QUOTE OF THE DAY
“This day will always be hard, but this place will always be strong.”
Former Boston Mayor Thomas Menino on the first anniversary of the marathon bombing that killed three and injured 260 Article, 1A
Gulf Coast storm totals campground RVs
GAUTIER, Miss. - A storm barreled through Mississippi Gulf Coast communities, leaving more than a dozen damaged or destroyed RV trailers at one campground Tuesday, along with downed trees and power lines.
The storm blew through the Santa Maria RV Park in Gautier about 8 p.m. Monday, knocking some trailers off their blocks and overturning or destroying others.
Despite the destruction in the park, Jackson County Director of Emergency Management Earl Etheridge said only two people were injured, neither seriously, and both were released from the hospital. He said 23 people were treated at the scene Monday night.
An early damage assessment showed the storm destroyed 17 trailers and damaged another five, with three vehicles also destroyed, Etheridge said. A nearby apartment complex had its back wall knocked off, Etheridge added.
Obama cites typo, commutes term
WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama used the unique power of the nation’s highest office Tuesday to correct a typo.
The error was made in a report used to sentence drug dealer Ceasar Cantu of Katy, Texas, and resulted in 3½ extra years being added to his prison term. Cantu was convicted of trafficking marijuana and money laundering.
Obama commuted Cantu’s sentence from 15 years to 11½ years. It’s only the 10th time Obama has used his power to cut the sentence of a federal inmate.
U.S. District Judge Jackson Kiser, who sits on the bench in Danville, Va., last year dismissed Cantu’s request to reduce his time because the request wasn’t filed within the one-year statute of limitations and his lawyer didn’t object at the 2006 sentencing.
The White House said Obama decided to grant clemency because it was the only way to correct a criminality-rating number in the sentencing report that was mistakenly listed at a higher level.
Ohio seeks stay of gay-marriage order
CINCINNATI - Attorneys for the state of Ohio asked a federal judge Tuesday to stay his decision ordering the state to recognize the marriages of same-sex couples performed in other states, a request the judge said he was inclined to grant.
The state attorneys said in a court filing they would not object to the request by four couples who sued in February to have both spouses listed on their children’s birth certificates, but urged Judge Timothy Black to stay Monday’s ruling for everyone else.
“This court’s order is a momentous change in Ohio’s marriage law, that will require widespread - but in light of appeal, possibly temporary - changes in Ohio law,” they wrote. “The public interest and other parties are not served by such confusion.”
Black said he is inclined to issue a stay of his decision pending appeal, meaning most gay couples living in the state would see no immediate tangible expansion of their rights.
The civil-rights attorneys who represent the couples argued in a filing late Monday that the state’s appeal isn’t likely to succeed, and there is no public interest in delaying the ruling.
With body, mudslide toll rises to 37
EVERETT, Wash. - One more victim was recovered from the mudslide that hit the town of Oso, raising the death toll to 37, the Snohomish County medical examiner’s office said Tuesday. The person’s name has not been released.
Seven people remain on the missing list, the sheriff’s office said.
A search for bodies continued in the debris left when the March 22 landslide raced across the North Fork of the Stillaguamish River and buried dozens of homes in the riverfront community about 55 miles northeast of Seattle.
Washington Gov. Jay Inslee and other state officials gathered on the steps of the Capitol in Olympia at noon Tuesday to lower the flag. Inslee ordered that flags at all state facilities be lowered to half-staff until the end of the day Tuesday, the same day President Barack Obama plans to survey the damage and meet with victims, first responders and recovery workers.
The slide covered about a mile of state Highway 530, cutting off the direct route between Interstate 5 and the town of Darrington, which is east of the slide and has a population of about 1,300. Re-opening the highway is a priority for residents facing long detours.
Front Section, Pages 4 on 04/16/2014