Wednesday, December 5, 2012

Washington state gears up for wave of same-sex marriage applications

Washington state gears up for wave of same-sex marriage applications

Washington state gears up for wave of same-sex marriage applications

Posted: 05 Dec 2012 06:22 PM PST

The Washington state bill legalizing gay marriage in the state lies on a table before it is signed in Olympia, WashingtonOLYMPIA, Washington (Reuters) - County clerks across Washington state braced on Wednesday for a flood of marriage-license applications from gay and lesbian couples eager to exchange vows once a new law legalizing same-sex matrimony takes effect at the stroke of midnight. Washington made history last month as one of three U.S. states where marriage rights were extended to same-sex couples by popular vote, joining Maryland and Maine in passing ballot initiatives on November 6 recognizing gay nuptials. Washington will be the first of those states to put its law into effect on Thursday. ...

More shoppers on Thanksgiving vs Friday: Reuters/Ipsos

Posted: 05 Dec 2012 01:15 PM PST

Shoppers wait in line to pay for purchases at a Macy's store in New York(Reuters) - Opening their doors and offering sales on Thanksgiving did more than give retailers an early start to the holiday shopping season - the holiday actually may have drawn more shoppers than "Black Friday." Thirty percent of Americans surveyed in a new Reuters/Ipsos poll said they shopped either online or in stores this past Thanksgiving Day, slightly more than shopped on the day after, which is typically the biggest shopping day of the year. ...

Father of slain Florida teen steps into "Stand Your Ground" battle

Posted: 05 Dec 2012 05:58 PM PST

JACKSONVILLE, Florida (Reuters) - Now that the father of 17-year-old Jordan Davis has buried his son, he is turning his grief and anger over the high school student's shooting death into a crusade against guns and Florida's controversial Stand Your Ground law. "The first goal is to get Stand Your Ground repealed because that law emboldens people to carry firearms and to use them if somebody looks at them sideways," Ron Davis said. ...

Jailed Alaska serial killer cut wrist, choked self: troopers

Posted: 05 Dec 2012 06:55 PM PST

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (Reuters) - A confessed serial killer who admitted to a string of murders before killing himself in an Alaska jail died after he slashed his wrist with a disposable razor hidden in a pencil and strangled himself with a strip of bedding, authorities said on Wednesday. Israel Keyes, a 34-year-old contractor, had been awaiting trial for the kidnapping and killing of an 18-year-old barista who disappeared from an Alaska espresso stand in February and whose body was later found in an iced-over lake. ...

Occupy Wall Street protester whose tweets were subpoenaed to plead guilty

Posted: 05 Dec 2012 06:33 PM PST

NEW YORK (Reuters) - An Occupy Wall Street protester who has waged a legal battle to keep his tweets from falling into prosecutors' hands will plead guilty to a charge of disorderly conduct on Friday, his lawyer said on Wednesday. The case against Malcolm Harris, 23, one of hundreds arrested during a mass march across the Brooklyn Bridge in October 2011, had drawn the attention of electronic privacy advocates who worry that it could limit the rights of Twitter users in the future. ...

California men plead not guilty in plot to join al Qaeda

Posted: 05 Dec 2012 07:13 PM PST

RIVERSIDE, California (Reuters) - Three California men accused of plotting to join al Qaeda and Taliban militants for training in Afghanistan pleaded not guilty on Wednesday to charges of conspiracy to provide material support to terrorists. Prosecutors also revealed that a fourth man, accused ringleader and former U.S. Air Force service member Sohiel Omar Kabir, 34, had been returned to the United States from Afghanistan, where he was arrested last month. The U.S. ...

Los Angeles sheriff to stop turning over low-level offenders to immigration

Posted: 05 Dec 2012 06:41 PM PST

(Reuters) - The Los Angeles County sheriff will no longer honor federal requests to detain suspected illegal immigrants nabbed for low-level crimes like petty theft and graffiti after new state guidelines noted the practice is voluntary, a spokesman said on Wednesday. Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca announced the change a day after California's attorney general issued a directive, welcomed by immigration activists, that compliance with the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention requests was discretionary. ...

Slumping Northeast construction sector gets boost post-Sandy

Posted: 05 Dec 2012 04:43 PM PST

Construction workers repair roads destroyed by Hurricane Sandy in MantolokingNEW YORK (Reuters) - Construction workers in the U.S. Northeast should see hiring pick up after years of job losses, as the region gears up to rebuild after the devastation brought by Superstorm Sandy. There could be roughly 25,000 new jobs for electricians, laborers, carpenters and others in New York City over the next two years, according to an early estimate from the office of city Comptroller John Liu. ...

