Raging Colorado wildfire grows, threatens gated community

Raging Colorado wildfire grows, threatens gated community
Steel skeleton completed at 4 World Trade Center
Fund for grandmother bullied on bus reaches $650,000
Spy chief toughens employee polygraph to stem leaks
Debby threatens more floods, tornadoes in Florida
U.S. Representative Jesse Jackson Jr. takes leave of absence
NYC budget accord saves day care, fire companies
Cities split $111 million to hire, retain police
Native American casino battle shifts to NY state court
National education reform group's spending shown
Bodies of four illegal immigrants found in Arizona desert
Bail set for mother charged with keeping girl in closet
Human remains found in Oklahoma train wreckage
National education reform group's spending shown
More U.S. teens hide online activity from parents: survey
Judge delays Bulger trial to March 2013
Senators optimistic deal close on transport bill
Teen prostitutes rescued, pimps held, in FBI sweep
U.S. tomato farmers say want to dump Mexico deal
New York man's death tied to last week's heat wave
Pennsylvania attorney general says Sandusky got fair trial
African extremist groups linking up: U.S. general
Georgia woman fighting flesh-eating disease improves
New motion for bail for Trayvon Martin's killer
Acting attorney named for Chicago after Fitzgerald leaves
High court splits its verdict on Arizona immigration law
Teen murderers must get parole chance: Supreme Court
Supreme Court turns away Louisiana Citizens appeal
Supreme Court permits no limits on state campaign funds
Raging Colorado wildfire grows, threatens gated community
NYC budget accord saves day care, fire companies
U.S. Representative Jesse Jackson Jr. takes leave of absence
National education reform group's spending shown
Senators optimistic deal close on transport bill
Cities split $111 million to hire, retain police
Spy chief toughens employee polygraph to stem leaks
Bodies of four illegal immigrants found in Arizona desert
Debby threatens more floods, tornadoes in Florida
Native American casino battle shifts to NY state court

Posted: 25 Jun 2012 05:56 PM PDT

COLORADO SPRINGS (Reuters) - An out-of-control wildfire near some of Colorado's most visited tourist sites expanded overnight and kept some 6,000 people from their homes on Monday, threatening a gated community nestled in the foothills near the famous Garden of the Gods. The fire sent a mushroom cloud of smoke nearly 20,000 feet into the air over Colorado Springs, shadowing Pikes Peak, whose vistas helped inspire the patriotic tune "America the Beautiful." Closer to the blaze, trees were visibly twisting from the heat. ...

Steel skeleton completed at 4 World Trade Center

Posted: 25 Jun 2012 12:57 PM PDT

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Construction workers at 4 World Trade Center in New York hoisted and placed the final beam for the building's steel skeleton on Monday, keeping the structure on track to be the first to open at the site since the September 11 attacks brought down the twin towers. The final steel beam of the 977-foot (298-metre) skyscraper, weighing eight tons (7.25 tons) and adorned with an American flag, was signed by a group including construction workers and developers. ...

Fund for grandmother bullied on bus reaches $650,000

Posted: 25 Jun 2012 01:55 PM PDT

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Donations to a fundraising website for a grandmother bullied by middle-school students on a bus reached $650,000 on Monday afternoon, a record for the website, after a video of the abuse topped 7 million views on YouTube. Karen Klein, a 68-year-old bus monitor from Greece, New York, was bullied until she cried by Greece Middle School students in a video uploaded on YouTube on Wednesday. Brian Klein, Karen's son, said the support the family has received has been overwhelming, and that the family was grateful for it. The fund on indiegogo. ...

Spy chief toughens employee polygraph to stem leaks

Posted: 25 Jun 2012 04:40 PM PDT

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The top U.S. intelligence official on Monday ordered that a new question be added to federal employee lie-detector tests to help uncover any leaks of secret information to the media. In true spy-agency form, the wording of the question was not made public. ...

Debby threatens more floods, tornadoes in Florida

Posted: 25 Jun 2012 04:08 PM PDT

MIAMI (Reuters) - Tropical Storm Debby lashed parts of Florida with driving rains and high winds on Monday, threatening to trigger more flooding and tornadoes as it hovered off the state's northern Gulf of Mexico coast. With tropical storm-force winds extending outward up to 230 miles from its center off the northwest coastal town of Apalachicola late Monday afternoon, forecasters said Debby menaced a broad swath of inland territory with flash flooding from torrential downpours. ...

