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telephone calls -- and require judicial review to examine the data -- were met with skepticism from privacy advocates and some lawmakers.
• But Obama has made it nearly impossible for reluctant leaders in Congress to avoid making some changes in the U.S. phone surveillance they have supported for years.
• Obama admitted that he has been torn between how to protect privacy rights and how to protect the U.S. from terror attacks -- what officials have called the main purpose of the spy programs.
• ___

• COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) -- Ohio's latest experience with putting an inmate to death raises new question about the ability of states to carry out executions in constitutional fashion.
• A gasping, snorting Dennis McGuire took 26 minutes to die after the chemicals began flowing Thursday -- the longest execution of the 53 carried out in Ohio since capital punishment resumed 15 years ago, according to an Associated Press analysis.
• McGuire's adult children said it amounted to torture, with the convicted killer's son, also named Dennis, saying: "Nobody deserves to go through that."
• Whether McGuire felt any pain was unclear. His death -- unconsciousness, followed by apparent obstructed breathing -- followed the prediction of one state expert.
• The question may center on states' tolerance for a constitutional method that is difficult to observe, said Doug Berman, an Ohio State University law professor and death penalty expert.
• ___

• LOS ANGELES (AP) -- California is nearly as dry as it's ever been. High water marks rim half-full reservoirs. Cities are rationing water. Clerics are praying for rain. Ranchers are selling cattle, and farmers are fallowing fields.
• Gov. Jerry Brown formally proclaimed a drought Friday, saying California is in the midst of perhaps its worst dry spell in a century. He made the announcement in San Francisco amid increasing pressure from lawmakers and as firefighters battled flare-

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