Commuter ferry crash in New York injures 57, one critical

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• Commuter ferry crash in New York injures 57, one critical
• Accused Colorado shooter posed with guns before rampage
• Boston declares health emergency amid U.S. flu outbreak
• Boeing top engineer says he's confident 787 is safe
• Giffords gun control group wants $20 million for 2014 elections
• Guantanamo prosecutor wants one charge dropped in 9/11 case
• Budget cut likely to hit most Pentagon civilian workers: analyst
• Newtown to begin discussing future of Sandy Hook school building
• New York governor wants casinos to spur upstate economy
• Ex-professor gets life in prison in Oklahoma child porn case
• Attorneys spar over fate of California boy who killed neo-Nazi dad
• New York governor proposes strictest assault weapons ban
• No indictment for driver of parade float hit by train
• Platinum coin idea has little currency at White House
• Final defendant in Newark schoolyard murders gets 195 years in prison
• Boeing Dreamliner incidents raise safety concerns
• Driver of veterans parade float hit by train will not be indicted
• Crane collapses at NY City construction site, seven hurt
• White House wades into debate on injured Redskins QB
• Supreme Court mulls blood samples from drunken driving suspects
• USDA declares drought disaster in much of Wheat Belt
• Wal-Mart will meet with Biden gun task force on Thursday
• New York Governor Cuomo proposes minimum wage hike
• Body of man poisoned after winning lottery will be exhumed
• Judges look favorably on Obama gun reporting rule
• Boston declares health emergency amid U.S. flu outbreak
• Rains to ease drought in Delta; cold snap for Plains
• 2012 was hottest year on record in U.S., climate agency says
• NRC staff recommends costly filtered vents at some U.S. reactors
• Analysis: Boeing problems put spotlight on battery technology

Commuter ferry crash in New York injures 57, one critical Posted: 09 Jan 2013 02:27 PM PST NEW YORK (Reuters) - A high-speed commuter ferry carrying hundreds of passengers crashed into a pier near Wall Street during the morning rush hour on Wednesday, injuring 57 people, one critically, authorities said. Passengers who had boarded the 141-foot Seastreak Wall Street in Atlantic Highlands, New Jersey, and were queued up to disembark in New York, were thrown to its deck by the impact of the hard landing at 8:43 a.m. ...

Accused Colorado shooter posed with guns before rampage Posted: 09 Jan 2013 04:38 PM PST CENTENNIAL, Colo. (Reuters) - Self-portraits of accused Colorado movie house gunman James Holmes posing with firearms and body armor ended prosecutors' pretrial case against the former graduate student on Wednesday, but defense lawyers declined to present evidence or witnesses of their own. The pictures, which police said Holmes took of himself with an iPhone before the shooting rampage at a midnight showing of a "Batman" film last summer, capped three days of hearings in which prosecutors laid out their case for putting him on trial. ...

Boston declares health emergency amid U.S. flu outbreak Posted: 09 Jan 2013 07:06 PM PST BOSTON (Reuters) - With flu cases in this city up tenfold from last year, the mayor of Boston declared a public health emergency on Wednesday as authorities around the United States scrambled to cope with a rising number of patients. U.S. health authorities say the flu arrived about a month earlier than usual this year, and the flu strain making most people sick - H3N2 - has a reputation for causing fairly severe illness, especially in the elderly. As a result, hospitals around the country have been forced to find additional space to treat the ill, and some have had to turn people away. ...

Boeing top engineer says he's confident 787 is safe Posted: 09 Jan 2013 04:19 PM PST (Reuters) - Boeing Co rolled out the Dreamliner's chief engineer to try to quell concerns about the new jet following three mishaps in as many days, including an electrical fire that caused severe damage to a plane. At a news conference on Wednesday, the engineer, Mike Sinnett, defended the 787, the world's first plastic plane, and said its problem rates are at about the same level as Boeing's successful 777 jet. Relatively few technical problems prevent 787s from leaving a gate within 15 minutes of scheduled departure time, he said. "We're in the high 90 percents," he said. ...

Giffords gun control group wants $20 million for 2014 elections Posted: 09 Jan 2013 07:04 PM PST WASHINGTON/PHOENIX (Reuters) - A new gun control group led by Gabrielle Giffords, the former U.S. congresswoman wounded in a Tucson shooting rampage, wants to raise $20 million for the 2014 congressional elections, matching the National Rifle Association's spending in last November's elections, the group's treasurer said on Wednesday. Giffords and her husband, former U.S. astronaut Mark Kelly, have turned to Houston trial lawyer and Democratic donor Steve Mostyn to act as treasurer. ...

