www.washingtontimes.com stories: National

New Mexico wildfire grows, forces evacuation

Russell Contreras — Sun, 27 May 2012 17:17:55 GMT

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — A wildfire in Gila National Forest burned through more timber and brush lands as it forced the evacuation of residents living near a privately owned ghost town in southwestern New Mexico, officials said.

Fueled by strong, erratic winds, the Whitewater-Baldy Complex fire burning through rugged and remote ...

W.Va. police find 4 bodies in wooded area

Sun, 27 May 2012 15:03:12 GMT

SOUTH CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) — West Virginia State Police said late Saturday they had found four bodies in a wooded area and believe they are those of a missing man, his girlfriend and his two young children.

Police said in a news release that the bodies were found about a mile ...

Record heat takes aim at Indy 500 fans, drivers

Tom Davies — Sun, 27 May 2012 14:22:24 GMT

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Tens of thousands of fans glistening with sunscreen and toting coolers filled with ice and water descended on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway on Sunday for what could be the hottest Indianapolis 500 on record.

Temperatures were forecast to climb into the mid-90s during the afternoon's race, and ...

Flower power: Donated roses honor freedom's heroes at Arlington Cemetery

Patrick Hruby — Sun, 27 May 2012 12:34:37 GMT

The woman, Ramiro Penaherrera recalls, was from Texas. Probably in her 60s. He never asked her name. It was Memorial Day of last year, and Mr. Penaherrera, a flower grower from Ecuador, was handing out roses two at a time — one to place atop the headstones at Arlington National ...

Beryl threatens rain, winds along Southeast U.S. coast

Kate Brumback and Kelli Kennedy — Sat, 26 May 2012 22:26:30 GMT

ATLANTA — Campers at a barrier island on the Georgia coast were told to leave by Sunday afternoon as subtropical storm Beryl rumbles toward the U.S. mainland.

Cumberland Island is reachable only by boat and has a number of undeveloped beaches and forests popular with campers.

Fred Boyles, superintendent ...

Shock over arrest in N.Y. boy's 1979 disappearance

David B. Caruso — Sat, 26 May 2012 11:27:27 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — When police dug up a Manhattan basement last month in a fruitless search for the remains of Etan Patz, a 6-year-old boy who disappeared in 1979, Lucy Suarez saw the news on TV and wished that the family of the missing child would finally get ...

Astronauts enter world's 1st private supply ship

Marcia Dunn — Sat, 26 May 2012 11:17:03 GMT

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — The space station astronauts have entered the Dragon.

Early Saturday, the crew of the International Space Station slid open the hatch of its new addition, the world's first commercial supply ship. The SpaceX capsule, named Dragon, made history with its arrival Friday.

NASA astronaut Donald ...

Pa. mother charged with killing her toddler twins

Sat, 26 May 2012 00:48:33 GMT

PHILADELPHIA — A woman was charged Friday with killing her 18-month-old twins, named Adam and Eve, in the family home. Police said she also attempted suicide by cutting her wrists.

Stacey Smalls, 41, was charged with two counts of first-degree murder, police said.

Investigators believe one twin was strangled ...

P&G to add latches to make detergent packs safer

Linda Stewart Ball and Nomaan Merchant — Fri, 25 May 2012 16:19:00 GMT

DALLAS — The maker of Tide Pods will create a new double-latch lid to deter children from accessing and eating the brightly colored detergent packets, a company spokesman said Friday.

Procter & Gamble spokesman Paul Fox said the Cincinnati-based company plans to create a new lid on tubs of Tide ...

Sandusky charity to shut down, transfer programs

Matt Moore and Michael Rubinkam — Fri, 25 May 2012 14:28:00 GMT

PHILADELPHIA — The charity for troubled youths started by Jerry Sandusky more than three decades ago — and through which the retired Penn State assistant football coach met the boys he is charged with sexually abusing — said Friday it is seeking court approval to shut down and transfer its ...

Dragon docks at space station in historic 1st

Marcia Dunn — Fri, 25 May 2012 12:19:00 GMT

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — The private company SpaceX made history Friday with the docking of its Dragon capsule to the International Space Station, the most impressive feat yet in turning routine spaceflight over to the commercial sector.

It marked the first time a business enterprise delivered a supply ship to ...

Maine churches raising money to fight gay marriage

Clarke Canfield — Fri, 25 May 2012 11:57:00 GMT

PORTLAND, Maine — Scores of Maine churches will pass the collection plate a second time at Sunday services on Father's Day to kick off a fundraising campaign for the lead opposition group to November's ballot question asking voters to legalize same-sex marriages.

Between 150 and 200 churches are expected to ...

Hurricane warning issued for Mexico ahead of Bud

Lorena Moguel — Fri, 25 May 2012 11:55:00 GMT

PUERTO VALLARTA, Mexico — Hurricane Bud weakened to a Category 2 storm as it headed early Friday toward an area of beach resorts and small mountain villages on Mexico's Pacific coast stretching south from Puerto Vallarta.

