CNN news 2008-02-16 加文本

cnn 2008-02-16


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From the cnn Center in Atlanta. I'm Nicole Lapin. Here's a look at what's happening NOW IN THE NEWS.

We now have a name and a face but still no motive for the deadly shooting at Northern Illinois University. A law enforcement source identified the shooter as 27-year-old Steven Kazmierczak. NIU's president says that he actually graduated from the school in 2006 with a degree in sociology. John Peters, the president says that Kazmierczak had a very good academic record and didn't have any previous run-ins with the law. Yet he had recently stopped taking an unspecified medication. Kazmierczak was a graduate student at the University of Illinois at Champaign Urbana. Investigators are now searching his apartment there for any more clues.

And officials meanwhile have now confirmed to cnn the death of a 15-year-old student Lawrence King. He was shot in the back of the head on Tuesday by a fellow student at EO Green Junior High School in Oxnard, California. The alleged shooter was then arrested later that day. He's been charged with attempted murder but we expect that charge to be upgraded.

And in Ohio, a jury has convicted a former Canton police officer of murdering his pregnant girlfriend and their unborn child. Bobby Cutts Jr. now faces a possible death sentence for murdering Jessie Davis and the fetus. During testimony this week, Cutts said that he accidentally killed Davis when he hit her in the throat during a disagreement. He also claimed that he panicked and dumped her body in a park last June. The judge says that the sentencing phase will start in about ten days.

One of the most powerful unions in the country is now backing Senator Barack Obama. The nearly 2 million members of the Services Employees International Union has endorsed him earlier this afternoon. This is expected to give Obama's campaign a boost heading into the delegate heavy votes in Texas and in Ohio next month. The union has pledged $25 million to campaigns in the past 20 years.

Senator John McCain also picking up a really key endorsement. cnn has learnt that former President George H. W. Bush will endorse the Arizona Senator. McCain will likely travel to Texas next week to accept that endorsement.

That's a quick look at what's making news this hour. Stay with cnn for more on those stories and other news of the day.