Suspect arrested in fatal push of man onto New York subway track

Posted: 05 Dec 2012 04:21 PM PST

Davis, the suspect in the New York Subway pushing case, arrives at Manhattan Criminal Court in New YorkNEW YORK (Reuters) - A New York man was charged with murder on Wednesday for pushing a subway rider onto the tracks ahead of an oncoming train in a tragedy that has traumatized witnesses and raised questions about why nobody rushed to the victim's aid. Naeem Davis, 30, was charged with one count of second degree murder and one count of second degree murder with depraved indifference, New York City police said. ...

Toxic chemicals from New Jersey train wreck may not be cleared until next week

Posted: 05 Dec 2012 06:45 PM PST

CLARKSBORO, New Jersey (Reuters) - A U.S. Coast Guard official told an angry crowd on Wednesday that it may take until next week to clear the air of toxic chemicals spilled after a train wreck in their south New Jersey town, where evacuations were ramped up this week. Elevated levels of vinyl chloride, a highly toxic and flammable industrial chemical, are low, but must get back down to zero before residents of the 148 houses evacuated in Paulsboro, New Jersey, are allowed to return to their homes, said Coast Guard Captain Kathy Moore. ...

Foreign hackers targeted former military chief Mullen: report

Posted: 05 Dec 2012 05:11 PM PST

Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Mike Mullen speaks at a Senate hearing in WashingtonWASHINGTON (Reuters) - Foreign hackers targeted the computers of Mike Mullen, ex-chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday, calling it the latest in a pattern of attacks on computers of former high-ranking U.S. officials. The FBI is pursuing the hackers, the Journal reported. The agency was not immediately available for comment. Mullen's office confirmed that the retired admiral was cooperating with a cyber investigation. ...

Missing Arizona girl with leukemia is safe, getting treatment in Mexico: father

Posted: 05 Dec 2012 05:47 PM PST

PHOENIX (Reuters) - An 11-year-old girl with leukemia who was spirited out of a Phoenix hospital by her mother - prompting a police search - is safe and being treated in Mexico, her father told NBC News on Wednesday. Luis Bracamontes, 46, said in a television interview that his daughter Emily, who disappeared from Phoenix Children's Hospital late last month, was being treated by doctors at an undisclosed location in Mexico. "She's well and she's fine," Bracamontes told NBC News, but declined to be more specific. ...

Judge allows NY Archdiocese lawsuit over healthcare law

Posted: 05 Dec 2012 03:56 PM PST

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York can proceed with a lawsuit challenging a requirement that employee healthcare plans cover contraceptives, a federal judge ruled Wednesday. The lawsuit is one of several brought by dozens of Catholic institutions against the contraceptive provisions of President Barack Obama's new healthcare law. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services had said the lawsuit was premature and asked the U.S. District Judge Brian Cogan to dismiss it. ...

Bodies found in Iowa could be those of missing girls

Posted: 05 Dec 2012 04:30 PM PST

DES MOINES, Iowa (Reuters) - Iowa police said they have not yet identified bodies found by hunters in a wooded area on Wednesday that could be those of two girls who vanished last summer in a case that received national attention. Captain Rick Abben, chief deputy of the Black Hawk County Sheriff's Office, could not say that the bodies were those of Elizabeth Collins, 8, and Lyric Cook, 10, until they are positively identified by the State Medical Examiner's Office. But Abben said the families of the two cousins had been notified. ...

Michigan Republicans consider "right-to-work" legislation

Posted: 05 Dec 2012 05:05 PM PST

(Reuters) - Michigan's Republican-led legislature is considering a push for a "right-to-work" law that would make paying union dues optional in a state that has one of the highest union membership rates in the United States and is home to the United Auto Workers. Republican Governor Rick Snyder, who had said in the past that a "right-to-work" law was not appropriate for Michigan, said on Tuesday the issue was now under discussion, though he did not say if or when a proposal would be introduced. ...

