| Air Force Two carrying Biden struck by birds, lands safely Posted:  WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Air Force Two plane carrying Vice President Joe Biden was struck by birds in California on Thursday, a spokeswoman for his office said, but it landed without problem and the vice president, passengers and crew were safe at all times. The incident occurred on Thursday night as Air Force Two was landing in Santa Barbara, California. A person familiar with the situation said the landing felt normal to people on board. "The vice president left Santa Barbara this afternoon as scheduled, aboard an alternate U.S. Air Force aircraft," the spokeswoman said. ...
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| Three more Secret Service Agents resign Posted:  WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Secret Service said on Friday that three more of its employees have resigned, bringing to six the number that have left the agency in connection with alleged misconduct involving prostitutes in Colombia last week before President Barack Obama's trip there. The Secret Service also said that a 12th employee had been implicated in the ongoing investigation into a night of partying on April 11-12 that embarrassed the United States and overshadowed Obama's participation in the Summit of the Americas last weekend. ...
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| Trayvon Martin's killer gets bail, apologizes to family Posted:  SANFORD, Florida (Reuters) - Neighborhood watch volunteer George Zimmerman apologized to the family of Trayvon Martin on Friday, stunning a rapt courtroom and a national television audience at a hearing in which the judge granted Zimmerman $150,000 bail on a charge of second-degree murder in the death of the unarmed black teenager. Zimmerman's surprise appearance on the witness stand added an unexpected twist to a saga that has riveted the country, provoked civil rights protests nationwide and fired a national debate over guns, self-defense laws and race in America. ...
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| Two women say were raped, punished at U.S. military academies Posted: NEW YORK (Reuters) - Two women who said they were raped while attending U.S. military academies sued military officials on Friday, accusing them of failing to address widespread problems of sexual assault at the elite schools. In the lawsuit filed in Manhattan federal court, the two women said the Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland and the Army's United States Military Academy in West Point, New York, tolerate sexual assault and discourage victims of attacks from reporting them. ... |
| Illinois governor unveils "bold" plan to save pensions Posted:  CHICAGO (Reuters) - Illinois would shore up its sagging public employment retirement system under a plan outlined on Friday by Governor Pat Quinn that gives workers a choice between higher contributions and lower benefits. With pension funding absorbing more and more of the state's budget, Quinn said his plan would save taxpayers $65 billion to $85 billion over 30 years and help stop a further fall in the state's relatively low credit ratings. Illinois' unfunded pension liability has grown to a huge $83 billion after the state skimped on funding for years. ...
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| Accused thief not tied to Chinese student murders: police Posted:  LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - A convicted felon charged with robbing four University of Southern California (USC) students at gunpoint earlier this week has been eliminated as a suspect in the murders of two graduate students from China, police said on Friday. Jeremy Hendricks, 24, was charged on Friday in Wednesday's robbery near USC's fraternity row. Police initially said they were probing possible links between the two crimes and testing the gun used in the robbery for a connection. ...
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| Anti-violence crusader to embark on trek across US Posted: CHICAGO (Reuters) - Pastor Corey Brooks spent three winter months shivering atop the roof of a dilapidated Chicago motel to draw attention to the deadly toll from gun violence, raising $450,000 in the process to buy and raze the motel. "It was tough to endure the cold, the nights and the loneliness," said Brooks, who came down on February 24 after 94 days spent in a tent staked to the roof of the Super Motel. "But it was a blessing because it brought awareness to an issue, gun violence, where young men are killing each other. ... |
| BP says Texas City hydrocracker shut by storm Posted:  HOUSTON (Reuters) - A hydrocracking unit was shut by a lightning strike on Friday at BP Plc's 406,570 barrel per day (bpd) Texas City, Texas, refinery, a company spokesman said. The shutdown of the hydrocracker triggered a fire in a pipe flange on the unit. The fire was brought under control by the refinery's fire-fighting unit, said BP spokesman Scott Dean in a statement. There were no injuries reported due to the fire. On Friday night, BP did not have an estimate of when the hydrocracker would restart. ...
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| Colorado lights up pot debate by blazing regulatory trail Posted:  DENVER (Reuters) - At a Denver dispensary for medical marijuana, state inspector Mark Brown makes his usual checks, verifying that employees wear name-tag licenses and the video surveillance system works. The store is a laid-back place with a popcorn machine, a "Reefer Madness" movie poster and plenty of pot, sold both mixed into candy and as buds. Brown mingles with the staff, among them a tattooed man rolling joints in a side room. Fellow inspector Paul Schmidt, formerly an undercover agent with the Drug Enforcement Administration, checks on the facility's marijuana-growing operation. ...
