Los Angeles police offer gift cards to take guns off streets

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• Los Angeles police offer gift cards to take guns off streets
• Winter storm hits eastern U.S., snarls holiday travel
• Ex-U.S. President George H.W. Bush in intensive care
• U.S. retailers scramble after lackluster holiday sales
• For Obama's second inauguration, a subdued, less crowded Washington
• Imminent threat of labor unrest averted at Northwest ports
• Justice Sotomayor refuses to block contraceptives mandate
• Dakota Indians mark hangings of 1862 with trek on horseback
• Police investigate NBC News anchor for showing gun clip
• Factbox: Biggest U.S. news events of 2012
• Former President George H.W. Bush in intensive care: spokesman
• Ski patrol veteran dies after avalanche at California resort
• Factbox: Entergy says 150,000 lack power in Arkansas after storm

Los Angeles police offer gift cards to take guns off streets Posted: 26 Dec 2012 05:21 PM PST LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Police traded gift cards for guns in Los Angeles on Wednesday, in a buyback program Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa announced as a crime-fighting response to the deadly shooting rampage in Newtown, Connecticut. Police officers handed out $200 grocery store gift cards to people who turned in an automatic weapon, and $100 gift cards to those who provided a handgun, rifle or shotgun. Los Angeles has held an annual gun buyback since 2009, and similar events have been organized in years past in several other cities, including Detroit and Boston. ...

Winter storm hits eastern U.S., snarls holiday travel Posted: 26 Dec 2012 05:51 PM PST WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A powerful winter storm that has claimed at least five lives pounded the U.S. Midwest and Northeast and snarled post-Christmas travel on Wednesday after rare tornadoes pummeled the Gulf Coast. Heavy snow and high winds prompted National Weather Service blizzard and winter storm warnings for the Ohio River Valley and into the Northeast. Fifteen inches of snow were recorded at New Baltimore, Michigan, as the storm headed north and east. About 1,500 U.S. flights were canceled on Wednesday, according to FlightAware.com, a site that tracks flights. ...

Ex-U.S. President George H.W. Bush in intensive care Posted: 26 Dec 2012 04:46 PM PST AUSTIN, Texas (Reuters) - Former President George H.W. Bush is in the intensive care unit of a Houston hospital and is in "guarded condition," family spokesman Jim McGrath said Wednesday. "The president is alert and conversing with medical staff, and is surrounded by family," McGrath said in a statement. "Following a series of setbacks including a persistent fever, President Bush was admitted to the intensive care unit at Methodist Hospital on Sunday where he remains in guarded condition," McGrath said. ...

U.S. retailers scramble after lackluster holiday sales Posted: 26 Dec 2012 02:08 PM PST (Reuters) - The 2012 holiday season may have been the worst for retailers since the 2008 financial crisis, with sales growth far below expectations, forcing many to offer massive post-Christmas discounts in hopes of shedding excess inventory. While chains like Wal-Mart Stores Inc and Gap Inc are thought to have done well, analysts expect much less from the likes of book seller Barnes & Noble Inc and department store chain J. C. Penney Co Inc. ...

For Obama's second inauguration, a subdued, less crowded Washington Posted: 26 Dec 2012 10:23 AM PST WASHINGTON (Reuters) - It is one of those occasions that is quintessential Washington: the inauguration of a president, a multi-day festival of patriotism, politics, optimism and self-congratulation. All of that will be on display on January 21, when President Barack Obama is publicly sworn in for his second four-year term. But this inauguration will be far less grand than Obama's first in 2009, when a record 1.8 million visitors flooded the city to see the nation's first black president take office. ...

Imminent threat of labor unrest averted at Northwest ports Posted: 26 Dec 2012 06:04 PM PST SEATTLE (Reuters) - The threat of imminent labor unrest at four U.S. Pacific Northwest ports was averted on Wednesday as the dockworkers union said its members would stay on the job despite "substandard" contract terms being imposed unilaterally by grain shippers. Both sides in the stalemate left open the door to further negotiations. A spokesman for the U.S. Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service told Reuters the agency was in contact on Wednesday with the parties. ...

