Arrow-right Camera
The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

In brief: Now it’s official: Obama re-elected

From Wire Reports

WASHINGTON – Congress made the obvious official on Friday. President Barack Obama has been re-elected.

In a joint session, Congress formally certified that Obama and Vice President Joe Biden were the winners in the November election with 332 electoral votes, well more than the 270 required. Republican Mitt Romney and his running mate, Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin, won 206 votes.

It’s a mostly ceremonial – yet constitutionally necessary – vote that’s mostly intriguing to political junkies and policy wonks. The count Friday lacked the suspense of the drawn-out campaign and election but was steeped in tradition.

Taking turns, the leaders of the Senate Rules Committee and the top members of the House Administration Committee read the results from each state. Biden, who presided over the session, announced the final results to applause from the scattering of House and Senate members in the chamber.

Adoption case goes to Supreme Court

WASHINGTON – The Supreme Court on Friday agreed to review a ruling that sent a South Carolina couple’s adopted Native American daughter back to her biological father in Oklahoma.

The high court agreed to hear an appeal by Matt and Melanie Capobianco over the fate of 3-year-old Veronica. The couple’s adoption of the girl was overturned by the South Carolina Supreme Court, which said the girl must go back to Oklahoma to be with her biological father, Dusten Brown, a member of the Cherokee Nation.

The state court said the federal Indian Child Welfare Act gives custodial preference to the girl’s father. The act, passed in 1978, gives the child’s tribe and family the right to have a say in decisions affecting the child.