Terminals reopen after LA Port wharf fire
LOS ANGELES -- A fire that raged Monday night on the underside of an old wooden wharf was quelled Tuesday, but not before all container terminals at the Port of Los Angeles and several in adjacent Long Beach harbor were shut down for most of the day because of worries about unhealthy smoke.
Concern about the plume from burning creosote-preserved timber in the pre-World War II wharf also triggered a precautionary evacuation of a port-area elementary school and advice to residents to stay indoors.
Seven of the eight Port of Los Angeles container terminals were reopened for the 6 p.m. night shift, and the eighth was scheduled to restart work today, port spokesman Phillip Sanfield said.
He estimated a few thousand employees, mostly longshore workers, were sent home Tuesday.
At the neighboring Port of Long Beach, all six terminals were open and functioning again after three of them were closed for most of the day, the port said in a statement.
A welding accident Monday evening ignited the 800-foot-long wharf, which has a warehouse running most of its length. The wharf is part of a terminal that processes cargo that isn't confined to large, stackable containers.
Louisiana to appeal gay-nuptials ruling
NEW ORLEANS -- One day after a Lafayette Parish judge declared Louisiana's ban on same-sex marriage unconstitutional, the state's top lawyer Tuesday announced plans to challenge that decision before the state Supreme Court.
Attorney General Buddy Caldwell's office will ask the high court to overturn Judge Edward Rubin's ruling, spokesman Laura Gerdes said.
Rubin's ruling, handed down Monday in the same-sex adoption case of Angela Costanza and her domestic partner, Chasity Brewer, affects only the 15th Judicial District, which also includes Acadia and Vermilion parishes.
Rubin said Costanza may adopt her domestic partner's son and be listed as a parent on his birth certificate. The couple's lawsuit said the state should recognize their marriage, which took place in California.
Whether the ruling lets gays marry immediately in the 15th Judicial District would depend on how Rubin phrased his order, said M. Isabel Medina, a Loyola University New Orleans law professor with expertise in civil rights and sex discrimination.
State court rulings are not affected by a federal judge's ruling in New Orleans that the law is constitutional, but Louisiana's justices may use it for guidance, Medina said.
White House gets 2nd, temporary fence
WASHINGTON -- The Secret Service on Tuesday erected a temporary extra barrier outside the White House as it reviews how a trespasser managed to get inside the executive mansion.
A buffer zone was created by erecting metal security fencing a few feet in front of the iron fence that surrounds the White House complex.
"This temporary closure is in effect while the Secret Service conducts a comprehensive review of the fence jumping incident which occurred on Friday, September 19th," Agent Ed Donovan, an agency spokesman, said in a statement.
Donovan didn't say how long the barriers will be in place.
The Secret Service is examining its security measures after a 42-year-old Army veteran vaulted over the White House fence, sprinted across the lawn and slipped through the executive mansion's front door before being tackled.
The Partnership for Civil Justice Fund, a Washington-based civil liberties legal group, called proposals to further restrict the area around the White House, frequently the site of protests, "an outrageous assault on free speech."
3 Afghan soldiers stand to be deported
BOSTON -- Three Afghanistan National Army officers who vanished during training in Massachusetts were placed in the custody of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement on Tuesday after being detained on the Canadian border, authorities said.
The agency said the officers faced removal proceedings after being charged with administrative immigration violations. A spokesman for the agency said he could not provide more details on the charges.
The men were being held at the Buffalo Federal Detention Facility in Batavia, N.Y., according to Immigration and Customs Enforcement's online detainee locator.
The Massachusetts National Guard said earlier that the Afghan soldiers -- identified as Maj. Jan Mohammad Arash, Capt. Mohammad Nasir Askarzada and Capt. Noorullah Aminyar -- had been detained by the Canadian Border Security Agency on Monday as they tried to enter Canada on the Rainbow Bridge, which connects New York and Ontario at Niagara Falls.
A Section on 09/24/2014