Evening Edition is an Open Thread
Now with 39 Top Stories.
| From Yahoo News Top Stories |
1 BP stops Gulf oil flow for first time since April
AFP
19 mins ago
| NEW ORLEANS, Louisiana (AFP) – British energy giant BP stopped the oil flowing into the Gulf of Mexico on Thursday for the first time in three months as it began key tests hoping to stem the spill for good.
Shortly after BP engineers shut down the last of three valves on a giant new cap placed on the blown-out well, senior vice president Kent Wells announced no oil was leaking into the seas. “I’m very excited to see no oil flowing into the Gulf of Mexico,” Wells told reporters, but cautioned it was only the start of a testing process set to last 48 hours to analyze the condition of the underground wellbore. |
2 Vatican to fast-track ‘urgent’ priest sex abuse cases
by Catherine Jouault, AFP
1 hr 49 mins ago
| VATICAN CITY (AFP) – The Vatican moved Thursday to fast-track “urgent” priest sex abuse cases — with some to be handled by the pope himself — but drew criticism for sidestepping the issue of turning abusers in to the courts.
Announcing new rules in a bid to fend off accusations of complacency, the Roman Catholic Church said it would accelerate internal investigations and extended by a decade the statute of limitations in abuse cases. The new steps provide for referring “the most grave cases to the Roman pontiff with regard to dismissal from the clerical state,” or defrocking a priest, in a codification of an already existing channel of punishment. |
3 Argentina legalizes gay marriage in first for Latin America
by Indalecio Alvarez, AFP
Thu Jul 15, 1:06 pm ET
| BUENOS AIRES (AFP) – Argentina on Thursday became the first country in Latin America to legalize same-sex marriage, following a landmark Senate vote which stirred controversy in the majority Roman Catholic nation.
The law was backed by the center-left government of President Cristina Kirchner and adopted in a 33-27 vote, with three abstentions, after 15 hours of debate. “It’s a positive step which defends the right of the minority in Argentina,” Kirchner said to Argentine media on Thursday during a visit to China. |
4 Two suicide attacks on Iran mosque kills more than 20
by Farhad Pouladi and Jay Deshmukh, AFP
15 mins ago
| TEHRAN (AFP) – Two suicide bombings at a Shiite mosque in heavily Sunni southeast Iran killed more than 20 people Thursday, including worshippers and members of the Revolutionary Guards, state media reported.
The attack came as people celebrated the birthday of Imam Hussein, grandson of the Muslim Prophet Mohammed, a day also set apart each year to honour the Revolutionary Guards. More than 100 people were wounded in the attacks, which came only minutes apart, at the Jamia mosque in the restive city of Zahedan, capital of southeastern Sistan-Baluchestan province bordering Afghanistan and Pakistan. |
5 Wall Street overhaul clears Senate, heads to Obama
by Olivier Knox, AFP
26 mins ago
| WASHINGTON (AFP) – The US Senate gave final approval Thursday to the most sweeping rewrite of Wall Street rules since the Great Depression of the 1930s, handing President Barack Obama a legacy-shaping political victory.
The largely party-line 60-39 vote sent the 2,300-page legislation, meant to rein in risky big bank practices blamed for the 2008 global economic meltdown, to Obama, who was expected to sign it into law next week. In a sign of deep US political polarization, just three of the Senate’s 41 Republicans joined 55 Democrats and their two independent allies to pass the measure, while one Democrat opposed the bill. |
6 McIlroy seizes two-stroke Open lead with historic 63
by Jim Slater, AFP
55 mins ago
| ST. ANDREWS, Scotland (AFP) – Rory McIlroy fired the lowest first round in British Open history, a nine-under par 63, to seize a two-stroke lead on Thursday and outshine top-ranked Tiger Woods at the famed Old Course.
