In Brief: Nation & World: 5-9-16

Canadian officials hope to put “death grip” on fire

FORT MCMURRAY, Alberta — Officials said Sunday they reached a turning point in fighting an enormous wildfire, hoping to get a “death grip’” on the blaze that devastated Canada’s oil sands town of Fort McMurray amid cooler temperatures and light rain. Meanwhile, a massive evacuation of residents displaced by the blaze came to an end.

Chad Morrison of Alberta Wildfire told a news conference he’s “very happy” and called it great firefighting weather.

“We can really get in there and really get a handle on this fire and really get a death grip on it,” said Morrison, who answered yes when asked if they’ve reached a turning point.

With cooler temperatures in the next three or four days, he said firefighters should be able to put out hot spots. And it has allowed them to further protect fire-ravaged Fort McMurray. “I feel very buoyed and happy that we are making great progress,” he said.

Alberta Premier Rachel Notley said the wildfire grew much more slowly than was feared and it is now 161,000 hectares (397,831 acres). She said the blaze is quite a bit smaller than had been expected on Saturday, when officials expected the fire to double in size. She added the city is safe for first responders and said she will visit the city on Monday to assess the damage.

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For some Republicans, Trump-Clinton matchup is ‘nightmare’

OREM, Utah — As the setting sun’s light flooded a meeting of Utah County Republicans, Melanie Sorensen described her concerns about her party’s presumptive presidential nominee.

First, she spoke about Donald Trump’s suggestion that he may violate party orthodoxy and back a minimum wage increase. Then, she addressed his tendency to take different sides of the same issue. Then, the image he projects to the world.

“I’m certainly a ‘Never Hillary’ person but I may also be a ‘Never Trump’ person,” said Sorensen, 42, a homemaker who spends countless hours volunteering for the GOP. “It’s a nightmare. I’m living in a nightmare.”

Voters in this slice of deeply conservative Utah are experiencing an acute version of the political panic attack that’s gripped much of the GOP since Trump’s remaining rivals dropped out last week.

Utah County, 30 miles south of Salt Lake City, was never going to support Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton. It’s home to Brigham Young University, and 2012 GOP nominee Mitt Romney won 88 percent of its voters against President Barack Obama. But it’s also the conservative heart of Utah, whose voters were among the most resistant to Trump in the nominating contest.

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Penn State settlements covered 1971 Sandusky abuse claim

Penn State’s legal settlements with Jerry Sandusky’s accusers cover alleged abuse dating to 1971, which was 40 years before his arrest, the university said Sunday, providing the first confirmation of the time frame of abuse claims that have led to big payouts.

The disclosure came as Penn State President Eric Barron decried newly revealed allegations that former football coach Joe Paterno was told in 1976 that Sandusky had sexually abused a child and that two assistant coaches witnessed either inappropriate or sexual contact in the late 1980s. Paterno, who died in 2012, had said the first time he had received a complaint against Sandusky was in 2001.

Barron said the accusations were unsubstantiated, and suggested that the university is being subjected unfairly to what he called rumor and innuendo.

Responding to questions about the president’s statement and claims against the school, university spokesman Lawrence Lokman told The Associated Press he could confirm that the earliest year of alleged abuse covered in Penn State’s settlements is 1971.

Sandusky graduated from Penn State in 1965 and returned as a full-time defensive coach in 1969.

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Trump as nominee improves odds for parts of Obama’s legacy

WASHINGTON — There’s no cheering at the White House for Donald Trump’s success. Yet for President Barack Obama, things could be worse.

Trump’s ascent as the presumptive Republican nominee makes some of Obama’s main achievements more likely to survive after the next president takes over. Trump’s policy prescriptions, while full of contradictions and short on specifics, are generally closer to Obama’s than those of Trump’s closest GOP rival, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz.

Where Cruz opposed Obama’s outreach to Cuba, Trump said it’s “fine,” though he would have handled it differently. Trump even has embraced a few essential elements of Obama’s health law, long the bane of the Republican Party. On gay and transgender rights, the New York businessman has taken a softer tone than Cruz and most of the other Republicans who sought the nomination, too.

To be sure, a Trump presidency would be bad news for most of Obama’s legacy. After all, Trump has said Obama may go down as the worst president in history.

Trump has said that if he’s elected, he’ll terminate Obama’s immigration actions and build a wall on the border with Mexico. He rails against Obama’s trade deals and laughs off concerns about climate change, while saying he would repeal the Dodd-Frank financial reforms.

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Trump likes idea of party unity, but on his terms

WASHINGTON — Donald Trump says he’s all for bringing together the Republican Party, but the many GOP officials he’s branded losers and lightweights will have to fall in line because the voters have spoken.

