Tag Archives: a-spokesman-for

Ten Years After Columbine, It’s Easier to Bear Arms

Monday April 20 marks 10 years since Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold permanently etched the words Columbine High School into this nation’s collective memory. What happened that day in 1999 also seemed to wake America up to the reality that it had become a nation of gun owners — and too often a nation of shooters. The carnage in Littleton, Colorado — 12 classmates and a teacher before the killers offed themselves — and the ease with which the teenagers acquired their weapons seemed to usher in a new era of, well if not gun control, then at least gun awareness.

State Department weighs in on Iran spy trial

The State Department voiced concern Thursday about the secret trial in Iran of an American journalist on espionage charges, calling it "baseless" and saying her release could aid U.S.-Iranian relations. Acting department spokesman Robert Wood confirmed Iranian reports that Roxana Saberi went on trial in Iran earlier this week on charges of spying. According to the reports, Iranian authorities said she has confessed

5 dead in Florida boating accident, official says

Five people were killed in a boating accident near Jacksonville, Florida, Sunday, a rescue official said. Twelve people were aboard the boat that crashed into a dock under construction on the St. John’s River in Ponte Vedra, said Jeremy Robshaw, a spokesman for St.

Apparent sign of life, four days after Italy quake

Rescue workers believe they may have located an earthquake survivor on Friday, four days after the quake struck the region and killed 287 people, representatives of the L’Aquila fire department said Friday. They are trying to extract the person — who has shown signs of breathing — from underneath the rubble, and that will take some time, they said

Funerals begin for victims of Italian earthquake

The youngest hadn’t even lived half a year. The oldest had lived nearly a hundred of them. The official government list of victims from this week’s earthquake in central Italy reached 287 on Friday, when Italians planned a mass state funeral to lay the victims to rest.

New gum could mean sticky end for mess

British authorities and environmental groups were welcoming the launch this week of the world’s first biodegradable chewing gum, which they say could help save some of the millions spent on clearing up the mess ordinary gum creates. The new gum becomes non-adhesive when dry and decomposes to dust within six weeks, a spokesman for Mexico’s Chicza Mayan Rainforest Chewing Gum told CNN. The makers of Chicza say it is the first biodegradable chewing gum ever sold.

Iowa high court strikes down same-sex marriage ban

The Iowa Supreme Court struck down a state law Friday that banned same-sex marriage. Iowa becomes the third state in the nation to allow same-sex marriage, after Massachusetts and Connecticut. Friday’s decision upheld a 2007 ruling by a lower court that Iowa’s 1998 law limiting marriage to heterosexual couples went against the state’s constitution.