Tuesday, April 3, 2012

Up to a dozen tornadoes rip through Dallas area

Up to a dozen tornadoes rip through Dallas area


Up to a dozen tornadoes rip through Dallas area

Posted:

Jason Moffett carries moves belongings out of a house which was destroyed after a series of tornadoes ripped through the Dallas suburb of LancasterDALLAS (Reuters) - Up to a dozen tornadoes skipped through the densely populated Dallas-Fort Worth area in Texas on Tuesday, ripping apart homes and tossing tractor-trailer trucks into the air, but there were no reports of serious injuries or deaths. National Weather Service meteorologist Jesse Moore said that 10 to 12 tornadoes touched down during a massive storm that brought chaos from high winds, rain and hail to the nation's fourth most populous metropolitan area. Many of the 6. ...


Police investigate suspicious death of French academic

Posted:

File photo of French Academic Richard Descoings in ParisWASHINGTON (Reuters) - A prominent French academic, Richard Descoings, was found dead naked in a New York hotel room on Tuesday afternoon. New York police have opened an investigation because they believe the circumstances of his death are suspicious. A law enforcement source said that the body of Descoings, director of the prestigious Institute of Political Studies in Paris and a member of France's Council of State, a government advisory body, was found on Tuesday afternoon in his room at a hotel in Midtown Manhattan. ...


Former "Sheriff of the Year" jailed in Colorado sex-for-drugs case

Posted:

Booking mug shot of retired Arapahoe County Sheriff Patrick SullivanDENVER (Reuters) - A retired Colorado lawman once named national "Sheriff of the Year" was sentenced on Tuesday to serve 30 days in the jail that bears his name after he pleaded guilty to trading drugs for sex with male prostitutes, prosecutors said. Former Arapahoe County Sheriff Patrick Sullivan, 69, was immediately taken into custody after pleading guilty in Arapahoe District Court to felony drug possession and misdemeanor solicitation of a prostitute, the Colorado Attorney General's Office said in a statement. ...


Legal challenges stall Detroit's fiscal fix

Posted:

DETROIT (Reuters) - A plan to fix Detroit's shaky finances through a consent agreement before a Thursday, April 5, deadline remained in limbo on Tuesday amid a swirl of unresolved legal challenges. The Detroit City Council did not vote on a deal at its meeting on Tuesday. It is scheduled to return to session on Wednesday at 5 p.m. Eastern Time, according to a spokeswoman for Council President Charles Pugh. ...

Bank of NY Mellon must face lawsuit on Countrywide

Posted:

Security staff members stand behind a logo at the office of the Bank of New York Mellon in Brussels(Reuters) - A federal judge rejected Bank of New York Mellon Corp's bid to dismiss a lawsuit by investors over its role as trustee for mortgage-backed securities that led to an $8.5 billion settlement by Bank of America Corp. U.S. District Judge William Pauley in Manhattan said on Tuesday that bondholders who invested in 26 trusts alleged to have contained risky mortgage loans from the former Countrywide Financial Corp may pursue claims against Bank of New York Mellon. He dismissed a variety of other claims. ...


Fed not involved in Watergate, watchdog says

Posted:

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Federal Reserve did not help the Watergate burglars get cash, stonewall congressional inquiries into the 1970s political scandal or help former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein get a $5.5 billion loan to buy weapons in the 1980s, the agency's inspector general said in a report posted on the Fed's website on Tuesday. The report is the result of a political tiff in 2010 that touched off a sizeable government investigation on topics seldom associated with the U.S. central bank. ...

Catholic university in Ohio ends birth-control coverage

Posted:

(Reuters) - Xavier University, one of the oldest Roman Catholic colleges in the United States, will cut off birth-control coverage for its employees in July, a move that has divided faculty members and students on the Cincinnati campus. The abrupt cancellation of insurance benefits at the Jesuit university in Ohio comes amid a furious dispute between the Obama administration and the nation's Catholic bishops over contraception. ...

Cheney released from hospital after heart transplant

Posted:

Former U.S. Vice President Cheney and his wife Lynne are pictured at home in family photographWASHINGTON (Reuters) - Former Vice President Dick Cheney, who underwent a heart transplant 10 days earlier, was released from the hospital on Tuesday, a spokeswoman said. "As he leaves the hospital, the former vice president and his family want to again express their deep gratitude to the donor and the donor's family for this remarkable gift," his spokeswoman said in a statement. Cheney, 71, who has a history of heart problems having suffered the first of five heart attacks at age 37, was released from Inova Fairfax Hospital Heart and Vascular Institute. ...


