Judge blocks transgender bathroom law

Judge blocks transgender bathroom law

RALEIGH, N.C.

A federal judge has temporarily ruled that the University of North Carolina can’t block two transgender students and an employee from using bathrooms that match their gender identity.

U.S. District Judge Thomas Schroeder on Friday partially granted a preliminary injunction to the students and the employee in response to their lawsuit challenging a state law limiting protections for LGBT people.

The judge says the injunction only applies to the plaintiffs, but said he also expects them to succeed in their claim that the law known as House Bill 2 violates the federal Title IX law, which bars sex discrimination in schools.

His decision represents a win for the ACLU and Justice Department, which had sued to block the law.

His final decision on the law won’t come until after a November trial.

Tank explodes at California refinery; no injuries reported

LOS ANGELES

A sulfur storage tank exploded Friday at the largest oil refinery in California, sending a chemical cloud into the air and causing a fire, authorities said. No injuries were reported.

There was no immediate word on the cause of the blast at the Tesoro refinery in Wilmington near Long Beach.

The fire was quickly extinguished, but the tank continued to send up a cloud of steam for hours afterward, company officials said.

“We are currently conducting air quality monitoring around the site,” company spokesman Destin Singleton said. “At this time we have not detected any harmful levels of toxins.”

Everyone near the scene was accounted for, Singleton said.

The Los Angeles County Fire Department sent in a hazardous-materials team.

No evacuations were ordered, but the sheriff’s department urged people within a quarter-mile of the scene to stay indoors. That advisory was later canceled.

Sickly humpback whale spotted in Hawaii waters

HONOLULU

Hawaii humpback whale experts are reporting the sighting of a sickly humpback whale off Maui.

Hawaiian Islands Humpback Whale National Marine Sanctuary Superintendent Malia Chow said Friday the animal is emaciated and covered in whale lice. At least four sharks were following the whale. She says these are all indicators of a whale in distress.

She says the whale isn’t entangled and doesn’t appear to have been struck by a vessel. She says the animal’s poor condition is a mystery.

Hawaii’s humpback whales normally spend their summers feeding in cold places like Alaska and return to the islands in September or October.

Chow says it’s not clear whether this whale is one of the first sightings of Hawaii’s upcoming whale season or if this whale stayed around from last season.

SUV hits Amish buggy; man and child injured

HEUVELTON, N.Y.

A crash involving a sport utility vehicle and an Amish buggy in northern New York has seriously injured two people.

The Watertown Daily Times reports a Jeep Cherokee rear-ended the buggy Friday night in Heuvelton, a village in St. Lawrence County near the Canadian border.

A man and a child in the buggy have been hospitalized.

Witnesses say the driver of the Jeep was uninjured. The horse pulling the buggy was killed.

Associated Press