Designs unveiled for Tappan Zee Bridge over New York's Hudson

Posted: 05 Dec 2012 03:55 PM PST

(Reuters) - Three highly distinctive designs for a new Tappan Zee Bridge spanning the Hudson River in New York were unveiled on Wednesday, ranging from designs that resemble two pairs of tuning forks, a regatta, and a cream-colored version of San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge. The New York State Thruway Authority unveiled the proposals for a new bridge connecting Westchester and Rockland counties north of New York City to replace the existing Tappan Zee, which was built in the 1950s and is now in poor condition. Proposal 1, which looks like side-by-side tuning forks, is the least costly at ...

Woman's generosity to trooper triggers New York police search

Posted: 05 Dec 2012 03:02 PM PST

NEW YORK (Reuters) - New York State Police on Wednesday were looking for a woman who slipped $1,000 inside a Christmas card she gave to a trooper, saying that while he is grateful for her gift he is legally barred from accepting it. The unidentified woman approached Trooper Christopher Maniscalco on Sunday while he was investigating a complaint in the town of Guilderland, outside Albany. She told the trooper that she often saw him around, commended him on his good work, and wished him a Merry Christmas, as she handed him a holiday card, police said. ...

Pentagon's maverick F-35 manager values accountability

Posted: 05 Dec 2012 03:50 PM PST

F-35 Deputy Program Executive Officer U.S. Air Force Lieutenant General Bogdan tours Lockheed F-35 factory in Fort Woth in handout photographWASHINGTON (Reuters) - Air Force Lieutenant General Christopher Bogdan jolted many when after just five weeks on the $396 billion F-35 fighter jet program, he said ties between Lockheed Martin Corp and the U.S. government were the "worst" he had ever seen. Three months later, Bogdan's trademark straight talk and insistence on accountability seem to be paying off. After a year of often tense negotiations, the Pentagon last week reached a deal with Lockheed to buy 32 more F-35 fighters. ...

Brazilian architect Oscar Niemeyer dies, aged 104

Posted: 05 Dec 2012 06:30 PM PST

File photo of Brazilian architect Oscar Niemeyer looking at the Copacabana beach in Rio de JaneiroRIO DE JANEIRO (Reuters) - Oscar Niemeyer, a towering patriarch of modern architecture who shaped the look of contemporary Brazil and whose inventive, curved designs left their mark on cities worldwide, died late on Wednesday. He was 104. Niemeyer had been battling kidney and stomach ailments in a Rio de Janeiro hospital since early November. His death was the result of a lung infection developed this week, the hospital said, little more than a week before he would have turned 105. ...

Court asked to invalidate Obama recess appointments

Posted: 05 Dec 2012 12:28 PM PST

U.S. President Obama gestures during a news conference at the White House in WashingtonWASHINGTON (Reuters) - Businesses and Senate Republicans forced a courtroom showdown with President Barack Obama's administration on Wednesday, asking a U.S. appeals court to invalidate his surprise appointments to a labor board 11 months ago. Lawyers with the groups and for Obama's Justice Department argued for more than an hour over whether the president exceeded his authority by filling the vacancies while the Senate was out of town but potentially available to act on them. ...

Investigators await interview with driver in fatal Texas train crash

Posted: 05 Dec 2012 03:05 PM PST

SAN ANGELO, Texas (Reuters) - The National Transportation Safety Board said on Wednesday it had yet to interview the driver of a truck carrying U.S. military veterans that was struck by a train in a fatal accident in Texas, and added it may take up to 18 months to wrap up the investigation. Four veterans were killed and at least 14 other people were injured when the Union Pacific train slammed into a parade float pulled by the truck in Midland, Texas, on November 15 at the start of a weekend of festivities to honor veterans wounded in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. ...

Illinois state senator arrested for trying to take gun on plane

Posted: 05 Dec 2012 03:22 PM PST

CHICAGO (Reuters) - An Illinois state senator who is running for former U.S. Representative Jesse Jackson Jr.'s seat in Congress was arrested on Wednesday at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport after he tried to bring a handgun and bullets onto an airplane, a police spokeswoman said. Donne Trotter was arrested at a Transportation Security Administration security checkpoint and has been charged with attempting to board an aircraft with a weapon, a Class 4 felony, a spokeswoman for the Cook County State Attorney said. ...

Suspect arrested in death of man pushed on New York subway tracks

Posted: 05 Dec 2012 11:13 AM PST

Davis, the suspect in the New York Subway pushing case, arrives at Manhattan Criminal Court in New YorkNEW YORK (Reuters) - A New York man was arrested on Wednesday in the death of a subway passenger who was shoved onto the tracks ahead of an oncoming train at a station near Times Square earlier this week, police said. Naeem Davis, 30, was charged with one count of attempted murder, second degree, and one count of murder with depraved indifference, second degree, police said. He is accused of pushing the victim, 58-year-old Ki-Suck Han, onto the tracks as a southbound train pulled into the station at 49th Street, police said. ...