U.S. Representative Jesse Jackson Jr. takes leave of absence

Posted: 25 Jun 2012 06:35 PM PDT

CHICAGO (Reuters) - U.S. Representative Jesse Jackson Jr. began a medical leave of absence from Congress on June 10 and is being treated for exhaustion, his office said on Monday. The offices of the Chicago Democrat, who has served in Congress since 1995, remain open to serve constituents, said a statement from Jackson spokesman Frank Watkins. "He asks that you respect his family's privacy," the statement said. U.S. Representative Danny Davis, a fellow Chicago Democrat, said he was surprised to learn of the leave because Jackson was "his normal, jovial self" two weeks ago. ...

NYC budget accord saves day care, fire companies

Posted: 25 Jun 2012 06:38 PM PDT

(Reuters) - New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg and the City Council on Monday agreed on a $68.5 billion 2013 budget, which spares 20 fire companies from the ax and increases funding for day-care and after-school programs. "We've again produced an on-time, balanced budget for our city that doesn't raise taxes on New Yorkers, and that preserves the essential services that keep our city strong," the mayor, a political independent, said at a news conference. Restoring the fire companies will cost $59 million. ...

Cities split $111 million to hire, retain police

Posted: 25 Jun 2012 04:36 PM PDT

PHILADELPHIA (Reuters) - Some 220 cities and counties across the United States are sharing $111 million in federal grants to retain and hire police officers, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder announced on Monday. Beneficiaries of the Justice Department funds include Los Angeles, which received a $6.4 million grant to fund 25 officers, and Chicago and Philadelphia, which each got $3.1 million for 25 officers. ...

Native American casino battle shifts to NY state court

Posted: 25 Jun 2012 03:56 PM PDT

NEW YORK (Reuters) - A federal appeals court on Monday tossed out a ruling that had barred a Long Island-based Native American tribe from building a casino in Southampton, New York. In a 2-1 ruling, the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New York said that the dispute pitting the Shinnecock Indian Nation against the state of New York and the town of Southampton belonged in state, not federal court. The ruling dissolved a Brooklyn federal court judge's permanent injunction in 2008 freezing the casino project and sent the case to New York state court. ...

National education reform group's spending shown

Posted: 25 Jun 2012 05:04 PM PDT

(Reuters) - The national education reform group StudentsFirst, which has set out to transform U.S. schools by introducing more free-market principles to public education, raised $7.6 million in its first nine months - and spent nearly a quarter of it on advertising - according to partial tax records released on Monday. Michelle Rhee, the former chancellor of the Washington, D.C. public schools, launched StudentsFirst in the fall of 2010 with the stated goal of raising $1 billion over five years. ...

Bodies of four illegal immigrants found in Arizona desert

Posted: 25 Jun 2012 04:15 PM PDT

PHOENIX (Reuters) - U.S. border police recovered the bodies of four suspected illegal immigrants who died attempting to cross the remote sun-baked Arizona desert from Mexico in deadly triple digit temperatures over the weekend, authorities said on Monday. Arizona straddles a busy route for illegal immigrants slipping into the United States from Mexico, many through the Sonora Desert wilderness, where June temperatures peak at above 115 degrees Fahrenheit (46 degrees Celsius). The U.S. ...

Bail set for mother charged with keeping girl in closet

Posted: 25 Jun 2012 03:01 PM PDT

KANSAS CITY, Missouri (Reuters) - Bail was set at $200,000 Monday for a Missouri woman charged with keeping her malnourished 10-year-old daughter locked in a closet. Police found the girl, who weighed only 32 pounds (14.5 kg), on Friday, trapped in the closet with the door tied shut and a playpen pushed against it, Kansas City police said. The girl's mother, Jacole Prince, 29, was charged on Saturday with assault, child abuse and endangering the welfare of a child. A judge on Monday entered a not-guilty plea on Prince's behalf and Prince asked for a public defender. ...