Guantanamo prosecutor wants one charge dropped in 9/11 case Posted: 09 Jan 2013 04:12 PM PST MIAMI (Reuters) - The chief prosecutor for the Guantanamo war crimes tribunal recommended on Wednesday that the Pentagon drop a conspiracy charge against five prisoners accused of plotting the September 11 attacks on the United States in 2001. The prosecutor, Brigadier General Mark Martins, expressed doubts that the conspiracy charge would withstand legal appeal. If that charge is dropped, the defendants would still face seven other charges in the tribunal at the Guantanamo Bay U.S. ...

Budget cut likely to hit most Pentagon civilian workers: analyst Posted: 09 Jan 2013 04:07 PM PST WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Almost all of the Pentagon's nearly 800,000 civilian employees would likely have to be placed on unpaid leave for a month this year if automatic defense spending cuts go into effect in March as now planned, a top defense budget analyst said on Wednesday. Todd Harrison, a defense analyst at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments think-tank, predicted the across-the-board spending cuts, which were delayed until March 1 under a law passed on New Year's Day, were more likely than before. "(The Department of Defense) dodged a bullet once on this. ...

Newtown to begin discussing future of Sandy Hook school building Posted: 09 Jan 2013 04:37 PM PST (Reuters) - Newtown residents and officials this weekend will begin debating what to do with Sandy Hook Elementary School, the site of the second-deadliest school shooting in U.S. history, in which 20 first graders and six school staff members died. Town officials plan to host two "community conversations," the first on Sunday afternoon and another on January 18, to seek "ideas for the future of the Sandy Hook school facility," Newtown First Selectman Patricia Llodra said in a statement on Wednesday. ...

New York governor wants casinos to spur upstate economy Posted: 09 Jan 2013 03:08 PM PST (Reuters) - New York Governor Andrew Cuomo proposed on Wednesday dozens of new initiatives for the state, including new casinos and other measures aimed at helping upstate areas regain their financial footing after decades of economic decline. Cuomo, in his annual State of the State address, proposed locating up to three casinos upstate to increase tourism and provide some local property tax relief and education funds for struggling cities. ...

Ex-professor gets life in prison in Oklahoma child porn case Posted: 09 Jan 2013 04:29 PM PST OKLAHOMA CITY (Reuters) - A retired college professor was sentenced to life in prison Wednesday for conspiring to take nude photographs of third-grade girls and for exposing himself to the children on a computer video telephone service. Gary Doby, 66, pleaded guilty to conspiracy, lewd molestation and 18 counts of sexual exploitation of a child under 12 and was sentenced to 18 concurrent life prison sentences by Judge John Carnavan Jr. ...

Attorneys spar over fate of California boy who killed neo-Nazi dad Posted: 09 Jan 2013 05:25 PM PST RIVERSIDE, California (Reuters) - A lawyer for a California boy accused of murdering his neo-Nazi father urged a judge on Wednesday to convict his client of a lesser charge of voluntary manslaughter, citing what he termed an abusive upbringing. But a prosecutor told the court that Joseph Hall, who both sides agree shot his father at point blank range in May 2011 when he was 10 years old, knew at the time his actions were wrong, and that abuse allegations cited by the defense were a diversion. ...

New York governor proposes strictest assault weapons ban Posted: 09 Jan 2013 01:41 PM PST (Reuters) - New York Governor Andrew Cuomo pledged to enact the strictest assault weapons ban in the United States and outlaw all high-capacity magazines in one of the first state-level reactions to the massacre of school children in Connecticut. "Gun violence has been on a rampage as we know firsthand and we know painfully," Cuomo said on Wednesday in his annual State of the State address, in which he committed New York to leading the country in enacting new gun control laws. "We must stop the madness, my friends. And in one word it's just enough. It has been enough. ...

No indictment for driver of parade float hit by train Posted: 09 Jan 2013 04:17 PM PST SAN ANGELO, Texas (Reuters) - A Texas grand jury on Wednesday decided not to indict the driver of a parade float involved in a crash with a Union Pacific train that killed four veterans, a Midland, Texas, prosecutor said. Assistant District Attorney Eric Kalenak said the grand jury decided not to indict Midland resident Dale Hayden, 50, who was driving a truck pulling a flatbed trailer that veterans and their wives were sitting on during the parade. ...

