Powerful tornado strikes east China; 78 reportedly dead
Powerful tornado strikes east China; 78 reportedly dead
BEIJING (AP) — A tornado and hailstorm struck the outskirts of an eastern Chinese city on Thursday, killing at least 78 people and destroying buildings, smashing trees and flipping vehicles on their roofs.
The tornado hit a densely populated area of farms and factories near the city of Yancheng in Jiangsu province, about 800 kilometers (500 miles) south of Beijing.
Nearly 500 people were injured, 200 of them critically, the official Xinhua News Agency reported. Roads were blocked with trees, downed power lines and other debris. Heavy rain and the possibility of further hailstorms and more tornadoes complicated rescue efforts, state broadcaster CCTV reported.
The disaster has been declared a national-level emergency, and on a trip to Uzbekistan, Chinese President Xi Jinping ordered central government bodies to provide all necessary assistance.
Tents and other emergency supplies were already being sent from Beijing, CCTV said.
Obama immigration plan blocked by 4-4 tie at Supreme Court
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court deadlocked Thursday on President Barack Obama’s immigration plan that sought to shield millions living in the U.S. illegally from deportation, effectively killing the plan for the rest of his presidency.
The outcome underscores that the direction of U.S. immigration policy will be determined in large part by this fall’s presidential election, a campaign in which immigration already has played an outsized role.
People who would have benefited from Obama’s plan face no imminent threat of deportation because Congress has provided money to deal with only a small percentage of people who live in the country illegally, and the president retains ample discretion to decide whom to deport. But Obama’s effort to expand that protection to many others is effectively stymied.
Obama said Thursday’s impasse “takes us further from the country we aspire to be.”
The 4-4 tie vote sets no national precedent but leaves in place the ruling by the lower court. The justices issued a one-sentence opinion, with no further comment.
Texas U. admissions can consider race, Supreme Court rules
WASHINGTON (AP) — In a narrow victory for affirmative action, the Supreme Court on Thursday upheld a University of Texas program that takes account of race in deciding whom to admit, an important national decision that was cemented by the death of Justice Antonin Scalia.
The justices’ 4-3 decision in favor of the Texas program ends an 8-year-old lawsuit that included a previous trip to the Supreme Court, filed by a white Texan who was denied admission to the university.
Justice Anthony Kennedy said in his majority opinion that the Texas plan complied with earlier court rulings that allow colleges to consider race in pursuit of diversity on campus. “The university has thus met its burden of showing that the admissions policy it used … was narrowly tailored,” Kennedy wrote.
The court’s three more-conservative justices dissented, and Justice Samuel Alito read portions of his 51-page dissent, more than twice as long as Kennedy’s opinion, from the bench.
“This is affirmative action gone wild,” Alito said. The university “relies on a series of unsupported and noxious racial assumptions.”
In a separate dissent, Justice Clarence Thomas repeated his view that the Constitution outlaws any use of race in higher education admissions.
Arkansas court upholds execution protocol, drug secrecy law
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — Arkansas can execute eight death row inmates, a split state Supreme Court ruled Thursday in upholding a state law that keeps information about its lethal injection drugs confidential.
It has only seven days, however, before one of the drugs needed for the three-drug protocol expires, and it isn’t clear when Arkansas will be able to resume its first executions since 2005.
Arkansas Attorney General Leslie Rutledge said she would request new execution dates once the stays are lifted on the eight inmate executions.
Generally, a ruling goes into effect 18 days after it is issued. A paralytic drug, vecuronium bromide, expires on June 30, and the supplier has said it will not sell the state more. So, for the stays to be lifted before the drugs expire, Rutledge must ask the court to expedite the certification process, which she had not done as of Thursday.
“I will notify the governor once the stays of executions have been lifted so that he may set execution dates. I know that victims’ families want to see justice carried out, and that is exactly what I will continue to work toward as Attorney General,” she wrote in an emailed statement.
Cleanup underway after California oil pipeline spill
VENTURA, Calif. (AP) — Thousands of gallons of crude oil spilled Thursday from a pipeline and flowed down a ravine in Southern California but did not reach the ocean, officials said.
As much as 29,400 gallons of oil spilled and flowed a quarter- to half-mile from the spill, fire authorities said.
The line operator, Crimson Pipeline LLC, estimated that at most 25,200 gallons were released, said spokeswoman Kendall Klingler.
The cause was under investigation, she said.
“The product has been contained and we are in cleanup and mitigation,” she said.