News Headlines
Santorum wins Minnesota GOP caucuses and Missouri ‘beauty contest’ — and leads in Colorado
WASHINGTON (AP) — A resurgent Rick Santorum won Minnesota’s Republican presidential caucuses with ease Tuesday night and reached for victory in Colorado, raising fresh questions about front-runner Mitt Romney’s appeal among the ardent conservatives at the core of the party’s political base.
Santorum triumphed, as well, in a nonbinding Missouri primary that was worth bragging rights but no delegates.
“Conservatism is alive and well in Missouri and Minnesota,” the jubilant former Pennsylvania senator told cheering supporters in St. Charles, Mo. Challenging both his GOP rival and the Democratic president, he declared that on issues ranging from health care to “Wall Street bailouts, Mitt Romney has the same positions as Barack Obama.”
Returns from 74 percent of Minnesota’s precincts showed Santorum with 45 percent support, Texas Rep. Paul with 27 percent and Romney — who won the state in his first try for the nomination four years ago — with 17 percent. Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich trailed with 11 percent.
Romney prevailed in both Minnesota and Colorado in 2008, the first time he ran for the nomination, but the GOP has become more conservative in both states since then under the influence of tea party activists. Nor was he backed by the overwhelming advantage in television advertising, including fiercely negative attacks on his rivals, that had helped him in other states this year.
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Appeals court: California’s same-sex marriage ban is unconstitutional, violates civil rights
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Same-sex marriage moved one step closer to the Supreme Court on Tuesday when a federal appeals court ruled California’s ban unconstitutional, saying it serves no purpose other than to “lessen the status and human dignity” of gays.
A three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals gave gay marriage opponents time to appeal the 2-1 decision before ordering the state to allow same-sex weddings to resume.
“I’m ecstatic. I recognize that we have a ways to go yet. We may have one or two more legal steps,” said Jane Leyland, who was gathered with a small crowd outside the federal courthouse in downtown San Francisco, cheering as they learned of the ruling.
Leyland married her longtime partner, Terry Gilb, during the five-month window when same-sex marriage was legal in California.
“But when we first got together, I would have never dreamed in a million years that we would be allowed to be legally married, and here we are.”
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Komen resignation, Obama contraception rule furor, pump new energy into reproduction politics
DAYTON, Ohio (AP) — Political turmoil over abortion and birth control spread suddenly on Tuesday. A high-ranking official resigned from the Komen breast-cancer charity after its backtracking treaty with Planned Parenthood, and Republican presidential candidates blistered the Obama administration for a recent ruling on Catholic hospitals and contraception.
The White House made a point of declaring it wanted to ease the concerns of church-affiliated employers — many would be required to provide birth control coverage to their workers under the new rules — but there was no word on how those concerns might be addressed.
The two-track drama pumped new furor into longstanding disputes that sometimes take a backseat in political campaigns because the lines are so familiar and firmly drawn. Last week’s Komen-Planned Parenthood dispute stirred many women’s groups that support legal abortion. And the Obama ruling touched a nerve with moderate Roman Catholics who support contraceptives but also defend their church’s right to run its hospitals and other institutions according to religious convictions.
Republican presidential candidates pounced on what they considered a blunder by President Barack Obama. They believe his administration’s ruling will alienate moderate Catholic voters who could prove crucial in November in Ohio, Pennsylvania and elsewhere.
There also could be political repercussions from the Susan G. Komen for the Cure controversy. The breast-cancer charity, facing fierce criticism, mostly from women’s groups, quickly overturned its decision to cut off funding to Planned Parenthood. Planned Parenthood is a major provider of abortions, but it also screens women for breast cancer and other health problems.
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Russian foreign minister pushes reforms in Syria as bloodshed intensifies
BEIRUT (AP) — Days after blocking a U.S.-backed peace plan at the U.N., senior Russian officials pushed for reforms Tuesday during an emergency meeting with Syrian President Bashar Assad, promoting a settlement to end the uprising without removing him from power.
Thousands of flag-waving government supporters cheered the Russians in the Syrian capital of Damascus, while to the north, Assad’s forces pounded the opposition city of Homs — underscoring the sharp divisions propelling the country toward civil war.
The violence has led to the most severe international isolation in more than four decades of Assad family rule, with country after country calling home their envoys.
France, Italy, Spain and Belgium pulled their ambassadors from Damascus, as did six Gulf nations, including Saudi Arabia. Germany, whose envoy left the country this month, said he would not be replaced. The moves came a day after the U.S. closed its embassy in Syria and Britain recalled its ambassador.
Turkey, once a strong Assad supporter and now one of his most vocal critics, added its voice to the international condemnation, with Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan saying his country cannot remain silent about massacres in Syria. He said Turkey would “launch a new initiative with countries that stand by the Syrian people instead of the regime.”
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Prosecutors say no charges against NYPD commissioner’s son after woman’s rape accusation
NEW YORK (AP) — The police commissioner’s TV host son won’t face criminal charges of sexually assaulting a woman who said he attacked her after a date last fall, prosecutors said Tuesday.
“After reviewing all of the evidence, we have determined that the facts established during our investigation do not fit the definitions of sexual assault crimes under New York criminal law,” the chief of the Manhattan district attorney’s office sex crimes unit, Martha Bashford, wrote in a letter Tuesday to an attorney for Greg Kelly.
“No criminal charges are appropriate” against Kelly, Bashford added in the letter to his lawyer, Andrew M. Lankler.
Kelly’s accuser told police late last month that he raped her in her lower Manhattan law office after they met for drinks Oct. 8, assaulting her while she was incapable of consenting to sex, and that she became pregnant from the encounter and had an abortion, according to a person familiar with the investigation and a law enforcement official. Neither was authorized to speak publicly, and they spoke to The Associated Press on the condition of anonymity.
