Biden rhetoric draws Romney rebuke
DANVILLE, Va., Aug. 14 (UPI) -- U.S. Vice President Joe Biden's invocation of slavery imagery while politicking in Virginia brought angry retorts from the Mitt Romney campaign Tuesday.
The Democratic vice president drew fire when he contended Republican policy proposals would put Americans "back in chains," Politico reported.
"Look at what they value, and look at their budget. And look what they're proposing," Biden said of the federal budget proposed by Paul Ryan, the Wisconsin congressman Romney has selected to join him on the GOP presidential ticket.
Romney "said in the first hundred days, he's going to let the big banks write their own rules -- unchain Wall Street. They're going to put y'all back in chains," Biden said.
Romney campaign spokeswoman Andrea Saul said the Obama campaign "has reached a new low."
"The comments made by the vice president of the United States are not acceptable in our political discourse and demonstrate yet again that the Obama campaign will say and do anything to win this election," she said. "President Obama should tell the American people whether he agrees with Joe Biden's comments."
The Wall Street Journal reported the crowd in Danville, Va., which included many African-Americans, cheered and booed following Biden's remarks.
Obama deputy campaign manager Stephanie Cutter told MSNBC Biden's comments were not out of bounds because they were a metaphor for the consequences of rolling back Wall Street reform.
"The bottom line is that we have no problem with those comments," Cutter said.
Later, Biden made another campaign stop at the Coffee Break Cafe in Stewart, Va., where he warned patrons Republicans want to "voucherize" Medicare and said if Obama is re-elected "there will be no changes in Social Security -- I flat guarantee you."
Washington fire blackens 26,500 acres
ELLENSBURG, Wash., Aug. 15 (UPI) -- Stoked by high winds, a wildfire in central Washington state had burned 26,500 acres near the town of Ellensburg, firefighters said Tuesday.
Kittitas County Fire and Rescue spokeswoman Richelle Risdon told KIRO-TV, Seattle, that the Taylor Bridge fire had destroyed 60 homes since it started near Cle Ellum.
The fire was already 12 miles long by Monday evening and had jumped U.S. Highway 97, forcing the state Transportation Department to close the road between Milepost 147 and Milepost 149.
More than 150 firefighters from across the region were fighting the blaze with additional personnel on the way, the Yakima Herald-Tribune reported.
Three helicopters and two fixed-wing airplanes were dropping fire retardant.
Ellensburg, located just east of the Cascade mountain range on Interstate 90, is the most centrally located city in Washington state.
The Taylor Bridge fire is just one of 16 fires raging across California, Oregon, Nevada, Washington and Idaho.
1.7 million can defer deportation
WASHINGTON, Aug. 14 (UPI) -- Officials said about 1.7 million undocumented immigrants could be allowed to work and live openly in the United States after applying for a temporary reprieve.
President Barack Obama's initiative, put into place by executive order after Congress failed to pass the Dream Act, would grant temporary two-year stays of deportation for young undocumented immigrants who were brought to the United States when they were children.
The initiative, unveiled in June, will officially start Wednesday, when federal immigration agencies will begin accepting requests to defer deportation.
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services issued a release Tuesday instructing applicants on the forms to file and where to file them.
"The release of the new form and instructions to allow individuals to request consideration of deferred action for childhood arrivals from USCIS marks an important step in our implementation of this new process," said Director Alejandro Mayorkas.
Officials are expecting to be inundated with the most paperwork since 1986, when more than 3 million undocumented immigrants were granted amnesty.
Noe Torres, 26, has been living in the United States illegally since he was 4. "It's like giving us wings to the people that want to fly," he told The New York Times.
The non-partisan Migration Policy Institute estimates about 1.2 million foreign-born people are eligible for reprieves, and another 500,000 children are approaching the minimum eligibility age of 15 in coming years. California carries the bulk of the number with about 460,000 eligible people, while there are likewise sizable populations in Florida, New York and Texas.
Dozens killed in Afghan suicide blasts
ZARANJ, Afghanistan, Aug. 14 (UPI) -- At least 43 people were killed Tuesday in suicide bombings in three Afghan provinces, authorities said.
Gen. Mohammed Musa Rasuli said 29 people died and 57 were wounded in Zaranj, the capital of Nimruz province in southwestern Afghanistan, The New York Times reported.
District Gov. Sheik Saadi told the newspaper 10 people were killed when a remotely detonated bomb on a motorcycle went off in a market in Dashte-e-Archi, a district in Kunduz province in northern Afghanistan.
Abdul Rasul Rasekh, a spokesman for the governor of Badakhshan province in northeastern Afghanistan, said a district governor and three police officers died in a Taliban ambush as they drove through a remote area.
Iran's Press TV reported the death toll had reached at least 46.
No group had claimed responsibility for the attacks, the Times and Press TV said.
The Times said the attacks, which came as people prepared for the holiday that ends the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, produced the war-torn country's largest single-day civilian death toll this year.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai, who was in Saudi Arabia, condemned the attacks.
"The terrorists are so desperate and abject that they kill our innocent Muslims in the holy month of Ramadan," Karzai said.
The multiple explosions in Zaranj occurred despite authorities killing two potential suicide bombers Monday night and capturing three other suspects earlier Tuesday.
Rasuli said the first two bombs exploded near the governor's office and the third targeted a police car. Another then went off as people gathered in front of a hospital across the street from a crowded market.
Rasuli said three other suspected bombers had been shot elsewhere in the city.
