City spends $7K to appeal $37.50 fine

City spends $7K to appeal $37.50 fine

FAIRBANKS, Alaska

The city of Fairbanks, Alaska, has so far spent about $7,000 appealing a $37.50 election-law fine leveled on the mayor.

The Alaska Public Offices Commission ordered Mayor John Eberhart to pay the $37.50 fine in May after concluding he broke a state law in the October 2013 election by sending an email on his city council email account, The Fairbanks Daily News-Miner reports.

In that email, Eberhart, then a city council member, asked city staff to research resolutions and ordinances sponsored by Eberhart and his mayoral opponent Vivian Stiver. In the eyes of the commission, the records request equaled an illegal use of municipal resources to influence an election.

Islamist militia guards embassy

TRIPOLI, Libya

An Islamist-allied militia group in control of Libya’s capital now guards the U.S. Embassy and its residential compound, a commander said Sunday, as onlookers toured the abandoned homes of diplomats who fled the country more than a month ago.

An Associated Press journalist saw holes left by small-arms and rocket fire dotting the residential compound, reminders of weeks of violence between rival militias over control of Tripoli that sparked the evacuation.

The breach of a deserted U.S. diplomatic post — including images of men earlier swimming in the compound’s algae-filled pools — likely will reinvigorate debate in the U.S. over its role in Libya, more than three years after supporting rebels who toppled dictator Moammar Gadhafi. It also comes just before the two-year anniversary of the slaying of U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans in Libya.

Judge blocks La. law’s enforcement

BATON ROUGE, La.

A federal judge has temporarily blocked enforcement of Louisiana’s restrictive new abortion law.

District Judge John deGravelles said the law still can take effect today, but officials cannot penalize doctors or clinics for breaking it while a challenge is heard.

The law would require doctors who perform abortions to have admitting privileges to a hospital within 30 miles of their clinics. A Center for Reproductive Rights lawsuit claims doctors haven’t had enough time to obtain privileges and the law likely would force Louisiana’s five abortion clinics to close.

5 die in plane crash

ERIE, Colo.

All five people aboard a small plane that crashed near an airport north of Denver have died, a spokesman for the National Transportation Board said.

The Piper PA-46 airplane crashed near the Erie Municipal Airport about 11:50 a.m., NTSB spokesman Peter Knudson said Sunday afternoon. Shortly after the crash, three people were declared dead at the scene and two were taken to hospitals.

Bundy son pulls kids from schools over pocketknife

LAS VEGAS

A son of rancher Cliven Bundy has withdrawn his children from Clark County schools after his daughter was barred from carrying a pocketknife on school grounds.

Ryan Bundy says that’s a violation of his children’s rights and evidence of county school administrators’ “communistic mentality.”

Virgin Valley High School Principal Cliff Hughes defended his decision to prohibit Bundy’s daughter from carrying a pocketknife, citing safety concerns.

Cliven Bundy and his armed states’-rights supporters thwarted a roundup by the federal government of his cattle in southern Nevada in April.

Associated Press