Idaho resort town ordered to evacuate over wildfire

Idaho resort town ordered to evacuate over wildfire
Michelle Obama to meet families of Sikh temple shooting victims
Wildfires strain outdoor tourism business in western U.S.
Battle far from over for immigrants who get deferrals
Texas mall shooting results in one dead, two injured
Tropical Storm Helene weakens, plows up Mexican coast
United flight to Germany returns to Newark after engine trouble
American Diana Nyad starts latest Cuba-U.S. swim attempt
Earhart expedition team says video possibly shows plane debris
Former head of Border Patrol union charged with wire fraud
Nebraska agrees with Arizona: no benefits for 'deferred action' immigrants
Los Angeles sued over crackdown on medical marijuana shops
Japan nationalists land on isle at heart of row with China
Idaho resort town ordered to evacuate over wildfire
United flight to Germany returns to Newark after engine trouble
Texas mall shooting results in one dead, two injured
Michelle Obama to meet families of Sikh temple shooting victims
American Diana Nyad starts latest Cuba-U.S. swim attempt
Tropical Storm Helene weakens, plows up Mexican coast
Wildfires strain outdoor tourism business in western U.S.
Earhart expedition team says video possibly shows plane debris

Posted: 18 Aug 2012 06:18 PM PDT

SALMON, Idaho (Reuters) - Authorities on Saturday ordered the evacuation of a small mountain resort in Idaho as firefighters braced for the possibility that a wildfire that has charred 82,000 acres could reach the town of Featherville in the evening. Smoke from the Trinity Ridge Fire in the Boise National Forest blanketed roadways leading to Featherville, raising health concerns and reducing visibility, said Gary Walker, spokesman for the Elmore County Sheriff's Office. ...

Michelle Obama to meet families of Sikh temple shooting victims

Posted: 18 Aug 2012 04:06 PM PDT

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - First lady Michelle Obama on Thursday will meet with families of victims of the shooting rampage at a Sikh temple in Wisconsin earlier this month, a White House aide said on Saturday. Six people were killed and four others, including a police officer, were injured on August 5 when Wade Michael Page, an Army veteran with links to racist groups, gunned them down and then killed himself. Obama will go to Milwaukee to meet with immediate family members of those who were killed and injured, the aide said on condition of anonymity. ...

Wildfires strain outdoor tourism business in western U.S.

Posted: 18 Aug 2012 01:37 PM PDT

SALMON, Idaho (Reuters) - Wildfires sweeping across the western United States are straining communities that depend upon the summer tourism season, as recreation sites catch fire, campgrounds close and outdoor activities such as river rafting are disrupted. In the mountains of central Idaho, where whitewater rafting has replaced logging as an economic mainstay, blazes are curtailing trips on rivers whose world-class rapids draw an international crowd of thousands from June through August. ...

Battle far from over for immigrants who get deferrals

Posted: 17 Aug 2012 09:01 PM PDT

MIAMI/LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - The Obama administration's new policy to grant temporary legal status to millions of young illegal immigrants will end the immediate threat of deportation but may not give them the same privileges as legal residents. Within hours of the policy's going into effect on Wednesday, Arizona's Republican governor, Jan Brewer, issued an executive order denying public benefits such as driver's licenses to illegal immigrants who are given temporary legal status. ...

Texas mall shooting results in one dead, two injured

Posted: 18 Aug 2012 04:36 PM PDT

SAN ANTONIO, Tex (Reuters) - One man was killed and two wounded early Saturday in a shooting at a shopping mall in the west Texas town of Odessa, police say. Police say officers went to the Music City Mall on a report that people were refusing to leave a sports bar inside, which was then followed by reports of shots fired. Detectives say Pablo Jimenez, 23, was rushed to the hospital but died of his wounds. A 19-year-old man and a 21-year-old man were hospitalized. "This was a fight that began at the bar at closing time," said Odessa Police Lieutenant Pete Marquez. ...

