Tales of grief in Boston...Senator propose extending NSA phone records storage...Polluted swim

BOSTON (AP) — The brother and stepfather of a Massachusetts Institute of Technology police officer killed by Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev (joh-HAHR' tsahr-NEYE'-ehv) say his death had a devastating effect on their family. Tsarnaev and his brother, Tamerlan, shot officer Sean Collier as they tried to flee the Boston area three days after the bombings. Tsarnaev was convicted in the bombing and Collier's killing. In the penalty phase of Tsarnaev's trial, the stepfather testified that Collier's mother was so distraught by his death that she couldn't get out of bed for months.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Leading Senate Republicans have introduced a bill that would allow the National Security Agency to continue collecting the calling records of nearly every American. The bill by Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and intelligence committee chairman Richard Burr would bypass Senate committees and reauthorize sections of the Patriot Act. The law is set to expire on June 1.

WASHINGTON (AP) — House Speaker John Boehner (BAY'-nur) says the Obama administration is not cooperating with the House committee investigating the 2012 attacks on Americans in Benghazi, Libya. The Republican-run committee has been trying to get Hillary Rodham Clinton's emails related to the attacks, in which four Americans were killed. Clinton was secretary of state at the time and is now a candidate for the 2016 Democratic presidential nomination. A spokesman for the panel's chairman says the lack of cooperation could delay a final report, possibly until the months before the presidential election.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The National Association of Realtors says homebuyers flooded back into the real estate market last month. The March sales rate topped 5 million for the first time this year, increasing more than 6 percent. At the same time, the supply of homes remains below what economists consider to be a healthy market. And that's pushed median home prices to more than $212,000.

NEW YORK (AP) — A clean-water advocate is planning to make an Earth Day swim in New York City's Gowanus (goh-WAH'-nuhs) Canal, a federal Superfund site. The 19th-century canal in Brooklyn was once a major transportation route, but is now so polluted with industrial and sewer discharges that it must, by law, be cleaned up. Christopher Swain plans to wear a yellow drysuit and other protective gear during his swim.

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