Platinum coin idea has little currency at White House Posted: 09 Jan 2013 02:40 PM PST WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The White House on Wednesday sees little profit in the notion of minting $1 trillion platinum coin as an escape hatch to avoid a debt default if Congress balks at raising the U.S. debt limit. With another standoff with Congress over raising the debt ceiling looming as early as mid-February, a petition on the White House website asks the administration to create a single platinum coin worth $1 trillion to avoid a stalemate over lifting the borrowing cap. The petition has garnered more than 7,100 signatures. ...

Final defendant in Newark schoolyard murders gets 195 years in prison Posted: 09 Jan 2013 01:58 PM PST (Reuters) - The sixth and final defendant convicted in the 2007 schoolyard shooting deaths of three college students in Newark, New Jersey, was sentenced on Wednesday to 195 years in prison. Gerardo Gomez, 20, was the youngest defendant convicted in the murders of three Delaware State University students and the attempted murder of a fourth in the playground of Mt. Vernon Elementary School on August 4, 2007. The day of the murders was Gomez's 15th birthday. Shot dead were Terrance Aeriel, 18, and Dashon Harvey and Iofemi Hightower, both 20. ...

Boeing Dreamliner incidents raise safety concerns Posted: 09 Jan 2013 03:34 PM PST NEW YORK/TOKYO (Reuters) - Boeing Co's 787 Dreamliner jet suffered a third mishap in as many days on Wednesday, heightening safety concerns after a string of setbacks for the new aircraft. Japan's All Nippon Airways said it was forced to cancel a 787 Dreamliner flight scheduled to from fly from Yamaguchi prefecture in western Japan to Tokyo due to brake problems. That followed a fuel leak on Tuesday that forced a 787 operated by Japan Airlines to cancel take-off at Boston's Logan International Airport, a day after an electrical fire on another 787 after a JAL flight to Boston from Tokyo. ...

Driver of veterans parade float hit by train will not be indicted Posted: 09 Jan 2013 03:23 PM PST SAN ANGELO, Texas (Reuters) - A Texas grand jury on Wednesday decided not to indict a veterans parade float driver involved in a deadly Union Pacific train crash, a Midland, Texas prosecutor said. Assistant District Attorney Eric Kalenak said the grand jury decided not to indict Midland resident Dale Hayden, 50, who was driving the cab of the flatbed trailer veterans and their wives were sitting on during the parade. Four veterans died in the November crash. (Editing by Corrie MacLaggan and Greg McCune)

Crane collapses at NY City construction site, seven hurt Posted: 09 Jan 2013 02:24 PM PST NEW YORK (Reuters) - A 170-foot tall crane collapsed on Wednesday at a construction site in the New York City borough of Queens, injuring at least seven people, three seriously, authorities said. The mobile crane was being used at the site of a new 25-story residential building under construction when it fell over about 2:30 p.m., the New York City Police Department said. Among the seven injured, three were in serious condition and another four suffered minor injuries, the New York Fire Department said. None of the injuries was considered life threatening. ...

White House wades into debate on injured Redskins QB Posted: 09 Jan 2013 02:36 PM PST WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Even the White House couldn't resist weighing in on the nationwide debate over whether Washington Redskins star rookie quarterback Robert Griffin III should have been kept in Sunday's NFL playoff game in which he went down with a gruesome knee injury. Washington coach Mike Shanahan has come under fire for leaving the ailing Griffin - widely known as RG-3 - in the 24-14 loss to the Seattle Seahawks and possibly putting the young player's career at risk. ...

Supreme Court mulls blood samples from drunken driving suspects Posted: 09 Jan 2013 12:39 PM PST WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Missouri urged the Supreme Court on Wednesday to let police take involuntary blood samples from suspected drunken drivers without a warrant, something that Chief Justice John Roberts said evoked a "pretty scary image" of government power. The case was one of two involving the privacy rights of drivers argued before the nation's highest court on Wednesday. A South Carolina case addressed whether lawyers can gather personal information on drivers from state databases to help find possible plaintiffs for lawsuits. ...

USDA declares drought disaster in much of Wheat Belt Posted: 09 Jan 2013 10:53 AM PST WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The government declared much of the central and southern Wheat Belt a natural disaster area on Wednesday due to persistent drought that imperils this year's winter wheat harvest. In its first disaster declaration of the new year, the Agriculture Department made growers in large portions of four major wheat-growing states - Kansas, Colorado, Oklahoma and Texas - eligible for low-interest emergency loans. The four states grew one-third of the U.S. wheat crop last year. Kansas was the No. 1 state at 382 million bushels. ...

