Jul
9
Turkey suspects al-Qaida in attack on US consulate
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ISTANBUL, Turkey - Suspected al-Qaida militants armed with pistols and shotguns attacked a police guard post outside the U.S. consulate in Istanbul on Wednesday, sparking a gunbattle that left three attackers and three officers dead.
Turkish and U.S. officials publicly labeled the shooting a terrorist attack and a police official in Istanbul told The Associated Press that authorities suspected al-Qaida was behind it. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to brief journalists on the investigation.
The U.S. ambassador to Turkey and Turkey’s foreign ministry said security around all American diplomatic missions in Turkey had been increased.
Yavuz Erkut Yuksel, a bystander, told CNN-Turk television the attackers emerged from a vehicle and surprised the guard.
“One of them approached a policeman while hiding his gun and shot him in the head,” Yuksel said.
Footage from a security camera at the site showed four armed and bearded men emerging from a car and killing a traffic policeman, then running toward a guard post some 50 yards away as other policemen fired back, the Dogan news agency reported.
The shootout caused panic and scattered people who were waiting in a line for visas. U.S. security personnel went inside the compound because they are not authorized to engage in armed action on Turkish soil, Dogan said.
A fourth policeman and the driver of a towing vehicle were wounded in the attack, Istanbul Gov. Muammer Guler said.
U.S. Ambassador Ross Wilson said the consul general in Istanbul, Sharon Wiener, told him that that consulate staff were “safe and accounted for.”
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Wednesday that she did not know who was responsible and for the attack and she would soon talk with Turkey’s foreign minister.
“Obviously first of all the United States deeply regrets the loss of life and condolences go out to the families of those who were killed,” Rice saida as she traveled to Tbilisi, Georgia. “I know that some policemen were among those who died and we very much appreciate what was clearly a very rapid and proper response from the government to try to deal with the security situation in front of our consulate.”
At least two of the attackers were Turkish nationals, Guler said. Police said they were pursuing at least one attacker who escaped in a car after the attack outside the high-walled consulate compound in the residential Istinye district around 11 a.m.
NTV television, citing police sources, said officials feared the car might be loaded with explosives. Police would not confirm that report.
Interior Minister Besir Atalay said at the scene that there had been no claim of responsibility and police would not reveal the identities of the attackers and their possible affiliations for the sake of the investigation.
Television footage showed four people lying on the ground at the foot of the consulate’s wall before officials removed the bodies.
“The Turkish police responded quickly and effectively. We are deeply grateful for the work that they do to protect our official U.S. government establishments here,” Wilson said. “It is, of course, inappropriate now to speculate on who may have done this or why. It is an obvious act of terrorism. Our countries will stand together and confront this, as we have in the past.”
The secure U.S. consulate building was built after homegrown Islamic militants linked to al-Qaida carried out suicide bombings in 2003 that targeted two synagogues, the British Consulate and a British bank in Istanbul. Those attacks killed 58 people.
“There is no doubt that this is a terrorist attack,” said Guler, who described the three slain policemen as “martyred.”
The shooting coincided with the visit to Istanbul of top American officials involved in the fight against illegal drugs. Michele Leonhart, acting administrator of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration and Scott Burns, deputy director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy, were attending an anti-drug conference in another part of Istanbul Wednesday morning. It was not clear if they had planned to visit the consulate but visiting U.S. delegations almost always visit diplomatic missions.
Istanbul prosecutor Aykut Cengiz Engin said the attackers were armed with pistols and shotguns. Forensic teams were seen examining a shotgun on the ground.
The consulate occupies an imposing structure on a hill in Istinye, a densely residential neighborhood along the Bosporus Strait on the European side of Istanbul.
A reporter for The Associated Press who visited the consulate last week drove unimpeded past an entrance for the public and parked on a residential street two blocks away. The area directly in front of the entrance was kept clear of vehicles.
Several guards stood in separate locations outside the entrance, but weapons were not on display; Turkish civilians seeking visas and other documents sat at cafes across the street.
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Jul
9
WASHINGTON (AFP) - The United States on Wednesday played down concerns about any immediate dangers from Iran’s nuclear program but warned that the world was prepared to confront challenges posed by the Islamic republic’s “provocative” policies.
“While Iran seeks to create the perception of advancement of its nuclear program, real progress has been more modest,” said William Burns, the top official handling Iranian issues at the State Department.
The UN Security Council has imposed several rounds of sanctions on Iran for not suspending its uranium enrichment activities, which world powers fear could be used to make a nuclear weapon.
Washington has been in the forefront of diplomatic efforts to impose the sanctions and lawmakers attending a Congressional hearing in which Burns testified Wednesday persistently raised concerns about Iran’s nuclear threat.
“Iran daily inches closer to the point where it can produce enough weapons-grade uranium to make a nuclear bomb,” warned Howard Berman, the chairman of the House of Representatives foreign affairs panel.
