LITTLE ROCK — QUOTE OF THE DAY
“I literally get on a plane with a baseball hat and hope to God nobody knows who I am
because they’re just going to yell at me.”
Rep. Tom Rooney, R-Fla., as members of Congress prepared to flee the Capitol Article, 1A
Buying iPhone 5 in stores hit-and-miss
It was possible to walk into a store Saturday and buy an iPhone 5. But it took some hunting.
Some stores reported having Apple’s newest phone available for walk-up customers, though not all versions of it. A random check of about a dozen stores indicated that most were sold out.
A Verizon store in New York City said the 32 and 64 gigabyte models, but not the 16GB version, were available. A Sprint store in a suburb of St. Paul, Minn., said all but the most expensive 64GB iPhones were sold out.
The iPhone 5 went on sale Friday, igniting intense interest around the world. Apple’s website said phones bought online would ship in three to four weeks. Verizon’s website said they would ship by Oct. 19.
Analysts say the company will likely sell millions of phones in the first few days.
There were long lines Friday at Apple stores in Asia, Europe and North America. Apple and the phone companies haven’t provided sales figures from the first day.
Apple is expected to announce early results Monday.
U.S. names 55 in Cuba due for transfer
The Justice Department on Friday for the first time disclosed the names of detainees at the military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, who have been approved for transfer but whose release has been delayed.
The 55 detainees were identified in court papers filed in U.S. District Court in Washington. The Justice Department said there was “no longer a need to withhold” the information from the public.
“Today’s release is a partial victory for transparency, and it should also be a spur to action. These men have now spent three years in prison since our military and intelligence agencies all agreed they should be released,” said Zachary Katznelson, senior staff attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union’s National Security Project.
In 2010, the Guantanamo Review Task Force approved 126 prisoners for transfer. Their release was based on the Obama administration’s ability to resettle them in their home countries or elsewhere.
Currently, 167 detainees are being held at Guantanamo Bay.
Judge: Wal-Mart bias case still viable
SAN FRANCISCO - Wal-Mart Stores Inc. must face an 11-year-old sex-discrimination lawsuit filed on behalf of workers in California after the U.S. Supreme Court barred a lawsuit representing Wal-Mart employees nationwide.
U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer in San Francisco said in an order Friday that the plaintiffs have proposed a reduced class size to between one and several hundred thousand members.
The reduced class “could be certified,” Breyer wrote, if it made a “showing consistent with the Supreme Court’s decision” that a nationwide class action isn’t appropriate.
Breyer rejected Wal-Mart’s bid to dismiss the case, an argument made on grounds that even the reduced class size suffers from the problems that led the Supreme Court to bar a nationwide class certification, according to the ruling.
Breyer said he “reserves for later determination” if the class should be certified.
The sex-bias case was originally filed in San Francisco in 2001 by women at a handful of Wal-Mart stores claiming they were denied pay and promotions.
Texas asks court to allow voter purge
Texas asked a state judge to dissolve a temporary court order blocking a purge of as many as 77,000 “possibly dead” people from voter rosters in one of several courtroom battles leading up to the Nov. 6 election.
“Texas has long had in place statutes that mandate a voter’s registration should be canceled by a county registrar when it is determined that a voter is deceased,” Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott said in a filing Friday in state court in Austin. “This matter concerns the integrity of voter registration in Texas.”
Four voters sued Texas Secretary of State Hope Andrade on Wednesday to block implementation of a voter verification campaign that they said would remove them and possibly thousands of other still-living Texans from voter lists before the November presidential election.
Judge Tim Sulak blocked Andrade from directing county voter registrars to carry out the purge the same day the lawsuit was filed.
Front Section, Pages 4 on 09/23/2012