QUOTE OF THE DAY
“We really wanted to make this happen. It’s spontaneous, which is great in its own way.”
San Francisco City Clerk Karen Hong, on keeping her office open Saturday so same-sex couples could get marriage licenses after a hold on gay marriages in California was lifted Friday Article, 5AGettysburg to see battle for tourist cash
GETTYSBURG, Pa. - Vendors looking to capitalize on the barrage of tourists marking the 150th anniversary of the Battle of Gettysburg are hawking commemorative T-shirts, hats and other trinkets as a re-enacted war rages nearby.
More than 200,000 people - including 20,000 re-enactors - are expected to visit the small south-central Pennsylvania town for events through Fourth of July weekend.
A few visitors said they aren’t comfortable with the consumerism, but many others said modern Gettysburg strikes the appropriate balance between capitalizing on its notoriety and paying reverence to the Civil War’s pivotal conflict.
Federal forces turned away the Confederates during fierce fighting on July 1-3, 1863, ending with the South’s ill-fated Pickett’s Charge across an open field against Union soldiers.
The National Park Service events to mark the anniversary start tonight.
2 missing in Northeast after rivers rise
FORT PLAIN, N.Y. - Two people were missing after heavy rains inundated the Northeast and led to severe flooding in some areas, officials said Saturday.
A woman in upstate New York’s Mohawk Valley was unaccounted for after her mobile home was washed away by rising waters Friday in Fort Plain, Police Chief Robert Thomas said. Officials identified her as Ethel Healey.
In Pennsylvania, officials said an 86-year-old Clinton County man was swept into a rain-swollen creek Thursday while trying to retrieve an all-terrain vehicle. State police did not release the man’s name.
A number of communities in the Northeast experienced flash-flooding from heavy rain Thursday and Friday. More was expected in some areas Saturday, including northern Vermont, where the National Weather Service posted a flash flood warning for the Burlington area.
In upstate New York, the storms caused the Mohawk River and other waterways to overflow. At Little Falls, the river reached more than 3 feet above flood stage late Friday morning before receding, the National Weather Service said.
Gov. Andrew Cuomo on Saturday toured areas damaged by flooding and said a disaster declaration would remain in effect for 15 counties. He said homeowners whose property was damaged should be eligible for assistance from the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
Lawyers fear cuts harming court security
NEW YORK - The U.S. government spending cuts known as sequestration are compromising courthouse safety, a lawyers group said in a letter to President Barack Obama and 47 members of Congress.
Robert Anello, president of the Federal Bar Council, an organization of attorneys who practice before the federal courts in New York, Connecticut and Vermont, said in the letter that it’s “imperative” the president and lawmakers reach an agreement to restore funding to the courts.
A $50 million shortfall in the account for judicial security nationwide has prevented New York federal courts from making needed upgrades to security cameras and computer systems, Anello said. The courts are considering firing security staff members and limiting access to courthouses, he said.
The courts in New York and Brooklyn have reduced nonjudicial staffing by 40 percent in the past two years, causing “disruptions and delays,” Anello said.
The cuts also have resulted in a 20 percent reduction in the budget for the Federal Defender’s office, which represents 40 percent of criminal defendants in the federal districts that cover New York City and surrounding counties, Anello said.
Sea lion’s birth thrills Alaska aquarium
ANCHORAGE, Alaska - A Steller sea lion pup has been born at the Alaska SeaLife Center, and officials there are saying is the first such birth in captivity in North America in decades.
“This is the first time since the 1980s that there’s been a Steller sea lion birth in North America, so we’re totally thrilled,” said the center’s president, Tara Riemer Jones.
The female pup was born June 20. Officials at the aquarium in Seward, Alaska, said the pup and her mother, 13-yearold Eden, are doing well. The pup doesn’t have a name yet.
Eden is on breeding loan from the Vancouver Aquarium in British Columbia. The father is the Alaska SeaLife Center’s Woody, who turns 20 this year.
Even though this is the first pup born in captivity in a long time, Jones said a lot of staff members and helpers have experience caring for California sea lion pups, which are very similar, only smaller.
The pup won’t be available for public viewing for a few months.
Front Section, Pages 3 on 06/30/2013