In brief: Feds to file civil rights suit against Arizona sheriff

Phoenix – Federal authorities said Wednesday that they plan to sue Arizona sheriff Joe Arpaio and his office over allegations of civil rights violations, including the racial profiling of Latinos.

The U.S. Justice Department has been seeking an agreement requiring Arpaio’s office to train officers in how to make constitutional traffic stops, collect data on people arrested in traffic stops and reach out to Latinos to assure them that the department is there to also protect them.

The “notice of intent to file civil action” came Wednesday from Assistant U.S. Attorney General Thomas Perez.

Jury begins deliberations in Hudson family slayings

Chicago – Jurors deliberated late into the night Wednesday without reaching a verdict after sitting through sometimes heated and embittered closing arguments at the Chicago trial of the man accused of slaying Oscar-winner Jennifer Hudson’s mother, brother and 7-year-old nephew.

Prosecutors contend Hudson’s former brother-in-law, William Balfour, killed the family members in October 2008 in an act of vengeance against Hudson’s sister, Julia Hudson, to whom he was married but estranged at the time.

Jurors deliberated for more than four hours Wednesday and were scheduled to return to the courthouse to continue deliberations today.