Cruz goes all-in on conservatives, starting White House bid
LYNCHBURG, Va. — Launching his bid for the Republican presidential nomination, Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas asked Christian conservative voters to imagine a United States without the IRS, Obamacare or abortion rights — and to imagine they can make that happen by supporting him.
His aspirational appeal on Monday, aimed at America’s most conservative voters, could quickly run into challenges in winning over moderate voters — and eventually deep difficulties in governing should Cruz win the White House.
But it’s a message that Cruz, the first major 2016 contender to declare himself a candidate, is expected to forcefully emphasize in the coming year before voters start to pick nominees.
“God’s blessing has been on America from the very beginning of this nation, and I believe that God isn’t done with Americans,” Cruz declared at Liberty University, a Christian school founded by the late Rev. Jerry Falwell.
“I believe in you. I believe in the power of millions of courageous conservatives rising up to reignite the promise of America. And that is that is why, today, I am announcing that I am running for president of the United States of America.”
Emergency official: 3 dead in scaffolding collapse in Raleigh
RALEIGH, N.C. — Workers were dismantling a scaffold at a high-rise construction project when a piece of it fell to the ground in downtown Raleigh, killing three men and sending another to a hospital.
Jeffrey Hammerstein, community outreach chief for Wake County EMS, said three men died and a fourth was seriously injured in the accident at the glass and steel building called Charter Square in downtown Raleigh. All four men were involved in the construction project, Hammerstein said.
The accident happened around 11 a.m. as a subcontractor called Associated Scaffolding was in the process of dismantling the scaffold on the building’s exterior, said Mike Hampton, the chief operating officer for the building’s general contractor, Choate Construction Company. The equipment known as a mast climber scaffold rises up and down to take workers to different floors.
“We are finished using it. They actually were dismantling that piece when it happened,” Hampton said. “It wasn’t as if it was business as usual, they went to work and it collapsed.”
Choate issued a statement saying the company is “deeply saddened by the loss of life and injuries.”
WHO spokeswoman: Politics played no role in the declaration of an Ebola emergency
LONDON — The World Health Organization denied Monday that politics swayed the decision to declare an international emergency over the spread of the Ebola virus last year, despite evidence senior staffers repeatedly discussed the diplomatic and economic fallout of such a move.
A year after WHO declared that Ebola had been found in Guinea, the agency is on the defensive over reports that it dragged its feet when raising the international alarm over the disease. Internal communications published by The Associated Press last week documented senior agency staff discouraging the move about two months before the international alert was finally raised, citing diplomatic relations, mining interests and the Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca.
WHO spokeswoman Dr. Margaret Harris said Monday that “political considerations did not play a role” and that notions to the contrary were due to a misinterpretation of the leaked documents. Harris did not respond to follow-up questions about how the documents should have been interpreted.
Political worries appear to loom large in the communications obtained by AP, which include emails and memoranda. A June 10 memo sent to WHO Director-General Dr. Margaret Chan says declaring an emergency — or convening a committee to discuss the issue — could be seen as a “hostile act” by Ebola-affected countries. When senior African staff floated the idea of declaring an emergency on June 4, WHO official Dr. Sylvie Briand wrote that she saw such a move as a “last resort.”
An international emergency was eventually declared on Aug. 8, by which point nearly 1,000 people had died.
Supreme Court rejects challenge to voter ID law in Wis.
MADISON, Wis. — The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday turned away a challenge to Wisconsin’s voter identification law, allowing the law to stand and handing a victory to Gov. Scott Walker following a long fight by opponents who say it’s a thinly veiled attempt to make it more difficult for Democratic backers to vote.
The law won’t be enforced for an April 7 election because it’s only two weeks away, but it will be in subsequent elections, the state attorney general said.
Walker, a likely 2016 Republican presidential candidate, is a longtime proponent of voter ID requirements and signed Wisconsin’s into law in 2011. But it was only in effect for one low-turnout primary in 2012 before legal challenges kept it on hold.
The Supreme Court’s decision not to take up the case ends the legal fight, for now.
“This is great news for Wisconsin voters,” Walker said in a statement. “As we’ve said, this is a common sense reform that protects the integrity of our voting process, making it easy to vote and hard to cheat.”
Heavy clashes
rage in Ukraine coastal town
SHYROKYNE, Ukraine — To reach rear-guard government positions in the seaside town of Shyrokyne, Ukrainian soldiers gingerly wind their off-roaders through private gardens hugging a precipice along the Azov Sea.
The truce announced in mid-February has never taken here, so traveling by the main roads is too dangerous.
Government and Russian-backed separatist forces face off in daily gun and artillery battles across an unseen line cutting through the town. The skirmishes are fierce, but contained — for now. Still, the enduring unrest arouses deep anxieties that a conflict which has already claimed more than 6,000 lives in eastern Ukraine could flare up again across the entire 280-mile front line.
Shyrokyne itself is not much of a prize. It is the industrial port city of Mariupol, 10 kilometers (6 miles) further west, that Ukrainian forces want to defend from the rebels at all costs.
Residents and government troops alike believe the separatists’ ultimate aim is to take Mariupol — and eventually create a land bridge between Russia and Crimea, which Russia annexed last March. Crimea has no physical link to Russian territory now and a bridge being discussed is years away from completion.
US stock market starts the week
with a small loss
NEW YORK — A late turn pulled the stock market to a loss on Monday, as major indexes wavered following a strong run last week.
Kansas City Southern slumped 8 percent, the biggest fall in the Standard &Poor’s 500 index, after the railroad operator trimmed its revenue estimates, pointing to falling fuel prices and the strengthening dollar. Its stock lost $9.21 to $106.48.
Major indexes started higher in morning trading, settled into an afternoon lull, then dipped down in the last 10 minutes of trading.
The S&P 500 fell 3.68 points, or 0.2 percent, to close at 2,104.42.
The Dow Jones industrial average lost 11.61 points, or 0.1 percent, to 18,116.04 while the Nasdaq composite slipped 15.44 points, or 0.3 percent, to 5,010.97.
By wire sources