Slumping Northeast construction sector gets boost after Sandy

Posted: 05 Dec 2012 02:48 PM PST

Construction workers repair roads destroyed by Hurricane Sandy in MantolokingNEW YORK (Reuters) - Construction workers in the U.S. Northeast should see hiring pick up after years of job losses, as the region gears up efforts to rebuild after the devastation brought by Superstorm Sandy. New York City alone could gain roughly 10,000 new jobs for electricians, laborers, carpenters and others, according to an early estimate from the office of city Comptroller John Liu. ...

New York prosecutors drop sexual abuse case against U.N. employee

Posted: 05 Dec 2012 02:06 PM PST

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - The Manhattan District Attorney's office has dropped a sexual abuse case against a mid-level U.N. official arrested in June, the official's attorneys said on Wednesday. Dushyant Joshi, who works on the U.N. human resources department's emergency preparedness and support team, was arrested on charges of third-degree sexual abuse of a former U.N. contractor. The district attorney's office "has completed an investigation of allegations of inappropriate touching, and no criminal charges will be filed," Andrea Zellan, one of Joshi's attorneys, told Reuters. ...

Four indicted in U.S. over shipments to Iran, China

Posted: 05 Dec 2012 03:23 PM PST

NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. prosecutors on Wednesday announced indictments over alleged efforts to ship carbon fiber, which can be used to help enrich uranium, to Iran and China in violation of U.S. law. Hamid Reza Hashemi and Murat Taskiran were charged with participating in a scheme to sell carbon fiber to Iran, while Amir Abbas Tamimi was charged with participating in a scheme to export helicopter parts to Iran, according to grand jury indictments made public on Wednesday. ...

West Coast crisis over, U.S. retail trade groups look East

Posted: 05 Dec 2012 02:04 PM PST

(Reuters) - With West Coast port workers back on the job Wednesday, U.S. retailers and trade groups were turning focus back to negotiations to stop a potentially more damaging port strike in the East. Retailers ranging from Target and American Eagle to Home Depot told Reuters they have their holiday merchandise in place and the eight-day long strike at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach would not upset plans. However, a second, wide-reaching strike on the U.S. East and Gulf coasts could change that for the upcoming spring/summer season, for which merchandise will start to ship soon. ...

White House to seek $50 billion in Sandy relief: NY Times

Posted: 05 Dec 2012 10:55 AM PST

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama plans to ask Congress for about $50 billion in emergency spending to help rebuild states pounded by Superstorm Sandy, the New York Times reported on Wednesday. The extra spending would come even as Obama, a Democrat, is struggling with Republican lawmakers over the federal deficit. The figure is well below what states are seeking to repair damage from the October 29 storm. Citing administration and congressional officials briefed on the discussions, the Times said the final sum was still in flux, but should range from $45 billion to $55 billion. ...

Storm hits hiring in November but service sector grows

Posted: 05 Dec 2012 09:42 AM PST

Job seekers speak to recruiters at a job fair sponsored by New York Department of Labor in New YorkNEW YORK (Reuters) - Private-sector hiring took a hit in November due to the impact of storm Sandy on the northeastern United States but the country's huge services sector continued to expand. The ADP National Employment Report, which is closely watched as it comes two days ahead of the government's monthly national employment report, showed that the private sector added 118,000 jobs during the month, below expectations for a gain of 125,000. The report largely underpinned economists' forecast for a weak reading in the Labor Department payrolls report on Friday. ...

Starbucks back on expansion path in Americas, China

Posted: 05 Dec 2012 09:41 AM PST

A customer with a cup of coffee leaves the new Starbucks store in San JoseNEW YORK (Reuters) - Starbucks Corp plans to increase the number of its cafes in the Americas by more than 20 percent by opening more than 3,000 new shops there in the next five years as it looks to rely on tea and juice as much as coffee, it said on Wednesday. The world's largest coffee chain is also finished with acquisitions for the time being, after buying juice seller Evolution Fresh for $30 million and Bay Bread LLC's La Boulange Bakery for $100 million over the last 13 months. Starbucks also has an agreement to purchase tea store chain Teavana Holdings Inc for $620 million. ...
Posted by Harshad at 7:34 PM

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)