McIlroy equalled the low round in any major, becoming the 22nd man to fire a major 63, and is only the eighth player in British Open history with a 63, the second at St. Andrews after Englishman Paul Broadhurst in 1990’s third round. Had the 21-year-old from Northern Ireland not missed a five-foot birdie putt at the 17th, the fabled Road Hole that proved day one’s hardest challenge, he would have made even more history at the birthplace of golf. |
7 Cavendish wins 11th Tour stage, Schleck in yellow
by Justin Davis, AFP
Thu Jul 15, 1:57 pm ET
| BOURG-LES-VALENCE, France (AFP) – Britain’s Mark Cavendish dominated a controversial bunch sprint on the 11th stage of the Tour de France on Thursday that led to the disqualification of his team-mate Mark Renshaw.
Luxembourg’s Andy Schleck, of Saxo Bank, retained the yellow jersey with his lead of 41sec on Spain’s Alberto Contador intact after a 184.5km race between Sisteron and here. Cavendish, the winner of six stages in 2009 and four in 2008, has now won three stages in this year’s race, taking his career tally to an impressive 13. |
8 Experts urge US to restrict drug Avandia
AFP
Wed Jul 14, 5:30 pm ET
| WASHINGTON (AFP) – A majority of members of a key advisory committee recommended Wednesday that the US government allow diabetes drug Avandia to stay on the market with greater restrictions on its sale.
Most of the panel’s members agreed that the drug does increase the risk of heart problems, but only 12 of the 33-member expert panel voted to remove GlaxoSmithKline’s one-time blockbuster medication from the market. A bloc of 20 members voted that the drug should stay on the market, with 17 urging greater restrictions such as revisions to the label, special warnings for at-risk patients or requirements for additional physician and patient education. One expert abstained from the vote. |
9 China’s growth slows in second quarter
by Allison Jackson, AFP
Thu Jul 15, 12:17 pm ET
| BEIJING (AFP) – China said Thursday its economic growth had slowed in the second quarter, as massive stimulus spending was scaled back and moves to rein in soaring property prices started to bite.
Gross domestic product maintained its double-digit growth for the third quarter in a row, expanding 10.3 percent in the three months to June, according to the national statistics bureau. The second quarter figure marked a slowdown from the blistering 11.9 percent growth in January-March and 10.7 percent in the last quarter of 2009, after Beijing introduced measures to cool the red-hot economy. |
10 US army hands over last prison in Iraq
by Jacques Clement, AFP
Thu Jul 15, 12:01 pm ET
| BAGHDAD (AFP) – The US army handed control of Camp Cropper prison to Iraqi authorities on Thursday, effectively ending one of the most controversial chapters of the seven-year-long American military occupation.
Cropper, west of Baghdad and now holding 1,600 detainees, opened immediately after the US-led invasion in March 2003 and was built to handle senior members of Saddam Hussein’s toppled Baathist regime. The dictator himself was its most famous inmate between his capture after the invasion and his eventual execution in December 2006. |
11 Wall Street reform clears Congress
By Andy Sullivan and Kevin Drawbaugh, Reuters
38 mins ago
| WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The Congress on Thursday approved the broadest overhaul of financial rules since the Great Depression and sent it to President Barack Obama to sign into law.
By a vote of 60 to 39, the Senate passed a sweeping measure that tightens regulations across the financial industry in an effort to avoid a repeat of the 2007-2009 financial crisis. Obama is expected to sign the bill into law next week. |
12 Iran nuclear scientist returns home from U.S.
By Parisa Hafezi and Ramin Mostafavi, Reuters
Thu Jul 15, 9:50 am ET
| TEHRAN (Reuters) – An Iranian nuclear scientist who says he was abducted by CIA agents a year ago returned home from the United States early on Thursday saying he was pressured to lie about Iran’s nuclear program.
