Midday Roundup: Most tax filers will get refunds, IRS says

Tax day. Today is the annual deadline for filing individual income tax returns, and the IRS says about 78 percent of income-tax filers this year qualified for refunds. The average refund is around $2,800. If you think preparing your own taxes is difficult, it might help to know even Albert Einstein had someone else do his taxes for him. His accountant, Leo Mattersdorf, wrote that Einstein actually once said to him, “The hardest thing in the world to understand is income taxes.”

Guilty. Former National Football League standout Aaron Hernandez was found guilty today of premeditated murder in the shooting death of an acquaintance who was dating Hernandez’ fiancée’s sister. The shooting happened in June 2013. Now facing a mandatory life sentence, Hernandez, 25, also is implicated in a 2012 drive-by shooting in Boston. Hernandez was an All-American football player out of the University of Florida who was drafted by the New England Patriots in the fourth round in 2010.

Dashcam drama. With increasing scrutiny of police use of force against the public, police in Marana, Ariz., released video Tuesday of an officer ramming a suspect with a patrol car. Police were trying to apprehend Mario Valencia, whom they believed had robbed a convenience store, set fire to a church, burglarized a home, and stolen a gun from a Walmart store. Valencia allegedly was firing the weapon into the air as he walked down the street. He was seriously injured but not killed in the collision, which police say was necessary to stop him from harming others. But Valencia has retained a lawyer, who claims officers used excessive force against him.

Territory dispute. The attorney general of Guam has attempted to institute same-sex marriage in the U.S. territory. Elizabeth Barrett-Anderson sent a memo today to Guam’s department of public health ordering it to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples after a couple filed a federal lawsuit there. Barrett-Anderson based her reasoning on a ruling by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. But the head of public health said the department won’t issue marriage licenses based solely on a letter from the attorney general. Gov. Eddie Baza Calvo’s office in a statement said, “While this current legal issue is being reviewed, if it is the will of the people of Guam to make same-sex marriage legal on Guam, then the Guam Legislature, the people of Guam’s representatives, can take action to change the law, or a referendum can be held giving the people of Guam a direct voice in this issue.” Guam could be the first U.S. territory to allow gay marriage. A federal judge in Puerto Rico upheld that territory’s law defining marriage as between one man and one woman.

Sentenced. A judge gave three former Atlanta school district administrators the maximum sentence Tuesday for cheating to inflate students’ standardized test scores. The 20-year punishments break down into seven years in prison and 13 years’ probation. Five other co-defendants received lesser sentences.

WORLD Radio’s Albin Sadar and The Associated Press contributed to this report.