Texas officer in police pool incident resigns

McKINNEY, Texas - A white police officer recorded on video pushing a black girl to the ground at a North Texas pool party resigned from the police force Tuesday.

Officer David Eric Casebolt's actions were "indefensible," McKinney Police Chief Greg Conley said at a press conference after the officer submitted his resignation. Casebolt was not pressured to quit the force, Conley said.

A teenager at the party posted a video online showing the officer pushing a bikini-clad girl to the ground and brandishing his gun at other black teens when officers responded last Friday to calls about the pool party at a community-owned McKinney swimming pool. The 41-year-old former Texas state trooper and 10-year veteran of the McKinney force was put on administrative leave after the incident. His lawyer, Jane Bishkin of Dallas, confirmed Tuesday he had quit the force.

Conley said a review of the incident video showed that "our policies, our training and our practices do not support his actions."

"Twelve officers responded to the report of fights and a disturbance at the pool party at the Craig Ranch North Community Pool in an affluent area of western McKinney. Eleven performed according to their training," Conley said, while Casebolt did not.

U.S. may dial back on nuclear sanctions

WASHINGTON - The Obama administration may have to backtrack on its promise that it will suspend only nuclear-related economic sanctions on Iran as part of an emerging nuclear agreement, officials and others involved in the process tell The Associated Press.

The problem derives from what was once a strong point of the broad U.S. sanctions effort that many credit with bringing Iran to the negotiating table in the first place.

Administration officials vehemently reject that any backtracking is taking place, but they are lumping sanctions together differently from the way members of Congress and critics of the negotiations separate them.

Under the sanctions developed over decades, hundreds of companies and individuals have been penalized not only for their role in the country's nuclear program but also for ballistic missile research, terrorism, human rights violations and money laundering.

Gay marriage ruling may lead to legal 'chaos'

WASHINGTON - Gay and lesbian couples could face legal chaos if the Supreme Court rules against same-sex marriage in the next few weeks.

Same-sex weddings could come to a halt in many states, depending on a confusing mix of lower-court decisions and the sometimes-contradictory views of state and local officials.

Among the 36 states in which same-sex couples can now marry are 20 in which federal judges invoked the Constitution to strike down marriage bans.

Those rulings would be in conflict with the nation's highest court if the justices uphold the power of states to limit marriage to heterosexual couples. A decision is expected by late June in cases from Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio and Tennessee.

Court temporarily blocks release of 'Angola 3' inmate

ST. FRANCISVILLE, La. - Prison activist Albert Woodfox, the last member of the "Angola Three" inmates held for decades in solitary confinement, will have to wait a bit longer to see if he'll experience the "immediate" and "unconditional" freedom ordered by a federal judge.

A federal appeals court on Tuesday temporarily blocked the release of Woodfox, who spent more than 40 years in isolation after being accused of killing a guard. His supporters say it was retribution for his Black Panther party activism to protest prison conditions.

Tuesday's order came a day after a federal judge ruled that the state can't fairly try Woodfox, now 68, a third time for the killing of a prison guard 43 years ago, and that the "only just remedy" would be setting him free after all the years he spent in "extended lockdown."

- The Associated Press