Washington denied kidnapping Shahram Amiri and insisted he had lived freely in the United States. A U.S. official said, however, that the United States, which suspects Iran of secretly developing nuclear weaponry, had obtained information from him. Amiri, 32, repeated claims he was kidnapped in 2009 when on a pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia and transferred to the United States, adding that he was offered $50 million to remain in America and “to spread lies” about Iran’s nuclear work. |
13 U.S. hands over last Iraq jail but keeps 200 inmates
By Michael Christie, Reuters
Thu Jul 15, 11:24 am ET
| BAGHDAD (Reuters) – The U.S. military handed over its last prison in Iraq on Thursday, ending an ignominious chapter of the 2003 U.S. invasion that saw thousands detained without charge and triggered outrage after disclosures of abuse.
At a ceremony in a hangar at Camp Cropper detention center near Baghdad airport, U.S. military officials gave their Iraqi counterparts a giant, symbolic key and said they were confident no prisoner maltreatment would occur under Iraqi supervision. They also acknowledged some past mistakes. |
14 Vatican toughens rules on sexual abuse of children
By Philip Pullella, Reuters
Thu Jul 15, 10:30 am ET
| VATICAN CITY (Reuters) – The Vatican made sweeping revisions on Thursday it its laws on sexual abuse, doubling a statute of limitations for disciplinary action against priests and extending the use of fast-track procedures to defrock them.
In an unexpected move, the Vatican also codified the “attempted ordination of a woman” to the priesthood as one of the most serious crimes against Church law. The changes, the first in nine years, affect Church procedures for defrocking abusive priests. They make some legal procedures which were so far allowed under an ad hoc basis, the global norms to confront the crisis. |
15 BP chokes off the oil leak; now begins the wait
By COLLEEN LONG and HARRY R. WEBER, Associated Press Writers
23 mins ago
| NEW ORLEANS – BP finally choked off the flow of oil into the Gulf of Mexico on Thursday – 85 days and up to 184 million gallons after the crisis unfolded – then began a tense 48 hours of watching to see whether the capped-off well would hold or blow a new leak.
To the relief of millions of people along the Gulf Coast, the big, billowing brown cloud of crude at the bottom of the sea disappeared from the underwater video feed for the first time since the disaster began in April, as BP closed the last of three openings in the 75-ton cap lowered onto the well earlier this week. But the company stopped far short of declaring victory over the biggest offshore oil spill in U.S. history and one of the nation’s worst environmental disasters, a catastrophe that has killed wildlife and threatened the livelihoods of fishermen, restaurateurs, and oil industry workers from Texas to Florida. |
16 Oil hits Louisiana’s largest seabird nesting area
By MATTHEW BROWN, Associated Press Writer
Thu Jul 15, 4:40 am ET
| NEW ORLEANS – Biologists say oil has smeared at least 300-400 pelicans and hundreds of terns in the largest seabird nesting area along the Louisiana coast – marking a sharp and sudden escalation in wildlife harmed by BP’s Gulf of Mexico oil spill.
The finding underscores that official tallies of birds impacted by the spill could be significantly underestimating the scope of damage. The government counts only oiled birds collected for rehabilitation or found dead, for use as evidence in the spill investigation. Oiled birds in the many nesting areas that dot the Gulf coast typically are left in place and not counted in official tallies. |
17 Wall Street crackdown, consumer guards, are passed
By JIM KUHNHENN, Associated Press Writer
35 mins ago
| WASHINGTON – Congress on Thursday passed the stiffest restrictions on banks and Wall Street since the Great Depression, clamping down on lending practices and expanding consumer protections to prevent a repeat of the 2008 meltdown that knocked the economy to its knees.
A year in the making and 22 months after the collapse of Lehman Brothers triggered a worldwide panic in credit and other markets, the bill cleared its final hurdle with a 60-39 Senate vote. It now goes to the White House for President Barack Obama’s signature, expected as early as Wednesday. The law will give the government new powers to break up companies that threaten the economy, create a new agency to guard consumers in their financial transactions and shine a light into shadow financial markets that escaped the oversight of regulators. |
18 Iraqis take charge of last prison in US control
By BARBARA SURK, Associated Press Writer
Thu Jul 15, 2:53 pm ET
| BAGHDAD – Iraq assumed control of the last U.S.-run prison camp in the country on Thursday, a milestone that casts a spotlight on the Iraqi government’s troubled record of caring for inmates amid allegations of torture and overcrowding at Iraqi-run facilities.