Authorities canceled school in 11 communities expected to be hit by heavy rains in ...

Typical CEO made $9.6M last year, AP study finds

Bernard Condon and Christina Rexrode — Fri, 25 May 2012 11:26:55 GMT

NEW YORK — Profits at big U.S. companies broke records last year, and so did pay for CEOs.

The head of a typical public company made $9.6 million in 2011, according to an analysis by The Associated Press using data from Equilar, an executive pay research firm.

That was up ...

Man charged with murder in 1979 death of Patz

Colleen Long and Larry Neumeister — Fri, 25 May 2012 11:18:06 GMT

NEW YORK — Thirty-three years to the day after 6-year-old Etan Patz vanished without a trace while walking to catch a school bus, a man accused of strangling him and dumping his body with the trash was arraigned on a murder charge on Friday in a locked hospital ward where ...

PRUDEN: The dark arts of race-baiting

Wesley Pruden — Fri, 25 May 2012 10:03:06 GMT

ANALYSIS/OPINION:

Race-baiting is an ugly art. But a struggling candidate is often tempted to practice the dark arts. We're doomed to see a lot of those dark arts between here and November.

Barack Obama and his friends in the mainstream media, so called, can't believe that anyone could vote against ...

Number of high-school students with jobs hits 20-year low

Ben Wolfgang — Fri, 25 May 2012 02:11:04 GMT

Did somebody say McJobless?

The American job market is no place for students as the number of employed high schoolers has hit its lowest level in more than 20 years, according to new figures from the National Center for Education Statistics.

In 1990, 32 percent of high school students held ...

Stop-smoking efforts don't see money

Cheryl Wetzstein — Fri, 25 May 2012 00:45:05 GMT

States have collected billions of dollars from tobacco companies but spent only 3 percent of it to combat smoking - a less-than-robust response to the high costs of health care associated with smoking, a federal report released Thursday says.

Of the $243.8 billion in tobacco money received from 1998 to ...

Ohio teenager to be tried as adult in school slayings

Thomas J. Sheeran — Fri, 25 May 2012 00:10:05 GMT

CHARDON, Ohio — A 17-year-old will be tried as an adult in the school shooting deaths of three students, a juvenile court judge ruled Thursday after hearing a sheriff's deputy describe how the teen wore a T-shirt with the word "Killer" and admitted shooting people.

T.J. Lane admitted firing at ...

Idaho town seeks to lure gun and ammo makers

Nicholas K. Geranios — Thu, 24 May 2012 22:59:06 GMT

POTLATCH, IDAHO — This small community in the forested, western foothills of the Rocky Mountains was created as a company town to house workers for the nation's largest white pine sawmill, and its tidy homes and straight, tree-lined streets are a testament to its planners.

But the town has slumbered ...

American Scene: Maine fire on nuclear sub at shipyard hurts 7

THE WASHINGTON TIMES — Thu, 24 May 2012 22:58:03 GMT

MAINE

KITTERY — Officials are venting smoke and noxious fumes from a nuclear-powered submarine at a Maine shipyard so they can get inside to assess what a fire did to it.

Firefighters from the shipyard and coastal departments in Maine and New Hampshire spent Wednesday night and early Thursday fighting ...

Doctors report rise in kids eating detergent packs

Nomaan Merchant — Thu, 24 May 2012 20:09:00 GMT

DALLAS — Miniature laundry detergent packets arrived on store shelves in recent months, touted as a solution to bulky bottles and messy spills. But doctors across the country say children are confusing the tiny, brightly colored packets with candy and swallowing them.

Nearly 250 cases have been reported this year ...

Onetime top Calif. football prospect exonerated

Linda Deutsch — Thu, 24 May 2012 19:00:43 GMT

LONG BEACH, Calif. (AP) — The kidnap-rape conviction of a once-promising prep football star was dismissed Thursday following a recantation by his accuser.

Brian Banks collapsed in sobs on the counsel table during a court hearing where a prosecutor quickly conceded the decade-old case and moved for the dismissal.

In ...

N.J. finds NYPD Muslim surveillance is legal

Samantha Henry — Thu, 24 May 2012 18:41:00 GMT

TRENTON, N.J. — New York City police did not violate New Jersey laws when they conducted surveillance of Muslim businesses, mosques and student groups, Gov. Chris Christie's administration said Thursday following a three-month review, rejecting demands by Muslim leaders for a formal investigation and a clampdown on cross-border police operations.

...

Feds: Sex trafficking ring used Backpage.com ads

Ryan J. Foley — Thu, 24 May 2012 17:03:00 GMT

IOWA CITY, Iowa — A nationwide sex trafficking ring run by a violent pimp and his associates used Backpage.com to solicit customers for prostitutes as young as age 17, advertising the women as "smokin' hot babes," according to a federal indictment recently unsealed in Iowa.

A 50-page indictment alleges a ...