Trayvon Martin: Before the world heard the cries

Posted:

Members of the New York City Council wear SANFORD, Florida (Reuters) - Tracy Martin had been looking for his son Trayvon since the night before. He went to bed figuring the teen must have gone to the movies and turned off his phone. When Trayvon still wasn't home in the morning, Martin called the police. After a flurry of phone calls back and forth, an officer told him a police unit was on the way. "So I went outside waiting for Trayvon to show up," Martin said. Instead of one squad car with his son in the backseat, three vehicles pulled up: a police cruiser, an unmarked sedan and another official-looking car. ...


Police investigate suspicious death of French academic

Posted:

File photo of French Academic Richard Descoings in ParisWASHINGTON (Reuters) - A prominent French academic, Richard Descoings, was found dead naked in a New York hotel room on Tuesday afternoon. New York police have opened an investigation because they believe the circumstances of his death are suspicious. A law enforcement source said that the body of Descoings, director of the prestigious Institute of Political Studies in Paris and a member of France's Council of State, a government advisory body, was found on Tuesday afternoon in his room at a hotel in Midtown Manhattan. ...


Government plans to sue Arizona sheriff for targeting Latinos

Posted:

Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio talks to the media at the Sheriff's office in PhoenixWASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Obama administration on Tuesday said it was preparing to sue Arizona county sheriff Joe Arpaio and his department for violating civil rights laws by improperly targeting Latinos in a bid to crack down on illegal immigrants. The sheriff's high-profile crackdown on illegal immigrants has helped thrust the issue onto the national political stage with some states passing tough new laws aimed at pushing out those in the country illegally. ...


Tornadoes rip through Dallas-Fort Worth area

Posted:

Semi-tractor trailers lay in debris left by a tornado which passed through the southern area of Dallas, TexasDALLAS (Reuters) - At least two tornadoes tore through the Dallas-Fort Worth metropolitan area in Texas on Tuesday, ripping apart buildings, tossing tractor trailer trucks into the air and grounding planes in the region. There were no reports of deaths or serious injuries, according to police, although the storm was still active. One tornado tossed around trucks like toys in the Flying J Truck Plaza in Dallas, said truck driver Michael Glennon, who caught the destruction on his video camera as debris swirled through the air. ...


Manhattan office leasing slowest in two years

Posted:

A view of New York's lower Manhattan from the Staten Island FerryNEW YORK (Reuters) - Manhattan office leasing in the first quarter fell to its lowest level in two years, as rise in demand from information and technology companies failed to offset a retreat by financial institutions, according to a report released Tuesday. Leasing activity in the first quarter fell 24 percent, to 5.8 million square feet from the 7.6 million square feet leased in the first quarter 2011. It was the lowest volume of leasing since the first quarter 2010, Cushman & Wakefield said. ...


U.S. woman, 80, lands plane after husband's fatal collapse

Posted:

(Reuters) - An 80-year-old woman with no flying experience took over the controls after her pilot husband's fatal collapse, landing their twin-engine plane as it was running out of gas, the airport manager in Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin, said on Tuesday. "She was remarkable on the radio," Keith Kasbohm of the Door County Cherryland Airport said of Monday's incident. "She kept her composure and sounded like she had been a pilot for years. She knew what to do when they told her 'flaps down, increase the throttle, increase the trim.' She was doing it well. ...

Divorced attorney can't recoup Madoff fraud losses

Posted:

(Reuters) - New York's top court has thrown out a Manhattan lawyer's bid to undo his divorce settlement and force his former wife to share in losses tied to Bernard Madoff's Ponzi scheme. Steven Simkin, a partner at Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison, was saddled with losses when a $5.4 million retirement account he retained as part of a 2006 divorce settlement tanked because of the Madoff fraud. Simkin claimed that the inclusion of the account in the settlement was the result of a "mutual mistake" that rendered the pact void. A unanimous Court of Appeals on Tuesday disagreed. ...

Rash of bomb threats target University of Pittsburgh

Posted:

PITTSBURGH (Reuters) - After receiving 10 bomb threats in three weeks, the University of Pittsburgh offered a $50,000 reward on Tuesday for information leading to the capture of whoever is responsible. Shortly after word of the reward was announced, an 11th threat was made, school authorities said. "The inability to bring this succession of threats to a quick end obviously is a source of frustration for everyone whose life has been disrupted by them," the university Chancellor Mark Nordenberg said in a statement. ...

Fed watchdog finds no Watergate, Iraq weapons link

Posted:

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Federal Reserve did not help the Watergate burglars get cash, stonewall congressional inquiries in the 1970s political scandal or help Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein get a $5.5 billion loan to purchase weapons in the 1980s, the agency's inspector general said in a report posted on the Fed's website on Tuesday. The release touches on subjects seldom associated with the U.S. central bank. It comes after an inquiry that grew out of allegations made by U.S. ...