The change in command at Camp Cropper – which was renamed Karkh Prison – marks the end of a troubling chapter in the U.S. presence in the country, which was marred in the early years by photographs showing American soldiers abusing inmates at the notorious Abu Ghraib prison. It also raised questions about how well prepared the Iraqis are to handle the detainees. Inmates in Iraqi detention facilities have repeatedly complained about torture and beatings by the police, as well as overcrowding and poor conditions behind bars. Prisoners in U.S. custody, meanwhile, have benefited from reforms in the wake of the 2004 Abu Ghraib scandal. |
19 Lawyer: Some CIA interrogation tactics not OK’d
By PETE YOST, Associated Press Writer
2 hrs 22 mins ago
| WASHINGTON – One of the key Bush administration lawyers in the evolution of the CIA’s interrogation program cast doubt on whether the Justice Department approved some of the harsh steps the agency took to get terrorist suspects to talk.
Former Assistant Attorney General Jay Bybee’s remarks were contained in a transcript sent to the special prosecutor investigating CIA interrogations by House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers, D-Mich., who also made a copy public on Thursday. Interviewed by Judiciary Committee members on May 26, Bybee stressed the limits that he helped set on how far the CIA could go while at the same time acknowledging that his legal advice helped pave the way for tactics such as waterboarding, which evokes the sensation of drowning. |
20 Vatican revises its rules on clerical sex abuse
By NICOLE WINFIELD, Associated Press Writer
1 hr 45 mins ago
| VATICAN CITY – The Vatican revised its in-house rules to deal with clerical sex abuse cases Thursday, targeting priests who molest the mentally disabled as well as children and doubling the statute of limitations for such crimes.
Abuse victims said the rules are little more than administrative housekeeping since they made few substantive changes to current practice, and what is needed are bold new rules to punish bishops who shield pedophiles. Women’s ordination groups criticized the new rules because they included the attempted ordination of women as a “grave crime” subject to the same set of procedures and punishments meted out for sex abuse. |
21 Argentina legalizes gay marriage in historic vote
By MICHAEL WARREN, Associated Press Writer
41 mins ago
| BUENOS AIRES, Argentina – Argentina became the first Latin American nation to legalize gay marriage Thursday, granting same-sex couples all the legal rights, responsibilities and protections that marriage brings to heterosexuals.
The law’s passage – a priority for President Cristina Fernandez’s government – has inspired activists to push for similar laws in other countries, and a wave of gay weddings are expected in Buenos Aires. Some gay business leaders are predicting an economic ripple effect from an increase in tourism among gays and lesbians who will see Argentina as an even more attractive destination. But it also carries political risks for Fernandez and her husband, former President Nestor Kirchner. The vote divided their governing coalition, and while gay rights have strong support in the capital, anti-gay feelings still run strong in much of Argentine society, where the vast majority of people are Roman Catholic. |
22 Abductee or defector, nuke scientist back in Iran
By ADAM GOLDMAN and EILEEN SULLIVAN, Associated Press Writers
1 hr 20 mins ago
| WASHINGTON – An Iranian scientist who defected to the U.S. returned home amid an escalating propaganda war between Tehran and Washington but without $5 million he had been paid for what a U.S. official said was “significant” information about his country’s nuclear programs.
The CIA paid Shahram Amiri a total of $5 million to provide intelligence, but Amiri did not take the money with him, the U.S. official, who was briefed on the case, said Thursday. The funds were barred by U.S. Treasury sanctions that prohibit the flow of American dollars to Iran. “Anything he got is now beyond his reach, thanks to the financial sanctions on Iran,” said the U.S. official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because public discussion of the case was not authorized. “He’s gone, but the money’s still here.” |
23 McIlroy rips through a defenseless Old Course
By DOUG FERGUSON, AP Golf Writer
59 mins ago
| ST. ANDREWS, Scotland – In the 137 years since the British Open first came to St. Andrews, the Old Course rarely has been such a pushover. Rarer still was the score Rory McIlroy delivered.
