QUOTE OF THE DAY
“Today we finally have some justice for me and others. But gay youths will still be told they are no longer welcome when they turn 18.”
Matt Comer, who was forced out of the Boy Scouts after he started a Gay-Straight Alliance as a teen, on the vote to allow gay youths to participate in scouting Article, 1A
Washington state I-5 bridge collapses
MOUNT VERNON, Wash. - An Interstate 5 bridge over a river north of Seattle collapsed Thursday evening, dumping vehicles and people into the water, the Washington State Patrol said.
The four-lane bridge over the Skagit River collapsed about 7 p.m. Pacific time, Trooper Mark Francis said. There was no immediate estimate of how many people were in the water or how many were injured, he said, but Washington state authorities say there were no deaths.
Kari Ranten, a spokesman for Skagit Valley Hospital, said two people injured in the collapse were en route to the facility. She said another person was being transported to a different area hospital.
It also was not known what caused the collapse of the bridge, which is about 60 miles north of Seattle in Skagit County and stretches from the North Cascades National Park to a cluster of islands off the Washington coast.
Xavier Grospe, 62, who lives near the river, said he could see three cars with what appeared to be one person per vehicle. The vehicles were sitting still in the water, partially submerged, and the apparent drivers were sitting either on top of the vehicles or on the edge of open windows.
Senate confirms appeals-court nominee
WASHINGTON - After five years of trying, President Barack Obama has placed his first nominee on a key appeals court in Washington.
The Senate voted unanimously on Thursday, 97-0, to confirm Sri Srinivasan to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. The court is considered the most important in the country after the Supreme Court. Arkansas’ Sens. Mark Pryor, a Democrat, and John Boozman, a Republican, both voted to confirm the nominee.
Srinivasan is the principal deputy in the Office of the Solicitor General. He has worked in both Democratic and Republican administrations and served as a law clerk to former Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor.
N.D. residents to return after dam threat
BISMARCK, N.D. - The threat of a possible dam failure on a river near a northeastern North Dakota city eased on Thursday, and officials said most of the 1,300 evacuated residents would be allowed to return to their homes within 24 hours.
The residents of Cavalier were told to leave Tuesday night while crews built an emergency levee to shore up a dam on the Tongue River, six miles west of the city.
Five days of steady rain had led to a 17-foot rise in the lake behind Renwick Dam, causing fears that the emergency spillway at the earth-and-concrete dam would be overwhelmed and unleash water downstream, flooding rural farmsteads and the city.
The water had dropped by about a foot by sunrise Thursday, Pembina County Emergency Manager Andrew Kirking said. The decline was continuing at a rate of about 1¼ inches per hour, prompting the decision to allow most residents back home at 7 a.m. today, Kirking said.
Retrial set to decide Arizona killer’s fate
PHOENIX - The judge in the Jodi Arias murder trial declared a mistrial in the penalty phase Thursday after the jury reported for a second time that it was deadlocked on whether to sentence her to life in prison or death for killing her boyfriend in 2008.
The judge scheduled a retrial for July 18. A new panel will be seated to try again to reach a decision on a sentence unless the prosecutor takes death off the table and agrees to a life sentence.
The jury began deliberating Tuesday and first reported they had failed to agree the next day. The judge instructed them to keep trying.
The same jury on May 8 found Arias guilty of first-degree murder in the death of Travis Alexander, who was stabbed and slashed nearly 30 times at his Mesa home.
Under Arizona law, a hung jury in the death penalty phase of a trial requires a new jury to be seated to decide the punishment. If the second jury cannot reach a unanimous decision, the judge would then sentence Arias to spend life in prison or be eligible for release after 25 years. The judge cannot sentence Arias to death.
Former Maricopa County Attorney Rick Romley said the case could drag on for several more months as the new jury reviews evidence and hears arguments and testimony in a shortened version of the trial.
Front Section, Pages 4 on 05/24/2013