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Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

In brief: Vincent Gray, D.C. mayor, loses primary election

D.C. Mayoral candidate, and Council Member Muriel Bowser addresses her supporters at her election night watch party to await the Democrate Primary results in Washington, Tuesday, April 1, 2014. (Cliff Owen / Fr170079 Ap)
From Wire Reports

WASHINGTON – Muriel Bowser has won the District of Columbia’s Democratic mayoral primary, defeating incumbent Vincent Gray in a race defined by a scandal involving Gray’s campaign four years ago.

Bowser tapped Tuesday into an electorate that tired of the allegations surrounding Gray, whose associates have been convicted of involvement in an illegal slush fund that aided his 2010 campaign.

Bowser is a D.C. councilwoman and a protege of former Mayor Adrian Fenty, whom Gray defeated in 2010.

She will face independent D.C. Councilman David Catania in what could be an unusually competitive general election in November. The primary winner has gone on to win every general election since the district began electing a mayor 40 years ago.

Boy Scouts removes openly gay leader

SEATTLE – The Boy Scouts of America has removed an openly gay troop leader in Seattle after saying he made an issue out of his sexual orientation.

The organization told Geoff McGrath in a letter Monday that “it has no choice” but to revoke his registration after he told news media he was gay.

McGrath, 49, said Tuesday that he’s stunned. He has been leading Seattle Troop 98 since its application was approved last fall. He plans to continue with his duties.

The Boy Scouts began accepting openly gay youths this year but continues to exclude openly gay adults from leadership positions.

1980s S&L figure Charles Keating dies

PHOENIX – The financier who was disgraced for his role in the costliest savings and loan failure of the 1980s has died. Charles H. Keating Jr. was 90.

A person with direct knowledge of the death confirmed that Keating died but didn’t provide further details.

The collapse of the thrift that Keating’s home construction company bought cost taxpayers $2.6 billion and tarnished the reputations of Arizona Sen. John McCain and four other U.S. senators who became known as the “Keating Five.”

Keating became a national poster boy for corporate greed as the public heard testimony of elderly bondholders who had lost their life savings.

Keating was convicted in state and federal court, but the convictions were thrown out and he agreed to a federal plea deal that freed him after nearly five years in prison.