NEW YORK
Bloomberg proposes flood walls, levees
Giant removable flood walls would be erected around lower Manhattan, and levees, gates and other defenses would be built elsewhere around the city under a nearly $20 billion plan proposed Tuesday by Mayor Michael Bloomberg (I) to protect New York from storms and the effects of global warming.
It is one of the most ambitious projects ever proposed for defending a major U.S. city from the rising seas and severe weather that climate change is expected to bring. It was outlined seven months after Superstorm Sandy swamped lower Manhattan and smashed homes and businesses in other shoreline neighborhoods.
In a speech at the Brooklyn Navy Yard, Bloomberg acknowledged that much of the work would extend beyond the end of his term this year.
— Associated Press
FLORIDA
Zimmerman jury selection continues
Jury selection in the trial of George Zimmerman continued for the second day Tuesday. So far, prosecutors and defense attorneys have been unable to find potential jurors who had not heard something about the fatal shooting of Trayvon Martin, 17, by the neighborhood watch volunteer in February 2012.
By midday, the attorneys had questioned 10 potential jurors in person in the courtroom in Sanford, Fla., and more than 40 jury candidates had been dismissed after filling out a questionnaire. Zimmerman, who is charged with second-degree murder, claims he shot Martin in self-defense.
— Associated Press
MASSACHUSETTS
Trial to begin for alleged gangster
James “Whitey” Bulger, a reputed gangster and legendary figure in Boston, is set to go on trial in a sweeping racketeering indictment accusing him of a long list of crimes, including participating in 19 killings.
Opening statements were set for Wednesday morning after a judge on Tuesday rejected a defense request for a delay.
Bulger’s attorneys had asked U.S. District Judge Denise Casper to delay opening statements so they could investigate an allegation that state police thwarted an investigation into a key prosecution witness.
Bulger, 83, the former leader of the Winter Hill Gang, was one of the nation’s most wanted fugitives after he fled Boston in 1994. He was finally captured in 2011 in Santa Monica, Calif., where he had been living with his longtime girlfriend in a rent-controlled apartment.
— Associated Press
Cleveland police officer fired over fatal chase: Cleveland officials fired a police sergeant, demoted two other supervisors and suspended nine more Tuesday for their roles in a chase in November in which officers fired 137 shots and killed a fleeing driver and his passenger.
Sandstorm-caused pileup leaves driver dead: Twenty-seven vehicles slammed into one another during a sandstorm that blinded drivers on Interstate 80 in Humboldt County in rural northern Nevada, killing a truck driver and seriously injuring several other people, officials said.
— From news services
Bloomberg proposes flood walls, levees
Giant removable flood walls would be erected around lower Manhattan, and levees, gates and other defenses would be built elsewhere around the city under a nearly $20 billion plan proposed Tuesday by Mayor Michael Bloomberg (I) to protect New York from storms and the effects of global warming.
It is one of the most ambitious projects ever proposed for defending a major U.S. city from the rising seas and severe weather that climate change is expected to bring. It was outlined seven months after Superstorm Sandy swamped lower Manhattan and smashed homes and businesses in other shoreline neighborhoods.
In a speech at the Brooklyn Navy Yard, Bloomberg acknowledged that much of the work would extend beyond the end of his term this year.
— Associated Press
FLORIDA
Zimmerman jury selection continues
Jury selection in the trial of George Zimmerman continued for the second day Tuesday. So far, prosecutors and defense attorneys have been unable to find potential jurors who had not heard something about the fatal shooting of Trayvon Martin, 17, by the neighborhood watch volunteer in February 2012.
By midday, the attorneys had questioned 10 potential jurors in person in the courtroom in Sanford, Fla., and more than 40 jury candidates had been dismissed after filling out a questionnaire. Zimmerman, who is charged with second-degree murder, claims he shot Martin in self-defense.
— Associated Press
MASSACHUSETTS
Trial to begin for alleged gangster
James “Whitey” Bulger, a reputed gangster and legendary figure in Boston, is set to go on trial in a sweeping racketeering indictment accusing him of a long list of crimes, including participating in 19 killings.
Opening statements were set for Wednesday morning after a judge on Tuesday rejected a defense request for a delay.
Bulger’s attorneys had asked U.S. District Judge Denise Casper to delay opening statements so they could investigate an allegation that state police thwarted an investigation into a key prosecution witness.
Bulger, 83, the former leader of the Winter Hill Gang, was one of the nation’s most wanted fugitives after he fled Boston in 1994. He was finally captured in 2011 in Santa Monica, Calif., where he had been living with his longtime girlfriend in a rent-controlled apartment.
— Associated Press
Cleveland police officer fired over fatal chase: Cleveland officials fired a police sergeant, demoted two other supervisors and suspended nine more Tuesday for their roles in a chase in November in which officers fired 137 shots and killed a fleeing driver and his passenger.
Sandstorm-caused pileup leaves driver dead: Twenty-seven vehicles slammed into one another during a sandstorm that blinded drivers on Interstate 80 in Humboldt County in rural northern Nevada, killing a truck driver and seriously injuring several other people, officials said.
— From news services