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ByKathleenFoody The Associated Press ATLANTA Georgiaschoolleaders are turning down a new option to arm teachers, arguing that it doesn't make kids any safer and creates more problems than state lawmakers intended to solve. A string of attacks at schools and colleges in California, Ore- gon and Washington state hasn't swayed education officials who say bluntly that they don't believe guns belong in schools. "We could give (teachers) all the training in the world as to how to a shoot a gun, but know- ing when to shoot poses a major problem," said Steve Smith, su- perintendent of the Bibb County School District. "The folks we work with day in and day out don't have that." The provision was part of a sweeping law expands where Georgians can legally carry guns. It takes effect July 1 and also includes bars and churches. GOP lawmakers pushed the bill through during an election year in the largely pro-gun state, giv- ing each district the option of arming teachers or staff — but re- quiring them to set training stan- dards. The provisions were simi- lar to a program that drew no in- terest from South Dakota school districts, and education officials said no districts in Georgia are pursuing it so far either. The new law pulled Georgia education leaders into a Second Amendment discussion they say they never wanted. School officials were quick to express their support for people who legally carry guns. But they were wary at the idea of weap- ons inside school buildings, de- spite the recent attack by an Ore- gon teen who killed a student and then himself at a school and the one-man rampage that left seven people dead in a California col- lege town. At least two Georgia district boards have publicly agreed not to create a program. No- body asked for the power to arm staff, said Mark Scott, superin- tendent of the Houston County School District. Board members in the district were more com- fortable relying on police officers stationed in its middle and high schools and upgrading building security, he said. "The risk far outweighed the benefit," Scott said. Even in conservative Fan- nin County, proud of its hunting and gun culture, school officials haven't embraced the plan. School Superintendent Mark Henson said officials haven't had any con- versations about arming teachers, but will ultimately listen to what the community wants. "This is one we will wring our hands over," Henson said. Georgia isn't the first state to respond to school violence by al- lowing staff to carry guns. Af- ter 20 children and 6 adults died during a 2012 elementary school shooting in Newtown, Connect- icut, at least nine states passed bills in 2013 authorizing armed school personnel, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. Other states had similar programs in place before that shooting. In 2014, at least 14 more states including Georgia in- troduced similar bills. Rep. Alan Powell, a Hartwell Republican who chairs the Geor- gia House of Representatives' committee on public safety, said lawmakers intentionally left the decision to school boards. He ar- gued that weapon-free zones are targets. "You can't control what bad people do," Powell said. "You can only guarantee people their con- stitutional right to protect them- selves." The concept isn't irrational, but it's only appropriate for schools that are located far away from a responding law enforce- ment agency, said Mike Dorn, executive director of the school safety center Safe Havens Inter- national. Dorn said far more often schools face smaller threats than a lone shooter intent on killing many— a student with disabilities who gets hold of a screw driver or a desperate parent caught in a custody battle. "Everyone's so focused on the last event, picturing a 30 or 40-year-old brandishing an AK- 47," Dorn said. EDUCATION Georgiaschoolsresist firearms in classrooms THEASSOCIATEDPRESS Protestors holds signs during a rally in Atlanta against a gun bill the governor is signing, expanding where people with licenses to carry can bring their guns in Georgia. Georgia school leaders are turning down the new option to arm teachers, arguing that it doesn't make kids any safer and creates more problems than state lawmakers intended to solve. News feed WASHINGTON Before a unanimous Supreme Court weighed in, the White House had brushed off claims that President Barack Obama was exceed- ing his executive author- ity as just so much grousing from frustrated partisans. Then, in a 9-0 decision Thursday, the high court ruled that at least in one case Obama had gone too far. For Republicans, the court's decision that Obama violated the Constitution in 2012 when he appointed members to the National La- bor Relations Board with- out Senate confirmation val- idated their argument that Obama has acted against the law when he has taken matters into his own hands. The court's decision comes while Obama is de- termined to use all his exec- utive powers to get around the gridlock of a divided Congress. In the process, he has left his imprint on pol- icies ranging from immi- gration to the environment, from gay rights to worker pay. WASHINGTON, D.C. Courtrulingcomesas Obama's power tested SANDY, UTAH Utah author- ities captured a mountain lion Friday that startled people but didn't hurt any- body at a shopping center in a Salt Lake City suburb. The mountain lion was spotted walking across