and have to fire again.”

The latest drop in the unemployment rate shows the economy near what the Fed considers to be full employment 5 to 5.2%. 

 

Wall Street likes the jobs numbers. The Dow up 267 points today to close at 18,191. The Nasdaq rose 58 points. 

 

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Secretary of State John Kerry says the House should pass the Senate version of the Iran nuclear bill without any changes. Kerry today calling the measure which received overwhelming approval in the Senate a reasonable and acceptable compromise. Speaking alongside Saudi Arabia’s foreign minister, Kerry noted how 150 members of Congress signed a letter supporting Obama’s efforts and said they should be able to negotiate without interference.  

 

Former Guantanamo inmate Canadian Omar Khadr tasting his first day of freedom. He’s released on bail from an Alberta prison where he’d been serving sentences for war crimes. Dan Karpenchuk reports that freedom comes through strict conditions though. 

Despite an unsuccessful appeal by the Canadian government to keep him behind bars, Omar Khadr is now free on bail while he fights his U.S. conviction for war crimes. In his first public comments, Khadr renounced violence and asked for a new start so that people can see who he is as a person and not as a name. He also apologized for the pain he caused to the families of his victims. He was captured in Afghanistan in 2002 after a firefight, in which a U.S. soldier was killed. Khadr then spent ten years in Guantanamo before being repatriated to Canada. The conditions of his new freedom include a curfew, living at the home of his lawyer, no travel outside Alberta and wearing an electronic bracelet. For NPR News, I’m Dan Karpenchuk in Toronto. 

 

In the past the unusual four-year-old dog named Benno says his pet has consumed socks, magnets and marbles, (-- the newsreader seems to have made a mistake here) but this was apparently a whole new level. Owner Larry Brassfield says the Belgium Malinois gobbled down nearly two dozen rounds of live ammunition. Benno had to be rushed to the vet and he threw up several rounds of the ammunition. Seventeen of the rounds were surgically removed. The rest apparently came out on their own.