Midday Roundup: Secret Service drops the ball again

Close quarters. In more bad news for the Secret Service, agents protecting President Barack Obama on a recent visit to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta failed to stop a man with a gun and a criminal record from getting on an elevator with the leader of the free world. The man made agents suspicious because he refused to comply with their orders to stop using his cell phone to record video of the president. After Obama got off the elevator, several agents questioned the man, who was working as a contractor for the CDC’s security team. A background check revealed his criminal history. A CDC supervisor fired him on the spot, at which time the man volunteered to give up his gun. The Secret Service agents had no idea he had a weapon.

Advice for life? Students at Goddard College in Plainfield, Vt., have voted to invite convicted cop-killer Mumia Abu-Jamal to give their commencement address. Abu-Jamal, a member of the Black Panthers who was born Wesley Cook, killed Philadelphia officer Daniel Faulkner in 1981. He was sentenced to death for the crime, but the sentence was later commuted to life in prison. This is not the first time he has given a commencement address. He has spoken at graduation events at Evergreen State College in Washington and Antioch College in Ohio. The speech for Goddard will be pre-recorded and shown to students via video. “Choosing Mumia as their commencement speaker, to me, shows how this newest group of Goddard graduates expresses their freedom to engage and think radically and critically in a world that often sets up barriers to do just that,” Goddard College Interim President Bob Kenny said in a statement.

Bag ban. California Gov. Jerry Brown signed into law a statewide ban on plastic bags yesterday, making it the first state to outlaw the ubiquitous sacks most common at grocery stores. As part of the measure, the state will provide $2 million in loans to plastic bag manufacturers to help them convert to making reusable bags. The ban goes into effect July 1. Stores must only offer paper bags and charge at least 10 cents for them. The ban will extend to convenience stores in 2016. The new law “reduces the torrent of plastic polluting our beaches, parks, and even the vast ocean itself,” Brown said in a statement. “We’re the first to ban these bags, and we won’t be the last.”

Trial coverage. A Colorado judge has banned TV cameras from the trial of James Holmes, the man accused of killing 12 people and wounding dozens more during an attack at an Aurora movie theater in 2012. Instead, the judge will allow the media to use video feed from a camera already installed in the courtroom. The device, mounted on the ceiling, shows the witness stand, a video screen where evidence will be shown, the judge, the defense table and part of the prosecution table. It is normally used to show the proceedings in overflow rooms when needed. The trial is expected to start next year. Holmes faces the death penalty.

Chicken killer. Police in Caruthers, Calif., are looking for an intruder who broke into a Foster Farms chicken shed and killed nearly 1,000 birds with a golf club. The incident happened on Sept. 20, but officials didn’t make it public until yesterday. The company is offering a $5,000 reward for any information leading to the suspect’s arrest. “Whoever did something like this is pretty sick,” Deputy Chris Curtice told the Los Angeles Times. “It would take a long time to do it. …People should be alarmed at something like that.”