Whether it was the luck of the draw or his tantalizing talent really didn’t matter. In conditions so calm that not a hair on his considerable mop was out of place, McIlroy set off on an incredible run into the record book Thursday with a 9-under 63 that gave him a two-shot lead. |
24 Manufacturing cools in June as recovery slows
By MARTIN CRUTSINGER and DANIEL WAGNER, AP Business Writers
Thu Jul 15, 2:44 pm ET
| WASHINGTON – New evidence of a slowing economic rebound emerged Thursday in reports that manufacturing activity is slowing after helping drive the early stages of the recovery.
Factory output fell in June, according to a government report on industrial production. It was the sharpest monthly drop in a year. And two regional manufacturing indexes sank this month. Production of automobiles, home-building materials and processed food all fell in June. The data sent stocks falling. |
25 Homes lost to foreclosure on track for 1M in 2010
By ALEX VEIGA, AP Real Estate Writer
1 hr 7 mins ago
| LOS ANGELES – Rosalyn Dalebout rents out space in her home to three tenants, has cut off her phone service and canceled her earthquake and life insurance – all to pay her mortgage every month.
So far, she’s one of the lucky ones. More than 1 million American households are likely to lose their homes to foreclosure this year, as lenders work their way through a huge backlog of borrowers who have fallen behind on their loans. |
26 Dozens of outspoken, popular blogs shut in China
By CARA ANNA, Associated Press Writer
Thu Jul 15, 8:14 am ET
| BEIJING – Dozens of blogs by some of China’s most outspoken users have been abruptly shut down while popular Twitter-like services appear to be the newest target in government efforts to control social networking.
More and more Chinese bloggers are using the newer microblogs as their primary publishing tool, using their brief, punchy message format to chat with one another and promote their longer blog posts. But one of the country’s top four microblog sites is now down for maintenance, and the other three show a “beta” tag as if they are in testing, though they have been operating for months. The companies that run the websites aren’t saying why. “I was writing a new post and suddenly my blog couldn’t open,” lawyer Pu Zhiqiang told The Associated Press. Legal expert Xu Zhiyong said his blog on the popular Sohu Inc. portal was also shut down Wednesday, a day after his Sohu microblog was closed. Both men are well-known for taking on sensitive issues. |
27 Ariz. immigration law hearing ends with no ruling
By JACQUES BILLEAUD, Associated Press Writer
25 mins ago
| PHOENIX – Arizona’s impending immigration law went before a federal judge for the first time Thursday, and attorneys for both sides sparred over who had the right to enforce immigration law: local officials or the federal government.
U.S. District Judge Susan Bolton didn’t rule on whether to block the law from taking effect July 29, or whether to dismiss the lawsuit, one of seven. Another hearing on two other lawsuits – including one filed by the federal government – is set for Tuesday, and the judge has been careful to give no hints on who she might favor. At stake is more than just who can detain illegal immigrants within U.S. borders. If Bolton rules in Arizona’s favor, it opens the door to states taking on issues that have long been the responsibility of the federal government. |
28 NY lawyer gets 10-year term in terrorism case
By TOM HAYS and LARRY NEUMEISTER, Associated Press Writer
37 mins ago
| NEW YORK – A 70-year-old civil rights lawyer was sentenced Thursday to 10 years in prison in a terrorism case by a judge who boosted her original sentence by nearly eight years after concluding she lied to a jury and lacked remorse.
“I’m somewhat stunned,” Lynne Stewart told U.S. District Judge John G. Koeltl after he announced the sentence for her conviction for letting a jailed Egyptian sheik communicate with his radical followers despite restrictions in place to prevent it. The sentence, nearly four times longer than the two-year, four-month sentence she originally received in 2006, left Stewart sobbing in her prison uniform after Koeltl described his reasons for increasing the prison time significantly. |
29 NYC mayor spends $109M on campaign. Opponent? $9M
By SARA KUGLER FRAZIER, Associated Press Writer
38 mins ago
| NEW YORK – All the bills are paid and the price of the most expensive self-financed bid for office in U.S. history – New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s campaign for a third term – totals $109.2 million.
