18 dead in West Virginia floods; focus on search and rescue
CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) — As a deluge swamped southeast West Virginia — a disaster that killed at least 18 people — Ronnie Scott’s wife called him and told him their house was filling up with water. She fled to the attic with two dogs and a cat and waited. She smelled natural gas.
Then, the house blew up.
Belinda Scott was able to break a vent and get out onto a porch, then make it onto a tree, which she clung to for hours before being rescued by state police, Ronnie Scott told The Associated Press on Friday. His wife was in the hospital with burns on 67 percent of her body. The pets did not make it out alive.
“My wife was out there four and a half hours hanging in a tree with a house burning right beside her, flood waters running all around her,” said Scott, who was not at the White Sulphur Springs home when the waters rose.
Early reports indicate about 9 inches of rain damaged or destroyed more than 100 homes and knocked out power to tens of thousands of others, Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin said.
Obama names Stonewall national monument; 1st for gay rights
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama created the first national monument to gay rights on Friday, designating the site of the Stonewall riots in Manhattan where the modern gay rights movement took root nearly five decades ago.
The Stonewall National Monument will be anchored by Christopher Park, a small park just across from the iconic Stonewall Inn tavern, and covers a 7.7 acre swath of Greenwhich Village where the uprising took place after police raided the gay bar in 1969. Obama said the monument would “tell the story of our struggle for LGBT rights” and of a civil rights movement that became a part of America.
“I believe our national parks should reflect the full story of our country: the richness and diversity and uniquely American spirit that has always defined us,” Obama said. “That we are stronger together, that out of many, we are one.”
To herald the designation, a White House video with photos of the monument was to be played at noon Saturday on the billboards in Times Square just as New York’s annual pride celebration is getting under way, the White House said. The declaration also comes as advocates celebrate the one-year anniversary on Sunday of the Supreme Court decision legalizing gay marriage nationwide.
Designating the small area marks a major act of national recognition for gay rights advocates and their struggles over the last half-century. In addition to the Supreme Court decision, since the 1969 uprising the U.S. has enacted anti-discrimination protections, allowed gays and lesbians to serve openly in the U.S. military and seen prominent athletes and entertainers come out of the closet.
2 die in California wildfire that left little time to flee
LAKE ISABELLA, Calif. (AP) — A deadly wildfire that roared through dry brush and trees in the mountains of central California gave residents little time to flee as flames burned dozens of homes to the ground, propane tanks exploded, and smoke obscured the path to safety.
Two bodies were found Friday near Lake Isabella, a popular recreation area east of Bakersfield that was ravaged by wind-whipped flames, said Phil Neufeld, a spokesman for the Kern County Fire Department.
At least 80 houses were destroyed in the southern Sierra Nevada as the fire burned across 29 square miles, leveling neighborhoods and forcing thousands of people to flee from fast-moving flames.
David Klippel, 78, a retired police officer, said he didn’t see much of a threat after receiving an automated call advising him to leave. That changed dramatically within an hour Thursday afternoon.
“I’ve never been so close to a fast-moving, ferocious fire. It was unbelievable,” said Klippel, who later learned his house had caught fire. “I almost didn’t have time to get out.”
North Korea: We won’t abandon nukes with US gun to our head
PYONGYANG, North Korea (AP) — The top North Korean official for U.S. relations told The Associated Press on Friday that his country is now a nuclear threat to be reckoned with, and Washington can expect more nuclear tests and missile launches like the ones earlier this week as long as it attempts to force his government’s collapse through a policy of pressure and punishment.
“It’s the United States that caused this issue,” Han Song Ryol, director-general of the department of U.S. affairs at North Korea’s Foreign Ministry, said in his first interview with an American news organization since assuming the post three years ago. “They have to stop their military threats, sanctions and economic pressure. Without doing so, it’s like they are telling us to reconcile while they are putting a gun to our forehead.”
Han defended the North’s test-launching on Wednesday of two medium-range ballistic missiles. Foreign military experts believe that, once perfected, such missiles could deliver nuclear warheads to U.S. bases in Japan and possibly to major U.S. military installations as far away as the Pacific island of Guam, where long-range U.S. Air Force bombers are deployed.
The tests indicated technological advances in the North’s missile capabilities. They were quickly condemned by Washington, Tokyo and Seoul as a “provocation” and a violation of United Nations resolutions.
State Department spokesman John Kirby said U.S. policy calling for the denuclearization of the Korean peninsula hasn’t changed.
Officials: No evidence Orlando gunman was gay
WASHINGTON (AP) — FBI investigators so far have not turned up persuasive evidence that Orlando gunman Omar Mateen was gay or pursuing gay relationships, according to two government officials familiar with the investigation.
The FBI began looking into that possibility after media reports last week quoted men as saying that Omar Mateen had reached out to them on gay dating apps and had frequented the gay nightclub where the June 12 massacre took place. One man claimed to be Mateen’s gay lover in an interview with Univision that aired this week, while another recalled Mateen as a regular at the Pulse club who tried to pick up men.
But the officials say the FBI, which has conducted about 500 interviews and is reviewing evidence collected from Mateen’s phone, has not found concrete evidence to corroborate such accounts nearly two weeks into the investigation. They also cautioned that the investigation is ongoing and that nothing has formally been ruled out.
The officials were not authorized to discuss an ongoing investigation by name and spoke on condition of anonymity.
Law enforcement officials have said there is no doubt that Mateen was radicalized at some point before the Pulse nightclub attack, though there is no evidence that he was directed by any foreign terror groups.
