Washington has wait-and-see stance on Iran
WASHINGTON, June 15 (UPI) -- The angry aftermath of Iran's presidential election has complicated U.S. President Barack Obama's diplomatic overtures to Tehran, observers said.
The declared win of hardline incumbent President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad over more moderate Mir Hossein Mousavi in Friday's elections sparked days of protests by Mousavi supporters crying ballot fraud. Even though he blessed the results, Iran's supreme leader also called for an investigation into alleged election irregularities.
The Obama administration has been low key in its reaction to Iran's election and the days of protests that followed, The Washington Post reported Monday. Obama, during his campaign and while in office, has indicated a willingness to re-establish a diplomatic relationship with Iran.
As the Iranian government cracked down on public demonstrations and reportedly detained dozens of opposition leaders, Vice President Biden said Sunday on NBC's "Meet the Press" that he had "doubts" about the election returns, and would withhold comment until a more rigorous review takes place.
"There's an awful lot of question about how this election was run," Biden said. "I mean we're just waiting to see."
One senior White House official told the Post the Iranian election was "always going to be hard. ... The fact is that there is clearly a debate going on among Iranians about Iran. It is not about us."
McChrystal takes over in Afghanistan
KABUL, Afghanistan, June 15 (UPI) -- U.S. Army Gen. Stanley McChrystal took command of U.S. and coalition forces in Afghanistan Monday during a ceremony in Kabul.
McChrystal, who replaces Gen. David McKiernan, is charged with trying to turn around the increasingly more violent situation in Afghanistan, as Gen. David Petraeus did in Iraq, The New York Times reported.
McChrystal has broad experience Special Operations, which have been criticized roundly by Afghan leaders for increasing civilian casualties caused by airstrikes.
"The measure of effectiveness," Gen. McChrystal has said, isn't by the number of enemy killed, but by "the number of Afghans shielded from violence."
Defense Secretary Robert Gates announced McChrystal's appointment a month ago, and it was confirmed last week by the U.S. Senate.
NATO has about 65,000 troops from 42 countries in Afghanistan, including about 56,000 U.S. troops.
Court strikes down Valdez tanker tax
WASHINGTON, June 15 (UPI) -- The U.S. Supreme Court ruled 7-2 Monday to strike down a Valdez, Alaska, tax on large oil tankers as unconstitutional.
Valdez imposes the personal property tax, principally on large oil tankers, including those of Polar Tankers Inc. Polar's vessels transport crude oil from the Port of Valdez -- the end point for the Trans-Alaska pipeline -- to refineries in other states.
The company challenged the tax in state court, saying the U.S. Constitution bans a state to "lay any duty of tonnage" without the express consent of Congress, and saying aspects of the case violated other constitutional guarantees.
Eventually, the Alaska Supreme Court upheld the tax, finding it was a property tax not a tonnage tax.
Monday, the U.S. Supreme Court majority disagreed.
In an opinion joined in whole or in part by six other court members, Justice Stephen Breyer said the tax tries to do indirectly what is forbidden -- impose a tonnage tax. Breyer and the six other justices joined in the judgment, reversing the lower court and sending the case back down for a new ruling based on Breyer's opinion.
Two justices dissented.
(Polar Tankers vs. Valdez, No. 08-310)
Accused cat killer known as animal lover
PALMETTO BAY, Fla., June 15 (UPI) -- A Florida teenager charged with mutilating 19 cats came under suspicion after he wrote about the killings on social networking sites, police said.
Tyler Hayes Weinman was arrested Sunday after police searched his mother's house in Cutler Bay, where the killings began in April, The Miami Herald reported Monday.
Weinman's parents are divorced and he divided his time between his mother's home and his father's home in Palmetto Bay, the other community where the killings occurred, police said.
Weinman, known locally as an animal lover, belonged to the Facebook group "Catch the Cat Killer" and professed disgust about the killings in postings on his Facebook and MySpace pages, police said.
Police have not said what about the writings made them suspicious. The teenager's lawyer, David Macey, said his client is innocent.
Police allege Weinman sliced open cats' bellies, gutted them and often threw their carcasses onto the front lawns of their owners.
"Thankfully, for this community, the terror has come to an end," said Katy Katy Sorenson, a Miami-Dade commission.
Rain, cold damages Southeast Georgia crops
ATLANTA, June 15 (UPI) -- Heavy rain and unseasonable cold has damaged Southeast Georgia's blueberry, tobacco, peanut and cotton crops, farm officials said.
High-bush blueberries are ripe but many are too muddy to harvest, said Danny Stanaland, an agent for the Georgia Agriculture Extension Service.
"We only got about 35 percent to 50 percent of the normal harvest of high-bush berries," Stanaland said.
Many blueberry farmers report crops are rotting in the field because they can't move harvesting equipment through the mud, The (Jacksonville) Florida Times-Union, reported Monday.
The unseasonably cold weather has damaged tobacco, peanuts and cotton crops throughout the region, said James Jacobs, a county agriculture agent.
"It's too late to replant tobacco," Jacobs said, adding that an estimated 25 percent of the region's cotton and peanut farmers will need to replant because of rotted seed and washed out plants.
"They've gone through this kind of hardship before," Jacobs said. "They put their heads down and work harder to get through it."
