Democrats strongly defend abortion rights at forum in SC

Democrats strongly defend abortion rights at forum in SC

COLUMBIA, S.C.

Twenty Democratic presidential candidates attending a Planned Parenthood forum Saturday vowed to defend abortion rights under nearly any circumstance while largely ignoring nuances around the issue that have already roiled their party heading into the 2020 election.

The event sponsored by Planned Parenthood Action Fund – the group’s political arm – was the first of the election season centered on abortion. It came on the sidelines of the South Carolina Democratic Party’s state convention, a pivotal gathering of the party faithful in the South’s first primary state.

The candidates were united in decrying a series of tough, recent abortion restrictions approved by Republican-controlled legislatures around the country geared to ultimately provoke a Supreme Court case that could overturn the landmark Roe v. Wade decision.

Those efforts have come alongside attempts to strip taxpayer funding from Planned Parenthood, which abortion rights advocates and some leading medical groups say would make it harder for low-income women to get access to basic health care, not only abortion.

Trump postpones immigration enforcement sweep

WASHINGTON

President Donald Trump on Saturday delayed a nationwide immigration sweep to deport people living the United States illegally, including families, saying he would give lawmakers two weeks to work out solutions for the southern border.

The move came after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi called Trump on Friday asking him to call off the raids. But three administration officials said scrapping the operation was not just about politics. They said Immigration and Customs Enforcement leaders had expressed serious concerns that officers’ safety would be in jeopardy because too many details about the raids had been made public.

The officials spoke on condition of anonymity to speak about private discussions.

“At the request of Democrats, I have delayed the Illegal Immigration Removal Process (Deportation) for two weeks to see if the Democrats and Republicans can get together and work out a solution to the Asylum and Loophole problems at the Southern Border,” Trump wrote on Twitter. “If not, Deportations start!”

The operation, which sparked outrage and concern among immigrant advocates, had been expected to begin today and would target people with final orders of removal, including families whose immigration cases had been fast-tracked by judges.

Bourbon barrel recovery underway in damaged warehouse

OWENSBORO, Ky.

A Kentucky bourbon distillery says barrel recovery is underway at a storage warehouse that partially collapsed during a thunderstorm.

O.Z. Tyler Distillery in Owensboro says a quadrant of the warehouse has been “successfully deconstructed” and the painstaking process of recovering barrels is moving ahead as workers take down the entire rickhouse.

Distillery officials say the warehouse cannot be salvaged.

No one was injured when part of the warehouse collapsed early Monday. The distillery says “minimal leakage” of bourbon was reported.

The distillery says 19,400 barrels were aging in the warehouse, including about 4,500 barrels in the storm-damaged section.

Skydiving plane crashes in Hawaii, killing all 11 aboard

HONOLULU

A skydiving plane crashed and burst into flames just after takeoff from a small seaside airfield on the island of Oahu, killing 11 people, officials said Saturday.

Authorities initially reported that nine people died in the crash Friday evening and that three of them were customers of a skydiving company and six were employees.

But the Hawaii Department of Transportation tweeted Saturday that officials later “confirmed there were 11 people on board the plane” and no survivors. The twin-engine Beechcraft King Air plane took off from Dillingham Airfield on the north shore of the island.

The plane turned around after it took off and appeared to be heading back to the airfield when it skimmed over some trees and crashed near the airfield’s perimeter fence, witness Steven Tickemeyer told KHON television news.

Greek Orthodox church in US gets 1st new leader in 20 years

NEW YORK

The Greek Orthodox church of the United States, a far-flung denomination of 1.5-million members, on Saturday installed its first new leader in 20 years – a lifelong European whose top priority is completing construction of a shrine in New York City linked to the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

Elpidophoros Lambriniadis, 51, a native of Istanbul and a longtime theology professor in Greece, was enthroned as archbishop in an elaborate ceremony at the Cathedral of the Holy Trinity in Manhattan. Many Greek Americans from across the U.S. came to New York for the event.

Elpidophoros was unanimously elected by senior Greek Orthodox officials last month to succeed Archbishop Demetrios, who recently retired at age 91 after serving in the post since 1999.

Much of Demetrios’ tenure as archbishop was complicated by controversy related to construction of the St. Nicholas National Shrine next to the World Trade Center memorial plaza in lower Manhattan. The new church is intended to replace a tiny Greek Orthodox church obliterated in the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

Hall of Fame trainer banned at Santa Anita after horse death

ARCADIA, Calif.

Hall of Fame trainer Jerry Hollendorfer was banned by the ownership of Santa Anita on Saturday after a fourth horse from his stable died – and the 30th overall – at the Southern California track.

The Stronach Group, which owns the track, said in a statement that effective immediately Hollendorfer “is no longer welcome to stable, race or train his horses at any of our facilities.”

On the recommendation of a special panel convened to review horses’ medical, training and racing history, the track’s stewards scratched four horses trained by Hollendorfer that were entered to run Saturday and today.

A 4-year-old gelding trained by Hollendorfer was injured Saturday while exercising on the training track and was euthanized. It was the first death of the meet on the training track, which isn’t used for racing.

It was the 30th death since the racing season began Dec. 26. The track closes for the season today.

Device to trap plastic waste in Pacific Ocean relaunches

SAN FRANCISCO

A floating device designed to catch plastic waste has been redeployed in second attempt to clean up a huge island of trash swirling in the Pacific Ocean between California and Hawaii.

Boyan Slat, creator of The Ocean Cleanup project, announced on Twitter that a 2,000-foot-long floating boom that broke apart late last year was sent back to the Great Pacific Garbage Patch this week after four months of repair.

A ship towed the U-shaped barrier from San Francisco to the patch in September to trap the plastic. But during the four months at sea, the boom broke apart under constant waves and wind and the boom wasn’t retaining the plastic it caught.

Fitted with solar-powered lights, cameras, sensors and satellite antennas, the device intends to communicate its position at all times, allowing a support vessel to fish out the collected plastic every few months and transport it to dry land.

Associated Press