March 21, 2010
WASHINGTON – A pair of House Democratic leaders predicted Sunday the final tally on President Barack Obama's historic health care bill will meet or exceed the 216 votes required for passage. But they acknowledged having yet to nail down commitments from a handful of members, some of whom remained concerned about the abortion issue.
"There are still members looking at it and trying to make up their minds," House Democratic leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., said on NBC's "Meet the Press" in the hours before the vote. He added that the holdouts numbered in "the low single digits."
National
March 20, 2010
WASHINGTON TOWNSHIP, N.J. – A 16-year-old boy who police said made an announcement at Walmart ordering all black people in the southern New Jersey store to leave was charged with harassment and bias intimidation, authorities said Saturday.
The boy, whose name is not being released because he is a juvenile, grabbed one of the courtesy phones at Walmart's Washington Township store Sunday evening and calmly announced: "Attention, Walmart customers: All black people, leave the store now," police said.
National
March 20, 2010
NORMAN, Okla. – A powerful storm began blowing through Oklahoma and the southern Plains on the first day of spring Saturday, bringing heavy snow and strong winds a day after temperatures reached into the 70s.
Officials said gusts of up to 40 mph could create drifts of blowing snow and blizzard conditions in what the National Weather Service called "a potentially life-threatening" storm. The weather could also affect attendance at men's and women's NCAA tournament games this weekend in Oklahoma City and Norman.
National
March 20, 2010
FARGO, N.D. – They passed out cigars in Fargo on Saturday, but no matches just yet, as a flood-weary city that's spent the last week getting ready to hold back the Red River cautiously prepared to celebrate what appeared to be a successful defense against the swollen waterway.
National
March 20, 2010
WASHINGTON – Thousands of protesters carried signs that read "Indict Bush Now" and flag-draped cardboard coffins on Saturday urging the immediate withdrawal of all troops sent into combat overseas.
Protesters rallied at Lafayette Park across from the White House and then began marching through downtown seven years after the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq. Seven protesters, including activist Cindy Sheehan, were arrested after the rally. Stops on the march route include military contractor Halliburton, the Mortgage Bankers Association and The Washington Post offices.
National
March 20, 2010
HEMET, Calif. – The tense atmosphere surrounding a California police department plagued by booby trap attacks has been stepped up a notch following the latest threat against officers.
Someone called 911 at about 5:45 p.m. Friday saying a police car would be blown up in the Hemet-San Jacinto area in the next 24 to 48 hours, Hemet Police Chief Richard Dana said.
"We're heightening the alert," Dana told The Press-Enterprise. The caller said the attack would be in retaliation for the law enforcement sweep against the Vagos Motorcycle Club earlier this week.
National
March 20, 2010
LOS ANGELES – Shomari Jennings was willing to pay the $70 ticket he received for driving without a seatbelt, but not the slew of tacked-on fees and penalties that ballooned the cost more than tenfold.
Every $10 of his base fine triggered a $26 "penalty assessment" for courthouse construction, a DNA identification program, emergency medical services and other programs. Other fees ranged from $1 to $35.
"It's the new tax," Jennings, 30, complained while waiting in traffic court to contest a staggering bill compounded by a $500 fine for missing a court date.
National
March 20, 2010
SAN FRANCISCO – Open government in the heart of Silicon Valley is starting to mean turn off, tune out, power down.
When the San Jose City Council meets just miles from the Apple and Google campuses, its members shut down all portable electronic devices, as though they were in a theater. If they're on and they get a text or e-mail from a lobbyist or anyone discussing city business, they must say so right then and there.
National
March 20, 2010
CHARLOTTE, N.C. – In this banking center walloped by the Great Recession, where unemployment just hit a 20-year high and as many as one in three black people are out of work, blacks could easily be frustrated with President Barack Obama's insistence that a rising economic tide for all will lift African-American boats.
Yet despite surging discontent among some black advocates over Obama's refusal to specifically target rising black unemployment, it's hard to find average black folks here who disagree with the president's approach.
National
March 20, 2010
WILLISTON, Fla. – Officials are saying that two small planes have collided over central Florida and the two pilots have been killed.
Federal Aviation Administration spokeswoman Kathleen Bergen says a single-engine Piper and an experimental aircraft collided Saturday near the Williston Municipal Airport. No one else was aboard either plane.
Officials says neither plane took off from the airport, and it's not clear if either was trying to land there.
The experimental aircraft is registered to Lee Sentman of Dewey, Ill., but a telephone listing was disconnected.
National