“No one knows precisely when that will happen, but most experts say it will be soon,” he said. “Some predict as early as the end of this year.”
But Burns, under secretary of state for political affairs, said Iran had not yet mastered uranium enrichment efforts, thanks to UN sanctions.
“It is apparent that Iran has not yet perfected enrichment, and as a direct result of UN sanctions, Iran’s ability to procure technology or items of significance to its missile programs, even dual use items, is being impaired,” he told the hearing on the “strategic challenge posed by Iran.”
In addition to limiting Iran’s access to proliferation sensitive technologies and products, Burns said key officials involved in Iran’s procurement activities had been “cut off” from the international financial system and restricted from travel.
Iran’s banks were also being pushed out of their “normal spheres of operation, he said.
Amid international concerns after Iran test-fired a long range missile it said was capable of reaching key US ally Israel, Burns asked the Islamic republic to seriously reconsider its “provocative” policies and move towards a “cooperative and constructive” path.
“Until that time, however, the US and the international community remain committed to meeting the challenges posed by Iran,” he said as lawmakers also highlighted Iran’s missile threat.
Iran on Wednesday test-fired a missile it said is capable of reaching Israel, angering the United States amid growing fears that the standoff over the contested Iranian nuclear drive could lead to war.
Iran insists its nuclear activities are aimed solely at generating energy but the West fears could be aimed at making an atomic bomb.
The United States has never ruled out military action against Iranian atomic facilities.
Berman said that the threat posed to Israel by a nuclear Iran would be “existential.”
“There are optimists who believe that Iran, were it to acquire nuclear arms, could be deterred, just as the Soviets were, but given the martyrdom mentality of the Iranian leadership, one cannot be sure,” he said.
Burns called for “tough minded diplomacy, maximizing pressure on the Iranians at multiple points to drive home the costs of continued defiance of the rest of the world, especially on the nuclear issue.”
Jun
21
WINFIELD, Mo. - The flooding in the Midwest has brought freight traffic on the upper Mississippi to a standstill, stranding more than 100 barges loaded with grain, cement, scrap metal, fertilizer and other products while shippers wait for the water to drop on the Big Muddy.
“We’re basically experiencing total shutdown,” said Larry Daily, president of Alter Barge Line Inc. of Bettendorf, Iowa.
While the bottleneck is costing him and other barge operators tens of thousands of dollars in lost revenue per day, June is a slow shipping period on the river compared with the late-summer harvest, the shutdown is expected to last only a few weeks, and it involves primarily non-perishable goods. So no major damage to the economy is expected.
Among the freight being held up: corn and soybeans headed downstream for New Orleans, where grain is loaded onto ships for export. Construction supplies and petroleum products headed upstream on the Mississippi are not getting through either.
Because of the high water, the Army Corps of Engineers has closed 13 locks along the upper Mississippi since June 12. As of Friday, nine locks remained closed, a roughly 215-mile stretch between Illinois City, Ill., and Winfield, Mo., northwest of St. Louis.
The situation along the Mississippi in Missouri was improving Friday as government forecasters predicted crests sharply below 1993’s record levels. Several communities up and down the Mississippi were still under inundated, however, including Lincoln County, Mo., where 300 to 350 homes were flooded after the water flowed over or through the levees.
In Old Monroe, 45 miles north of St. Louis, retired steelworker Bob Scott watched as the river puddled at the edge of his front yard. But he said he thought the river had stopped rising and his home might come through the flood unscathed.
“It’s kind of harrowing, a lot of sleepless nights, worried about your property,” said Scott, 61. “You work all your life for what little bit you get.”
The locks use huge electric motors to open and close gates and valves, floating the barges up and down to different levels of the river as they make their way up and down the river. When the river floods, the Corps removes the motors to protect them from the water. When the locks shut down, barges can still move between them, but no farther.
Typically, a towboat pushes as many as 15 barges, each of them 12 feet high and 200 feet long, lashed together with steel cable. A single barge carries the equivalent of about 55 tractor-trailers.
Last year, between June 12 and July 1, 180 tows (a “tow” is a towboat and its set of barges) carried more than 2.5 million tons of goods through now-closed Lock 25 at Winfield. During that same period, 166 tows carrying 2.3 million tons of cargo passed through Lock 19, at Keokuk, Iowa, now closed, too.
As of Thursday, eight to 10 tows were stranded or sidelined on the upper part of the Mississippi River, said Lynn Muench, senior vice president at American Waterways Operators, an industry group.
“On a typical day at this time of year, there would be 40 to 60 tows on the upper Mississippi River, and the average tow carries the equivalent of 900 semi-trucks of product,” she said.
Daily, the Iowa barge operator, said that he had 100 barges and two boats stranded at places along the river with such cargo as corn, soybeans, fertilizer, cement, animal feed, scrap metal and wind turbine towers. He estimated his business was losing $25,000 a day, and said that could rise to $40,000 when two more of his boats go idle soon.