The billionaire mayor, who outspent his Democratic opponent by more than 11 times, filed a final spending report Thursday with the state Board of Elections, showing $866,250 in expenses since the last filing in January. Those costs were leftover bills and expenses associated with shutting down the 2009 campaign, said deputy mayor Howard Wolfson, who was Bloomberg’s campaign spokesman before he joined the administration. |
30 Snack attack: Schools try to get the junk out
By MICHELLE LOCKE, For The Associated Press
2 hrs 11 mins ago
| SAN FRANCISCO – It’s not hard to figure out that stocking school vending machines with sugary sodas and salty, fatty snacks is a bad idea. Replacing those culinary culprits with something more nutritious is tougher.
But a growing number of school districts around the country are trying anyway. “I can’t say enough for what it does for the kids to have the junk out of the machines,” says Patricia Gray, who as former principal of San Francisco’s Balboa High School oversaw a switch to healthier snacks. |
31 School aims to re-teach civics with focus on faith
By JEFFREY McMURRAY, Associated Press Writer
Thu Jul 15, 3:05 pm ET
| GEORGETOWN, Ky. – Call it vacation Bible school, Glenn Beck-style.
Some three dozen kids ages 10 to 15 are spending five nights this week learning what organizers – some with tea party ties – say they won’t hear in school about the Constitution, the Founding Fathers and the role of faith in the birth of the United States. “If we’re going to take our country back, we’ve got to remember where we came from – not only as adults, but we need to teach our children,” said Tim Fairfield, one of the teachers, who wore a three-cornered hat at the opening class of Vacation Liberty School. It’s held in a church basement in Georgetown, a city just north of Lexington that is the site of a major Toyota assembly plant. |
32 Shelters filling up as Gulf pet owners struggle
By VICKI SMITH, Associated Press Writer
Thu Jul 15, 12:40 pm ET
| VIOLET, La. – Double-bunked behind the bars at the overrun St. Bernard Animal Shelter are more victims of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill: shiny-coated Labrador retrievers, long-haired Chihuahuas and a fluffy Shih Tzu.
Among the more typical skinny, stray mutts are healthy, seemingly well-tended dogs whose owners, because of the massive spill, suddenly don’t have the time or money to keep them. “It’s the economy, the uncertainty of the future, for sure,” said shelter director Beth Brewster, who saw 117 owners surrender their animals last month – up from 17 in June 2009. |
33 Calif may dump ‘state rock’ that contains asbestos
By TREVOR HUNNICUTT, Associated Press Writer
Thu Jul 15, 5:19 am ET
| SACRAMENTO, Calif. – In 1965, California lawmakers named serpentine the state rock because it symbolized the Gold Rush years and contained a mineral being put to myriad industrial uses.
Nearly half a century later, attitudes toward that mineral – asbestos – have changed, and one state lawmaker wants serpentine stripped of its status. Health authorities say asbestos, which is no longer mined in the U.S., can cause an incurable cancer called mesothelioma as well as other diseases when its fibers are inhaled. |
34 Ex-officer gets no jail time in NYC bicycle clash
By JENNIFER PELTZ, Associated Press Writer
Wed Jul 14, 9:33 pm ET
| NEW YORK – The clash between the rookie police officer and the bike-riding activist happened in an instant. The fallout lasted for almost two years after video of the Times Square confrontation became a YouTube sensation.
