Spaghetti Justice: An Italian court has found Seattle resident Amanda Knox guilty of murder for a second time in a tabloid case that has dragged on since the murder of her room mate Meredith Kercher in 2007.  The presiding judge in Florence sentenced Knox to 28 ½ years in prison and her former boyfriend Rafaelle Sollecito to 25. Knox and Sollecito were found guilty in 2009, but acquitted on appeal in 2011 after they spent four years in prison. Italy’s highest court then sent the case back to the appeals court for retrial, ending in yesterday’s conviction. Knox sat out this round in Seattle, but faces extradition if she loses her appeal.

  Little remembered is that an Ivory Coast national named Rudy Hermann Guede, 20, is already serving 15 years in prison for the murder of Meredith Kercher. His bloody fingerprints had been found on the victim’s pillow.

Feds Seek Death: Federal prosecutors have decided to seek the death penalty against 20-year-old Boston bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev. Two bombs at the Boston Marathon last April killed three people and wounded as many as 260. Seventeen of 30 charges against Tsarnaev, including using a weapon on mass destruction, make him eligible for death.

Button Men: The Air Force announced it has suspended 92 officers, about half the nuclear launch crew, for cheating on proficiency tests at Malmstrom Air Force Base in Montana. The scandal grew out of an investigation into possession of illegal drugs among the missileers. Air Force Secretary Deborah James admitted that repeated testing had created a fear of failure that led to cheating among the missile crews.

Nation: California’s 20-term Democrat Henry Waxman announced he is leaving Congress at the end of the year. He is one of the last of the post-Watergate Democrats elected to Congress and one of the most productive congressmen ever, Waxman had a hand in clean air legislation, generic drugs, AIDS, and Obamacare. Waxman, 74, said his decision to leave was in part the result of legislative gridlock. He told the NY Times, “It’s been frustrating because of the extremism of Tea Party Republicans. Nothing seems to be happening.”

>A Greenville, Kentucky woman and eight of her nine children, ages 6 to 15, died in a fire that broke out in their small wood frame home about 2am yesterday. The father and one 11-year-old daughter escaped. The fire is believed to have been started by an electric baseboard heater.

World: The US says Syria is dragging its feet turning over chemical weapons for destruction. The effort has “seriously languished and stalled,” according to Robert Mikulak, the U.S. representative to the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW). The destruction of weapons is 6-8 weeks behind schedule. The US could still prod Syria with a military strike.

Jersey Shaw: The Newark Star Ledger accuses Gov. Chris Christie of using Hurricane Sandy relief money as a political slush fund to win re-election. An editorial in the paper says Christie personally steered $6 million to the rebuilding of a home for the elderly in Belleville, NJ that had not been hit by the hurricane, in exchange for the Democratic mayor’s endorsement. It fits the pattern of accusations against Christie, that he paid, pressured or outright screwed Democratic leaders to win their endorsement.

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