PENINSULA DAILY NEWS for Monday, November 24, 2014 P A G E
A3 Briefly: Nation N.Y. evacuation plans ready as flooding looms BUFFALO, N.Y. — First came the big storm, then the big dig. Now comes the big melt. Residents of flood-prone areas around Buffalo should move valuables up from the basement, pack a bag and prepare for the possibility of evacuation as up to 7 feet of melting snow posed the threat of flooding, Gov. Andrew Cuomo warned Sunday. “Err on the side of caution,” Cuomo said at a news conference in Cheektowaga. “You prepare for the worst and hope for the best, and that’s what we’re doing.” Across the Buffalo region — where rising temperatures were expected to approach 60 degrees today — people took that advice to heart. Rain fell Sunday, with temperatures rising to 50. It was expected to be even warmer today, accompanied by more rain and rising winds.
The boy did not make any verbal threats but grabbed the replica handgun after being told to raise his hands, Tomba said. Tomba “That’s when the officer fired,” he said. The Cuyahoga County medical examiner identified the boy as Tamir Rice. An attorney for his family, Timothy Kucharski, said the boy went to the park with friends Saturday afternoon, but he did not know the details of what led to the shooting.
History of threats
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — A man who set his house on fire and ambushed responding police officers held “anti-government, anti-establishment” views and had previously threatened law enforcement, authorities said Sunday. The gunman was identified as 53-year-old Curtis Wade Holley. Authorities said he fatally Police shoot, kill boy shot Leon County Sheriff’s DepCLEVELAND — A 12-yearuty Christopher Smith, 47, Satold boy shot by police after grab- urday and wounded another bing what turned out to be a deputy before he was killed in a replica gun died from his gun battle outside his home. wounds Sunday, a day after offiAt a news conference Sunday, cers responded to a 9-1-1 call sheriff’s Lt. James McQuaig about someone waving a “proba- wouldn’t detail the nature of the bly fake” gun at a playground. previous threats or Holley’s Deputy Chief Ed Tomba said anti-government beliefs. one officer fired twice after the Smith was the first Leon boy pulled the fake weapon — County Sheriff’s Office employee which was lacking the orange to be killed in the line of duty in safety indicator usually found on nearly 40 years, according to the the muzzle — from his waistband department. The Associated Press but had not pointed it at police.
Obama defends his executive power use History cited in debate on immigration BY BRIAN KNOWLTON THE NEW YORK TIMES
WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama, in an interview broadcast Sunday, said he rejects Republican criticism that he has exceeded his authority in moving to spare millions of undocumented immigrants from deportation, adding that he has been “very restrained” in his use of executive authority. Angry Republican lawmakers have accused Obama of unconstitutional, even imperial, overreach. They have pointed to past remarks in which he himself suggested that his powers to act were limited. But Obama, in the interview
aired Sunday on the ABC News program “This Week,” said that history was on his side. Both Democratic and Republican presidents, going back decades, had taken similar actions, he said. “The history is that I have issued fewer executive actions than most of my predecessors, by a long shot,” he said in the interview, which was taped Friday. “The difference is the response of Congress — and specifically the response of some of the Republicans.” Obama has framed his action not as an amnesty for some undocumented immigrants but as a directive, in part, to federal agencies to focus their attention on those with criminal records, not on law-abiding, taxpaying, longtime immigrants. In all, about 5 million of the estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants would be protected. “The fact is that we exercise
prosecutorial discretion all the time,” he said, adding that Republicans remained free to pass an immigration law that would overturn his own actions. The president also suggested that he might keep a low profile as the campaign to elect his successor geared up.
‘New car smell’ “I think the American people, you know, they’re going to want — you know, that new car smell,” he said. “You know, they want to drive something off the lot that doesn’t have as much mileage as me.” He acknowledged that Hillary Rodham Clinton, should she seek the Democratic nomination as is widely expected, might at times try to detach herself from his record. “She’s not going to agree with me on everything,” he said of Clinton, his former secretary of state. Still, he said, she would make a “great” president.
Briefly: World Cabinet moves to define Israel as Jewish state JERUSALEM — In a move likely to further inflame tensions with Israel’s Arab citizens, the Israeli Cabinet on Sunday approved a bill to legally define the country as the nation-state of the Jewish people. The decision, which set off a stormy debate that could bring down Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s brittle coalition govNetanyahu ernment, followed weeks of deadly Arab-Jewish violence and was denounced by critics as damaging to the country’s democratic character and poorly timed at such a combustible moment. It now heads toward a full parliamentary vote Wednesday.