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| BP says Texas City refinery unit hit by lightning Posted: HOUSTON (Reuters) - Lightning struck a unit and knocked out a compressor at BP Plc's 406,570 barrel per day (bpd) Texas City, Texas, refinery on Friday afternoon, igniting a small fire that has been extinguished, a company spokesman said. The unit was likely knocked out of production, said BP spokesman Scott Dean. The Galveston County Daily News reported on its website that lightning struck a hydrocracking unit called an ultracracker at the refinery. No injuries were reported. (Reporting by Erwin Seba) |
| Handyman queried in prominent New York missing child case Posted:  NEW YORK (Reuters) - New York investigators have interviewed a former handyman about the 1979 disappearance of 6-year-old Etan Patz, and spent a second day on Friday searching the basement of a building where the man once worked in hopes of solving the case. The boy was formally declared dead in 2001. But his fate has remained a mystery and the case has continued to resonate with New Yorkers for more than three decades. Police declined to say if there were new suspects in the case, which helped spark a national movement on the issue of missing children. ...
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| U.S. appeals court upholds criminal cockfighting laws Posted:  (Reuters) - The U.S. Congress did not exceed its constitutional authority when it passed criminal laws that ban cockfighting, a U.S. appeals court ruled on Friday. After they were convicted of operating cockfighting derbies in Swansea, South Carolina, Scott Lawson, Jeffrey Gilbert and eight others filed two separate appeals in 2010. In both, the defendants argued that Congress' power under the Constitution to regulate interstate commerce did not extend to animal fighting, a distinctly local activity. But the Richmond, Virginia-based U.S. ...
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| Twenty years on, Los Angeles riot flashpoint a grim tableau Posted:  LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Twenty years ago, at the intersection of Florence and Normandie in south Los Angeles, a mostly black mob, enraged at the acquittal of four Los Angeles policemen in the beating of black motorist Rodney King, dragged white truck driver Reginald Denny from his cab and beat him unconscious while news helicopters hovered overhead. The gory images helped incite six days of fires and looting throughout the city that led to 53 deaths and an estimated $1 billion in property damage. ...
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| $130 million antique-stock claim against Coke fizzles Posted:  WILMINGTON, Del (Reuters) - A 1917 stock certificate picked up at an estate sale that the owners had claimed was worth $130 million in shares of The Coca-Cola Co may actually be worth a lot less. The family of Tony Marohn, who bought the Palmer Union Oil Co stock certificate in 2008 for a few dollars, had said they were owed 1.8 million shares of Coca-Cola. But on Wednesday, one of their lawyers, David Margules, told a Delaware judge that due to previously unnoticed reverse stock splits, the stock was worth $12,000 to $15,000, a court transcript showed. ...
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| California university aims to get past the pepper-spray with new police chief Posted:  SACRAMENTO, California (Reuters) - The University of California has replaced a campus police chief who resigned over her role in the pepper-spraying last fall of peacefully protesting students allied with the Occupy Wall Street movement. Matt Carmichael, a lieutenant for the UC Davis Police Department since joining the force in 2002, was sworn in as chief on Thursday by Chancellor Linda Katehi, who herself has come under fire for her handling of the Occupy demonstrations. Carmichael had overseen patrol operations on the campus, located near Sacramento, and was the department's main spokesman. ...
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| Alabama court says bonds not needed for muni bankruptcies Posted: (Reuters) - Jefferson County and other Alabama local governments do not have to have bonds as debt to file for Chapter 9 federal bankruptcy, the state's top court said on Friday. In a 13-page opinion supporting Jefferson County, which last November filed the biggest U.S. municipal bankruptcy, the Alabama Supreme Court said another distressed local government, the City of Prichard, was eligible for Chapter 9 filing under Alabama law even though Prichard had no outstanding bonds. ... |
| Catholic nuns group "stunned" by Vatican slap Posted:  CHICAGO (Reuters) - A prominent U.S. Catholic nuns' group said on Thursday it was "stunned" that the Vatican reprimanded it for spending too much time on poverty and social justice concerns and not enough on abortion and gay marriage. In a stinging report on Wednesday, the Vatican said the Leadership Conference of Women Religious had been "silent on the right to life" and had failed to make the "Biblical view of family life and human sexuality" a central plank in its agenda. ...
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| "Milestone" oil manipulation case unsettles traders Posted: NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. regulators' $14 million settlement with high-frequency trading firm Optiver over oil price manipulation in 2007 is a "milestone" victory in their toughening stance on market malfeasance which is being closely watched by traders. In its first major case against an algorithmic trader, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission said late on Thursday that a court settlement required the Amsterdam-based firm to disgorge $1 million in profits and pay $13 million over allegations it used a rapid-fire tool nicknamed "The Hammer" to influence U.S. oil prices in 2007. ... |
| Obama, courting youth vote, sets student-loan push Posted:  WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama will use a tour of election battleground states next week to push Congress to prevent interest rates on federal student loans from doubling, a move that could appeal to middle-class and younger voters crucial to his re-election chances. Obama will make his pitch in speeches at universities in North Carolina, Colorado and Iowa, three states expected to play a major role in the November election. The youth vote is a key national constituency his campaign team hopes to re-energize. ...
