National News at a Glance

Unreserved Hawk Is Confirmed as Top Diplomat, With Votes to Spare

The Senate on Thursday confirmed Mike Pompeo as the nation’s 70th secretary of state, elevating the CIA director and an outspoken foreign policy hawk to be the nation’s top diplomat. Seven members of the Senate Democratic caucus joined a united Republican conference to support Pompeo’s confirmation, 57-42. Shortly after the vote, Pompeo sworn in by Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito. Pompeo then dashed to Joint Base Andrews, where a plane was waiting to fly him to Brussels for a meeting of NATO allies. Over the next three days, he will also travel to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia; Jerusalem; and Amman, Jordan.

Bill Cosby Found Guilty of Sexual Assault in Retrial

A jury found Bill Cosby guilty Thursday of drugging and sexually assaulting a woman at his home 14 years ago, capping the downfall of one of the world’s best-known entertainers and offering a measure of satisfaction to the dozens of women who for years have accused him of similar assaults. On the second day of its deliberations at the Montgomery County Courthouse, the jury convicted Cosby of three counts of aggravated indecent assault against Andrea Constand. Cosby’s case was the first high-profile sexual assault trial to unfold in the aftermath of the #MeToo movement, and many considered the verdict a watershed moment.

Teachers in Arizona and Colorado Walk Out Over Education Funding

Thousands of teachers in Arizona and Colorado walked out of their classrooms Thursday to demand more funding for public schools, the latest surge of a movement that has already swept through three states. Hundreds of public schools were shut down in Arizona because of the walkouts. Widespread teacher protests have in recent months upended daily routines in the conservative-leaning states West Virginia, Oklahoma and Kentucky. But the sight of public workers protesting en masse in the Arizona capital, one of the largest Republican strongholds in the country, and demanding tax increases for more school funding signaled shifts in political winds ahead of this year’s midterm elections.

Genealogy Site Led to the Suspect’s Front Door

The Golden State Killer raped and killed victims all across the state of California in an era when police relied on shoe leather, not cellphone records or big data. But it was technology that got him. The suspect, Joseph James DeAngelo, 72, was arrested by police Tuesday. Investigators, who say DeAngelo committed more than 50 rapes and 12 slayings, used DNA from crime scenes that had been stored all these years and plugged the genetic profile of the suspected assailant into an online genealogy database. They found distant relatives of DeAngelo’s and, despite his years of eluding authorities, traced their DNA to his front door.

E. Coli Outbreak Spans 19 States

A recent spate of infections linked to romaine lettuce is now the largest multistate food-borne E. coli outbreak since 2006, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. At least 84 people were infected in 19 states between mid-March and mid-April, the CDC announced Wednesday. Because of the time it takes for an illness to reach the agency’s attention, illnesses contracted after April 5 may not yet have been reported, the agency said. The tainted lettuce has been sourced to the Yuma, Arizona, region, but until a more specific origin for the outbreak is identified, the CDC recommends avoiding any romaine lettuce from there or from an area of unknown origin.

White House Withdraws Jackson Nomination for VA Chief Amid Criticism

To senior White House aides serving the last three presidents, Dr. Ronny L. Jackson was the war-tested doctor who served in Iraq, helped them cope with their high-pressure jobs and ran his medical staff with the rigor befitting his rank of rear admiral in the Navy. But inside the White House medical unit, Jackson was viewed as a bully and someone who kept sloppy medical records, drank too much and loosely dispensed strong drugs to curry favor with politicians. On Thursday, Jackson withdrew from consideration to join President Donald Trump’s Cabinet as the secretary of veterans affairs after those and other allegations about his behavior cascaded into public view.

Federal Agencies Lost Track of Nearly 1,500 Migrant Children Placed With Sponsors

A Department of Health and Human Services official told members of Congress on Thursday that the agency had lost track of nearly 1,500 migrant children it placed with sponsors in the United States. The children — most of whom are from Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala — were taken into government care after they showed up alone at the Southwest border, fleeing drug cartels, gang violence and domestic abuse, government data shows. From last October to the end of the year, officials at the agency’s Office of Refugee Resettlement tried to reach 7,635 children and their sponsors, but officials at the agency were unable to determine with certainty the whereabouts of 1,475 children.

Trump Distances Himself From Cohen’s Legal Troubles

President Donald Trump distanced himself from his longtime lawyer, Michael Cohen, on Thursday, saying that a federal criminal investigation was focused on Cohen’s business dealings and had nothing to do with his legal representation of the president. The president acknowledged that Cohen represents him in connection with Stephanie Clifford, the pornographic film actress known as Stormy Daniels who has asserted that she had extramarital sexual relations with Trump. Cohen paid Clifford $130,000 shortly before the 2016 presidential election as part of what she calls a “hush agreement.” But Trump said Cohen did nothing wrong in that matter. Cohen handled just “a tiny, tiny little fraction” of his legal work, Trump said.