The federal Maritime Administration Office said a long shutdown could add millions to the cost of moving grain and other commodities, but since the jam is expected to last only a few weeks, “no significant economic impact is foreseen for the region.” Source
May
18
Police: Gunman wounds 3 outside SoCal church
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LOS ANGELES - A man with a semiautomatic rifle opened fire at a church festival Saturday, wounding his ex-wife and two bystanders before festival-goers grabbed him and held him for police, authorities and a church official said.
Gunfire rang out on a grassy field where the festival was being set up at the St. John Baptist de la Salle Roman Catholic parish shortly before 11 a.m., said police Capt. Steven Ruiz.
“We believe this is an isolated incident, a domestic-violence dispute,” he said.
Father Robert Milbauer, the parish’s pastor, said a woman injured in the attack was the gunman’s ex-wife. The two have a child who attends the school and had been mired in an ongoing dispute, Ruiz said.
The gunman’s identity was not immediately released.
He opened fire with a .22-caliber rifle a few minutes before the church’s annual weekend festival was to begin. Milbauer said about 50 people, mainly church volunteers and their children, were setting up food and game booths and carnival-style rides when the gunfire erupted.
“I was walking toward the festival area to say an opening prayer and I saw them,” Milbauer said of the shooting victims.
The man’s 30-year-old ex-wife was one of the festival workers. She was hospitalized in stable condition, Ruiz said.
A 45-year-old man was shot in the chest and was in critical condition and another man, 47, was in stable condition with a leg wound, Ruiz said.
Their identities were not immediately released.
The man walked away after the shooting but was quickly grabbed by bystanders, one of whom was an off-duty Burbank police officer.
“They managed to overtake him and held him down,” Ruiz said. “I’m told that he was in the process of possibly reloading.”
The festival was shut down for the day, and Milbauer said grief counselors were meeting with witnesses, particularly the children.
The parish plans to go ahead with the festival on Sunday, Milbauer said, in part to help parishioners put the tragedy behind them.
The church and school are located in the city’s Granada Hills area in the San Fernando Valley, an ordinarily peaceful, multiethnic, middle-class residential neighborhood not far from the historic San Fernando Mission.
The annual festival is held to raise money for the school’s building fund.
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May
18
Kennedy hospitalized after seizure; not a stroke
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BOSTON - Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, the lone surviving son in a famed political family who helped define national Democratic Party politics, suffered a seizure at his Cape Cod home on Saturday and was recovering in good spirits at a Boston hospital.
Kennedy, 76, did not suffer a stroke and “is not in any immediate danger,” said Dr. Larry Ronan, the senator’s primary care physician.
“He’s resting comfortably, and watching the Red Sox game with his family,” Ronan said. “Over the next couple of days, Senator Kennedy will undergo further evaluation to determine the cause of the seizure, and a course of treatment will be determined at that time.”
Kennedy’s wife, Victoria, three of his children and his niece Caroline Kennedy were among those with him at the hospital.
On Saturday morning, Kennedy felt ill at his home and went to Cape Cod Hospital. After a discussion with his doctors in Boston, the senator was flown to Massachusetts General Hospital.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said he spoke to Kennedy’s wife in the afternoon and was told “his condition is not life-threatening, but serious.”
“But the one thing I can say, if there ever was a fighter, anyone who stood for what we as Americans, we as Democrats, stand for, it’s Ted Kennedy,” Reid said addressing the Nevada Democratic Convention in Reno.
In October, Kennedy had surgery to repair a nearly complete blockage in a major neck artery. The discovery was made during a routine examination of a decades-old back injury.
The hourlong procedure on his left carotid artery - a main supplier of blood to the face and brain - was performed at Massachusetts General. This type of operation is performed on more than 180,000 people a year to prevent a stroke.
The doctor who operated on Kennedy said at the time that surgery is reserved for those with more than 70 percent blockage, and Kennedy had “a very high-grade blockage.”
Distinguishing between a seizure and a transient ischemic attack, TIA, often called a mini-stroke, can sometimes be difficult.
Seizures are little electrical storms in the brain. They tend to be brief; an occasional one can happen to anyone even without a prior history of seizures, especially if there has been some prior brain trauma.
A stroke is either ischemic - a clog in a blood vessel - or hemorrhagic, bleeding in the brain. Hemorrhagic ones are very rare. Kennedy had the carotid artery surgery to try to prevent the ischemic type. A stroke kills brain tissue; how much depends on how big it is and how long it lasts. Some people show no lasting effects; others can be partly paralyzed on one side or somewhere in-between.
“Sen. Kennedy was at high risk because he had surgery for an artery in his neck,” said Dr. Wendy Wright, The Emory Clinic, Assistant Professor, Departments of Neurology and Nuerosurgery,
But she said there are a lot of things that can cause seizures, such as an infection or medication.
“Certain medications are known to cause seizures. A stroke can cause a seizure, a brain tumor or a head injury, or something in the brain itself,” Wright said. “Common symptoms that we know about are falling on the ground, shaking and having confusion.”
