What’s Brewing: Gay man takes over Apple; judge allows jury to weigh lesser charge for McInerney

Your weekday morning blend from Instant Tea:

1. New Apple CEO Tim Cook may be the most powerful gay man in the world. Even before Cook was named CEO after Steve Jobs’ resignation on Wednesday — and even though he’s not really out — he was No. 1 on Out magazine’s Power 50.

2. A judge ruled Wednesday that the jury can consider a lesser offense of voluntary manslaughter for 17-year-old Brandon McInerney, charged with first-degree murder for fatally shooting gay 15-year-old Lawrence King in 2008. A voluntary manslaughter conviction could result in a sentence of as little as 14 years, while a first-degree murder charge carries a mandatory 50. Closing arguments begin this morning in McInerney’s trial.

3. Even though his killers yelled anti-gay taunts, police aren’t investigating the beating death of a gay Iowa teen as a hate crime. Marcellus Richard Andrews, 19, died Sunday from injuries he suffered in the incident early Friday in Waterloo, Iowa. Authorities say “bad blood” between the parties, not anti-gay hatred, motivated the attack.