Storm leaves thousands without electricity

Storm leaves thousandswithout electricity
BALTIMORE -- Thousands of homes and businesses remained without power early today after the second mid-Atlantic ice storm in a week pulled down tree limbs and power lines.
Freezing rain and slush coated roads from Virginia north into New Jersey and westward into parts of the Ohio Valley. However, the National Weather Service canceled most winter weather and storm advisories as warmer air moved northward.
Secondary roads were slippery across western Maryland, where ice was up to a half-inch thick in places.
"Most people are staying home," Maryland State Police Cpl. David Paskowski said Wednesday.
In North Carolina, Duke Power said Wednesday it still had 127,000 customers without power because of last week's ice storm, down from a peak of nearly 1.3 million. The company said it hoped to have all customers back on line by Saturday.
In western Maryland, nearly 26,000 Allegheny Energy customers were without power early today. While most would have power restored by late today, some would be without electricity until Saturday, an Allegheny spokeswoman said.
Justice speaks outon cross-burning issue
WASHINGTON -- Normally stoic and silent during arguments, Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas found his voice Wednesday, condemning cross burning as a symbol of oppression during "100 years of lynching" in the South by the Ku Klux Klan.
The subject also evoked strong emotions from his white colleagues, who joined in expressing concern about violence and racism during arguments in the second cross-burning case to reach the Supreme Court in a decade.
Justices are considering how far states may go to discourage the Klan and others from burning crosses, a provocative practice rooted in racial hatred but still given some free-speech protections. At issue is the constitutionality of a 50-year-old Virginia law that bans cross burning.
The Supreme Court historically has been protective of First Amendment rights of the most controversial of groups, including burners of the American flag, adult entertainers and even cross burners.
Thomas, who was raised in segregated Georgia, said burning crosses were "intended to cause fear and terrorize a population."
Mormon commitment
SALT LAKE CITY -- The Mormon church has rededicated itself to end the practice of posthumously baptizing Jews, an agreement apparently breached since it was made with Jewish leaders seven years ago, leaders from both faiths said Wednesday.
At a meeting Tuesday in New York City, the church reaffirmed its commitment to remove Holocaust victims and other deceased Jews from its International Genealogical Index, said Ernest Michel, chairman of the World Gathering of Jewish Holocaust Survivors.
The index is a list of some 600 million names used by Mormons to perform ceremonies offering proxy baptisms on behalf of the dead.
Mormon church leaders requested the meeting after several Jewish organizations complained the faith had broken the 1995 agreement to keep deceased Jews -- including those who died in Nazi concentration camps -- from being included in the temple ceremonies, Michel said.
The Mormon church collects names from records worldwide to use in temple rituals, during which Mormon stand-ins are dunked in water to offer the dead voluntary entry into the Mormon religion.
Suspects in poisonings
BEIJING -- Chinese police have arrested two men on charges they put rat poison in school cafeteria food, sickening 193 students and teachers, a police officer said.
No deaths were reported in the Nov. 11 poisoning in the central Chinese city of Changde. It added to a string of mass poisonings, many of them blamed on people with grudges or business disputes.
He Zhaohai and Tang Bixin are accused of adding a strong rat poison to breakfasts served at the No. 1 High School in Changde, said a police officer contacted there. He would give only his surname, Liu.
The men, who are cousins, were feuding with the school over their catering contract and had hoped to coerce administrators into raising their fee, Liu said.
Also in Changde, a 14-year-old high school student was arrested on charges of putting poison in food at a restaurant, Liu said. He said several people were sickened but wouldn't give details, citing the suspect's age.
A government newspaper, China Daily, said the boy wanted revenge against a classmate who owed him money.
Associated Press