LITTLE ROCK — QUOTE OF THE DAY
“I won’t say that I got close to welling up in the eyes, but I will say that it was a powerful moment for me.”
Kwatsi Alibaruho,
lead flight director for the space shuttle Atlantis, on the craft docking with the International Space Station for the final time Article, this page
N.M. girl wins Spanish spelling bee
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. - The first national Spanish spelling bee has been won by a seventh-grade girl from Santa Cruz, N.M.
Evelyn Juarez, of Carlos F. Vigil Middle School, won Saturday by correctly spelling the Spanish word “bizantinismo,” which means excess luxury.
The runner-up, German Rojero of Los Lunas Middle School, misspelled “kanindeyuense,” someone from a Paraguayan territory.
The Albuquerque Journal reported that the two each spelled about 20 words correctly to defeat nine other students, who hailed from as far away as Oregon and Texas, though most were from New Mexico.
Organizer David Briseno, who heads New Mexico’s Association for Bilingual Education, said the state has had a contest since 1994 but he had been dreaming of a national event for years.
Mental exam ordered in bomb scare
MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. - A mental health evaluation was ordered Sunday for the man police say drove the hearse involved in the Friday bomb scare in Miami.
Lee Lewis, 28, was being held at a jail in lieu of $36,500 bond after a hearing Sunday.
Police found Lewis’ abandoned hearse Friday filled with what appeared to be a cache of weapons, ammunition and rocket launchers. Authorities later said the weapons were fake replicas. The investigation closed major highways and snarled traffic for hours.
According to his MySpace page, Lewis says he’s a fetish model and fireplay entertainer.
Lewis has been arrested multiple times. In 2001, he pleaded no contest to battery charges. He also served time for grand theft and drug possession between 2006 and 2008.
Ohio killer bear’s owner found dead
COLUMBIA STATION, Ohio - The owner of a bear that fatally mauled a caretaker last year was found dead Sunday in bed at his property in northern Ohio.
The Lorain County sheriff’s office said an employee of exotic-animal owner Sam Mazzola found the 49-year-old dead in Columbia Station, about 15 miles southwest of Cleveland.
A deputy coroner said there were no signs of an animal attack or other violence. An autopsy is planned for today.
A bear owned by Mazzola killed 24-year-old Brent Kandra in August after he opened its cage for feeding at the Mazzola home, where wolves and tigers also were kept.
It was ruled a workplace accident. The bear was euthanized.
Animal-welfare activists had wanted Mazzola charged with reckless homicide. They previously targeted him because he staged wrestling matches between bears and humans.
City to offset wedded gay workers’ tax
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. - When the city of Cambridge issues paychecks to its public employees, nearly two dozen workers find a federal tax on their income that their colleagues don’t have to pay.
Like many people, these 22 school and city workers chose to put their spouses on their employer-provided health insurance. Because they’re in a homosexual relationship, the value of that health coverage is considered taxable income by the federal government.
But starting this month, Cambridge will become what is believed to be the first municipality in the country to pay its public employees a stipend to defray the cost of the federal tax on health benefits for their same-sex spouses.
The city employees hit by the extra tax pay an additional $1,500 to $3,000 in taxes a year, and officials estimate the stipends would cost the city $33,000.
Of the thousands of legally married homosexual couples in Massachusetts, none can receive the federal benefits offered to heterosexual married couples because the federal government doesn’t recognize same-sex marriages.
Those benefits include Social Security survivors’ benefits, immigration rights, family leave and the ability to file joint tax returns.
The council last month approved the measure that would provide quarterly stipends to any city or school employee who puts a same-sex spouse on their health insurance.
Front Section, Pages 5 on 07/11/2011