a street and into Jordan Com- mons in Sandy, Utah, just before 8 a.m., Sandy police Sgt. Dean Carriger said. Officers found the fe- male cat hunkered down at the entrance of a steak- house. Though it was early, there were dozens of people coming and going, many of whom work at a nearby of- fice building, Carriger said. Some were taking pic- tures and videos of the mountain lion while others were unaware the cat was there, he said. "I was scared," Leesha Francis told KUTV. She works at an office tower and saw the cat along with co-worker Maddie Gilbert who said, "It was a little bit shocking." When the cat came run- ning out, an officer fired one shot but missed, Carri- ger said. UTAH Mountain lion scares shoppers at mall WASHINGTON A fear of vot- ing has gripped Democratic leaders in the Senate, slow- ing the chamber's modest productivity this election season to a near halt. With control of the Sen- ate at risk in November, leaders are going to re- markable lengths to pro- tect endangered Democrats from casting tough votes and to deny Republicans legislative victories in the midst of the campaign. The phobia means even biparti- san legislation to boost en- ergy efficiency, manufactur- ing, sportsmen's rights and more could be scuttled. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., now is requiring an elusive 60- vote supermajority to deal with amendments to spend- ing bills, instead of the usual simple majority, a step that makes it much more difficult to put politically sensitive matters into contention. This was a flip from his approach to Obama nominees, when he decided most could be moved ahead with a straight majority instead of the 60 votes needed before. POLITICS Fear of voting grips Senate Democrats HELENA, MONT. A judge who faces suspension for saying a 14-year-old girl appeared "older than her chronological age" during her rapist's sentencing said he believes the penalty is unwarranted and proposed the Montana Supreme Court withdraw it. Judge G. Todd Baugh suggested the court relied on incomplete media re- ports in ordering the 31- day suspension on top of the public censure recom- mended by the state Judi- cial Standards Commission. The sanctions were for com- ments Baugh made last year in sentencing Stacey Ram- bold to 30 days in prison — which the state Supreme Court found too lenient be- fore assigning the case to another judge for re-sen- tencing. He illustrated his point in a response filed Friday to the Supreme Court order by referring to news reports that said the victim com- mitted suicide in 2010 be- fore the case against Ram- bold, her former teacher, was tried. COURTS Judge: Suspension over remarks unwarranted PORTLAND, ORE. Murphy the horse, once a woebe- gone Oregon ranch animal, had to shed 200 pounds to make the Portland police force, and now he has col- lared his first suspect. Murphy, carrying Offi- cer Cassandra Wells, gal- loped six blocks to catch a break-in suspect last week. He kept the suspect trapped next to a building in the Old Town district until officers could cuff him. "He did everything I needed him to do," Wells told The Oregonian. The arrest caps a ripe- for-the-movies story about a horse that weighed in at 1,900 pounds after his owner, in financial distress, sold him off to a Portland officer searching the Inter- net for a new member of the city's popular Mounted Pa- trol Unit. Murphy was undersize at birth, even though he was born three weeks overdue. He was easily distracted and not considered particularly handsome, unlike a younger half-brother who turned out to be a trophy winner. OREGON Slimmed-down police horse collars suspect By Marcia Dunn The Associated Press CAPE CANAVERAL, FLA. Talk about a cosmic caffeine jolt. The International Space Sta- tion is getting a real Italian espresso machine. Astronauts of all nation- alities — but especially the Italians — have long grum- bled about the tepid instant coffee served in pouches and drunk with straws 260 miles above Earth. The pouches and straws aren't going away, but at least the brew will pack some zero-gravity punch. The specially-designed-for- space espresso machine is dubbed ISSpresso — ISS for International Space Station. Its launch early next year from Wallops Island, Virginia, is timed to coincide with the six-month mission of Italy's first female astronaut, Saman- tha Cristoforetti. The 37-year- old fighter pilot and Italian Air Force captain will fly to the space station in Novem- ber aboard a Russian capsule. She'll be the first out-of- this-world barista. "How cool is that?" she said in a tweet earlier this month. "I'll get to operate the first space espresso machine!" Italy's century-old coffee maestro Lavazza teamed up with a Turin-based engineer- ing company, Argotec, and the Italian Space Agency to improve coffee conditions aboard the orbiting outpost. NASA's coffee-loving astro- naut Donald Pettit actually of- fered some ideas for ISSpresso during its design phase. He's a two-time space station res- ident who invented and even patented a zero-gravity cup for sipping his orbital joe versus sucking it with a straw. Cosmic caffeine Astronauts getting an espresso maker THE ASSOCIATED PRESS A prototype of Lavazza's and Argotec's "ISSpresso" machine. The final version of the coffee machine will be the first real Italian espresso machine on The International Space Station. 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