National: Court watchers say that the Supreme Court appears to be leaning toward striking down the Defense of Marriage Act that defines marriage as only between a man and a woman. DOMA prevents same-sex spouses legally married in nine states from receiving federal employment benefits or inheritance tax exemptions. Swing-vote Justice Anthony Kennedy warned that DOMA infringes on the right of states to make marital law. Justice Sonia Sotomayor asked, “What gives the federal government the right to be concerned at all about the definition of marriage?”

• Lawyers for James Holmes, the accused Colorado movie theater shooter, have offered a guilty plea to avoid the death penalty for their client. It’s a pre-emptive move. Prosecutors have not even said they would seek death. Holmes is charged with shooting 70 movie viewers, killing 12 of them.
• At least 31 of 166 prisoners at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba are on a hunger strike. The Pentagon says 11 of them are being fed liquid food through tubes. About 100 prisoners have been cleared for release but their departure has been delayed by Congress. Some detainees have been at Gitmo since 2002.
• Navy divers and engineers have begun cutting up the 1300-ton minesweeper stranded on a reef in the Philippines. They started by cutting off the bow. A report says the ship hit the reef because charts of the rocks were off by nine miles.

World: What some are describing as the biggest cyber attack in history has slowed the Internet around the world. An organization called Spamhaus, that fights Internet spam, believes it was attacked by Cyberbunker, a Dutch web host that says just about anything but child porn is OK on the Net. The trouble has affected streaming services like Netflix and there’s some concern that delays could spread to banks and brokerage houses.

• Cyprus has put severe restrictions on access to money in an effort to avoid a cash panic as banks re-open today. Cash withdrawals are limited to 300 Euros a day and credit charges capped at 5,000 Euros a month. Bankers are still expecting to lose about 10% of deposits and possibly much more once restrictions are lifted.

Record Debt: Singer Dionne Warwick, who has sold at least 100 million records since the early 1960s, filed for bankruptcy. She owes $7 million to the IRS and $3 million to the State of California. She is known for such hits as “Anyone Who Had a Heart”, Don’t Make Me Over”, and “Walk On By”.

-30-