Wal-Mart will meet with Biden gun task force on Thursday Posted: 09 Jan 2013 09:06 AM PST (Reuters) - Wal-Mart Stores Inc said on Wednesday it would send a representative to Washington to meet with Vice President Joe Biden on Thursday to share the company's position on the responsible sale of firearms. At first, Wal-Mart was not going to send anyone to Biden's meeting, saying its senior leaders could not be in Washington this week and that it spoke in advance with Biden's office to share its perspective, spokesman David Tovar said. ...

New York Governor Cuomo proposes minimum wage hike Posted: 09 Jan 2013 12:49 PM PST (Reuters) - New York Governor Andrew Cuomo called on Wednesday for raising the state's minimum wage by nearly 21 percent, to $8.75 an hour. "It is long overdue," Cuomo said during his State of the State address. "We should have done it last year." New York's current rate of $7.25 an hour is below that of 19 other states, he said. On January 1, 10 U.S. states increased their minimum wage rates by between 10 and 35 percent. Lawmakers in neighboring New Jersey passed bills late in 2012 to ask voters whether the state ought to hike the minimum wage to $8.25 per hour from the current $7.25. ...

Body of man poisoned after winning lottery will be exhumed Posted: 09 Jan 2013 11:28 AM PST CHICAGO (Reuters) - The body of a Chicago man who died of cyanide poisoning less than two months after winning $1 million in the Illinois Lottery will be exhumed for further examination in two to four weeks, according to the Cook County medical examiner. An affidavit to exhume the body of Urooj Khan, 46, will be filed Friday with the Cook County Circuit Court, Mary Paleologos, a spokeswoman for the county, said on Wednesday. ...

Judges look favorably on Obama gun reporting rule Posted: 09 Jan 2013 12:58 PM PST WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A federal appeals court signaled on Wednesday it was prepared to uphold a regulation designed to detect the sale of semi-automatic rifles to Mexican drug cartels, one of the few gun control measures put forward so far by the Obama administration. Gun retailers and manufacturers, including a trade group based in Newtown, Connecticut, scene of the December 14 school massacre, say the rule is burdensome and violates federal law. It requires stores in the four U.S. ...

Boston declares health emergency amid U.S. flu outbreak Posted: 09 Jan 2013 01:35 PM PST BOSTON (Reuters) - With flu cases in this city up tenfold from last year, the mayor of Boston declared a public health emergency on Wednesday as authorities around the United States scrambled to cope with a rising number of patients. Health authorities say a virulent strain this year has caused the number of flu cases to surge earlier than usual. Hospitals around the country have scrambled to find additional space to treat the ill, and some have had to turn people away. ...

Rains to ease drought in Delta; cold snap for Plains Posted: 09 Jan 2013 05:29 AM PST CHICAGO (Reuters) - Heavy rains in the Delta and southeast over the next week will provide some relief from the worst drought in over 50 years while a cold snap early next week is posing a threat to the struggling wheat crop in the U.S. Plains States, an agricultural meteorologist said on Wednesday. "That is something that definitely will need to be watched," said Andy Karst, meteorologist for World Weather Inc. referring to a turn to bitter cold weather early next week. ...

2012 was hottest year on record in U.S., climate agency says Posted: 09 Jan 2013 05:41 AM PST CHICAGO (Reuters) - The year 2012 was the warmest on record for the contiguous United States, beating the previous record by a full degree in temperature, a government climate agency said on Tuesday. Scientists at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said the average temperature in 2012 in the contiguous United States was 55.3 degrees Fahrenheit (12.94 degrees Celsius), 3.2 degrees above the average recorded during the 20th century and 1.0 degree above 1998, until now the hottest on record. The contiguous United States excludes Alaska and Hawaii. ...

NRC staff recommends costly filtered vents at some U.S. reactors Posted: 09 Jan 2013 06:38 AM PST (Reuters) - U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) staff on Wednesday will brief the commission on its recommendation to require nuclear operators to spend tens of millions of dollars to install filtered vents at more than two dozen reactors. Energy analysts have said the filtered vents recommendation, which were in response to the staff's review of lessons learned from the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster in Japan, was just one of several factors that could increase costs of nuclear power and possibly lead to the shutdown of some older reactors. ...

Analysis: Boeing problems put spotlight on battery technology Posted: 09 Jan 2013 05:41 PM PST DETROIT/NEW YORK (Reuters) - An electrical fire on Boeing's new 787 Dreamliner is drawing renewed scrutiny for lithium-ion batteries, an increasingly important component in planes and hybrid cars. A Japan Airlines 787 experienced a battery fire while parked on the ground in Boston on Monday, causing substantial damage in an equipment bay. While the plane is designed to contain the smoke from such a fire in-flight, because it was on the ground the smoke entered the cabin. ...

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