Obama's uncle gets hardship driver's license

Posted:

BOSTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama's uncle has been granted a special hardship driver's license after having his regular license suspended last week in a drunken driving case. Onyango Obama of Framingham, west of Boston, is the half-brother of the president's late father. He was charged with drunken driving in August after rolling through a stop sign. Sara Lavoie, spokeswoman for the state Registry of Motor Vehicles, said Obama got the special license at a hearing on Monday, allowing him keep his job as manager of two liquor stores. ...

Magellan mulls more expansion of Texas-Gulf pipeline

Posted:

HOUSTON (Reuters) - Magellan Midstream Partners LP is considering further expansion of oil pipeline capacity from west Texas to the Gulf Coast in addition to projects already under way, Chairman and CEO Michael Mears said on Tuesday. "We're looking at further expansions from that market to the Gulf Coast," Mears told an analyst meeting. "We don't have anything to announce today. It's too early in the process." Magellan awaits permits and regulatory approvals for previously announced plans to reverse the Crane, Texas-to Houston portion of the Longhorn Pipeline system. ...

Michigan to appeal latest legal setback for Detroit

Posted:

DETROIT (Reuters) - A Michigan court ruling that put the brakes on the work of state-appointed team charged with recommending a fix for Detroit's fiscal woes will be appealed as soon as Tuesday, a spokesman for Governor Rick Snyder said on Tuesday. Ingham County Circuit Court Judge Joyce Draganchuk late Monday issued a temporary restraining order that led to the cancellation of the review team's meeting scheduled for Tuesday morning. Thursday is the deadline for the governor to act on the team's recommendations for Detroit. ...

Government site back up after it crashes with 1940 census data

Posted:

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A National Archives website that crashed with the release of 1940 census data was back up on Tuesday after it had been swamped by people looking for family information. The website (http://1940census.archives.gov/) was overwhelmed from the first minute the data was made available on Monday, with 22.5 million hits in the first four hours, said Miriam Kleiman, a National Archives spokeswoman. The number reached 37 million by the afternoon. ...

Ann Romney trust invested in fund that exited sex-site firm

Posted:

U.S Republican presidential candidate Romney waves to supporters with his wife Ann during his Illinois primary night rallyNEW YORK (Reuters) - A blind trust in the name of Ann Romney, wife of Republican U.S. presidential hopeful Mitt Romney, was an investor in a fund run by Goldman Sachs Group Inc that had invested in a media company which critics say facilitates sex trafficking. While there is no suggestion the Romneys knew about the investment, the disclosure highlights the difficulty for politicians and their families when they invest in blind trusts that are supposed to protect them from conflicts of interest and ethical questions. ...


Warmest March on record across half the U.S., expert says

Posted:

CHICAGO (Reuters) - Last month was the warmest March on record across half of the United States with summer-like temperatures providing some welcome news to the country's farmers and clothing retailers, a weather expert said. Forecasters predicted April could be another warmer-than-normal month, though they said temperatures were likely to fluctuate in a more seasonal pattern in the first half of the month and that fewer records would be shattered. Accuweather.com said cities in more than 25 states, as well Washington, D.C. ...

U.S. judge grants class action status to Tata wage suit

Posted:

(Reuters) - Employees of Tata Sons Ltd who were deployed from India to work in information technology jobs in the United States won the right on Monday to proceed with a class action lawsuit against the Indian corporate giant over unpaid wages. California federal judge Claudia Wilken granted class-action status to the suit that accuses Mumbai-based Tata and its subsidiary, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), India's largest IT services exporter, of breaching employee contracts and violating California labor laws. ...

Rescued round-the-world yacht racers go to hospital

Posted:

Injured sailor London resident Brbora smiles as he is helped off a U.S. Coast Guard cutter on Coast Guard Island in AlamedaALAMEDA, California (Reuters) - Two injured crew members from an Australian yacht taking part in a round-the-world race were ferried safely to shore on Monday by a Coast Guard cutter that rescued them after a towering wave smashed into their sailboat. British competitor Jane Hitchens, 50, and her crew mate, Nik Brbora, 29, a Croatian native who now lives in England, arrived in San Francisco Bay in late afternoon and were taken to a local hospital in Alameda. ...


Appeals court upholds California affirmative action ban

Posted:

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - A U.S. appeals court upheld California's ban on the use of affirmative action in university admissions on Monday, reaffirming that public schools cannot base admission on race, gender or ethnicity. The ruling by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upholding so-called Proposition 209 comes as affirmative action resurfaces as a live issue at the top of the U.S. legal system. ...