Kennedy, the second-longest serving member of the Senate, was elected in 1962, filling out the term won by his brother, John F. Kennedy.
Kennedy eldest brother, Joseph, was killed in a World War II airplane crash. President John Kennedy was assassinated in 1963 and his brother Robert was assassinated in 1968.
Kennedy is active for his age, maintaining an aggressive schedule on Capitol Hill and across Massachusetts.
He has been vocal in both his opposition to the Iraq war and support for Democratic presidential contender Barack Obama, who is trying to become the first senator elected to the White House since John F. Kennedy.
Kennedy made several campaign appearances for the Illinois senator in February, and most recently another in April.
Always concerned about maintaining his health, Kennedy regularly consults with a battery of Massachusetts General doctors.
Still, he maintains homes in both Boston and Washington and attends not only official events, but numerous others recognizing his family’s political history.
Just last week, he and Caroline Kennedy awarded the annual “Profiles in Courage” award commemorating President Kennedy. And Friday, he attended a ribbon cutting at the New Bedford Whaling National Historical Park.
He was preparing to host the annual Best Buddies Challenge event on Saturday afternoon, a fundraiser for the Best Buddies organization founded by Anthony Kennedy Shriver that helps people with intellectual disabilities. The event attracted celebrities, including New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady and Olympian Carl Lewis.
California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and his wife, Maria Shriver, Kennedy’s niece, said they appreciated all the messages of care they had received for the senator.
“It’s always a comfort to the family to know that Sen. Kennedy is in the prayers of millions,” their statement said.
Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts, who went to the hospital, New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton and Obama said were offering their prayers for his quick recovery.
Obama, beginning a tour of hospitals in Eugene, Ore., told reporters that he had been in touch with the senator’s family. He said, “We are going to be rooting for him. I insist on being optimistic about how it’s going to turn out.”
A man walking by Massachusetts General was startled by the news when he asked about the reason for the large media presence. “Ted? Is he all right? Jeez, I’m taken aback. I just saw him on television yesterday,” said Jerry Leonard, 76.
“He’s a Kennedy. His name is synonymous with this area,” the retired bartender said. “I’m a Bostonian, too, and he’s done a lot for us around here and for the senior citizens in particular.”
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May
15
People over 60 urged to get one-time shingles shot
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ATLANTA - People 60 and older should get a one-time shingles shot that can help prevent the painful rash, U.S. health officials are recommending. There’s a 50-50 chance the shot will prevent shingles for those 60 and up, though the odds get worse the older you get. But shingles can be severe for some people, and the government believes it’s worth the $160-per-dose cost.
Caused by the same virus that causes chickenpox, shingles is a blistering skin rash most common in older people. It usually ends after four weeks, but one in five victims develop long-term nerve pain. Other complications include scarring and loss of vision or hearing.
The chickenpox infects about 95 percent of Americans, although some suffer mild illness and may not know they’ve had it. As many as one in three infected people develop shingles later in life.
Even those who have already had shingles should get the shot if they are over 60, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said.
The vaccination was recommended by an influential government advisory panel in 2006. The CDC officially adopted the recommendation this week.
The announcement should encourage more doctors to give the shot and lead more private insurers to pay for it, said Kelley Dougherty of Merck & Co., the drug company that makes the only available shingles vaccine. About 2.5 million doses have already been distributed.
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May
15
California’s top court legalizes gay marriage
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SAN FRANCISCO - California’s Supreme Court declared gay couples in the nation’s biggest state can marry - a monumental but perhaps short-lived victory for the gay rights movement Thursday that was greeted with tears, hugs, kisses and at least one instant proposal of matrimony.
Same-sex couples could tie the knot in as little as a month. But the window could close soon after - religious and social conservatives are pressing to put a constitutional amendment on the ballot in November that would undo the Supreme Court ruling and ban gay marriage.
“Essentially, this boils down to love. We love each other. We now have equal rights under the law,” declared a jubilant Robin Tyler, a plaintiff in the case along with her partner. She added: “We’re going to get married. No Tupperware, please.”
A crowd of people raised their fists in triumph inside City Hall, and people wrapped themselves in the rainbow-colored gay-pride flag outside the courthouse. In the Castro, the historic center of the gay community in San Francisco, Tim Oviatt wept as he watched the news on TV.
“I’ve been waiting for this all my life. This is a life-affirming moment,” he said.
By the afternoon, gay and lesbian couples had already started lining up at San Francisco City Hall to make appointments to get marriage licenses. In West Hollywood, supporters were planning to serve “wedding cake” at an evening celebration.
James Dobson, chairman of the conservative Christian group Focus on the Family, called the ruling an “outrage.”
“It will be up to the people of California to preserve traditional marriage by passing a constitutional amendment. … Only then can they protect themselves from this latest example of judicial tyranny,” he said in an e-mail statement.
