Washington, D.C.: Independent counsel in Clinton case resigns

Robert Ray resigned Tuesday as the independent counsel overseeing the investigation of President Bill Clinton, a move that frees him to run for the Senate from New Jersey.

Ray submitted a resignation letter to the three federal appeals court judges who appointed him.

“This office has concluded all of our mandates and filed all of our final reports, and have done so in what I believe was a prompt, responsible and cost-effective manner,” he wrote.

Connecticut: Nobel-winning economist dies

James Tobin, a retired Yale University professor who won the 1981 Nobel Prize in economics and was one of the most influential economists of his time, has died at 84.

Tobin, who died Monday in New Haven, served on President John F. Kennedy’s Council of Economic Advisers and won the Nobel for his portfolio theory, which the economist once summed up as: “Don’t put your eggs in one basket.”

Economist and columnist Paul Krugman wrote Tuesday in The New York Times that Tobin was the “intellectual force” behind Kennedy’s tax cut, which is credited with starting the economic boom of the 1960s.

Tobin focused on how economic policies affect people’s lives. He said the government could use fiscal and monetary measures to benefit society.