Trump’s strident rhetoric, in television interviews and campaign rallies over the weekend, are characteristic of his outsider campaign. But his latest verbal lashings, after moving from presidential front-runner to presumptive nominee last week, also suggest a candidate increasingly isolated from the very leaders he might need to support him ahead of a tough November election.

And if elected, Trump would need their helping in pushing his agenda through Congress.

For now, Trump is brushing off rejections by influential GOP officials and saying the party doesn’t have to be unified “in the traditional sense.”

“Look, I’m going to get millions and millions of votes more than the Republicans would have gotten” without me, he said.

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Greece passes pension, tax reform bill

ATHENS, Greece — Greece’s Parliament has approved a bill reforming the debt-ridden country’s pension and tax systems.

The bill, introduced as part of requirements the country must meet under its third international bailout, is set to increase social security and pension contributions and raise taxes for most people.

The bill was approved by the 153 lawmakers of the ruling Syriza/Independent Greeks government coalition; all opposition parties in the 300-member Parliament voted against.

The vote took place amid a crippling general strike and protests that briefly turned violent Sunday.

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New prison for drug boss ‘El Chapo’ seen as less secure

MEXICO CITY — Questions arose on both sides of the border about the decision to relocate convicted drug lord Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman to a region that is one of his cartel’s strongholds, and a Mexican security official acknowledged Sunday that the sudden transfer was to a less-secure prison.

The official, who insisted on anonymity in talking about Guzman, said that in general the Cefereso No. 9 on the outskirts of Ciudad Juarez, across from El Paso, Texas, is not as impregnable as the maximum-security Altiplano facility near Mexico City where he was being held.

The official said, however, that Guzman is being held in a maximum-security wing where the same protocols are being enforced as in Altiplano, including 24-hour monitoring via a camera in his cell.

But Michael Vigil, the former head of international operations for the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, wondered at the logic of sending Guzman to a lesser lockup in territory firmly controlled by his Sinaloa cartel underlings.

“It just doesn’t make any sense,” Vigil said. “He has that part of his empire, he has the infrastructure there and he has people who would assist him in terms of engineering him another escape.”

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Friend says he was unaware of shooting suspect’s troubles

ROCKVILLE, Md. — A friend of a Maryland man charged with killing his estranged wife and two other people said he saw the couple as recently as three weeks ago and was not aware they had any troubles.

Gary Cochran of Sterling, Virginia, said in a telephone interview Sunday evening that Eulalio Tordil of Adelphi was “always smiling and very polite,” and he was stunned that the federal police officer is accused of a two-day shooting spree in suburban Maryland parking lots.

Along with the three fatalities, three other people were wounded in the shootings.

“He was a very quiet person, very soft-spoken,” Cochran said of Tordil, who attended high school with his wife. “We’re shocked because we can’t imagine this is the person we invited into our home.”

Tordil, 62, is scheduled to make an initial court appearance Monday in Rockville, a suburb near the nation’s capital. He faces charges including first-degree murder.

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Tough-talking mayor favored in Philippines vote

MANILA, Philippines — Millions of Filipinos began voting Monday in a presidential race where a foul-mouthed, crime-busting mayor is favored to win, but who the outgoing president says is a threat to democracy.

Plenty are at stake for the Southeast Asian nation, which has turned around under President Benigno Aquino III, with one of the highest economic growth rates in Asia but remains saddled by massive poverty, inequality and decades-long Muslim and communist insurgencies.

Five candidates are vying to succeed Aquino in one of Asia’s liveliest democracies. More than 45,000 candidates are contesting 18,000 national, congressional and local positions in elections that have traditionally been tainted by violence and accusations of cheating, especially in far-flung rural areas.

At least 15 people have been killed in elections-related violence and more than 4,000 arrested for violating a gun ban, according to police.

“Let us show the world that despite our deep passion and support for our candidates, we can hold elections that are peaceful and orderly and reflect the spirit of democracy,” said Aquino, whose six-year term ends in June.

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Winning Powerball ticket sold in Trenton, New Jersey

TRENTON, N.J. — Someone is holding onto the sole winning Powerball ticket that was sold in New Jersey and the jackpot was at $429.6 million, lottery officials said Sunday.

Only one ticket matched all six numbers in Saturday night’s drawing, said Powerball spokeswoman Kelly Cripe. The winning Powerball numbers were 5-25-26-44-66 and the Powerball number was 9.

Lottery officials in New Jersey said Sunday afternoon that the winning ticket was sold at a 7-Eleven store in Trenton, the state’s capital city. It was purchased as a cash ticket and is valued at $284 million.

The ticket holder has not yet come forward to claim the prize.

“We have never had a winning ticket this big, not even close,” said Marcelo Chilel, who works at the store where the winning ticket was sold. Chilel said he and his colleagues are “amazed” that it happened.