Justice Sotomayor refuses to block contraceptives mandate Posted: 26 Dec 2012 05:03 PM PST (Reuters) - U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor has refused to block enforcement starting next week of a requirement in President Barack Obama's 2010 healthcare overhaul that some companies provide insurance coverage for contraceptive drugs and devices. In an order issued on Wednesday, Sotomayor said two for-profit companies controlled by Oklahoma City billionaire David Green and his family did not qualify for an injunction while they challenge the requirement in court. ...

Dakota Indians mark hangings of 1862 with trek on horseback Posted: 26 Dec 2012 07:39 AM PST ST. PAUL, Minn (Reuters) - The day after Christmas will be somber for Dakota Indians marking what they consider a travesty of justice 150 years ago, when 38 of their ancestors were executed in the biggest mass hanging in U.S. history. Overshadowed by the Civil War raging in the East, the hangings in Mankato, Minnesota, on December 26, 1862, followed the often overlooked six-week U.S.-Dakota war earlier that year -- a war that marked the start of three decades of fighting between Native Americans and the U.S. government across the Plains. ...

Police investigate NBC News anchor for showing gun clip Posted: 26 Dec 2012 12:30 PM PST (Reuters) - NBC News anchor David Gregory is being investigated by police after displaying what he said was a high-capacity gun clip on Sunday's broadcast of "Meet the Press," Washington's Metropolitan Police Department said Wednesday. Gregory held up what appeared to be a 30-round gun magazine - which would be barred under Washington municipal code - while hosting the nationally broadcast interview with National Rifle Association Chief Executive Officer Wayne LaPierre. ...

Factbox: Biggest U.S. news events of 2012 Posted: 26 Dec 2012 11:29 AM PST (Reuters) - The following were some of the top news stories in the United States during 2012. FEBRUARY Trayvon Martin shooting. Martin, an unarmed black teenager was shot dead in Florida by neighborhood watch patrol volunteer George Zimmerman. Zimmerman said he shot Martin in self defense during a struggle, but will stand trial next June for murder. Whitney Houston, among the top singers of the 1980s and 1990s, died at age 48. MARCH Deadly Midwest tornadoes. A spate of tornadoes and thunderstorms tore across the South and Midwest, killing dozens of people and injuring hundreds of others. ...

Former President George H.W. Bush in intensive care: spokesman Posted: 26 Dec 2012 03:52 PM PST AUSTIN, Texas (Reuters) - Former President George H.W. Bush is in the intensive care unit of a Houston hospital and is in "guarded condition," family spokesman Jim McGrath said Wednesday. "The President is alert and conversing with medical staff, and is surrounded by family," McGrath said in a statement. Bush was admitted to the intensive care unit on Sunday, McGrath said. (Reporting By Corrie MacLaggan; Editing by Paul Thomasch)

Ski patrol veteran dies after avalanche at California resort Posted: 25 Dec 2012 09:04 PM PST (Reuters) - A veteran ski patroller who was buried in an avalanche during a safety exercise at a California resort on Monday has died, the resort said in a statement on Tuesday. Bill Foster, 53, died at Renown Regional Medical Center in Reno, Nevada, according to a statement from Alpine Meadows, a resort near Lake Tahoe in the Sierra Nevada mountains. Foster, who was a ski patroller for 28 years, was part of a team who were performing "routine snow safety" in the Sherwood Bowl area of the resort Monday morning when an avalanche was triggered by an explosive charge thrown by a senior patroller. ...

Factbox: Entergy says 150,000 lack power in Arkansas after storm Posted: 26 Dec 2012 03:57 PM PST HOUSTON (Reuters) - About 150,000 homes and businesses in Arkansas remained without electricity late Wednesday following a Christmas Day winter storm packing snow, high winds and tornadoes. Entergy said the number of outages in the state peaked at 191,000 on Tuesday. The storm dumped record snowfall for a Christmas Day in North Texas and Arkansas and left two people dead in weather-related accidents. Tornadoes touched down in Alabama, Mississippi and Texas. Entergy Corp's Arkansas utility took the brunt of the storm's fury. ...

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