Midday Roundup: Boston readies for marathon bombing trial

Reckoning. The much-anticipated trial of accused Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev will begin Monday after a judge denied a request for delay. U.S. District Judge George A. O’Toole also denied a defense request to move the trial out of Boston. Tsarnaev faces 30 counts for the April 2013 bombing that killed three and left 260 injured. Federal prosecutors are seeking the death penalty. But no prisoners have been executed in Massachusetts for 60 years, and according to a Boston Globe poll conducted last year, Bostonians don’t want Tsarnaev put to death either. Only one-third of the city’s residents supported the death penalty for the accused terrorist. Most said they would prefer to see him spend the rest of his life in prison. Massachusetts doesn’t have the death penalty for state cases.

Recovered. Search teams off the coast of Indonesia pulled 21 bodies from the water today, bringing the total recovered victims of AirAsia flight 8501 to 30. The plane had 162 people on board when it plunged into the Java Sea on Sunday. Searchers still haven’t located the plane’s black boxes, which hopefully will help investigators figure out what went wrong. Some of the victims were still strapped into their seats, according to Indonesian officials. Even without the black boxes, the victims and debris collected so far tell part of the story. Aviation experts say if items from the plane are recovered fully intact, that indicates the flight hit the water in one piece. Mechanical error or a mid-air stall, rather than an explosion or a sudden depressurization, more likely causes such a crash.

Rescued. The Italian coast guard has taken control of another abandoned ship carrying migrants. Smugglers left roughly 450 men, women, and children to fend for themselves after the 50-year-old boat originally designed to transport cattle ran out of gas about 40 miles from the Italian coast. It’s the third such boatload of migrants rescued by Italian officials in the last two weeks. On Wednesday, smugglers abandoned about 800 people, mostly from Syria, and two weeks ago, the coast guard rescued another 850. Smugglers, who make between $1,000 and $2,000 per migrant, are using the new tactic to avoid being captured. They set the autopilot on a crash course for the Italian coast and escape on a smaller boat. The latest group of migrants sailed from Turkey on a vessel from Sierra Leone.

Recuperating. Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., took a spill on New Year’s Day that landed him in the hospital with broken ribs and some broken bones in his face. The soon-to-be former Senate majority leader fell when a piece of exercise equipment he was using broke, according to a spokeswoman. Reid, 75, spent the night in the hospital but is expected to return to Washington as scheduled on Tuesday for the opening of the 114th Congress.

Remembered. Former New York Gov. Mario Cuomo died on New Year’s Day. He was 82. Cuomo was hailed as the long-time leader of liberal Democrats, consistently advocating for progressive social policies. Although he was a practicing Catholic, he vociferously defended abortion, famously telling Church leaders during a speech at Notre Dame University that they shouldn’t expect him to vote against abortion when so many Catholics were having them. Cuomo served three terms as New York’s governor and was widely expected to run for the White House. He never did. His son Andrew, the current New York governor, honored his father during an inaugural speech just hours before he died: “His inspiration, and his legacy, and his experience is what has brought this state to this point. So let’s give him a round of applause.”