The Sunrise News Sampler

House Republican leaders say the House will vote next week on legislation to construct the $8 billion Keystone XL pipeline project to carry crude oil from Canada to refineries along the Texas Gulf coast. President Obama has threatened a veto.

A book written by Alabama native Harper Lee is set to be published and released in July. "Go Set a Watchman" is said to be a sequel to "To Kill a Mockingbird," although it was finished earlier. The novel was finished in the 1950s and rediscovered last fall.

Alabama Attorney General Luther Strange has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to keep a hold on a district judge's decision to allow same-sex marriages in the state until the high court issues a ruling on gay marriage later this year. As of now, same-sex unions could begin in Alabama as soon as next week.

Phyllis W. Odum, the widow of the late Burrell Odum,  is the only candidate who has qualified to run for the City Council's District 1 seat left vacant by the death of her husband. The election is set for March 24.

Officials say 15 people survived with injuries when a Taiwanese flight carrying 58 people banked sharply onto its side, clipped a highway bridge, and careened into a shallow river, killing at least 23 people. Another 20 people are missing.

Bobbi Kristina Brown is now being treated at Emory University Hospital, where she is said to be experiencing seizures. Doctors are working to reduce swelling on her brain but won't know the extent of possible damage until she's taken off prescribed sedatives.

The White House is celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Voting Rights Act by earmarking $50 million to restore key civil rights areas around the nation, including money for the national historical trail from Selma to Montgomery, which commemorates in part the "Bloody Sunday" attack by police on civil rights demonstrators.

Republican Sen. Cam Ward of Alabaster has filed a bill ahead of this year's legislative session to allow Alabama to use the electric chair for executions if the state is unable to get the drugs needed for a lethal injection.

The Tuscaloosa City Board of Education has approved calendars for the next two school years.

Four of five suspects in a weekend kidnapping, burglaries, and a robbery have been taken into custody in Birmingham.