2 get prison in N.J. bridge scandal

NEWARK, N.J. Two onetime aides to New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie were sentenced to prison Wednesday for their roles in a conspiracy to close down access lanes to the George Washington Bridge in a brazen and bizarre scheme that used the bridge as a means of political payback against a small-town mayor who refused to endorse Christie for re-election in 2013.

The sentencing capped a 31⁄2-year political drama that irreversibly damaged Christie’s reputation, undermined his presidential campaign and made the so-called Bridgegate scandal the butt of late-night talk show jokes.

For Bridget Anne Kelly, former deputy chief of staff to Christie, and Bill Baroni, Christie’s former deputy executive director at the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, the scandal was more costly. Baroni was sentenced to two years in prison and Kelly 18 months for their roles in the conspiracy, most infamously captured in an email from Kelly that read “Time for some traffic problems in Fort Lee.”

Travel ban: A federal judge in Hawaii is extending his order that blocks President Donald Trump’s travel ban until the state’s lawsuit works its way through the courts. U.S. District Judge Derrick Watson issued the written ruling Wednesday after hearing arguments. Seeking the longer-lasting hold, state Attorney General Douglas Chin argued that the ban’s implied message is like a “neon sign flashing ‘Muslim ban, Muslim ban’ ” that the government didn’t bother to turn off.

School choice: Education Secretary Betsy DeVos on Wednesday accused her predecessor of wasting billions of dollars trying to fix traditional public schools and said that school choice was the way to reform the system. Speaking at the Brookings Institution in Washington, DeVos said that Arne Duncan’s signature $7 billion project targeting failing schools did not produce any significant improvement. That failure, she said, was further proof that it is vital to give American parents the options of charter, private and other schools.