The chief judge of the District?s federal court issued an unusual order Wednesday, apologizing to the public and the media for not making certain court documents widely available online.

The gesture of transparency by U.S. District Judge Royce C. Lamberth comes at a time when the Obama administration is under scrutiny for an unprecedented number of leak investigations, including one showing that the Justice Department had secretly probed the news-gathering activities of Fox News reporter James Rosen.

    

Chicago?s board of education voted Wednesday to shutter 50 schools, the largest number of schools closed at one time by any major U.S. city.

The board, appointed by Mayor Rahm Emanuel (D), opted to close 49 elementary schools and one high school after the current school year ends. It decided to keep open four additional schools that had been recommended for closure by Chicago Public Schools CEO Barbara Byrd-Bennett.

    

The unmarked truck bearing the secret package bound for Washington picked up a security escort when it hit Connecticut Avenue Wednesday afternoon.

It had made the clandestine 1,100 mile journey almost without incident. Few knew what time it had departed. Few knew its time of arrival. Its 7,500-pound cargo remained intact.

    

LONDON ? Two assailants hacked to death a man reported to be a British soldier on a busy East London street Wednesday afternoon before delivering an apparent Islamic rant to bystanders, leading Prime Minister David Cameron to cut short a diplomatic trip in Paris to deal with what he described as a likely terrorist attack.

    

Harry Reid and Mitch McConnell have been slugging it out on the Senate floor today over Reid's threat to revisit filibuster reform, and the escalating tone suggests this is now very real. Pay close attention to the statement Reid released today about their exchange:

    

A civil liberties group is set to file a motion Thursday asking a special federal court to allow the release of a classified opinion that found the government engaged in unlawful surveillance on Americans.

    

By Thuy Ong SYDNEY (Reuters) - Director Baz Luhrmann brought "The Great Gatsby" home on Wednesday for its Australian premiere, with box-office success for the Sydney-produced film bolstering hopes for the resurgence of the local film industry. The film, set in 1920s New York and starring Leonardo DiCaprio as Jay Gatsby, is one of several international productions recently lured to Australia by federal government tax breaks and grants. The ambitious third adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald's "great American novel" debuted at the Cannes Film Festival last week and has so far raked in $23. ...

By Leah Rozen LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) - Years from now, doctoral candidates are likely to write entire extended theses on Alan Garner, the character so memorably and brilliantly played by Zach Galifianakis in the "Hangover" series. This bearded baby-man - he's a walking Chia Pet - is pure id, one of the most transgressive characters to ever pop up in a mainstream movie. He's annoying, peculiar, perverse, prideful, cuddly and outrageously funny, all rolled into a single squat, hirsute package. Fortunately for "The Hangover Part III," much of it is all about Alan. ...

By Alonso Duralde LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) - Neuropsychologists should consider studying "Fast & Furious 6" (and its equally thrilling predecessor, "Fast Five") for its unique ability to completely bypass the brain's logic center and go right to pushing our pleasure buttons over and over again. Countless action directors aspire to the big, dumb fun that these last few franchise entries have provided, but whereas most of them only get "dumb" and maybe "big" right, director Justin Lin and his crew deliver fun, fun, fun. (And nobody takes anybody's T-Bird away. ...

By Lucas Shaw LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) - The Weinstein Company has acquired the rights to "Passengers," an upcoming sci-fi film starring Keanu Reeves and Reese Witherspoon, according to multiple individuals with knowledge of the deal. The movie won't begin filming for at least a few months, and TWC plans to release it next year. Reeves will star as a passenger on a spacecraft transporting thousands of people to a distant planet. Due to a malfunction in a sleep chamber, he awakens years before anyone else. All alone on the vessel, he decides to wake up another passenger (Witherspoon). ...

By Greg Gilman LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) - Melissa McCarthy allegedly booted a female extra from the set of her directorial debut "Tammy" on Monday after catching the woman mistreating, and possibly even abusing, her child. TMZ reports the unidentified woman reported to work on the Wilmington, N.C., set with a 4 to 5 year-old child in tow and struggled to control the child's behavior. McCarthy's reps did not immediately respond to TheWrap's request for comment. ...

NBCNews.com's political cartoonists take a look back at the past week.

This blog is not dead.

Science editor Alan Boyle's blog: If you can't make it to the South Pacific's eclipse zone to watch the sun turn into a "ring of fire" on Thursday, you can still see the spectacle online.

From ?The Daddle? to ?The Freedom Flask?, Willie Geist offers some really bad ideas for dad this year.