Nation briefs

WASHINGTONLooking to cut deportations

Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson is weighing limiting deportations of immigrants living here illegally who don't have serious criminal records, according to two people with knowledge of his deliberations. The change, if adopted following a review ordered by President Barack Obama, could shield tens of thousands now removed each year solely because they committed repeat immigration violations, such as re-entering the country illegally after having been deported, failing to comply with a deportation order or missing an immigration court date. It would fall short, however, of the sweeping changes sought by activists.

OKLAHOMAStays over death drug secrecy

A sharply divided state Supreme Court put on hold yesterday the executions of two death row inmates who challenged the secrecy surrounding the source of the state's lethal injection drugs. In a 5-4 decision, the court issued the stays one day before Clayton Lockett was scheduled to be executed for the 1999 shooting death of Stephanie Nieman, 19. The second inmate, Charles Warner, was convicted in the 1997 death of his roommate's 11-month-old daughter and was scheduled to die April 29. The ruling halts the executions until the state Supreme Court can hold a hearing on the inmates' lawsuit. States that have the death penalty have been scrambling for substitute drugs or new sources for drugs after major drugmakers, many based in Europe with longtime opposition to the death penalty, stopped selling to prisons and corrections departments.

OHIOMom denies OD at McDonald's

A mother who police say was with her two children when she and her boyfriend overdosed on heroin at a McDonald's play area near Cincinnati pleaded guilty yesterday to child endangerment and could be released from jail in less than two months. Tamica Jeffers, 33, who denied using heroin and said she had had a seizure that day, pleaded guilty in Hamilton County court after reaching a plea agreement with prosecutors. Her children are in state custody in Indiana. Jeffers, of Dillsboro, Ind., wept in court as she denied ever using heroin, saying she had a seizure on March 9 after her boyfriend overdosed on the drug. Police say the boyfriend, Robert Palmer, "essentially died" but an officer was able to revive him.