In its 4-3 ruling, the Republican-dominated high court struck down state laws against same-sex marriage and said domestic partnerships that provide many of the rights and benefits of matrimony are not enough.
“In contrast to earlier times, our state now recognizes that an individual’s capacity to establish a loving and long-term committed relationship with another person and responsibly to care for and raise children does not depend upon the individual’s sexual orientation,” Chief Justice Ronald George wrote for the majority in ringing language that delighted gay rights activists.
Massachusetts is the only other state to legalize gay marriage, something it did in 2004. The California ruling is considered monumental by virtue of the state’s size - 38 million out of a U.S. population of 302 million - and its historic role in the vanguard of the many social and cultural changes that have swept the country since World War II.
California has an estimated 92,000 same-sex couples.
“It’s about human dignity. It’s about human rights. It’s about time in California,” San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom, pumping his fist in the air, told a roaring crowd at City Hall. “As California goes, so goes the rest of the nation. It’s inevitable. This door’s wide open now. It’s going to happen, whether you like it or not.”
Unlike Massachusetts, California has no residency requirement for obtaining a marriage license, meaning gays from around the country are likely to flock to the state to be wed, said Jennifer Pizer, a gay-rights attorney who worked on the case.
The ultimate reach of the ruling could be limited, however, since most states do not recognize gay marriages performed elsewhere. Nor does the federal government.
The conservative Alliance Defense Fund said it would ask the justices for a stay of the decision until after the fall election in hopes of adding California to the list of 26 states that have approved constitutional amendments banning same-sex marriage.
“We’re obviously very disappointed in the decision. The remedy is a constitutional amendment. The constitution defines marriage as a union between one man and one woman,” said Glen Lavy, senior counsel for the organization.
Randy Thomasson of VoteYesMarriage.com, a campaign to amend the California Constitution to ban gay marriage, said the decision was in effect telling children that they have a “new role model - homosexual marriage, aspire to it.
“This is a disaster,” he said.
Opponents of gay marriage could also ask the high court to reconsider. If the court rejects such a request, same-sex couples could start getting married in 30 days, the time it typically takes for the justices’ opinions to become final.
The justices said they would direct state officials “to take all actions necessary to effectuate our ruling,” including requiring county marriage clerks to carry out their duties “in a manner consistent with” the court’s decision.
James Vaughn, director of the California Log Cabin Republicans, called the ruling a “conservative one.”
“The justices have ensured that the law treats all Californians fairly and equally. This decision is a good one for all families, gay and non-gay,” Vaughn said.
The case was set in motion in 2004 when the mayor of San Francisco - the unofficial capital of gay America - threw City Hall open to gay couples to get married in a calculated challenge to California law. Four-thousand gay couples wed before the Supreme Court put a halt to the practice after a month.
Two dozen gay couples then sued, along with the city and gay rights organizations.
Thursday’s ruling could alter the dynamics of the presidential race and state and congressional contests in California and beyond by causing a backlash among conservatives and drawing them to the polls in large numbers.
A spokesman for Republican John McCain, who opposes gay marriage, said the Arizona senator “doesn’t believe judges should be making these decisions.” The campaigns of Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton said they believe that the issue of marriage should be left to the states.
Ten states now offer some form of legal recognition to same-sex couples - in most cases, domestic partnerships or civil unions. In the past few years, the courts in New York, New Jersey and Washington state have refused to allow gay marriage.
Outside the San Francisco courthouse, gay marriage supporters cried and cheered as news spread of the decision. Jeanie Rizzo, one of the plaintiffs, called Pali Cooper, her partner of 19 years, via cell phone and asked, “Pali, will you marry me?”
Shannon Minter of the National Center for Lesbian Rights said same-sex marriage advocates could not have hoped for a more favorable ruling by the Republican-dominated court. “It’s a total victory,” Minter said.
California already offers same-sex couples who register as domestic partners many of the legal rights and responsibilities afforded to married couples, including the right to divorce and to sue for child support.
Citing a 1948 California Supreme Court decision that overturned a ban on interracial marriages, the justices struck down the state’s 1977 one-man, one-woman marriage law, as well as a similar, voter-approved law that passed with 61 percent in 2000.
The chief justice was joined by Justices Joyce Kennard and Kathryn Werdegar, all three of whom were appointed by Republican governors, and Justice Carlos Moreno, the only member of the court appointed by a Democrat.
In a dissent, Justice Marvin Baxter agreed with many arguments of the majority but said that the court overstepped its authority and that changes to marriage laws should be decided by the voters. Justices Ming Chin and Carol Corrigan also dissented.
California’s secretary of state is expected to rule by the end of June whether the sponsors gathered enough signatures to put the gay-marriage amendment on the ballot.
Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who has twice vetoed legislation that would have granted marriage to same-sex couples, said in a statement that he respected the court’s decision and “will not support an amendment to the constitution that would overturn this state Supreme Court ruling.”
