NEWSMAKERS

Common Sense: The prosecution in the “fatal attraction” murder trial asked jurors Tuesday to use their “God-given common sense” and find Carolyn Warmus guilty of killing her lover’s wife by riddling her with bullets. “The person who killed Betty Jeanne Solomon is . . . Carolyn Warmus,” said prosecutor James McCarty, who painted Warmus, 27, a former elementary school teacher, as being obsessed with her lover, Paul Solomon. McCarty described Warmus as “cunning and opportunistic.”

Who Cares?: A boy got George Bush to clear his agenda so the President would read him a story. For the Great Read Aloud Day, Bush read fairy tales and poems Tuesday to first and second graders at the White House. Bush, noticing that some stories were long, said: “I don’t know if we’ve got time for this. I’ve got a lot of important things.” One little boy, unimpressed with demands on the President’s time, piped up: “Who cares?” Bush complied.

Out of Gas: Writer Norman Mailer can’t get into gear by reading other authors. “It’s too disturbing to read a writer with good style when you’re in the middle of putting your work together. . . . It’s very much like taking your car apart and having all the pieces on the floor when somebody rides by in a Ferrari. Now, you may hear a note in the Ferrari that isn’t that good and say, that motor needs a little turning. But, nonetheless, that car is there and yours is on the floor,” he said in Esquire magazine.

Running Protest: Australia’s athletics authorities said Tuesday that they will seek a ruling from the International Amateur Athletic Federation on whether a runner who had a sex-change procedure is eligible to compete in women’s distance races. Women athletes had threatened protests the next time the runner competed against them. The runner, who has not been identified, is in her late 20s.