Police investigate suspicious death of French academic

Posted:

File photo of French Academic Richard Descoings in ParisWASHINGTON (Reuters) - A prominent French academic, Richard Descoings, was found dead naked in a New York hotel room on Tuesday afternoon. New York police have opened an investigation because they believe the circumstances of his death are suspicious. A law enforcement source said that the body of Descoings, director of the prestigious Institute of Political Studies in Paris and a member of France's Council of State, a government advisory body, was found on Tuesday afternoon in his room at a hotel in Midtown Manhattan. ...


Former "Sheriff of the Year" jailed in Colorado sex-for-drugs case

Posted:

Booking mug shot of retired Arapahoe County Sheriff Patrick SullivanDENVER (Reuters) - A retired Colorado lawman once named national "Sheriff of the Year" was sentenced on Tuesday to serve 30 days in the jail that bears his name after he pleaded guilty to trading drugs for sex with male prostitutes, prosecutors said. Former Arapahoe County Sheriff Patrick Sullivan, 69, was immediately taken into custody after pleading guilty in Arapahoe District Court to felony drug possession and misdemeanor solicitation of a prostitute, the Colorado Attorney General's Office said in a statement. ...


NBC News regrets editing of Trayvon shooting call

Posted:

(Reuters) - NBC News apologized on Tuesday for the way it edited a broadcast of a conversation between George Zimmerman and a police dispatcher before teenager Trayvon Martin was killed by Zimmerman. Last week Fox News did a report in which it presented "before" and "after" versions of the call. NBC had broadcast the edited exchange on its flagship "Today" morning show. NBC News launched an investigation after the Fox report. ...

Legal challenges stall Detroit's fiscal fix

Posted:

DETROIT (Reuters) - A plan to fix Detroit's shaky finances through a consent agreement before a Thursday, April 5, deadline remained in limbo on Tuesday amid a swirl of unresolved legal challenges. The Detroit City Council did not vote on a deal at its meeting on Tuesday. It is scheduled to return to session on Wednesday at 5 p.m. Eastern Time, according to a spokeswoman for Council President Charles Pugh. ...

Bank of NY Mellon must face lawsuit on Countrywide

Posted:

Security staff members stand behind a logo at the office of the Bank of New York Mellon in Brussels(Reuters) - A federal judge rejected Bank of New York Mellon Corp's bid to dismiss a lawsuit by investors over its role as trustee for mortgage-backed securities that led to an $8.5 billion settlement by Bank of America Corp. U.S. District Judge William Pauley in Manhattan said on Tuesday that bondholders who invested in 26 trusts alleged to have contained risky mortgage loans from the former Countrywide Financial Corp may pursue claims against Bank of New York Mellon. He dismissed a variety of other claims. ...


Police investigate suspicious death of French academic

Posted:

File photo of French Academic Richard Descoings in ParisWASHINGTON (Reuters) - A prominent French academic, Richard Descoings, was found dead naked in a New York hotel room on Tuesday afternoon. New York police have opened an investigation because they believe the circumstances of his death are suspicious. A law enforcement source said that the body of Descoings, director of the prestigious Institute of Political Studies in Paris and a member of France's Council of State, a government advisory body, was found on Tuesday afternoon in his room at a hotel in Midtown Manhattan. ...


Fed not involved in Watergate, watchdog says

Posted:

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Federal Reserve did not help the Watergate burglars get cash, stonewall congressional inquiries into the 1970s political scandal or help former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein get a $5.5 billion loan to buy weapons in the 1980s, the agency's inspector general said in a report posted on the Fed's website on Tuesday. The report is the result of a political tiff in 2010 that touched off a sizeable government investigation on topics seldom associated with the U.S. central bank. ...

Catholic university in Ohio ends birth-control coverage

Posted:

(Reuters) - Xavier University, one of the oldest Roman Catholic colleges in the United States, will cut off birth-control coverage for its employees in July, a move that has divided faculty members and students on the Cincinnati campus. The abrupt cancellation of insurance benefits at the Jesuit university in Ohio comes amid a furious dispute between the Obama administration and the nation's Catholic bishops over contraception. ...

Cheney released from hospital after heart transplant

Posted:

Former U.S. Vice President Cheney and his wife Lynne are pictured at home in family photographWASHINGTON (Reuters) - Former Vice President Dick Cheney, who underwent a heart transplant 10 days earlier, was released from the hospital on Tuesday, a spokeswoman said. "As he leaves the hospital, the former vice president and his family want to again express their deep gratitude to the donor and the donor's family for this remarkable gift," his spokeswoman said in a statement. Cheney, 71, who has a history of heart problems having suffered the first of five heart attacks at age 37, was released from Inova Fairfax Hospital Heart and Vascular Institute. ...


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