The nation in brief

Monday, June 24, 2013

QUOTE OF THE DAY

“I feel safer on the wing of my airplane than I do driving to the airport. Why? Because I’m in control of those risks and not at the mercy of those other drivers.”

Jane Wicker, the 44-year-old wing walker killed Saturday in a plane crash at a Dayton, Ohio, air show, in a posting she wrote for her website Article, this page

Colorado fire tops 108 square miles

DEL NORTE, Colo. - A wildfire near a popular summer retreat in southern Colorado continues to be driven by winds and fueled by dead trees in a drought-stricken area, authorities said Sunday.

The weather has prevented fire crews from making progress on the blaze, which grew overnight to 108 square miles, up from 100 on Saturday. The fire was just below 50 square miles Friday evening.

No structures have been lost in the fire, and no injuries have been reported.

As of Sunday, officials remained focused on protecting South Fork, the Wolf Creek ski area and homes along Colorado 149.

Pete Blume, a commander with the Rocky Mountain Type 1 Incident Command Team, said the wildfire is the worst ever known to hit the Rio Grande National Forest.

Texas lawmakers to vote on abortion

AUSTIN, Texas - More than 600 women’s-rights protesters crowded into the Texas Capitol as lawmakers prepared to vote on some of the toughest abortion restrictions in the country.

The Republican-controlled Legislature was scheduled to vote Sunday on the new laws as time was running out in a special session.

The bills would ban abortions after 20 weeks, require that they take place in surgical centers, and restrict where and when women can take abortion-inducing pills.

Supporters say the measures are intended to protect women’s health, but opponents call them needless regulations to make abortions more difficult to obtain.

If passed, 90 percent of the abortion clinics in Texas would close.

Wallenda daredevil crosses river gorge

LITTLE COLORADO RIVER GORGE, Ariz. - Aerialist Nik Wallenda completed a tightrope walk that took him a quarter mile over the Little Colorado River Gorge in northeastern Arizona on Sunday.

Wallenda performed the stunt on a 2-inch-thick steel cable, 1,500 feet above the river on the Navajo Nation near the Grand Canyon. He took just more than 22 minutes, pausing and crouching twice as winds whipped around him and the rope swayed.

Wallenda didn’t wear a harness and stepped slowly and steadily throughout, murmuring prayers to Jesus almost constantly along the way. He jogged and hopped the last few steps.

The event was broadcast live on the Discovery Channel.

Winds blowing across the gorge had been expected to be around 30 mph. Wallenda told Discovery after the walk that the winds were at times “unpredictable” and that dust had accumulated on his contact lenses.

The 34-year-old Sarasota, Fla., resident is a seventh-generation high-wire artist and is part of the famous “Flying Wallendas” circus family - a clan that is no stranger to death-defying feats.

Front Section, Pages 3 on 06/24/2013