Nuke talk extension? VIENNA — The U.S. told Iran on Sunday that it’s time to consider extending nuclear talks, in the first formal recognition by Washington that frenzied last-minute diplomacy may not be enough to seal a deal by a rapidly approaching deadline. A senior U.S. official said Sunday that with the cutoff date this
evening a little more than a day away, Secretary of State John Kerry had proposed to Iranian Foreign Minister Mohamad Java Zarf that the two sides start discussing post-deadline talks in their latest meeting since Kerry arrived three days ago to add his diplomatic weight to the talks. At the same time, two Western diplomats said, negotiations were continuing with Iran on trying to bridge differences on reducing Tehran’s ability to make nuclear weapons to levels acceptable to Washington while giving the Islamic republic the relief it seeks from international sanctions over its atomic activities. All three officials demanded anonymity because they weren’t authorized to discuss the diplomatic twists and turns.
Crew blasts off for ISS BAIKONUR, Kazakhstan — A Russian capsule carrying three astronauts from Russia, the United States and Italy has blasted off for the International Space Station. The Soyuz capsule roared into the pre-dawn darkness just after 3 a.m. today from the Russian manned space facility in Baikonur, Kazakhstan. Aboard the capsule are Russian Anton Shkaplerov, NASA’s Terry Virts and European Space Agency astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti of Italy. The craft will dock with the space station about six hours after launch. The Associated Press
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
HOT-FOOTING
IT IN THE ‘HAPPIEST’ RUN
Participants cheer and dance as they throw colored powder into the air during the Color Run in Jakarta, Indonesia, on Sunday. Dubbed “The Happiest 5K on the planet,” the event is a 5-kilometer fun run that sees participants go through “color stations” where they are doused with colored powder.
Anxieties mount as Ferguson waits on grand jury decision BY DAVID A. LIEB AND ANDALE GROSS THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
FERGUSON, Mo. — Despite preparations for a weekend decision in the Ferguson shooting case, the grand jurors apparently need more time to deliberate, and the uncertainty just seemed to feed the anxiety and speculation Sunday in a city already on edge. More than 3½ months have passed since police Officer Darren Wilson, who is white, killed
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unarmed black 18-year-old Michael Brown after a confrontation in the middle of a street in the St. Louis suburb. The shooting triggered riots and looting, and police responded with armored vehicles and tear gas.
Sunday eyed Many in the area thought a grand jury decision on whether to charge Wilson with a crime would be announced Sunday, based
partly on a stepped-up police presence in the preceding days, including the setting up of barricades around the building where the panel was meeting. The grand jurors met Friday but apparently didn’t reach a decision, and they were widely expected to reconvene today, though there was no official confirmation of that. As they wait, some people have continued daily protests, while speculation has grown that the delays are intentional.
. . . more news to start your day
Nation: Ticket in fatal La. crash dismissed by DA
Nation: ‘Hunger Games’ has year’s biggest opening
World: Suicide bomber kills at least 45 Afghans
World: Earthquake in China kills 5, injures 54
A PROSECUTOR SAID he is dismissing the ticket issued to a Texas teenager who apparently fell asleep at the wheel and caused a wreck that killed five members of his family as they were headed to Disney World. District Attorney Jerry Jones said that the 16-year-old has been punished enough, and there’s no need to add to his pain. Jones has dismissed the misdemeanor ticket for careless driving. State police said the sport utility vehicle veered off Interstate 20 in Ouachita Parish in Louisiana and flipped, ejecting six of the eight people in the car.
“MOCKINGJAY, PART 1” didn’t catch fire like the previous installments of “The Hunger Games,” but it still had the biggest opening of the year with $123 million at the weekend box office, according to studio estimates Sunday. Lionsgate’s “Mockingjay” opened well below the $158 million debut of last year’s “Hunger Games: Catching Fire” and the $153 million opening of the 2012 original. In its third week of release, the Disney animated adventure “Big Hero 6” moved into second place with $20.1 million. Christopher Nolan’s space epic “Interstellar” came in third with $15.1 million, also in its third week.
A SUICIDE BOMBER blew himself up at a volleyball tournament in eastern Afghanistan on Sunday, killing at least 45 people in the country’s deadliest terrorist attack this year, officials said. The bloodshed came just hours after Parliament approved agreements allowing U.S. and NATO troops to remain in the country past the end of the year. Dozens more were wounded, many critically, said Mokhlis Afghan, spokesman for the governor of Paktika province. He said the bomber was mingling with the large crowd at the sporting event in Yahyakhail district when he set off the explosives.
A STRONG EARTHQUAKE that hit a sparsely populated, mountainous area of western China killed at least five people and injured 54 others, officials said Sunday. The injured included schoolchildren in a stampede. The U.S. Geological Survey said the magnitude-5.9 quake hit Saturday about 20 miles from the county of Kangding in Sichuan province. China’s seismological agency put the magnitude at 6.3. One person was also missing as of Sunday afternoon, according to a statement from the Ganzi prefecture government, which oversees Kangding.