In brief: Movie-theater shooter knew what he was doing, psychiatrist says

CENTENNIAL, Colo. – The man who killed 12 moviegoers and wounded scores of others in a suburban Denver theater was mentally ill but legally sane, a court-appointed psychiatrist testified Thursday.

Prosecutors called Dr. William Reid to testify as they meticulously painted a portrait of James Holmes as a calculating if unstable killer – an image that defense attorneys will try to destroy with their own complex narrative.

Holmes pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity. Jurors have the final decision, and Judge Carlos A. Samour Jr. has repeatedly told them they may ignore all the expert testimony if they wish. The case turns on legal subtleties, presenting a challenge for laypeople that was clear as soon as Reid gave his central opinion from the witness stand Thursday.

Reid, who interviewed a medicated Holmes two years after the shooting, declared that whatever mental illness Holmes had, “it did not prevent him from forming intent and knowing the consequences of what he was doing.”

The defense quickly asked to speak to the judge and requested a mistrial, but their arguments weren’t audible.

Samour denied the request.

Reid said that to get a picture of Holmes at the time of the shooting, he spent 300 hours reading reports from other mental health experts who had examined Holmes, talking to the defendant’s friends and parents and watching videotapes of him in jail in the days immediately after the attack.

Alabama, feds agree on prison overhaul

MONTGOMERY, Ala. – An Alabama women’s prison will be overhauled after the U.S. Justice Department said officers there coerced inmates into sex, watched them in showers and bathrooms and organized a New Year’s Eve strip show.

The Department of Justice on Thursday filed a complaint in federal court summarizing alleged abuses at the Julia Tutwiler Prison for Women in Wetumpka, along with an accompanying settlement agreement outlining the steps the state has agreed to take to eliminate the abuses.

Vanita Gupta, the Justice Department’s top civil rights lawyer, said the agreement could serve as a model for other prisons.

“The settlement ultimately aims for a complete transformation, a kind of cultural change inside the institution,” Gupta said in an interview with the Associated Press.

Immigrant youths can get driver’s license

LINCOLN, Neb. – Nebraska ended the nation’s last ban on driving privileges for young people brought into the United States illegally as children, after the Legislature voted Thursday to override a veto from the state’s new Republican governor.

Senators in the one-house Legislature voted 34-10 to override Gov. Pete Ricketts, who has backed the strict policy of his GOP predecessor that left Nebraska as the only state to deny the licenses to the youths granted temporary protection from deportation. Senators said Nebraska youth who have been granted deferred-action status are active contributors to the state’s economy and should not be penalized for their parents’ actions.

“Forty-nine other states recognize this hypocrisy … let’s make it 50,” said Sen. Mike Gloor of Grand Island.

President Barack Obama announced an executive action in 2012 that creates the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, which gives the youths a Social Security number, a two-year work permit and protection from deportation.

Although a few states initially announced that they would deny licenses to those youths, only Arizona and Nebraska ultimately adopted policies to exclude them.

A court blocked Arizona’s law in July, leaving in place only Nebraska’s, which former Gov. Dave Heineman approved three years ago.

Goo-struck beaches close to reopening

MANHATTAN BEACH, Calif. – Crews scouring 7 miles of Southern California beaches had scooped up truckloads of mysterious oily goo Thursday and the area might be clean enough to reopen for the weekend, authorities said.

Workers scooped up about 30 cubic yards of tarry balls and patties that began washing ashore Wednesday.

“There appears to be no new tar balls or anything additional to the amount that we have recovered thus far,” U.S. Coast Guard Capt. Charlene Downey said.

The stretch of coast from Manhattan Beach to Redondo Beach that was closed to swimmers, surfers and beachgoers could reopen today if the sand and sea are given an all-clear, Downey said.

No problems with wildlife had been reported, said Sau Garcia of the California Department of Fish and Wildlife.

U.S. Coast Guard and state officials said samples of tar and water would be analyzed to identify where the material originated, but it could take days to get the results.

There is a refinery and offshore oil tanker terminal nearby but the Coast Guard did not find a sheen from a possible spill after the tar started to accumulate.

Nothing has been ruled out, including last week’s coastal oil spill that created a 10-square-mile slick about 100 miles to the northwest off the Santa Barbara County coast.