NATIONAL
Febuary 14, 2006
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Cheney accidentally shoots hunting companion in Texas Man in stable condition by Lynn Brezosky AP Writer
A 78-year-old hunting companion of Vice President Dick Cheney was recovering in stable condition Monday after Cheney accidentally shot him during a weekend quail hunting trip, a hospital official said. Harry Whittington "rested well last night," said Peter Banko, hospital administrator at Christus Spohn Hospital Memorial. The hospital listed Whittington's condition as "very stable," he said. Whittington, an Austin attorney, was flown to the hospital after Cheney accidentally shot him late Saturday afternoon at the Armstrong Ranch, hitting him with birdshot. "It's not critical. It's not serious. It's just stable at this
AP
Vice President Dick Cheney accidentally shot a hunting companion at a ranch near Corpus Christi, Texas.
time," Banko said at a morning briefing. He said admitting Whittington to the trauma-intensive care unit was "a fairly common procedure" for a patient hit by a spray of the small pellets. "I don't know how much spray he has got," Banko said. "My understanding from the physicians is that after you get peppered, sometimes they need to do exploratory surgeries if it gets lodged in a little deeper. Sometimes it's tweezers. I can't really comment on how extensively he was sprayed." Banko said he did not know when Whittington would be released. The vice president visited Whittington and his wife before returning to Washington on Sunday. Cheney "was pleased to see that he's doing fine and in good spirits," said Cheney spokeswoman Lea Anne McBride. Whittington sent word through a hospital official that he would not comment out of respect for Cheney.
Ranch owner Katharine Armstrong told The Associated Press the vice president was using a 28-gauge shotgun, and Whittington was about 30 yards away. Armstrong said Whittington had gone to retrieve a bird he shot while Cheney and a third hunter, whom she would not identify, walked to another spot and discovered a second covey of quail. Whittington "came up from behind the vice president and the other hunter and didn't signal them or indicate to them or announce himself," said Armstrong, who was in the car. "The vice president didn't see him," she said. "The covey flushed and the vice president picked out a bird and was following it and shot. And by god, Harry was in the line of fire and got peppered pretty good." "He was talking. His eyes were open. It didn't get in his eyes or anything like that," she said. Each of the hunters was wearing a bright orange vest,
Armstrong said. The accident was not reported publicly by the vice president's office for nearly 24 hours, and then only after the Corpus Christi Caller-Times reported it Sunday. McBride said the vice president's office did not tell reporters about the accident Saturday because they were deferring to Armstrong to handle the announcement of what happened on her property. Armstrong said Cheney is a longtime friend who comes to the 50,000-acre ranch, about 60 miles southwest of Corpus Christi, to hunt about once a year and is "a very safe sportsman." She said Whittington is a regular, too, but she believed it was the first time the two men hunted together. Cheney purchased a hunt license in November, Texas Parks and Wildlife Department spokesman Steve Lightfoot said.
Northeast digs out from record snowstorm by Ula Ilnytzky AP Writer
Road crews scrambled to clear highways for Monday's commuters and thousands of travelers stranded at airports still waited to get home as the Northeast dug out from a record-breaking storm that dumped 2 feet or more of snow. Hundreds of schools canceled Monday classes from West Virginia to Massachusetts. Utility crews worked to restore power to thousands of homes and blisinesses blacked out when wind gusting to 50 mph knocked down power lines. "I never want to see snow again," stalled traveler Laura Guerra, 27, of Miami, said after spending the night on a cot at LaGuardia Airport. She said she hadn't seen snow since she was 4, "But I got it out of my system." The weekend storm blanketed the Eastern Seaboard and Appalachians from western North Carolina to Maine, dropping 26.9 inches of snow in Central Park _ the heaviest since record-keeping was started in 1869, the National
Weather Service said. The old record was 26.4 inches in December 1947.. Children were thrilled to dig out their sleds, little used until now in this unusually mild winter. "We're hoping for 365 days off from school," said 9-yearold Reagan Manz, playing in Central Park with friends. "We could go sledding the whole time and not get bored." Fairfield, Conn., got 30.2 inches of snow and Rahway, N.J., had 27 inches, according to unofficial observations reported to the weather service. Just west of Philadelphia, 21 inches of snow was recorded in West Caln Township; the average snowfall for an entire winter in Philadelphia is about 21 inches. Wilbraham, Mass., east of Springfield, reported 22 inches and some areas of the state had 3-foot drifts. As far south as the mountains of western North Carolina, Robbinsville got 20 inches of snow and drifts up to 6 feet high closed the Cherohala Skyway, a scenic route through the area to the Tennessee line. Unlike most of the Northeast, light snow continued falling in the area
Monday. All three major New Yorkarea airports _ Kennedy, LaGuardia and Newark _ had reopened with limited service by Monday morning after hundreds of flights were called off Sunday. A Turkish Airlines flight skidded off a runway at Kennedy when it landed late Sunday but none of the 198 passengers was injured, said Steve Coleman, a spokesman for the Port Authority of New York and Nev Jersey. Airlines also canceled hundreds offlights Sunday at major airports from Washington's Reagan National to Boston's Logan International. The Northeast airport closures and grounded planes stranded travelers across the country. About 7,500 people were stuck at Florida's Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport, spokesman Steve Belleme said. "Our car's in Newark. We can't even get close to there," said Maria Martinez, whose flight from Miami International Airport was canceled. "We can't even get to Philadelphia or D.C." Some passengers also were stranded on the Long Island
I Rail Road east of New York City, where trains got stuck on snow-covered tracks, officials said. One train was marooned, for five hours. Limited service into Penn Station in Manhattan resumed Monday morning but some branches on Long Island were still out of service. "Usually the trains never stop. It's never been like this," said Rebecca Karpus, who was waiting to return home Monday morning on the LIERR after being marooned at Penn Station since 6:30 p.m. Sunday. "It's really paralyzed us." Amtrak said it still had numerous storm-related schedule changes Monday morning. Most highways were in good shape for the Monday morning commute, but many city streets and sidewalks were still packed with snow. The storm also knocked out power across parts of the Northeast, most severely in Maryland, where more than 150,000 customers were blacked out and utilities said more than 48,000 still had no power Monday.
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AP
A New Yorker emerges from a subway to find over two feet of snow.
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