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| North Carolina judge commutes death sentence, cites jury race bias Posted:  FAYETTEVILLE, North Carolina (Reuters) - A North Carolina judge on Friday commuted the death sentence of a black man convicted of the 1991 murder of a white teenage boy after finding that state prosecutors had deliberately excluded blacks from the jury. In the first test of North Carolina's controversial Racial Justice Act, Cumberland County Superior Court Judge Gregory Weeks said he found intentional and systematic discrimination by prosecutors over two decades against black jurors in death penalty cases. ...
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| Zimmerman to be released on $150,000 bail in Trayvon Martin case Posted:  (Reuters) - A Florida judge on Friday set bail for George Zimmerman at$150,000 in the second-degree murder case of unarmed teenager Trayvon Martin. (Reporting By Dan Burns; Editing by Vicki Allen)
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| AMR unions want to take a chance on US Air merger Posted:  (Reuters) - Labor groups at bankrupt American Airlines said on Friday they support a potential merger with rival US Airways Group Inc in a deal they say would save more jobs than a plan by parent AMR Corp to reorganize as a stand-alone carrier. The unions representing American's pilots, flight attendants and ground workers said they struck a deal with US Airways that would preserve 6,200 of the 14,200 jobs American says it would cut if it pursues its current plan. ...
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| Defense boss' guards expected on best behavior on Latam trip Posted:  WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The security detail accompanying Defense Secretary Leon Panetta to Colombia next week is expected to be on best behavior following the prostitution scandal that overshadowed President Barack Obama's recent visit there. Obama's participation in last weekend's Summit of the Americas in Colombia's seaside city of Cartagena was tainted by the news of a night of partying, allegedly involving prostitutes, by Secret Service agents and U.S. military personnel just before Obama arrived. Pentagon spokesman George Little said Panetta's security detail, which usually is made up of ...
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| Convicted killer executed by lethal injection in Delaware Posted: (Reuters) - A 28-year-old convicted killer who had abandoned his appeals process was executed in Delaware on Friday after a failed effort waged by federal public defenders to spare him, authorities said. Shannon Johnson, 28, died by lethal execution at 2:55 a.m., said Brian Selander, a spokesman for Governor Jack Markell. He is the fifteenth U.S. prisoner executed in 2012. By law, executions in Delaware must take place between 12:01 a.m. and 3 a.m. Inmates have the choice of hanging or lethal injection. Johnson's execution came after the U.S. ... |
| Third of four escaped prisoners caught in Kansas Posted: KANSAS CITY, Kansas (Reuters) - A convicted double-murderer who escaped from a central Kansas county jail with three other convicts this week was recaptured late on Thursday, officials said. Santos Carrera-Morales, 22, was caught in Russell, Kansas, about 240 miles west of Kansas City, said Jeremy Barclay, spokesman for the Kansas Department of Corrections. One escapee remains at large. Russell is about 75 miles west of the Ottawa County jail where Carrera-Morales and three other inmates escaped before dawn on Wednesday. ... |
| Regional banks idle on low returns, weak loan demand Posted: NEW YORK (Reuters) - A trio of large regional banks weighed in with earnings on Thursday that showed stronger credit quality and capital strength but few signs that their core businesses are improving due to low investment returns and weak loan demand. The banks are trying to offset declining income from low interest rates on loans and investments by cutting deposit rates and raising fees in order to widen profit margins. ... |
| "Milestone" U.S. oil manipulation case unsettles traders Posted: NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. regulators' $14 million settlement with high-frequency trading firm Optiver over oil price manipulation in 2007 is a "milestone" victory in their toughening stance on market malfeasance which is being closely watched by traders. ... |
| Secret Service agents lawyer: "trial by mob" wrong Posted:  WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The attorney for some of the Secret Service agents under investigation in a scandal involving prostitutes in Colombia ahead of President Barack Obama's trip, said on Thursday a "trial by mob" was wrong. Lawrence Berger's comments to Reuters in a telephone interview came after the Washington Post identified the two supervisors involved as David Randall Chaney, 48, in the international programs division, who was allowed to retire, and Greg Stokes, assistant special agent in charge of the K9 division, who has been notified that he will be fired. ...
