Nation briefs

OKLAHOMAPenalty over Common Core

The Obama administration stripped Oklahoma yesterday of authority to decide how to spend $29 million in education funding because the state abandoned the Common Core academic standards, in a rebuke that a union official said could lead to teacher layoffs. The U.S. Department of Education said it was hitting Oklahoma with the sanction under the No Child Left Behind Act because the state could no longer demonstrate that its standards were preparing students for college and careers. The Republican-dominated State Legislature voted this year to ditch Common Core, a national benchmark in such subjects as math and English that has been adopted in more than 40 states. Oklahoma will revert to weaker standards that were in place in 2010.

MICHIGANRosa Parks items purchased

Hundreds of items that belonged to civil rights icon Rosa Parks and have been sitting unseen for years in a New York warehouse were sold to a foundation run by the son of billionaire investment guru Warren Buffett, the younger Buffett said yesterday. Howard G. Buffett told The Associated Press that his foundation plans to give the items, which include Parks' Presidential Medal of Freedom, to an institute or museum he hasn't yet selected. He said the items belong to the American people. "I'm only trying to do one thing: preserve what's there for the public's benefit," he said. "I thought about doing what Rosa Parks would want. I doubt that she would want to have her stuff sitting in a box with people fighting over them."

VIRGINIANext, closing arguments

An FBI agent testified yesterday that former Gov. Bob McDonnell and his wife spent many nights together in the governor's mansion, a final effort to undercut the defense argument that the couple's failing marriage made a conspiracy implausible. The agent was the final witness jurors heard from in the McDonnells' public corruption trial. They will return this morning for closing arguments before beginning deliberations on 14 charges punishable by up to decades in prison and millions of dollars in fines.