NEW YORK
Police from across U.S. attend Liu wake
Hundreds of police officers from across the country streamed into the wake of a slain New York City officer Saturday, and Gov. Andrew M .Cuomo said his late father would have wanted him there after the “pointless” killings.
The uniformed police officers showed respect rather than disdain for Mayor Bill de Blasio (D) when he arrived with Police Commissioner William Bratton, with some saluting as the men entered at the start of the day-long event for Officer Wenjian Liu.
“This is a really tragic story,” said Cuomo (D), who attended the wake two days after the death of his father — former New York governor Mario Cuomo.
He noted that Liu and his wife were newlyweds who had just moved into a home months into their marriage.
Cuomo also expressed his own sorrow. “Today is not the day for my dad, but I can say I miss him already. There’s a hole in my heart,” he said.
Liu was shot to death in his patrol car two weeks before, along with Officer Rafael Ramos, whose funeral was last week. Their killer committed suicide soon after the shooting.
For de Blasio, the gesture of respect during the wake contrasted with the back-turning insults hundreds of officers displayed the previous week toward video screens showing the mayor speaking at Ramos’s funeral. Bratton had urged rank-and-file officers to refrain from making political statements at the wake and at Liu’s funeral, which is Sunday.
— Associated Press
WEST COAST
Mass seabird die-off remains a mystery
Scientists are trying to figure out what is behind the deaths of seabirds that have been found by the hundreds along the Pacific Coast since October.
Mass die-offs of the small, white-bellied gray birds known as Cassin’s auklets have been reported from British Columbia to San Luis Obispo, Calif.
It is normal for some seabirds to die during harsh winter conditions, especially during big storms, but the scale of the current die-off is unusual.
“To be this lengthy and geographically widespread I think is kind of unprecedented,” Phillip Johnson, executive director of the Oregon Shores Conservation Coalition, told the Salem Statesman Journal. “It’s an interesting and somewhat mysterious event.”
The birds appear to be starving to death, so experts do not think a toxin is the culprit, said Julia Burco, a wildlife veterinarian for the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife.
But why the birds can’t find food is a mystery.
Researchers say it could be the result of a successful breeding season, leading to too many young birds competing for food. Unusually violent storms might be pushing the birds into areas they are not used to or preventing them from foraging. Or a warmer, more acidic ocean could be affecting the supply of tiny zooplankton, such as krill, that the birds eat.
— Associated Press
EASTERN U.S.
Rain, snow and ice — next, a deep freeze
Snow, ice and rain fell Saturday in the Midwest and eastern parts of the United States, a prelude to the Arctic temperatures due to arrive in the next few days.
The mix of precipitation affected a swath from the Oklahoma Panhandle — where several inches of snow were in the forecast — to southern New England, where up to a quarter-inch of ice was possible in the eastern Berkshires.
A mix of rain and ice factored into numerous accidents in Michigan and Ohio and threatened an outdoor hockey game in Toledo.
And parts of the southern United States experienced heavy rain and thunderstorms, leading the National Weather Service to issue tornado watches and warnings in Mississippi and Louisiana.
— Associated Press
Pa. student’s body recovered: The body of a West Chester University student who disappeared on Thanksgiving after a night out with friends was recovered Saturday from the Schuylkill River, less than half a mile downstream from where he was last seen. Shane Montgomery’s parents say the body pulled from the water Saturday was his. Authorities had not yet confirmed the identity, pending a review by the Philadelphia medical examiner’s office.
Moderate earthquake in Idaho: A moderate earthquake rattled a broad swath of Idaho early Saturday, damaging property and triggering rock slides near its epicenter in Challis, a city that has endured hundreds of slight to moderate temblors over the past 10 months, authorities said. The latest measured at a magnitude of 4.9 and was centered about four miles from Challis in the state’s central mountains, but it was felt as far away as Boise, a 190-mile drive to the southwest, the U.S. Geological Survey said. The quake damaged homes and knocked out power.
Federal court declines to delay Tsarnaev trial: The trial of marathon-bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev can begin as scheduled Monday in Boston after a federal appeals court ruled that the defense had not met the “extraordinary” standard required to justify its intervention. The 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals announced its decision Saturday. Tsarnaev’s attorney had asked the court to delay the trial and move it out of Massachusetts, saying Tsarnaev could not get a fair trial in a place where so many were affected by the bombings.
— From news services
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