In brief: Two students shot outside Maryland high school

FREDERICK, Md. – Two students were shot outside a public high school in Maryland on Wednesday night while a basketball game was being played inside, police said.

The Frederick High School students were flown to a hospital in Baltimore with injuries not believed to be life-threatening, Frederick police Capt. Richard Hetherington said. He did not know the students’ ages or genders, and he said the shooter or shooters were still at large late Wednesday.

Two junior varsity basketball games were going on at the time of the shooting, said Frederick County public schools spokesman Michael Doerrer.

Officers took about 200 people who were at the game into the school cafeteria, secured the building and questioned witnesses, Hetherington said. He said the students were being released to their parents at a nearby bowling alley.

Texas executes prison escapee

HUNTSVILLE, Texas – A three-time convicted robber who helped engineer the biggest prison break in Texas history was executed Wednesday evening for killing a suburban Dallas police officer while the notorious gang was on the run.

Donald Newbury, 52, became the third member of the group known as the “Texas 7” executed for the fatal shooting of 29-year-old Aubrey Hawkins, an Irving officer who interrupted the fugitives’ robbery of a sporting goods store on Christmas Eve in 2000.

The slaying occurred 11 days after the convicts escaped. The gang was captured a month later in Colorado.

As the lethal dose of pentobarbital took effect, he closed his eyes, then took a deep breath and began snoring. After about a dozen snores, each a bit quieter, he stopped all movement.

He was pronounced dead 11 minutes later, at 6:25 p.m.

Two Obama aides set to step down

WASHINGTON – Two of President Barack Obama’s highest-ranking advisers will step down from their posts in the coming weeks, White House officials said Wednesday, reshuffling the president’s close-knit team for his final two years in office.

Jennifer Palmieri, Obama’s communications director, will step down in the spring and is in line to serve as communications director for Hillary Rodham Clinton’s likely presidential campaign, two Democrats with knowledge of staffing decisions said. Senior adviser Dan Pfeiffer, one of Obama’s longest-serving aides, is also on his way out, but hasn’t announced his future plans.

Amid a string of departures – the White House previously announced that presidential counselor John Podesta will leave in February – Obama will have to fill key vacancies as his presidency enters its final phase.

LANSING, Mich. – Michigan will recognize more than 300 same-sex marriages that were quickly performed in the hours before an appeals court blocked a ruling legalizing the unions, Gov. Rick Snyder announced Wednesday.

The Republican said he wouldn’t appeal a federal court’s ruling last month that required the state to recognize the marriages performed on March 22, 2014. His decision means the ruling takes effect today and could have an impact on the couples’ health insurance coverage, their ability to jointly adopt children and other state benefits.

A different federal judge struck down Michigan’s 2004 voter-approved ban on gay marriage on March 21. Same-sex couples in four counties married the next day, before an appeals court suspended the decision and blocked additional marriages.

Eight couples who married later asked a judge to validate their marriages. On Jan. 15, U.S. District Judge Mark Goldsmith ruled in their favor, saying the couples “acquired a status that state officials may not ignore, absent some compelling interest.” He put his decision on hold for 21 days to give the state time to appeal.

U.S. won’t return Guantanamo

WASHINGTON – The Obama administration on Wednesday ruled out handing over the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay, rejecting a central demand of Cuban President Raul Castro for restoring normal relations between the two countries.

Roberta Jacobson, the top U.S. diplomat for Latin America, also said the U.S. would continue transmitting radio and television broadcasts into Cuba that are opposed by Castro’s government.

While Guantanamo and the broadcasts are irritants, Washington believes neither is likely to stand in the way of U.S. and Cuban embassies being re-established after a half-century interruption. The U.S. is hoping to clinch an agreement with Cuba on embassies in the coming months.

Jacobson’s testimony before a largely hostile House Foreign Affairs Committee came as an Associated Press-GfK poll found broad support in the United States for warmer ties with Cuba.