Kelly, 43, had vehemently denied doing anything wrong, and he portrayed the prosecutors’ conclusions as vindication.
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Pa. prosecutors want Sandusky kept indoors over complaints he was seen watching schoolchildren
STATE COLLEGE, Pa. (AP) — Prosecutors asked Tuesday to have Jerry Sandusky kept indoors as part of his bail conditions, citing complaints that the former Penn State assistant football coach was seen outside and watching children in a schoolyard from the back porch of his home, where he remains under house arrest while awaiting trial on child molestation charges.
The state attorney general’s office argued in a court filing that Sandusky’s bail conditions should be revised so that he is not allowed outside except to seek medical treatment. Prosecutors said they opposed Sandusky’s request to be allowed contact with his grandchildren as he awaits trial on 52 child sex-abuse charges.
“Several individuals from the adjacent elementary school have expressed concerns for the safety of children at their school and the adjacent neighborhood,” prosecutors wrote. “Such concerns will only mushroom if defendant is permitted to roam at will outside his house.”
Defense attorney Joe Amendola issued a statement late Tuesday that said safety concerns in Sandusky’s neighborhood were totally unfounded, and that he has complied with all bail conditions.
“Sadly, some individuals apparently want him incarcerated even before he has an opportunity to present his defense and prove his innocence in court,” Amendola said.
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With stomach-turning summer a memory, Dow approaches 13,000, and perhaps a record after that
NEW YORK (AP) — It was just last summer that the Dow Jones industrial average shed 2,000 points in three terrifying weeks. Investors had a host of things to worry about, including the possibility of another recession.
Now the Dow is within reach of the rarefied 13,000 mark — a level it hasn’t seen since May 2008, four months before the financial system almost came apart.
A strong one-day rally — caused by a deal on bailout money for Greece, perhaps, or an unexpectedly positive economic report — could put it over the top.
What’s more, the average is just a 10 percent rally from an all-time high. And 10 percent rallies can happen fast these days.
The stomach-turning summer is a bad memory. Europe appears to be getting its act together, last summer’s downgrade of the U.S.’ credit rating was quickly forgotten, Washington is mostly behaving, and recession fears are gone.
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Bread ranks No. 1 and potato chips No. 10 on CDC ranking of dietary sources of salt
ATLANTA (AP) — Bread and rolls are the No. 1 source of salt in the American diet, accounting for more than twice as much sodium as salty junk food like potato chips.
That surprising finding comes in a government report released Tuesday that includes a list of the top 10 sources of sodium. Salty snacks actually came in at the bottom of the list compiled by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
“Potato chips, pretzels, and popcorn — which we think of as the saltiest foods in our diet — are only No. 10,” said CDC Director Dr. Thomas Frieden.
Breads and rolls aren’t really saltier than many of the other foods, but people tend to eat a lot of them, said Mary Cogswell, a CDC senior scientist who co-authored the report.
Salt is the main source of sodium for most people, and sodium increases the risk of high blood pressure, a major cause of heart disease and stroke. Health officials say most Americans get too much salt, mostly from processed and restaurant foods — not added from the salt shaker.
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Ailing Zsa Zsa Gabor kept behind closed doors at her 95th birthday party
LOS ANGELES (AP) — After what felt like an eternity but was actually just a few minutes, Frederic Prinz von Anhalt emerged from a white door into the foyer of the old-fashioned Bel-Air mansion that he shares with his wife of 25 years, former glamour queen Zsa Zsa Gabor.
The self-proclaimed German prince held a chocolate birthday cake he said was a gift from celebrity chef Wolfgang Puck. Smoke from the expunged candles jabbed into the small cake was still drifting in the air.
Surrounded by paintings and photographs depicting Gabor when she was an infamously sassy Hungarian actress, a few dozen guests quietly sipped champagne and mingle in the common areas of the home overlooking the twinkling lights of Los Angeles.
But Gabor was nowhere to be seen — apparently celebrating her 95th birthday behind closed doors on the chilly Monday evening. Von Anhalt presented the cake to his bedridden beloved out of sight from the partygoers who had gathered for the occasion. He paraded it around the room as he greets his guests.
Gabor hasn’t had much reason to celebrate for nearly two years as she dealt with a broken hip, a leg amputated because of gangrene, blood clots, infections, pneumonia, a loose feeding tube. But that didn’t stop the publicity-loving von Anhalt from throwing a good party in her honor.
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Confetti swirls, fans roar as MVP Manning hoists Giants’ Super Bowl trophy during NYC parade
NEW YORK (AP) — Eli Manning hoisted the Lombardi Trophy from a glittering blue-and-white float, and Mayor Michael Bloomberg joked that New York City should now be nicknamed the “Big Blue Apple,” as thousands of fans crowded lower Manhattan on Tuesday to celebrate the New York Giants’ Super Bowl victory amid tons of confetti.
The parade set off from the southern tip of Manhattan and rolled slowly north to City Hall, past fans dressed head to toe in red, blue and white Giants gear, with confetti wafting slowly from the high-rises lining Broadway.
Manning, the Super Bowl MVP, joined by coach Tom Coughlin, Bloomberg, Gov. Andrew Cuomo and other teammates, waved and grinned from the float as a deep roar rose from the crowds.
Defensive end Justin Tuck said he was glad to be part of the team, leading its defense and sacking New England quarterback Tom Brady twice during the 21-17 victory over the Patriots,
“We made it here by believing in each other. We believe in every guy on this team,” he said later during a ceremony at City Hall Plaza. “Honestly, we wouldn’t be here today without your support.”
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