The nation in brief

Monday, December 3, 2012

QUOTE OF THE DAY

“I was just flabbergasted. I looked at him and I said,‘You can’t be serious.’”

House Speaker John Boehner, on his reaction as Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner shared the White House’s plan to avert the “fiscal cliff.” Article, 1A

Coast Guard boat is rammed; 1 dies

VENTURA, Calif. - A U.S. Coast Guard member was killed and another was injured when their small boat was rammed by a smuggler’s vessel before dawn Sunday off the Southern California coast.

Terrell Horne III of Redondo Beach was pronounced dead after being taken ashore at the Port of Hueneme, said Ventura County chief deputy medical examiner James Baroni.

The second man was treated for minor injuries. His name wasn’t released.

The smuggler’s panga, which was running without lights, maneuvered at high speed directly at the small boat before fleeing, according to a Coast Guard statement.

Another Coast Guard vessel stopped the fleeing panga and detained two suspects.

3rd storm hammers Northern California

SAN FRANCISCO - Residents of Northern California hunkered down Sunday as a third powerful storm in less than a week pounded the area with rain and winds.

The latest system moved in late Saturday and early Sunday, dropping as much as an inch of rain per hour, toppling trees and knocking out electricity to tens of thousands of people, officials said.

Rivers across Northern California swelled, but did not flood as extensively as had been expected, officials said.

As Pacific Gas & Electric crews worked Sunday to restore power, about 57,000 people from Santa Cruz to Eureka, including about 13,000 in the San Francisco Bay area, remained without electricity.

Rail cleanup keeps N.J. evacuees out

PAULSBORO, N.J. - More than 100 southern New Jersey residents will be kept out of their homes for several more days as crews clear vinyl chloride that spewed from a ruptured train car.

Paulsboro, N.J., residents won’t be able to return to their homes in the 12-block evacuation zone until at least Saturday, officials said.

Conrail crews in recent days and weeks had been reporting problems with the signal, and the rail company had been looking into the problem only the day before, board chairman Deborah Hersman said.

Front Section, Pages 3 on 12/03/2012