It ended Wednesday as former officer Patrick Pogan’s criminal case was closed without jail time or probation after he was convicted of lying about the 2008 incident. Pogan, 24, fought back tears, hugged relatives and thanked his lawyer and police union after hearing his sentence, technically known as a conditional discharge. |
35 Tribes: Nuclear waste can’t be stored at Hanford
By SHANNON DININNY, Associated Press Writer
Wed Jul 14, 9:16 pm ET
| RICHLAND, Wash. – The Hanford nuclear reservation is already the most contaminated U.S. nuclear site, and federal efforts to find a permanent place for all of the nation’s radioactive waste shouldn’t impede plans to clean it up, people from various backgrounds told a federal commission Wednesday.
The panel, appointed by President Barack Obama to examine U.S. nuclear waste policies, toured the Hanford site, heard from local advocacy groups and Northwest American Indian tribes about the need for cleanup. The visit to south-central Washington was one of several planned around the country by the 15-member Blue Ribbon Commission on America’s Nuclear Future. The group is charged with reviewing U.S. treatment, transportation and disposal of radioactive waste. |
36 Court’s decision offers some clarity on gun laws
By SOPHIA TAREEN, Associated Press Writer
Wed Jul 14, 8:44 pm ET
| CHICAGO – A federal appeals court upheld a ban on gun possession for a domestic violence offender in a ruling that several anti-violence advocates applauded Wednesday for providing some clarity after the U.S. Supreme Court’s recent landmark decision on gun restrictions.
The 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago ruled 10-1 on Tuesday to reinstate a southern Wisconsin man’s conviction for having a gun while on probation for a misdemeanor domestic violence conviction. The decision followed the high court’s ruling last month that made Chicago’s outright handgun ban unenforceable. The court held that Americans have the right to own a gun for self-defense anywhere they live. The Wisconsin case was being closely watched by advocates of gun rights and domestic abuse victims, particularly in light of the Supreme Court’s ruling. While the court signaled some gun restrictions may survive legal challenges, it offered assurances only on laws that bar felons from having guns. |
37 Utah agencies probe alleged illegal immigrant list
By BROCK VERGAKIS, Associated Press Writer
Wed Jul 14, 8:22 pm ET
| SALT LAKE CITY – Investigators examined records at several state agencies Wednesday to find the origins of a list being circulated around Utah that contains the names and personal information of 1,300 purported illegal immigrants and demands that they be deported immediately.
Utah is looking into whether a state worker may have illegally accessed a database containing the sensitive information to help compile a list that has sent chills through the Hispanic community. The dossier – sent fhttp://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100714/ap_on_re_us/us_abortion_missourirom an anonymous group to reporters, state officials and politicians – marks the latest example of hysteria that has spread since Arizona passed its harsh immigration crackdown this year. Immigrants liken the list to a modern-day witch hunt. |
38 3 officers plead not guilty in Katrina shootings
By MARY FOSTER, Associated Press Writer
Wed Jul 14, 6:25 pm ET
| NEW ORLEANS – Three police officers charged in the killing of two unarmed residents on a New Orleans bridge after Hurricane Katrina and a cover-up that followed pleaded not guilty on Wednesday.
Sgts. Robert Gisevius and Kenneth Bowen and Officer Anthony Villavaso stood before a federal magistrate in green prison garb, shackled at the waist and ankles. They will remain jailed at least until a hearing Friday. A tentative trial date is set for Sept. 13. Magistrate Louis Moore Jr. read the counts – 13 against Bowen, 11 against Gisevius and 10 against Villavaso. Former officer Robert Faulcon made his initial court appearance Tuesday in Texas, where he was arrested, but has not entered a plea. |
39 Missouri governor lets abortion law take effect
By DAVID A. LIEB, Associated Press Writer
Wed Jul 14, 5:54 pm ET
| JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. – Missouri abortion clinics will face new mandates to offer women ultrasound images and heartbeats of their fetuses as a result of legislation allowed to become law Wednesday by Gov. Jay Nixon.
The Democratic governor, facing his first decision on an abortion bill, sidestepped a direct endorsement of the new requirements by citing a Missouri constitutional provision allowing bills to become law without the governor’s signature. The legislation is part of a national trend among abortion opponents to encourage women to reconsider their decisions through the use of modern medical technology. |
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