Human remains found in Oklahoma train wreckage

Posted: 25 Jun 2012 03:00 PM PDT

OKLAHOMA CITY (Reuters) - Partial human remains were recovered on Monday from the wreckage of two freight trains that collided head-on in a fiery Sunday crash in Oklahoma, officials said. Three Union Pacific crew members were killed when the trains collided near Goodwell in the Oklahoma panhandle, setting off a blaze that engulfed three locomotives and about 10 rail-cars. The only known survivor of the crash, a conductor, escaped injury by leaping from the train when he saw a crash was imminent. ...

National education reform group's spending shown

Posted: 25 Jun 2012 03:52 PM PDT

More U.S. teens hide online activity from parents: survey

Posted: 25 Jun 2012 03:18 PM PDT

NEW YORK (Reuters) - More and more teenagers are hiding their online activity from their parents, according to a U.S. survey of teen internet behavior released on Monday. The survey, sponsored by the online security company McAfee, found that 70 percent of teens had hidden their online behavior from their parents in 2012, up from 45 percent of teens in 2010, when McAfee conducted the same survey. "There's a lot more to do on the Internet today, which ultimately means there's a lot more to hide," said McAfee spokesman Robert Siciliano. ...

Judge delays Bulger trial to March 2013

Posted: 25 Jun 2012 02:16 PM PDT

BOSTON (Reuters) - The criminal trial of accused Boston mobster James "Whitey" Bulger will be delayed by four months to March 4, 2013, a federal judge ruled on Monday. The 82-year-old reputed crime boss, who has been accused of 19 murders and eluded law enforcement for more than a dozen years, had requested a delay, noting that his lawyer needs more time to prepare for the trial. J.W. ...

Senators optimistic deal close on transport bill

Posted: 25 Jun 2012 04:45 PM PDT

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Senators involved in marathon talks on a two-year deal for funding U.S. road, bridge and rail projects said on Monday they were close to a compromise with House Republicans, although they might need to work through a Friday deadline to finish negotiations. They declined to talk about specifics, or address whether the potential deal would include a measure to approve the Canada-to-Texas Keystone XL oil pipeline, which has been a major hurdle. ...

Teen prostitutes rescued, pimps held, in FBI sweep

Posted: 25 Jun 2012 02:07 PM PDT

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Seventy-nine teenagers held against their will and forced into prostitution were rescued at hotels, truck stops and storefronts in a three-day sweep of sex-trafficking rings across the United States, law enforcement officials said on Monday. The FBI said 104 alleged pimps were arrested during sting operations in 57 U.S. cities including Atlanta, Sacramento, and Toledo, Ohio. The operation lasted between Thursday and Saturday and involved state and local authorities as well as the FBI. ...

U.S. tomato farmers say want to dump Mexico deal

Posted: 25 Jun 2012 02:44 PM PDT

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. tomato growers on Monday said they have formally asked the U.S. Commerce Department to tear up a pricing agreement with Mexican producers that they say has become "a charade." Reggie Brown, executive vice president of the Florida Tomato Exchange, told Reuters U.S. producers want the pact voided so they can file a new anti-dumping complaint against Mexico. The rare request comes in a dispute that dates back to 1996, when U.S. industry filed a petition accusing Mexican producers of selling in the United States at unfairly low prices. ...

New York man's death tied to last week's heat wave

Posted: 25 Jun 2012 01:51 PM PDT

NEW YORK (Reuters) - New York's medical examiner said on Monday last week's mini heat wave claimed at least one life - an 81-year-old man who died of hyperthermia. The Queens man died last Thursday, the second day of the 2012 summer season and midway through a three-day heat wave that gripped the East Coast, said Ellen Borakove, a spokeswoman for New York's chief medical examiner. Last summer's brutal temperatures were blamed for the deaths of 31 people, Borakove said. On Thursday, a record high of 97 degrees Fahrenheit (36 degrees Celsius) was recorded at John F. ...

Pennsylvania attorney general says Sandusky got fair trial

Posted: 25 Jun 2012 09:51 AM PDT

(Reuters) - Former Penn State assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky received a fair trial and his lawyers' complaints of inadequate preparation time and an inaccurate version of a television interview shown to jurors should not be grounds for an appeal, Pennsylvania's attorney general said on Monday. Those points are likely to be among the appellate issues raised by lawyers for Sandusky, who was found guilty on Friday on 45 child sex abuse charges in a case that rocked U.S. college football. ...

