Los Angeles
Seaport strike settled: A labor strike that paralyzed the nation’s busiest seaport complex was halted this week, as both sides agreed to federal mediation talks. The eight-day strike had shut down 10 of the 14 cargo-container terminals at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, Calif., costing the U.S. economy more than $1 billion a day, according to authorities. The dispute centered not on wages, but on the alleged outsourcing of jobs from union members to lower-paid employees in other states and countries, a charge that management denies. Stephen Berry, chief negotiator for the Harbor Employees Association, hailed the settlement as “the end of a very long journey. We’re delighted with the terms. We’ll be operating again, and the cargo will be flowing.”
Casper, Wyo.
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Bow-and-arrow patricide: A Wyoming community college professor was killed by his son in a savage bow-and-arrow attack last week, police said. But victim James Krumm, 56, is being hailed as a hero for saving his students after his son Christopher, 25, shot an arrow into his father’s head and then stabbed him as he stood in front of his computer-science class. Fatally injured, Krumm wrestled with his son, allowing about six students to escape the classroom at Casper College, witnesses said. Police said Christopher arrived at his father’s workplace just before 9 a.m., having already stabbed to death his father’s girlfriend, math professor Heidi Arnold, 42. As his father lay dying in the empty classroom, Christopher committed suicide with a “very large” knife, police said. “The courage that was demonstrated by Mr. Krumm was absolutely without equal,” said Chief Chris Walsh.
Kansas City, Mo.
Murder-suicide: Kansas City Chiefs linebacker Jovan Belcher murdered his 22-year-old live-in girlfriend and then shot himself to death last week in front of the team’s general manager and two coaches. Following an argument at his home, Belcher, 25, fired “multiple shots” at Kasandra Perkins, the mother of their 3-month-old daughter, Zoey, police said. He then drove seven miles to the team’s practice facility, where he met general manager Scott Pioli, head coach Romeo Crennel, and another man in the parking lot. As police closed in, the linebacker knelt down, made the sign of the cross, and fired a single round into his head. Prior to the shootings, Belcher reportedly complained of head injuries and had been mixing painkillers with alcohol, a friend said. He is the sixth NFL player known to have killed himself in the last two years.
West Point, N.Y.
Same-sex wedding: The historic Cadet Chapel at the U.S. Military Academy last week hosted its first same-sex marriage. Penelope Gnesin, 42, married Brenda Sue Fulton, 53, a 1980 West Point graduate, in a ceremony conducted by a senior Army chaplain. The couple have been together for 17 years, said Fulton, and “we just couldn’t wait any longer.” Last year, President Obama ended the military’s ban on openly gay soldiers. “West Point has been an important part of my life,” said Fulton, who chose to be married there rather than in her home state of New Jersey because, she said, Gov. Chris Christie vetoed a gay marriage bill earlier this year. Televangelist Pat Robertson expressed outrage at the news. “What have they done to our cherished institution?” he asked. Gen. Douglas MacArthur, Robertson said, must be “rolling over in his grave.”
New York City
Death photo: The New York Post photographer who shot the horrific page-one photo of a man about to be killed by a subway train this week defended his actions, saying he was “too far away” to have saved the victim. Responding to bloggers and media commentators who condemned him for not attempting a rescue, freelance photographer R. Umar Abbasi said the train hit the man before he could get to him. Abbasi said he heard the crowd gasp and started running. “I just kept shooting and flashing, hoping the train driver would see something and be able to stop,” he said. Abbasi was on assignment for the tabloid when he saw Ki-Suck Han, 58, falling onto the tracks at the 49th Street station, reportedly pushed by a homeless man, who is now in custody. The Post was also criticized by readers, fellow journalists, and Han’s family, who said they were shocked by the decision to run the photo.
New York City
Petraeus for president? Fox News chief Roger Ailes sent an emissary to Afghanistan last year to coax Gen. David Petraeus into running for president in 2012, The Washington Post reported this week. According to a recording of the meeting obtained by the Post, Fox News analyst Kathleen T. McFarland told Petraeus that if President Obama did not offer him the chairmanship of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, he should quit and run for president as the Republican candidate in a campaign headed by Ailes and possibly bankrolled by News Corp. chairman Rupert Murdoch. Petraeus declined, saying his “wife would divorce” him, and that if an expected offer to head the CIA came through, he would accept it. Ailes this week downplayed the meeting’s significance. “It was more of a joke, a wiseass way I have,” he said. “I thought the Republican field needed to be shaken up and Petraeus might be a good candidate.”
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