WASHINGTON — U.S. prosecutors are looking into the development of Boeing’s 737 Max jets, a person briefed on the matter revealed Monday, the same day French aviation investigators concluded there were “clear similarities” in the crash of an Ethiopian Airlines Max 8 last week and a Lion Air jet in October.

The Justice Department probe will examine the way Boeing was regulated by the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration, said the person, who asked not to be identified because the inquiry is not public.

A federal grand jury in Washington, D.C., sent a subpoena to someone involved in the plane’s development seeking emails, messages and other communications, the source told The Associated Press.

The Wall Street Journal reported on the probe on Sunday and also said the Transportation Department’s inspector general is looking into the plane’s anti-stall system. It quotes unidentified people familiar with both cases.

 

SUPREME COURT AGREES TO HEAR
DEADLY DC SNIPER SHOOTINGS CASE

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Monday agreed to consider Virginia’s plea to reinstate the life-without-parole sentence of a man who as a teenager participated in sniper shootings that terrorized the Washington, D.C., region in 2002.

The justices said they will take up the state’s appeal in the case of Lee Boyd Malvo, who was 17 when he and John Allen Muhammad fatally shot 10 people in Maryland, Virginia and Washington. Malvo was sentenced to life-without-parole terms in Virginia and in Maryland. Muhammad was sentenced to death and was executed in 2009.

Malvo was sentenced to four life terms for crimes he committed in Virginia. But the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit ruled last year that while Malvo’s life-without-parole sentences were legal when they were imposed, Supreme Court decisions that followed altered sentencing requirements for juvenile offenders.

The appeals court judges said a resentencing would determine whether Malvo qualifies as “one of the rare juvenile offenders” who can be sentenced to life without the possibility of parole because his “crimes reflect permanent incorrigibility.” They said if his crimes instead “reflect the transient immaturity of youth,” he is entitled to a sentence short of life without parole.

 

ENERGY COMPANIES LEAD
US STOCK INDEXES SLIGHTLY HIGHER

U.S. stock indexes edged higher in afternoon trading Monday, riding the momentum from a solid rally last week.

Energy stocks led the gainers as crude oil prices rose. Financial and consumer goods stocks also helped lift the market. Those gains outweighed losses in communications and health care sector companies.

Stocks are coming off a strong week, when the S&P 500 resumed its torrid start to the year following a brief, five-day stumble. The index is back to within 3.7 percent of its record high, set in September, after clawing back all of its terrifying drop from December.

One key to the recent rally has been the belief that the Federal Reserve will slow its pace of increases for interest rates. The worry in December was that the central bank would raise rates too fast in the face of a slowing global economy and choke off growth. The Fed will meet to discuss interest-rate policy this week, with an announcement scheduled for Wednesday, but economists expect it to announce no change to rates.