10 things you need to know today: February 28, 2015

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1. House passes 1-week stopgap bill to fund Homeland Security
2. Vladimir Putin condemns murder of Russian opposition politician Boris Nemtsov
3. Star Trek’s Leonard Nimoy dies at 83
4. U.S. economic growth slowed to sluggish 2.2 percent in fourth quarter
5. Germany approves Greek bailout extension
6. Eric Holder says U.S. is 'working on' ways to capture 'Jihadi John'
7. Colorado sold nearly 150,000 pounds of marijuana flowers in 2014
8. U.S. seizes Picasso painting stolen from Paris museum
9. Former New York Knicks player Anthony Mason dies at 48
10. Harrison Ford will star in Blade Runner 2

published 28 February 2015

1. House passes 1-week stopgap bill to fund Homeland Security

The U.S. House of Representatives on Friday night passed a one-week stopgap bill to fund Homeland Security, after the Senate had passed the one-week extension earlier in the day. The 357-60 vote averted a shutdown of the department, although a three-week funding extension was rejected by the House earlier on Friday. Congress now has a week to work out a bill to fund the department, which includes the Coast Guard, the Secret Service, customs and emergency management authorities, and the Transportation Security Administration.

Russian President Vladimir Putin condemned the Friday killing of Boris Nemtsov, Russia's former deputy Prime Minister, and he said in a telegram to Nemtsov's mother that "everything will be done so that the organisers and perpetrators of a vile and cynical murder are punished." Nemtsov, 55, was shot four times while walking across a bridge near the Kremlin. The harsh critic of Putin had served under Russia's first post-Soviet President, Boris Yeltsin, in the 1990s. He became a popular figure in opposition politics after Yeltsin's successor, Putin, came to power. Western leaders called for a thorough, transparent investigation into Nemtsov's murder.

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Actor Leonard Nimoy, best known for playing Spock on Star Trek, died on Friday due to complications from end-stage chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. He was 83. A working actor since the early 1950s, Nimoy appeared in everything from Mission: Impossible to Fringe. But his defining role was Spock, the ultra-logical, half human, half Vulcan first introduced on the original Star Trek series in 1966.

A report released on Friday by the Commerce Department showed that the U.S. economy grew at an annual rate of 2.2 percent in the October-December quarter, down from the early estimates which pegged the number at 2.6 percent. Analysts suggested the harsh winter may have been to blame for the lackluster performance, and said they were hopeful that the cycle would not prove to be a continuing trend. Some economists have forecasted a growth rate of 3.1 percent for the year, which would be the best GDP performance since 2005.

On Friday, Germany's lower house of parliament voted, 542 to 32, to approve a four-month extension of Greece's financial bailout. German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schauble had reluctantly urged his colleagues to approve the extension, arguing that failing to do so would cause Germany and Europe "great damage." Under the terms of the agreement, Greece has to reform its labor laws and judiciary to fight corruption and tax evasion.

In an interview with ABC News' Pierre Thomas, Attorney General Eric Holder on Friday said the U.S. is "working on" a plan to either kill or capture the ISIS member known as "Jihadi John," a man with a British accent who appeared to behead hostages in recent ISIS videos. On Thursday, he was identified by several sources as Mohammed Emwazi, a young man from London. While Holder declined to confirm that Emwazi is "Jihadi John," he said the man in the videos will be brought to justice, and held accountable for his "heinous, barbaric acts."

Colorado's Marijuana Enforcement Division released its first annual report Friday on the state's legal marijuana market. In 2014, 4.8 million marijuana edibles and nearly 150,000 pounds of marijuana flowers were sold, the authors concluded. The report noted that marijuana flowers were more popular in the medical market, while edibles did better in the recreational market. The report's findings may influence Colorado's ongoing debate about whether or not to regulate the types of edibles allowed — proponents of limiting the products say some types currently on the market, such as gummy bears, appeal to children and could be accidentally ingested.

U.S. authorities seized a stolen Picasso painting worth millions of dollars and said it would be returned to its home at France's National Museum on Thursday. U.S. Attorney Loretta Lynch filed papers to forfeit the cubist painting, "La Coiffeuse," which was shipped to the U.S. via Federal Express from Belgium in December, and was on its way to a climate-controlled storage facility in Queens. The original shipment had described its contents as a $37 "art craft."

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Sarah Eberspacher is an associate editor at TheWeek.com. She has previously worked as a sports reporter at The Livingston County Daily Press & Argus and The Arizona Republic. She graduated from Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism.