Portland, Ore.
Gore under investigation: Portland police have reopened an investigation into a massage therapist’s complaint that former Vice President Al Gore made unwanted sexual advances to her in 2006. Police had closed the case in 2009, citing insufficient evidence, but reopened it after determining that high-level police officials should have reviewed the case before it was dropped. Molly Haggerty, 54, claimed that Gore wrapped her in “an inescapable embrace” after a massage in his hotel room. She says she fended him off after telling him he was acting “like a crazed sex poodle.” A spokesman for Gore, who in June announced his separation from his wife, Tipper, said he “unequivocally and emphatically” denies the charges.
Phoenix
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Immigration law challenged: Setting up a high-profile legal battle over immigration and states’ rights, the Justice Department this week filed a lawsuit challenging Arizona’s strict new immigration law. The law, which requires immigrants to carry their papers at all times and allows police to check the immigration status of people detained for other reasons, “crossed a constitutional line,” the suit argues, because immigration policy is a matter for the federal government. Backers of the law countered that it’s meant only to enforce existing immigration law, not supplant it. “The American people must wonder,” Arizona Sens. John McCain and Jon Kyl said in a joint statement, “whether the Obama administration is really committed to securing the border when it sues a state that is simply trying to protect its people.”
Bellevue, Iowa
Horses rampage: An Independence Day parade turned into a scene of horror this week, when a pair of horses bolted into the crowd, killing one person and injuring 23, most of them children. Janet Steines, 60, was at the start of the parade route with her horses and old-fashioned carriage when the bridle of one horse came loose. That panicked the horses, which took off along the parade route, where hundreds of children lined the curb. Steines died after falling from the carriage, and the horses trampled other parade-goers. “There’s part of me that’s still asking, ‘Did this really happen?’” said Bellevue Mayor Virgil Murray.
New Orleans
Storm slows spill relief: While Hurricane Alex did not score a direct hit on BP’s Deepwater Horizon drilling site, which has been pouring oil into the Gulf of Mexico since April 20, rough seas this week slowed containment efforts and pushed oil onto previously untouched beaches in Texas. “We think we’ll be able to contain any impact from Deepwater to tar-ball pickup on the beach,” said Texas cleanup official Jim Suydam. High seas also slowed testing of the so-called superskimmer A Whale, a retrofitted tanker that officials say could suck up 300,000 barrels of oil every 10 hours. In Louisiana, cleanup crews found tar balls and slicks floating in Lake Pontchartrain, just north of New Orleans. Workers placed booms in the strait connecting the lake to the Gulf to prevent more oil from getting through.
Washington, D.C.
Obama joins immigration fray: President Obama tackled the thorny topic of immigration, using an address at Washington’s American University last week to urge legislators to “put politics aside” and create an “accountable” immigration system. Obama said he did not favor a blanket amnesty for illegal immigrants, but warned that rounding up the estimated 11 million illegals was “logistically impossible.” He proposed comprehensive reform, similar to the plan laid out by President Bush in 2006, which couples tighter border control with a pathway to citizenship for illegal immigrants. But legislative action is unlikely before November’s midterm elections, and several prominent Republicans have vowed to block the proposed reforms.
The East Coast
A dangerous heat wave: A triple-digit heat wave along much of the East Coast strained power grids, slowed trains, and prompted officials to urge people to stay indoors and check in on elderly neighbors and loved ones. Record-high temperatures were blamed in the death of a 92-year-old woman in Philadelphia. Commuter trains in Maryland cut speeds by 20 mph, for fear that the heat could buckle tracks and derail railcars. New Yorkers flocked to makeshift cooling centers in public buildings to escape temperatures as high as 103 degrees. With high temperatures expected to persist until the weekend, power officials worried that the electricity network could fail. “It’s Round One in a prizefight,” said John Miksad of Con Edison in New York. “Round One looks okay, but the bell hasn’t rung yet.”
