Comedian Wins Backing for Senate

ROCHESTER, Minn. — Al Franken won a resounding endorsement for the U.S. Senate yesterday from Minnesota Democrats, quickly dispatching with concerns about jokes that offended some and promising a tough challenge to Republican Sen. Norm Coleman. Franken’s only competitor, college professor and peace activist Jack Nelson-Pallmeyer, withdrew after Franken passed the necessary 60- percent threshold on the first ballot. Nelson-Pallmeyer proposed that delegates unanimously back Franken, putting him over the top. Nelson-Pallmeyer said he would work for Franken’s election and won’t run in the Democratic primary in September, and for now Franken is facing no opposition. But trial attorney Mike Ciresi, who dropped out of the endorsement race several months ago, has said in recent days that he is considering running in the primary. Republicans have hammered Franken for months on some of the more outrageous comments and writing from his years as a comedian, as well as problems with his personal finances.(AP)

Yale announces big expansion

HARTFORD, Conn. — Yale University has approved plans for its largest expansion in decades, changes that will allow it to raise enrollment by 15 percent, school President Richard Levin announced yesterday. The Yale Corporation authorized creating two new residential colleges that will increase student enrollment to nearly 7,000, Levin said. It will be the New Haven university’s biggest expansion since it began admitting women in 1969. The new colleges are expected to open in 2013. (AP)

4 dead in Florida, 2 deputies wounded

TAMPA, Fla. — Three people were fatally shot in a suburban house yesterday, and a man spotted fleeing the scene was shot and killed after he fired at two sheriff’s deputies pursuing him, authorities said. Two of the victims were found dead in the house with a third dying later at a hospital. Police were searching for a motive. Deputies had caught up to the suspect about a mile and a half from the house when he shot from his vehicle and wounded the deputies, authorities said. (AP)

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