In brief: Freed by Cuba, Gross gets $3.2M

WASHINGTON – A former subcontractor freed last week after five years in a Cuban jail will receive $3.2 million from the federal government as part of a settlement with the Maryland-based company that employed him at the time of his arrest.

Alan Gross, who was arrested in 2009, was freed Dec. 17 as the U.S. announced it would re-establish diplomatic relations with Cuba after more than a half-century. He had been working there to set up Internet access without local censorship for its small Jewish community, but the Cuban government considered such work subversive and sentenced him to 15 years in prison.

The U.S. Agency for International Development said in a statement Tuesday that an agreement reached in principle last month with Development Alternatives Inc. of Bethesda, Maryland, had been made final this week.

The USAID said the settlement “avoids the cost, delay and risks of further proceedings, and does not constitute an admission of liability by either party.”

George H.W. Bush taken to hospital

HOUSTON – Former President George H.W. Bush has been taken to a Houston hospital after experiencing a shortness of breath.

Spokesman Jim McGrath said in statement that Bush was taken by ambulance to Houston Methodist Hospital on Tuesday evening as a precaution.

McGrath said the 90-year-old Bush “will be held for observation, again as a precaution.”

Bush spent nearly two months in the same hospital and was discharged in January 2013 after treatment for a bronchitis-related cough and other health issues.

Bush, who can no longer use his legs, most recently appeared seated in a wheelchair at an event in November at Texas A&M University with his son, former President George W. Bush.

Sheriff’s lawsuit rejected by judge

WASHINGTON – A federal judge has rejected an Arizona sheriff’s lawsuit seeking to halt President Barack Obama’s plan to spare nearly 5 million people from deportation.

In a decision late Tuesday refusing to rule on the merits of Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s case, U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell said the role of courts is not to engage in policymaking that is better left to the political branches of government.

Howell said the questions raised against the president’s policymaking amount to generalized grievances that are not proper for the judiciary to address.

The sheriff filed a notice of appeal saying that he will pursue the case in the U.S. Court of Appeals.