Wildfire smoke forces landmark closure
CATRON, N.M., June 5 (UPI) -- Officials said smoke from the Whitewater-Baldy Fire has forced the closure of New Mexico's Gila Cliff Dwellings National Monument.
State Highway Officials closed off Highway 15 Monday to bar motorist access to the historic site; however, Visitor Center superintendent Steve Riley said there have had a number of intruders after hours.
"We were having all kinds of after-hours intrusions," Riley told the Silver City (N.M.) Sun-News. Just a few nights ago, an intruder removed rocks from one of the dwellings' walls.
"Those walls are original, and my first responsibility is to preserve and protect for future generations," Riley said.
The Whitewater-Baldy Fire, said to be the largest wildfire in New Mexico's recorded history, was last reported by KOB.com Monday to be 18 percent contained, having already burned through 255,024 acres.
Riley told the Sun-News much of his staff has been evacuated due to the heavy smoke, but he plans to hold back one or two people.
"It's the worst I've seen it in the 10 years I've been here," he said. "We have visibility of less than a quarter mile some mornings."
Prospective jurors in Sandusky case arrive
BELLEFONTE, Pa., June 5 (UPI) -- More than 200 prospective jurors in the trial of ex-Penn State assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky began arriving at the Centre County Courthouse Tuesday.
Sandusky, who is charged with 52 counts of sexually abusing 10 boys over 15 years, entered through a back entrance of the courthouse about 8 a.m., just after the judge presiding in the trial, Senior Judge John Cleland, the Centre Daily Times of State College, Pa., reported.
Potential jurors were to receive instructions from Cleland before attorneys begin interviewing them. Twelve jurors and four alternates are to be selected at the courthouse in Bellefonte, about 10 miles northeast of State College, Penn State's location.
Opening statements in the trial are scheduled for Monday.
The potential jurors' arrival came a day after Pennsylvania's top court denied Sandusky's 11th-hour bid to delay the start of his child sex-abuse trial.
The state's Supreme Court ruled against an "Emergency Application for Extraordinary Relief" filed by the former Penn State defensive coordinator, who has tried for months to stop, postpone or limit the case.
In a "per curiam" decision reflecting the unanimous but unsigned collective decision of the court's seven justices, the court Monday denied the delay without fuller explanation.
Sandusky lawyer Joseph Amendola had asked for the delay, arguing that two experts -- a jury consultant and a mental health professional -- were not ready; an investigator would be having surgery; two potential defense witnesses would be unavailable because they exercised their Fifth Amendment right to avoid self-incrimination, and the defense did not have enough time to review all the evidence.
Activist hopes 'sluts' rock the vote
SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif., June 5 (UPI) -- Hell hath no fury like the California woman behind the "Rock the Slut Vote" online effort to register women to vote against Republicans in November.
Acting on the national backlash when conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh called law student Sandra Fluke a "slut" for testifying at a Democratic hearing on medical reasons for making contraception available, Susan McMillan Emry said her "Rock the Slut Vote" Web site, www.waronwomen.com/RockTheSlutVote/, is meant to take the bite out of the offensive term, ABC News reported Tuesday.
"If the GOP thinks that throwing the word 'slut' at us at this point is going to silence women, they have another thing coming," said Emry, who admits she sat on the political sidelines until Limbaugh's diatribe against Fluke, coupled with several states enacting restrictive laws on reproductive rights and the Susan G. Komen Foundation's decision to cut Planned Parenthood funding.
Riffing comedian Jeff Foxworthy's "You might be a Redneck if …" jokes, Emry's Web site lists 22 reasons why "You might be a slut," including "if you've ever used contraception" or "if you're still downloading Dixie Chicks music."
The site also encourages visitors to "Go forth, raise hell and rock the slut vote."
Emry, of San Luis Obispo, Calif., said the goal is to "re-appropriate" the word "slut" so Limbaugh and other Republicans cannot use it to "bully and silence women."
"It's really about taking the power away from that word more than it is about Rush Limbaugh," she told ABC News. "He gave the word the notoriety but we are trying to take it back."
Israeli agents seeks tourist e-mail access
TEL AVIV, Israel, June 5 (UPI) -- Several U.S. tourists trying to enter Israel said they were asked for access to their personal e-mail, an action Israel's intelligence service says is legal.
Israel's Shin Bet security officials have demanded access to the e-mail accounts of visiting tourists with Arab names, three U.S. citizens testified recently, Haaretz reported Tuesday. They said they were interrogated at Ben Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv and eventually denied entry into Israel last month.
The three said they were interrogated for several hours, asked to log on to their e-mail accounts and, if they refused, were told they must have had something to hide. After their detention, they were told they weren't permitted to enter Israel.
Haaretz said two of the three women were of Palestinian descent, but did not include the heritage of the third person.
Ronit Eckstein, an Israel Airports Authority spokesman, told Haaretz the Interior Ministry is responsible for tourists' entry into Israel, and that security officials who interrogated the women weren't employees of the Airports Authority or Ben Gurion Airport.
The Interior Ministry said security checks are the responsibility of the Shin Bet, the country's domestic security service.
Shin Bet confirmed that two were questioned by intelligence agents, adding that the agents' actions during questioning were within the organization's authority under Israeli law.