Tropical Storm Helene weakens, plows up Mexican coast

Posted: 18 Aug 2012 02:22 PM PDT

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Tropical Storm Helene made landfall off the Gulf of Mexico on Saturday and weakened into a tropical depression as it plowed up Mexico's east coast, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said. The depression was about 65 miles west-northwest of Tampico and had maximum sustained winds of 30 miles per hour, the NHC said in its 4 p.m. CDT (5.00 p.m. EDT) bulletin. Tropical storm warnings were discontinued on the Mexican coast, although Helene still was expected to produce two to four inches of rain in the states of Veracruz and Tamaulipas. ...

United flight to Germany returns to Newark after engine trouble

Posted: 18 Aug 2012 06:05 PM PDT

(Reuters) - A United Airlines flight bound for Germany had to return Saturday evening to Newark Liberty International Airport after experiencing engine trouble, officials said. The crew for United Flight 96 from Newark to Berlin reported an issue with the left engine, according to Kathleen Bergen, a spokeswoman for the Federal Aviation Administration. She said that as a precaution, the flight burned off fuel and landed safely just after 8 p.m. local time, over two hours after takeoff. ...

American Diana Nyad starts latest Cuba-U.S. swim attempt

Posted: 18 Aug 2012 02:45 PM PDT

HAVANA (Reuters) - With a shout of "courage," veteran long-distance swimmer Diana Nyad dove into the Florida Straits on Saturday and began stroking her way north in her fourth and likely final attempt to make the 103-mile swim from Cuba to the United States. The 62-year-old American, who will be accompanied by five boats and 50 crewmembers, plied through the blue waters that three times before have bested her with wind, waves and jellyfish, not to mention the threat of sharks. ...

Earhart expedition team says video possibly shows plane debris

Posted: 17 Aug 2012 09:03 PM PDT

HONOLULU (Reuters) - A team of researchers trying to solve the mystery of aviator Amelia Earhart's 1937 disappearance said on Friday that underwater video from a Pacific island has revealed a field of man-made debris that could be remnants of her plane. The footage was collected in July by The International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery (TIGHAR) during a $2.2 million expedition to Nikumaroro in the Republic of Kiribati. ...

Former head of Border Patrol union charged with wire fraud

Posted: 17 Aug 2012 07:39 PM PDT

SAN DIEGO (Reuters) - A former head of the U.S. Border Patrol union has been charged with misusing union and government funds to enrich himself, maintain a mistress in Chicago and pay for pornography, a federal indictment said. The indictment handed down by a federal grand jury late on Thursday charges Terence "T.J." Bonner, who for 22 years served as head of the National Border Patrol Council, with one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and 11 counts of wire fraud over a period of five years. ...

Nebraska agrees with Arizona: no benefits for 'deferred action' immigrants

Posted: 17 Aug 2012 08:59 PM PDT

(Reuters) - Illegal immigrants sheltered from deportation under a new federal program still won't be eligible for state services such as driver's licenses in Nebraska, the state's Republican governor said on Friday. Governor Dave Heineman, in making the announcement, joined Arizona Governor Jan Brewer in challenging the federal government on immigration policy. Two days ago, Brewer issued an executive order barring illegal immigrants from getting state benefits. ...

Los Angeles sued over crackdown on medical marijuana shops

Posted: 17 Aug 2012 06:12 PM PDT

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - A medical marijuana trade group and 11 patients sued the city of Los Angeles on Friday, seeking to block enforcement of an ordinance that would shut down most of the city's storefront pot dispensaries in three weeks. The lawsuit, which says users are protected by California's 1996 legalization of medical marijuana and the U.S. Constitution, seeks an immediate injunction to keep Los Angeles officials from shuttering dispensaries starting on September 6. The plaintiffs also hope to ultimately overturn the ban in Los Angeles, home to more pot shops than any other U.S. ...

Japan nationalists land on isle at heart of row with China

Posted: 18 Aug 2012 06:20 PM PDT

EAST CHINA SEA (Reuters) - Several Japanese nationalists landed on Sunday on a rocky island in the East China Sea at the heart of a territorial row with Beijing, a move all but certain to fan anger in China and worsen ties between Asia's two biggest economies. Tokyo and Beijing have been feuding for decades over the island chain, known as the Senkaku in Japan and the Diaoyu in China, near potentially huge maritime gas fields. Tensions flared last week after seven of a group of 14 Chinese activists slipped past Japan's Coast Guard to land on one of the uninhabited isles and raise a Chinese ...