LITTLE ROCK — QUOTE OF THE DAY
“It’s amazing to me that an individual like this who was sending out so many signals could end up getting on a plane going to the U.S.” Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the Republican leader in the Senate, on a Nigerian man’s purported attempt to bring down a trans-Atlantic airliner Article, 1A
Indian tribes aim to buy back land
OMAHA, Neb. - American Indian tribes tired of waiting for the U.S. government to honor centuries-old treaties are buying back land where their ancestors lived and putting it in federal trust.
The tribes say the purchases will help protect their culture and way of life by preserving burial grounds and areas where sacred rituals are held. They also provide land for farming, timber and other efforts to make the tribes selfsustaining.
Tribes put more than 840,000 acres into trust from 1998 to 2007, according to information The Associated Press obtained from the federal Bureau of Indian Affairs under the Freedom of Information Act.
Land held in federal trust is exempt from local and state laws and taxes, but subject to most federal laws.
Three tribes have bought land around Bear Butte in South Dakota’s Black Hills to keep it from developers eager to cater to the bikers who roar into Sturgis every year for a raucous road rally.
About 17 tribes still use the mountain for religious ceremonies.
Damaged tugboat
towed into port
VALDEZ, Alaska - A crippled tugboat that spilled fuel into Alaska’s Prince William Sound after hitting the same reef that caused the Exxon Valdez oil disaster 20 years ago reached port early Sunday, a spokesman for the tug’s owner said.
The Pathfinder arrived under tow into Valdez, and crews will now work to determine how much diesel fuel spilled into the bay after the tug ran aground Wednesday, Crowley Maritime Services spokesman Jim Butler said.
Responders hope to have an answer late Sunday but it could take longer to examine all materials used in cleaning up the spill to make that calculation, Butler said.
Times Square ball
gets new crystal
NEW YORK - The New Year’s Eve crystal ball that drops in Times Square will have a new kind of sparkle when it descends at the stroke of midnight Thursday, and revelers will be able to toast 2010 without popping a cork.
Organizers of the celebration unveiled a new design Sunday for nearly 300 Waterford crystal triangles to be installed on the giant ball. The crystals feature an interlocking ribbon pattern, woven into a Celtic knot, to illustrate the theme for 2010, “Let There Be Courage.”
The triangles are custom-built to withstand high winds, snow, rain and temperature fluctuations in their spot 400 feet above Times Square.
The ball-drop tradition dates to 1907.
Front Section, Pages 3 on 12/28/2009