African extremist groups linking up: U.S. general

Posted: 25 Jun 2012 02:09 PM PDT

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Three of Africa's largest extremist groups are sharing funds and swapping explosives in what could signal a dangerous escalation of security threats on the continent, the commander of the U.S. military's Africa Command said on Monday. General Carter Ham said there are indications that Boko Haram, al Shabaab and Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb - groups that he labeled as the continent's most violent - are sharing money and explosive materials while training fighters together. ...

Georgia woman fighting flesh-eating disease improves

Posted: 25 Jun 2012 12:29 PM PDT

ATLANTA (Reuters) - A Georgia graduate student who has undergone multiple amputations as she fights a rare flesh-eating bacterial infection has been upgraded from serious to good condition, a hospital spokeswoman said on Monday. Aimee Copeland, 24, was hospitalized after cutting the calf of her leg in a May 1 fall from a zip-line strung along the Little Tallapoosa River near Carrollton, Georgia. ...

New motion for bail for Trayvon Martin's killer

Posted: 25 Jun 2012 10:32 AM PDT

MIAMI (Reuters) - Lawyers for the Florida neighborhood watch volunteer charged in the killing of unarmed black teenager Trayvon Martin have asked for his release from jail for a second time on bond, despite lies told about his finances at a court hearing in April. The request on behalf of George Zimmerman came in a motion filed with the Seminole County Circuit Court in central Florida on Monday, where a bond hearing for Zimmerman will be held on Friday. "Mr. Zimmerman is still entitled to a reasonable bond notwithstanding the court's finding that Mr. ...

Acting attorney named for Chicago after Fitzgerald leaves

Posted: 25 Jun 2012 11:32 AM PDT

CHICAGO (Reuters) - Long-time Chicago prosecutor Gary S. Shapiro will become acting U.S. attorney on July 1 after Patrick J. Fitzgerald, known for his hard line on political corruption, steps down from the post, the U.S. Attorney's office said Monday. Also Monday, the state's two senators have agreed to appoint a six-member bipartisan committee to screen applicants for Fitzgerald's permanent replacement. Shapiro, 65, who is Fitzgerald's second in command as first assistant U.S. attorney, has a total of four decades of experience as a federal prosecutor in Chicago. ...

High court splits its verdict on Arizona immigration law

Posted: 25 Jun 2012 03:29 PM PDT

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday upheld the main provision of Arizona's crackdown on illegal immigrants but threw out three other parts, handing partial victories to President Barack Obama in his challenge to the law and to the measure's conservative supporters. In an important test of whether federal or state governments have the power to enforce immigration laws, the top U.S. court unanimously upheld the statute's most controversial aspect, a requirement that police officers check the immigration status of people they stop, even for minor offenses such as jay-walking. ...

Teen murderers must get parole chance: Supreme Court

Posted: 25 Jun 2012 10:39 AM PDT

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday ruled unconstitutional mandatory sentences of life in prison without the possibility of parole for people under age 18 when they committed murder in a ruling that could affect nearly 2,500 young prisoners. By a 5-4 vote, the high court ruled the U.S. Constitution forbids such a mandatory sentencing scheme for juvenile murderers. Conservative Justice Anthony Kennedy joined the liberals while the more conservative members dissented. ...

Supreme Court turns away Louisiana Citizens appeal

Posted: 25 Jun 2012 09:40 AM PDT

(Reuters) - The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday said it would not hear an appeal from insurer Louisiana Citizens on a class-action lawsuit that followed Hurricane Katrina, handing another victory to plaintiffs who are already owed more than $105 million. A local court in 2009 ordered Louisiana Citizens, the state's insurer of last resort, to pay penalties to policyholders because it took too long to start adjusting more than 18,500 claims after the devastating hurricanes Katrina and Rita in 2005. ...

Supreme Court permits no limits on state campaign funds

Posted: 25 Jun 2012 09:11 AM PDT

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - In a blow to those trying to restrict corporate spending in U.S. elections, the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday ruled against a century-old law in Montana that set limits on business spending for political campaigns in the state. By a 5-4 vote, the country's highest court ruled for three corporations - the American Tradition Partnership Inc political advocacy group, a nonprofit group that promotes shooting sports, and a small family-owned painting business - all of which challenged the law as violating their free-speech rights. ...