NY votes lining up for gay marriage

NY votes lining up for gay marriage

ALBANY, N.Y.

A veteran New York Republican senator who had been undecided said Friday night he will vote for gay marriage, the potential deciding vote in a divisive debate watched as a bellwether for the national gay-rights movement.

Sen. Stephen Saland told The Associated Press he long has been undecided. He voted against a similar bill in 2009, helping kill the measure and dealing a blow to the national gay-rights movement.

Before he announced his intention, 31 senators were in favor, one short of a majority. If they all still vote that way, New York will become the sixth state, and by far the largest, where gay marriage is legal once Gov. Andrew Cuomo signs it into law.

The Democrat-led Assembly already passed the bill.

Mob boss could cause trouble for FBI

BOSTON

James “Whitey” Bulger’s capture could cause a world of trouble inside the FBI.

The ruthless Boston crime boss who spent 16 years on the lam is said to have boasted that he corrupted six FBI agents and more than 20 police officers. If he decides to talk, some of them could rue the day he was caught.

“They are holding their breath, wondering what he could say,” said Robert Fitzpatrick, the former second-in-command of the Boston FBI office.

The 81-year-old gangster was captured Wednesday in Santa Monica, Calif., where he apparently had been living for most of the time he was a fugitive. He appeared Friday afternoon inside a heavily guarded federal courthouse in Boston to answer for his role in 19 murders.

Obama takes over debt-limit talks

WASHINGTON

Struggling to break a perilous deadlock, President Barack Obama took direct control Friday of national debt-limit negotiations with both Republicans and Democrats. With the White House warning the nation’s economic stability is at stake, it’s one of the most severe tests yet of Obama’s presidency. The key disagreement is over taxes. Democrats, including Obama, say a major deficit-reduction agreement must include tax increases or the elimination of tax breaks for big companies and wealthy individuals. Republicans are demanding huge cuts in government spending and insisting there be no tax increases.

Live bullets fired at Old West show

PIERRE, S.D.

One of the participants in a mock Old West gunbattle in South Dakota fired live ammunition instead of using blanks, wounding three tourists, authorities announced Friday.

More than 100 people attended the show a week ago staged by the Dakota Wild Bunch re-enactors, who perform several times a week in Hill City, a tourist town in the Black Hills.

Pennington County Sheriff Kevin Thom said information gathered by investigators will be given to state and federal prosecutors next week to determine whether criminal charges are filed.

“What it boils down to is was it accidental or was it intentional. It would be premature to speculate on that at this point,” Thom said. “I can say there was not a specific target in the crowd, if you will.”

A 49-year-old member of the re-enactor group fired four live rounds during the June 17 show, Thom said. No phone listing could be found for the man.

The bullets shattered a leg bone of Carrol Knutson, 65, of Birchwood, Minn.; hit the forearm and elbow of John Ellis, 48, an optometrist from South Connellsville, Pa.; and caused minor injuries to Jose Pruneda, 53, of Alliance, Neb.

Associated Press