May
15
US lists polar bear as threatened species
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WASHINGTON - The Interior Department declared the polar bear a threatened species Wednesday because of the loss of Arctic sea ice but also cautioned the decision should not be viewed as a path to address global warming.
Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne cited dramatic declines in sea ice over the last three decades and projections of continued losses, meaning, he said, that the polar bear is a species likely to be in danger of extinction in the near future.
But Kempthorne said it would be “wholly inappropriate” to use the protection of the bear to reduce greenhouse gases, or to broadly address climate change.
The Endangered Species Act “is not the right tool to set U.S. climate policy,” said Kempthorne, reflecting a view recently expressed by President Bush.
The department outlined a set of administrative actions and limits to how it planned to protect the bear with its new status so that it would not have wide-ranging adverse impact on economic activities from building power plants to oil and gas exploration.
“This listing will not stop global climate change or prevent any sea ice from melting,” said Kempthorne. He said he had consulted with the White House on the decision, but “at no time was there ever a suggestion that this was not my decision.”
Kempthorne, at a news conference, was armed with slides and charts showing the dramatic decline in sea ice over the last 30 years and projections that the melting of ice - a key habitat for the bear - would continue and may even quicken.
He cited conclusions by department scientists that sea ice loss will likely result in two-thirds of the polar bears disappearing by mid-century. The bear population across the Arctic from Alaska to Greenland doubled from about 12,000 to 25,000 since 1960, but he noted that scientists now predict a significant population decline. Studies last year by the U.S. Geological Survey suggested 15,000 bears would be lost in coming decades with those in the western Hudson Bay area of Alaska and Canada under the greatest stress.
Kempthorne said that it is melting sea ice and not subsistence hunting and energy development that poses the threat to polar bears. While some subsistence hunting by Alaska natives is allowed, the United States bans hunting bears for sport.
Canada allows limited sports hunting of bears. The Hudson Bay bear population off Canada has decined by 22 percent in the last 20 years, according to one study.
But when asked how the bear will be afforded greater protection, Dale Hall, director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, had difficulty coming up with examples.
Better management of bear habitat on shore and making sure bears aren’t threatened by people including hunters, more studies on bear population trends and their feeding habits were among the areas mentioned. “I don’t want to prejudge recommendations for (bear) management,” said Hall whose agency administers the Endangered Species Act.
Environmentalists were already mapping out plans to file lawsuits challenging the restrictive measures outlined by Kempthorne.
“They’re trying to make this a threatened listing in name only with no change in today’s impacts and that’s not going to fly,” said Jamie Rappaport Clark of Defenders of Wildlife and a former U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service director.
Members of Congress also were skeptical.
The Bush administration “is forcing the polar bear to sink or swim,” said Rep. Edward Markey, D-Mass., chairman of a House committee on global warming.
Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., called it “a lifeline for our last remaining polar bears” but said the bear’s survival won’t be assured without limits on oil development in the same Arctic waters where the bears are found.
Despite the new listing, the announcement underscores the need to approve climate legislation that would limit the release of greenhouse gases and avert the future effects on climate change, said Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., chairwoman of the Environment Committee.
Scientists have blamed global warming for the disappearance of sea ice which is vital for the bear’s survival.
Summer ice surrounding the North Pole declined an average of 10 percent per decade since 1979, with a loss of about 28,000 square miles per year, according to the National Snow and Ice Data Center. Last year was the sharpest drop, as the amount of sea ice in September fell to 1.65 million square miles, or 23 percent below the previous low in 2005.
Kempthorne proposed 15 months ago to investigate whether the polar bear should be declared threatened under the Endangered Species Act. That triggered a year of studies into the threats facing the bear and its survival prospects.
A decision had been expected early this year, but the Interior Department said it needed more time to work out many of the details, prompting criticism from members of Congress and environmentalists. Environmentalists filed a lawsuit aimed at forcing a decision and a federal court on April 29 set a May 15 deadline for a decision.
A species is declared “threatened” under the Endangered Species Act if it is found to be at risk of becoming endangered in the foreseeable future. If it does not make progress toward recovery, it can be declared “endangered” meaning it is at risk of extinction and needs even greater protection.
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May
12
Families will make case for vaccine link to autism
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WASHINGTON - Families claiming that a mercury-based preservative in vaccines triggers autism will challenge mainstream medicine Monday as they take their case to a federal court.
They seek vindication and financial redress from a government fund that helps people injured by shots.
Two 10-year-old boys from Portland, Ore., will serve as test cases that determine whether the children and their families in similar situations should be compensated. Attorneys for the boys will attempt to show the boys were happy, healthy and developing normally. But, after being exposed to vaccines with thimerosal, they began to regress and show symptoms of autism.
Thimerosal has been removed in recent years from standard childhood vaccines, except flu vaccines that are not packaged in single-doses. The CDC says single-dose flu shots currently are available only in limited quantities. In 2004, a committee with the Institute of Medicine concluded there was no credible evidence that vaccines containing thimerosal caused autism.
