LITTLE ROCK — QUOTE OF THE DAY "When a member of the Kennedy family passes, it's like family. It feels like family." Jeanne Pagano, a mourner along the motorcade route that carried Sen.
Edward Kennedy's body to Boston for a two-day public viewing.
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California crews fight multiple wildfires
LOS ANGELES - California firefighters working in withering heat battled wildfires Thursday in rugged mountains above the foothill suburbs of Los Angeles and also in the central coast region and on the outskirts of Yosemite National Park.
Weather plagued fire crews as temperatures in some areas rose toward triple digits and humidity levels headed downward. For a second day, the National Weather Service issued a red flag warning of extreme fire conditions for many of California's central and southern mountain ranges.
No major structural losses were reported.
The major battles in Southern California were in the San Gabriel Mountains as firefighters struggled to keep flames from topping ridges and surging into a wider area of the sprawling Angeles National Forest northeast of downtown Los Angeles.
The largest of two fires, which spread lung-burning haze over much of metropolitan Los Angeles, was 45 percent contained after burning across 1,850 acres, or nearly 3 square miles, said Capt. Jim Wilkins of the U.S. Forest Service.
Vermont governor won't seek a fifth term
The Republican governor of one of the nation's most Democratic states announced Thursday that he would not run for re-election, putting another statehouse in play ahead of the 2010 elections.
Vermont Gov. Jim Douglas said at a news conference in Montpelier that he was ready to hand control of the state's government over to a new leader.
"It's been the great privilege of my life to serve the people of this state that I love so well," Douglas said. "But as any farmer knows after many years of working sunup to sundown, seven days a week, there comes a time to turn over the reins to fresh arms.
For me, that time is approaching."
Douglas, 58, is in his fourth two-year term as governor. He said Thursday that he did not plan to run for any other political office.
Though Douglas has held the governor's mansion since 2002, Vermont is a strongly Democratic state that President Barack Obama won in 2008 with 68 percent of the vote.
In third try, shuttle set to launch tonight
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - NASA will try to launch space shuttle Discovery to the international space station late tonight, after back-to-back delays caused by bad weather and fuel valve trouble.
It will be the third try for NASA, which is still struggling to understand why a critical shuttle fuel valve appeared to malfunction Tuesday midway through the fueling process.
The valve was tested Wednesday night, and all indications were that it was a problem with a sensor rather than the valve itself, said NASA spokesman Allard Beutel. The hydrogen fuel valve is in Discovery's engine compartment.
After meeting Thursday, mission managers decided they needed more time to settle on a plan if the problem reappears, and they aimed for a liftoff late tonight.
Liftoff time will be 10:59 p.m. Central time.
NASA has until Sunday to launch Discovery. Otherwise the shuttle will have to get in line behind a Japanese cargo ship and a Russian spacecraft set to go to the space station in September.
Neighbors flee fire at fuel storage plant
HAMTRAMCK, Mich. - A fire that started Thursday near a rail tanker car at a chemical plant spread quickly to silos holding gasoline, causing an inferno that sent huge plumes of black smoke billowing into the sky above Detroit and forcing the evacuation of hundreds of people from the area.
The fire at the Sterling Services Ltd. plant in Hamtramck broke out about 11:30 a.m., and city officials quickly called in help from the Detroit and Highland Park fire departments. Hamtramck is surrounded by Detroit.
An evacuation order was lifted at midafternoon as firefighters worked to put out remaining hot spots.
The company stores gasoline, jet fuel and biofuels at the plant, so authorities evacuated residents from about a half-mile area around the fire, said Kevin Kondrat, executive director of the Hamtramck Housing Commission.
There were no injuries reported, City Manager Bill Cooper said.
He said it wasn't known what sparked the fire.
Front Section, Pages 4 on 08/28/2009