N.Y. storm drops season's worth of rain
NORTH BABYLON, N.Y. -- A record-setting rainstorm dumped more than a foot of water on parts of suburban New York in a matter of hours Wednesday, causing one fatal crash and turning highways into streams that stranded hundreds of drivers and flooded basements.
The National Weather Service said a summer's worth of rain fell within a few hours -- over 13 inches at MacArthur Airport in Ronkonkoma. That was more than the area's normal total for June, July and August of 11.75 inches.
More than 5 inches fell in just a one-hour period, from 5 to 6 a.m. Wednesday, said weather service meteorologist Joe Pollina. He said the previous state record for rainfall over a 24-hour period was 11.6 inches near Tannersville during Tropical Storm Irene three years ago.
One person died when an SUV was hit by a tractor-trailer carrying waste oil on the Long Island Expressway near Dix Hills during the height of the storm, according to Suffolk County Police Chief James Burke. He said it appeared the SUV was driving slowly when it was hit by the larger vehicle.
Guard at border defends all, Perry says
BASTROP, Texas -- Gov. Rick Perry said Wednesday that sending National Guard troops to the Texas-Mexico border will defend not just his home state but the entire nation from "narco-terrorists" and that he doesn't know how long they will have to be deployed before the national threat is quelled.
The Republican governor last month ordered 1,000 National Guard troops to the Texas-Mexico border. Perry, a potential 2016 presidential candidate, traveled to Camp Swift Army National Guard Training Center 30 miles outside Austin for a firsthand look at the training they are getting for deployment.
"You now are the tip of the spear protecting Americans from these cartels," Perry told hundreds of troops in camouflage. "As they are able to get past you they could be headed to any city, any neighborhood in this country, spreading their tentacles of crime, of fear."
Perry noted that crime committed by illegal border crossers had affected not only Texas but also Iowa, South Carolina and North Carolina, all of which he's visited recently and two of which hold early presidential voting contests.
Co-trial reinstated for 5th 9/11 detainee
FORT MEADE, Md. -- A military judge put a Guantanamo prisoner charged in the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks back on the same trial schedule as his four co-defendants Wednesday after hearing arguments about issues that have bogged down the case for months.
Army Col. James Pohl granted a government motion to reconsider his July 24 order severing the case of Ramzi Binalshibh of Yemen from those of the other defendants. Pohl said he might reinstate the severance order if issues pertinent only to Binalshibh continue to hold up the larger case into next year.
Those issues include Binalshibh's desire to have officials look into what he says is a pattern of mistreatment at the hands of guards inside Camp 7, the secret section of the prison where he is held. He has alleged that he has been subjected to sounds and vibrations intended to prevent him from sleeping, allegations the military has denied.
Clinton joining ex-boss for island party
VINEYARD HAVEN, Mass. -- Hillary Rodham Clinton and President Barack Obama shrugged off their differences Wednesday as they gathered on Martha's Vineyard after a foreign-policy split.
Obama's spokesman said the White House "is looking onwards and upwards," and Clinton joked she was planning to hug off the public dispute with her former boss at a party on the upscale island where the president was vacationing.
"We have disagreements as any partners and friends, as we are, might very well have," Clinton told reporters crowded into a bookstore signing of her memoir, Hard Choices. "But I'm proud that I served with him and for him, and I'm looking forward to seeing him tonight."
Clinton was making her first public comments since the fallout of an interview with The Atlantic magazine in which she rebuked Obama's approach to global crises and described a different approach she would take in places like Syria and the Mideast.
A Section on 08/14/2014