Overall, nearly 4,900 families have filed claims with the U.S. Court of Claims alleging that vaccines caused autism and other neurological problems in their children. Lawyers for the families will present three different theories of how vaccines caused autism.
The Office of Special Masters of the claims court has instructed the plaintiffs to designate three test cases for each of the three theories - nine cases in all - and has assigned three special masters to handle the cases. Three cases in the first category were heard last year, but no decisions have been reached.
The two cases beginning Monday are among the three that focus on the second theory of causation: that thimerosal-containing vaccines alone cause autism. The plaintiff in the third case originally scheduled for hearing this month has withdrawn and lawyers and court officials are working to agree on substitute case.
Hearings in the test cases for the third theory of causation are scheduled in mid-September.
Lawyers for the petitioning families in the cases being heard this month say they will present evidence that injections with thimerosal deposit a form of mercury in the brain. That mercury excites certain brain cells that stay chronically activated trying to get rid of the intrusion.
“In some kids, there’s enough of it that it sets off this chronic neuroinflammatory pattern that can lead to regressive autism,” said attorney Mike Williams.
In the end, the families’ attorneys hope to convince the special master hearing their case that thimerosal belongs on the list of causes for the inflammation that leads to regressive autism.
To win, the attorneys for the two boys, William Mead and Jordan King, will have to show that it”s more likely than not that the vaccine actually caused the injury.
Many members of the medical community are skeptical of the families’ claims. They worry that the claims about the dangers of vaccines could cause some people to forgo vaccines that prevent illness.
“I think that what’s so endearing to me about the anti-vaccine people is they’re perfectly willing to go from one hypothesis to the next without a backward glance,” said Dr. Paul Offit, director of the Vaccine Education Center at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.
Autism is a developmental disability that typically appears during the first three years of life and affects a person’s ability to communicate and interact with others. Dr. Andrew Gerber, a psychiatrist, said that medical experts don’t have a comprehensive understanding of what causes autism, but they do know there is a strong hereditary component.
Toxins from the environment could play a role, but currently, data does not support that they do, Gerber said.
Arguments are scheduled to go on throughout the month. A final decision could take several more months. Claims that are successful would result in compensation taking into account lost earnings after age 18 and up to $250,000 for pain and suffering.
The families or the federal government can also appeal the decision of the special master to the Court of Federal Claims or to a federal appeals court.
The court Web site says more than 12,500 claims have been filed since creation of the program in 1987, including more than 5,300 autism cases, and that more than $1.7 billion has been paid in claims. It says there is now more than $2.7 billion a trust fund supported by an excise tax on each dose of vaccine covered by the program.
May
11
Jenna Bush’s wedding is low-key affair at ranch
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CRAWFORD, Texas - Jenna Bush couldn’t see herself getting married at the White House surrounded by antique furniture and oil portraits of presidents. She and Henry Hager said “I do” Saturday at President Bush’s ranch in Crawford where the corn is thigh-high, roads are named Cattle Drive and the Texas flag is painted on the rooftops of barns.
The president and the bride picked “You Are So Beautiful” for their father-daughter dance, according to band leader Tyrone Smith of Nashville, Tenn. Smith and his 10-piece party band, The Tyrone Smith Revue, was asked to do “Lovin’ in My Baby’s Eyes” by Taj Mahal for the newlyweds’ first dance. Smith, who promised the couple a “get down” party, talked to The Associated Press earlier in the week on condition that the information not be released before the wedding.
Smith, who witnessed the wedding ceremony, said afterward the groom was dressed in a dark blue suit with powder-blue tie and the bride wore a “very simple and elegant” white dress, but did not wear a veil.
Smith said Jenna Bush’s paternal grandparents, President George H.W. Bush and Barbara Bush, spoke during the wedding, though he could not hear their comments.
Away from the glare of television cameras that have beamed other first family weddings into American living rooms, Jenna’s outdoor wedding at the ranch reflected her family’s penchant for privacy and her preference for the casual over grandiose.
Even without the prying eyes of strangers, Jenna’s marriage to her longtime boyfriend Henry Hager made presidential history. It will be remembered as an upbeat moment of Bush’s two-term presidency beset by terrorism, war and the nation’s current limp economy.
“This is a joyous occasion for our family, as we celebrate the happy life ahead of her and her husband, Henry,” Bush said in his Saturday radio address. “It’s also a special time for Laura who this Mother’s Day weekend will watch a young woman we raised together walk down the aisle.”
Jenna, 26, is the 22nd child of a president to get married while their father was in the Oval Office. Their ceremonies have ranged from Tricia Nixon’s extravagant wedding broadcast live from the Rose Garden in 1971 to the 1992 Camp David wedding of Jenna’s aunt, Dorothy Koch. That one was kept so secret that the press didn’t find out about it until it was over.
“All of them are different. This one really reflects the personality of both Jenna and the George W. Bush family,” said Doug Wead, a former aide to President George H.W. Bush and author of a book on presidents’ kin.
