Fire scares Los Angeles as larger blazes burn across West
LOS ANGELES — A brush fire that broke out Sunday near downtown Los Angeles threatened a densely populated, hilly neighborhood along a freeway as sizzling temperatures elevated fire danger across the West.
Crews knocked down the blaze in the Silver Lake neighborhood after it damaged two homes, destroyed three shed-like structures, scorched yards and sent trees up in flames.
Neighbors scrambled with garden hoses and buckets, while water-dropping helicopters and scores of firefighters chased embers and doused steep hillsides to keep the flames from spreading.
The blaze only charred 8 acres, but it put urban residents on alert to the hot, dry conditions that have helped wildfires spread rapidly across more remote places from the California coast to New Mexico.
A fire that has burned 12 square miles west of Santa Barbara stayed in check, but firefighters braced for the return of afternoon and evening gusts that fanned the flames earlier in the week, threatening hundreds of homes and leading to evacuations of popular coastal campgrounds. The fire was just under halfway contained.
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EgyptAir jet recorders become focus of probe into crash mystery
Egyptian investigators are preparing to test the flight recorder memory units from the EgyptAir plane that crashed in the Mediterranean Sea last month, moving a step closer to finding the cause of the accident that killed all 66 people on board.
Examinations began Saturday for parts of the cockpit voice and flight data recorders of the Airbus Group SE A320, the Civil Aviation Ministry said in an e-mailed statement on Sunday. The memory units will be dried in special ovens in preparation for further study, according to the statement.
Searchers who recovered the so-called black boxes from the seabed last week said the units had sustained damage. The ministry’s statement didn’t make clear how much, if any, damage was caused to the memory units.
Attorney General says Mateen investigation moving forward
ORLANDO, Fla. — Although the killer is known, the investigation continues into what motivated and enabled Omar Mateen to carry out the worst mass shooting in modern U.S. history.
Attorney General Loretta Lynch said in interviews Sunday on several news shows that the FBI would release a partial printed transcript of the conversations between gunman Mateen from within the Pulse nightclub and Orlando police negotiators. Armed with a semi-automatic weapon, Mateen went on a bloody rampage at the club June 12 that left 49 people dead and 53 others seriously hurt. Mateen died in a hail of police gunfire after police stormed the venue.
Lynch told ABC’s “This Week” that the top goal while intensifying pressure on IS — the extremist group thought to have inspired Mateen — is to build a complete profile of him in order to help prevent another massacre like Orlando.
“As you can see from this investigation, we are going back and learning everything we can about this killer, about his contacts, people who may have known him or seen him. And we’re trying to build that profile so that we can move forward,” Lynch said.
Lynch said she would be traveling to Orlando on Tuesday to meet with investigators.
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GOP’s Trump says US should consider profiling Muslims
WASHINGTON — Donald Trump suggested Sunday that the United States should “seriously” consider profiling Muslims inside the country as a terrorism-fighting tool, the latest example of the Republican presidential nominee-in-waiting increasingly backing positions that could single out a group based on their religion.
“We really have to look at profiling,” Trump said in an interview broadcast Sunday on CBS’s “Face the Nation.” ”It’s not the worst thing to do.”
The presumptive Republican presidential nominee added that he “hate(s) the concept of profiling, but we have to use common sense” over “political correctness.”
Trump’s proposal runs counter to Justice Department policy, which explicitly prohibits profiling on the basis of race, religion, ethnicity and national origin. That profiling ban applies not only to federal agents but also to local law enforcement officers who participate in federal task forces.
Trump’s increasing embrace of policies that could isolate Muslims in America is extraordinary for a candidate assured of his party’s presidential nomination. The proposals have been roundly dismissed and criticized by many Republican leaders, including House Speaker Paul Ryan. Civil libertarians, Muslims and others also have strongly disagreed, arguing that profiling is unconstitutional and often constitutes unlawful discrimination based on race, religion and other factors.
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As NOW turns 50, feminists hail gains but ‘battle goes on’
NEW YORK — Fifty years ago, when a small group of activists founded the National Organization for Women, the immediate issue that motivated them was sex discrimination in employment. They were irate that the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission was refusing to ban “Help Wanted Male” and “Help Wanted Female” job advertising.
Typical were ads seeking a “well-groomed gal” for a job as a receptionist.
Flash forward to today: Women comprise close to 50 percent of enrollment in U.S. medical schools and law schools. One-third of federal judges are women, compared to just a handful in the 1960s. The U.S military is opening all combat jobs to women.
At NOW and elsewhere in the diverse ranks of the feminist movement, there’s deep pride in these changes, but also a consensus that the 50th anniversary — to be celebrated June 23 — is not an occasion to declare victory.
“The battle goes on,” said Eleanor Smeal, a former president of NOW who heads the Feminist Majority Foundation. “So many of the things we fought for have been achieved, but we still do not have full equality.”
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‘Star Trek’ actor Anton Yelchin killed when his car hits him
LOS ANGELES — Anton Yelchin, a rising actor best known for playing Chekov in the new “Star Trek” films, was killed by his own car as it rolled down his driveway early Sunday, police and his publicist said.
The car pinned Yelchin, 27, against a brick mailbox pillar and a security fence at his home in Los Angeles, Officer Jenny Hosier said. He had gotten out of the vehicle momentarily, but police did not say why he was behind it when it started rolling.
Yelchin was on his way to meet friends for a rehearsal, Hosier said. When he didn’t show up, the group came to his home and found him dead.
The freak accident tragically cuts short the promising career of an actor whom audiences were still getting to know and who had great artistic ambition. “Star Trek Beyond,” the third film in the rebooted series, comes out in July.
Director J.J. Abrams, who cast Yelchin in the franchise, wrote in a statement that he was “brilliant … kind … funny as hell, and supremely talented.”
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Despair and defiance as Russian athletes react to doping ban
CHEBOKSARY, Russia — Russia’s national track and field championships were supposed to offer a chance to secure Olympic places, but with its athletes now banned from the Rio Games, excitement for competition has been replaced by despair and defiance.
For Natalya Antyukh, the reigning Olympic champion in the 400-meter hurdles, Rio would almost certainly be her last chance for a medal at the age of 34.
“The mood has been spoiled,” Antyukh told The Associated Press on Sunday, adding that she had kept the Olympics as an “imaginary goal” for herself in the seven months that separated Russia’s suspension in November from the IAAF vote Friday that upheld the Olympic ban.
“When you lose this imaginary goal, the motivation is lost. I am an experienced athlete and I was always giving myself a new goal and motivation. But what can I achieve now?”
The championships start Monday in a stadium in the Volga River city of Cheboksary, with the likely small crowd a far cry from the pulsating atmosphere of the Olympics. Pre-event training Sunday took place in sweltering heat, with many athletes reluctant to venture out until late afternoon.