LITTLE ROCK — QUOTE OF THE DAY
“There are limits to
what a utility can
do. A superstorm
is an extraordinary event, and in an
extraordinary event you get extraordinary circumstances.”
David Wright,
president of the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners, amid rising tension in New York and New Jersey as hundreds of thousands of customers remain without electricity Article, this page
Washington state
OKs gay marriage
OLYMPIA, Wash.
- Washington state has approved gay marriage, joining Maine and Maryland as the first states to pass same-sex marriage by popular vote.
According to unofficial results reported by The Associated Press, Referendum 74 has 1,106,183 votes in support to 1,023,107 votes against, with 66 percent of precincts reporting.
Opponents conceded the race Thursday, while supporters had declared victory a day earlier.
Referendum 74 asked people to approve or reject a state law legalizing samesex marriage that legislators passed earlier this year.
That law was signed by Gov. Chris Gregoire, a Democrat, but has never taken effect.
It was on hold pending the election’s outcome.
Washington is one of four states where voters were asked about the issue this election cycle. Maryland and Maine approved gay marriage Tuesday night, while Minnesota voters rejected a proposed constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage.
Six other states - New York, Connecticut, Iowa, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Vermont - and the District of Columbia already allow same-sex marriage.
Obama to make history, visit Burma
WASHINGTON - Less than two weeks after his reelection, President Barack Obama will become the first U.S. president to visit the once pariah nation of Burma.
Obama will also travel to Cambodia, a first for a U.S. president as well, and to Thailand during the Nov.
17-20 trip. In Cambodia, the president will attend the East Asia summit in Phnom Penh, the capital, and meet with leaders of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.
The symbolic highlight of the trip, no doubt, is Obama’s stop in Burma, also known as Myanmar, a country emerging from five decades of military rule.
While there, Obama will meet with President Thein Sein and also with Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, the White House said.
High-ranking Navy
official cleared
WASHINGTON - The head of U.S. European Command has been cleared of misconduct after a lengthy Pentagon investigation into travel and expense questions that derailed his chances last year of becoming the Navy’s top officer, according to senior U.S. defense officials.
A Pentagon inspector general’s report found that Adm. James Stavridis failed to exercise enough oversight of his staff and made several record-keeping and reimbursement errors.
After reviewing the report, Navy Secretary Ray Mabus concluded in a memo obtained by The Associated Press that Stavridis did not misuse his office.
Instead, Mabus attributed most of the 10 allegations to reporting and accounting missteps that Stavridis quickly corrected.
Front Section, Pages 4 on 11/09/2012