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| Tasering video raises border agent abuse concerns Posted: SAN DIEGO (Reuters) - In a grainy video clip shot in May 2010 on the California side of the U.S.-Mexico border, an illegal immigrant lies on the ground in a fetal position, circled by at least a dozen federal agents as one repeatedly shocks him with an electric stun gun. The previously undisclosed footage, obtained by a lawyer for the man's family in a wrongful-death suit brought against the U.S. government, appears in a Public Broadcasting Service television documentary set to air nationally on Friday night. ... |
| BP says Texas City hydrocracker shut by storm Posted: HOUSTON (Reuters) - A hydrocracking unit was shut by a lightning strike on Friday at BP Plc's 406,570 barrel per day (bpd) Texas City, Texas, refinery, a company spokesman said. The shutdown of the hydrocracker triggered a fire in a pipe flange on the unit. The fire was brought under control by the refinery's fire-fighting unit, said BP spokesman Scott Dean in a statement. There were no injuries reported due to the fire. On Friday night, BP did not have an estimate of when the hydrocracker would restart. ... |
| Accused thief not tied to Chinese student murders: police Posted: LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - A convicted felon charged with robbing four University of Southern California (USC) students at gunpoint earlier this week has been eliminated as a suspect in the murders of two graduate students from China, police said on Friday. Jeremy Hendricks, 24, was charged on Friday in Wednesday's robbery near USC's fraternity row. Police initially said they were probing possible links between the two crimes and testing the gun used in the robbery for a connection. ... |
| Three more Secret Service Agents resign Posted: WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Secret Service said on Friday that three more of its employees have resigned, bringing to six the number that have left the agency in connection with alleged misconduct involving prostitutes in Colombia last week before President Barack Obama's trip there. The Secret Service also said that a 12th employee had been implicated in the ongoing investigation into a night of partying on April 11-12 that embarrassed the United States and overshadowed Obama's participation in the Summit of the Americas last weekend. ... |
| Anti-violence crusader to embark on trek across US Posted: CHICAGO (Reuters) - Pastor Corey Brooks spent three winter months shivering atop the roof of a dilapidated Chicago motel to draw attention to the deadly toll from gun violence, raising $450,000 in the process to buy and raze the motel. "It was tough to endure the cold, the nights and the loneliness," said Brooks, who came down on February 24 after 94 days spent in a tent staked to the roof of the Super Motel. "But it was a blessing because it brought awareness to an issue, gun violence, where young men are killing each other. ... |
| BP says Texas City refinery unit hit by lightning Posted: HOUSTON (Reuters) - Lightning struck a unit and knocked out a compressor at BP Plc's 406,570 barrel per day (bpd) Texas City, Texas, refinery on Friday afternoon, igniting a small fire that has been extinguished, a company spokesman said. The unit was likely knocked out of production, said BP spokesman Scott Dean. The Galveston County Daily News reported on its website that lightning struck a hydrocracking unit called an ultracracker at the refinery. No injuries were reported. (Reporting by Erwin Seba) |
| AMR unions want to take a chance on US Air merger Posted: (Reuters) - Labor groups at bankrupt American Airlines said on Friday they support a potential merger with rival US Airways Group Inc in a deal they say would save more jobs than a plan by parent AMR Corp to reorganize as a stand-alone carrier. The unions representing American's pilots, flight attendants and ground workers said they struck a deal with US Airways that would preserve 6,200 of the 14,200 jobs American says it would cut if it pursues its current plan. ... |
| University of Colorado clamps down on "pot fest" Posted: BOULDER, Colo. (Reuters) - The University of Colorado clamped down on a huge annual marijuana fest on Friday by restricting access to the school and a field where the "smoke-in" is traditionally held, and three protesters were arrested ahead of the event. The three young men were handcuffed and taken away after they crossed yellow police tape to stand in the field at the Boulder campus, holding signs that read: "Have a happy 4/20/1984" and "A violation of 1st Amendment, the right to peaceably assemble. ... |
| U.S. appeals court upholds criminal cockfighting laws Posted: (Reuters) - The U.S. Congress did not exceed its constitutional authority when it passed criminal laws that ban cockfighting, a U.S. appeals court ruled on Friday. After they were convicted of operating cockfighting derbies in Swansea, South Carolina, Scott Lawson, Jeffrey Gilbert and eight others filed two separate appeals in 2010. In both, the defendants argued that Congress' power under the Constitution to regulate interstate commerce did not extend to animal fighting, a distinctly local activity. But the Richmond, Virginia-based U.S. ... |
| Trayvon Martin's killer gets bail, apologizes to family Posted: SANFORD, Florida (Reuters) - Neighborhood watch volunteer George Zimmerman apologized to the family of Trayvon Martin on Friday, stunning a rapt courtroom and a national television audience at a hearing in which the judge granted Zimmerman $150,000 bail on a charge of second-degree murder in the death of the unarmed black teenager. Zimmerman's surprise appearance on the witness stand added an unexpected twist to a saga that has riveted the country, provoked civil rights protests nationwide and fired a national debate over guns, self-defense laws and race in America. ... |
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