Nation briefs 6/17/2015

White House fence jumper sentenced

WASHINGTON -- An Army veteran with mental-health issues who got over the White House fence and inside the executive mansion was sentenced Tuesday to 17 months in prison, and a judge said it means he's likely to be released before Christmas. Omar Gonzalez's arrest in September was an embarrassment to the Secret Service because officers weren't able to stop him until he was inside the East Room of the home. Gonzalez, 43, was found carrying a folding knife in his pants pocket, and investigators found hundreds of rounds of ammunition, a machete, knives and tomahawks in his car parked nearby. Gonzalez told a Secret Service agent after his arrest he wanted to tell the president the atmosphere was collapsing. President Barack Obama and his daughters had left the White House when Gonzalez got inside. The first lady was not home.

Tropical Storm Bill heads into Texas

DALLAS -- Tropical Storm Bill moved slowly over inland Texas on Tuesday, bringing another round of heavy rain to a state weary from deadly floods, evacuations and washed-out roads. The storm came ashore shortly before noon along Matagorda Island with maximum sustained winds of 60 mph before starting to weaken Tuesday afternoon, according to the National Hurricane Center in Miami. Tropical storms typically gather power from the warm waters of the ocean and weaken over land, but meteorologist Victor Murphy of the National Weather Service in Fort Worth said this one could regain strength. The Texas soil remains saturated from last month's historic rainfall.

Secrecy sought with Garner grand jury

NEW YORK -- Lawyers battling over whether the grand-jury record in the chokehold death of an unarmed black man should stay sealed came under questioning by an appeals court Tuesday, with one judge asking whether secrecy was a way of glossing over prosecutors' role in a decision not to charge a white police officer in the case. The four-judge state panel in Brooklyn heard the arguments in the Eric Garner case after the New York Civil Liberties Union and others appealed a March ruling keeping the minutes under seal. A lower-court judge agreed with the Staten Island district attorney's office that lifting the veil of secrecy in grand-jury proceedings could subject witnesses to harassment or retaliation after they were promised anonymity, an argument repeated Tuesday.

U.S. births up after years of decline

NEW YORK -- It appears the baby recession is over: Preliminary figures show U.S. births were up last year for the first time in seven years. About 53,000 more babies were born in 2014 than the year before -- a 1 percent rise. Births were up for nearly every racial and ethnic group, and there were improvements in other key measures. Teen births hit a historic low, and there were fewer cesarean sections and preterm deliveries. The nation has been in a baby recession since 2007 -- a decline experts have blamed mainly on the economy. It looked as if it might have ended in 2013, with preliminary figures showing the number of births rising slightly.

-- From wire reports