LITTLE ROCK — QUOTE OF THE DAY
“That cap was specially made, it’s on tight, we’ve been looking at the progress, and it’s all good.”
Charles Harwell,
a BP contractor
monitoring the cap in the Gulf of Mexico Article, 1AObama apologizes to ousted official
WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama apologized Thursday to former federal official Shirley Sherrod over her ouster in the midst of a racially tinged controversy.
Obama expressed his regret in a phone call, telling Sherrod he hopes she will accept the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s offer of a new position and saying she could parlay “this misfortune” into an opportunity to use her life experiences to help people, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said. The president thought Sherrod was “very gracious,” Gibbs told reporters.
Sherrod was forced to resign as a USDA official in Georgia earlier this week after a conservative blogger posted an edited video of her recalling at a meeting of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People her reluctance 24 years ago to help a poor white farmer seeking government assistance. She later said that the video posting took out of context what had been a talk advocating racial reconciliation.
Sherrod, in an interview with CNN, called her talk with Obama “a very good conversation.”
Proposal to ban lobstering dumped
WARWICK, R.I. - A proposal to ban lobster fishing over a vast stretch of the East Coast has been killed after lobstermen said it would do “almost biblical” damage to the industry.
The board that advises the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission on lobster rules voted Thursday to consider lesser reductions in the catch - or no new restrictions at all.
The vote came after lobstermen said a ban on lobster fishing from south of Cape Cod, Mass., to North Carolina would destroy their businesses. They also said they’re seeing signs that the species is rebounding.
A scientific committee recommended a five-year moratorium to the board, citing the species’ dire condition.
2 arrested at site of Clinton nuptials
RHINEBECK, N.Y. - Two Norwegian journalists face trespassing charges after they were arrested snapping photos of the New York estate where Chelsea Clinton is expected to get married.
Thomas Bjorn Nilsson, 43, of New York, and Kjerste Sortland, 41, of Snorova, Norway, were charged with a violation after they were stopped about 2 p.m. Wednesday on the Astor Estate in this picturesque town along the Hudson River 90 miles north of New York City, according to Maj.
Michael Kopy of the New York State Police.
Media reports indicate Chelsea Clinton, the daughter of former President Bill Clinton and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, will marry investment banker Marc Mezvinsky on Saturday, July 31, at the estate.
Reached in Oslo, Helje Solberg, managing editor for the newspaper Verdens Gang, said police went overboard when Nilsson and Sortland tried to take pictures of the gate. She said they were not on the property.
Solberg said the paper will pay the fine - in New York, trespassing is a violation punishable by up to 15 days in jail and/or a fine up to $250 - even though “we see this as an overreaction.”
Front Section, Pages 3 on 07/23/2010