Services honor explosion victims ADVERTISING Services honor explosion victims NEW YORK (AP) — As workers tried to clear away the last of the rubble that once was two New York City apartment buildings, a pair of congregations gathered to mourn
Services honor explosion victims
NEW YORK (AP) — As workers tried to clear away the last of the rubble that once was two New York City apartment buildings, a pair of congregations gathered to mourn Sunday — one for its lost church and one for two members who lost their lives in the massive explosion.
At Bethel Gospel Assembly, tears mixed with the sounds of gospel music as the church remembered Griselde Camacho and Carmen Tanco, two of the eight people killed in the massive East Harlem explosion that leveled a pair of five-story buildings on Wednesday.
“We feel the void,” said Michelle Robinson, the church’s business administrator. “Both women were very active members.”
Tanco often served as an usher at services and would greet her fellow congregants at the door, Robinson said.
“We are a family and we’re all just missing the big hugs she used to give,” she said.
New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said the women “were examples to all of us” because of the faith and spirit they demonstrated. He spoke at a podium with a screen above him displaying photos of the women.
“We will not let you fall,” de Blasio said, speaking at a podium with a screen above him displaying photos of the women. “We are all a family in the end.”
His wife, Chirlane McCray, told the crowd about the launch of a fundraising drive to help those affected by the explosion. The money would support a relief plan that includes a victims’ assistance fund, which would cover costs connected to funeral arrangements, as well as rent and household expenses.
More snow for parts of E. Coast
CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) — Spring is just days away but winter is not leaving quietly.
Just as the trees started blooming and the birds started chirping, another round of snow and ice was bearing down Sunday on the Midwest and the Mid-Atlantic. Snow was expected by this afternoon from the Central Appalachians to the Jersey Shore, making the morning commute treacherous for motorists.
Parts of eastern West Virginia, central and west-central Virginia and the Shenandoah Valley could see up to 10 inches of snow.
Smaller accumulations were expected in Kentucky, Tennessee, Pennsylvania, Maryland, New Jersey and Washington, D.C. Parts of Southern Virginia and North Carolina braced for a slippery mix of rain, sleet and snow.
“Travel will be dangerous. It’s a late-season storm but we can’t let our guard down,” said Amy Bettwy, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service’s office in Sterling, Va.
A band of snow fell across Iowa on Saturday evening, following a warm and sunny day. The Des Moines area received about an inch of snow.
Rain and thunderstorms were expected in the Southeast, some of which could be strong.
Head of anti-gay church is sick
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — The Rev. Fred Phelps Sr., who founded a Kansas church widely known for its protests at military funerals and anti-gay sentiments, is in a care facility, according to a church spokesman.
Phelps, 84, is being cared for in a Shawnee County facility, Westboro Baptist Church spokesman Steve Drain said Sunday. Drain wouldn’t identify the facility.
“I can tell you that Fred Phelps is having some health problems,” Drain said. “He’s an old man, and old people get health problems.”
Members of the Westboro church, based in Topeka, frequently protest at funerals of soldiers with signs containing messages such as “Thank God for dead soldiers,” and “Thank God for 9/11,” claiming the deaths are God’s punishment for American immorality and tolerance of homosexuality and abortion.
Westboro Baptist, a small group made mostly of Phelps’ extended family, inspired a federal law and laws in numerous states limiting picketing at funerals. But in a major free-speech ruling in 2011, the U.S. Supreme Court held that the church and its members couldn’t be sued for monetary damages for inflicting pain on grieving families under the First Amendment.
The Southern Poverty Law Center, a civil-rights nonprofit group, has called Westboro Baptist Church a hate group.
Nate Phelps, an estranged son of Fred Phelps, also said in an email to The Topeka Capital-Journal that members of Westboro have voted Fred Phelps out of the church.
Nate Phelps, who broke away from the church 37 years ago, told the newspaper that church members became concerned after the vote that his father might harm himself and moved him out of the church, where he and his wife had lived for years. Fred Phelps was moved into a house, where he “basically stopped eating and drinking,” Nate Phelps said.
Drain declined comment Sunday on whether Fred Phelps had been voted out of the church. Drain said Westboro Baptist Church doesn’t have a designated leader.
“We don’t discuss our internal church dealings with anybody,” Drain told the newspaper.