“If they’d have gone on TV, the wedding would have been shown all over the world and Jenna Bush would have been an international celebrity - and she would have been a target. They’re preparing the transition to private life and they’re not particularly interested in seeing Jenna Bush become a huge celebrity.”
The media was not invited, but Jenna’s wedding will be closely scrutinized - down to the matte beading and embroidery on her white Oscar de la Renta gown.
“The wedding details will be reported on for generations, influencing both present-day and future brides-to-be,” says Millie Martin Bratten, editor-in-chief of BRIDES magazine and student of first family weddings.
Jenna’s twin sister, Barbara, was maid of honor and 14 other women were in her “house party.” Barbara Bush wore a long, moonstone blue dress with a low-cut back. The women in the “house party” were clad in seven different styles of knee-length dresses in seven different colors that match the palette of Texas wildflowers - blues, greens, lavenders and pinky reds.
The best man was the groom’s brother, John “Jack” Hager. Also part of the “house party” were 14 ushers, who walked with the 14 women down the aisle to their seats, but did not participate in the ceremony.
More than 200 family and friends converged here for the nuptials on the 1,600-acre ranch where a tent was erected for the post-ceremony dinner and dancing.
The ceremony began about a half hour or so before sunset. The couple stood at a cross, made of beige colored Texas limestone, that was erected near the ranch’s man-made lake. The cross and altar, made of the same stone used to construct the Bush’s ranch house, will be a landmark at the ranch for years to come. The Rev. Kirbyjon Caldwell of Windsor Village United Methodist Church in Houston officiated.
Festivities began Friday with a bridal lunch, rehearsal dinner and post-rehearsal dinner celebration in Salado, a tiny tourist village, which used to be a stagecoach stop. Jenna, her sister and the first lady were in Salado, more than an hour’s drive south of Crawford, all day Friday and the president arrived in the evening by motorcade.
The rehearsal dinner for about 100 people was hosted by the parents of the groom, who turned 30 on Friday. Hager’s father, John Hager, is the chairman of the Virginia Republican Party and is former lieutenant governor of Virginia and former U.S. assistant secretary of education.
The rehearsal dinner crowd, including the president, then walked down a street in Salado with the Belton High School Marching Band from Belton, Texas, to a “Texas-sized celebration” at another establishment. All the wedding guests were invited to this event. They were entertained by the five-member Duke Merrick Band from Charlottesville, Va., which performed classic Texas songs and original pieces by Merrick, a relative of the Hager family.
The groom’s family also hosted a barbecue lunch Saturday in Salado ahead of the wedding.
Henry Hager met Jenna during her father’s 2004 re-election campaign. He graduated from Wake Forest University and worked as an aide to Bush’s former top political adviser Karl Rove. He is set to receive a master’s degree in business administration later this month from the University of Virginia’s Darden School of Business.
Between February 2005 and January 2006, he was an economic policy aide in the office of Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez and regularly briefed the secretary on economic data. “He was widely regarded as a super star,” said Ann Marie Hauser, press secretary at Commerce.
After the wedding, the couple is rumored to be honeymooning in Europe, although the White House would not comment. After that, they plan to live in a two-bedroom, two-bath town house on the south side of Baltimore. She plans to return to teaching and he will work for Constellation Energy, a power supplier based in Maryland.
This was a big doing for Crawford, home to about 700 central Texans. They likely will not get a glimpse of the bride and groom, but the couple’s photo is plastered across coffee mugs, mouse pads, key rings and other Western White House trinkets for sale at a few stores along the main drag.
A rusty, metal sculpture of an angel, a gift to Crawford after Bush’s re-election, is adorned with a veil and a bouquet of white flowers for the occasion. The sign at the Coffee Station in Crawford, where Jenna orders fried jalapenos, says “Congrats Jenna and Henry.” The Peace House, home away from home for anti-war protesters when they’re in Crawford, set up a red sign that says “Peace to the Newlyweds.”
The Peace House group decided against protesting on the wedding day, but about a dozen members of an anti-gay group out of Topeka, Kan., demonstrated on a road leading to the ranch.
Dick and Kathy Karmy drove 70 miles from their home in Cleburne, Texas, to visit Crawford on wedding day. “I have a girlfriend in Washington state and she said `You’ve got to go and get me a mug,’” Kathy Karmy said.
Mary Wood of San Antonio, about a three-hour-minute drive from Crawford, stopped at a table the Crawford Chamber of Commerce and Waco Convention and Visitors Bureau set up outside a bank to welcome visitors to town. Since so many people wanted to know how to drive to Bush’s Prairie Chapel Ranch, they offered a homemade map, even though the ranch property is barricaded far from the entrance.
“I almost came during the week, but then I said it would mean more to be here on the wedding day,” said Wood, who had a camera hanging from her neck so she could take a photo of the “Prairie Chapel Road” sign. “It’s just a big kick to say I was here.”
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