INDIANAPOLIS — Coming off a win in Pennsylvania, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton recorded her best fundraising day of the campaign, money she will need for what is being framed as a do-or-die contest in Indiana two weeks from now. More than $10 million flowed into Clinton’s nearly empty campaign accounts after the results of Pennsylvania’s Democratic primary were announced Tuesday night, her aides said. That amount represented half of what she raised in all of March.
New Jersey: Casino smoking ban
Atlantic City leaders have voted to ban smoking on the gambling floor of all casinos. The City Council voted unanimously Wednesday to end the last major loophole in a statewide ban on smoking in public buildings. Gambling halls had previously been exempted. The ban takes effect on Oct. 15. Patrons could still light up in unstaffed smoking lounges away from the table games and slot machines.
New York: Tracking offenders
Police and prosecutors have a new way to prevent domestic violence: Offenders now must wear an ankle bracelet that sets off an alarm if they get too close to their victims, Newsday has learned. The device uses cell-phone triangulation and global positioning to alert authorities and battered women or other domestic violence victims if the wearer enters an “exclusion zone,” usually the area around a victim’s home, school or job. Victims are alerted to violations via text messages or a cell-phone call.
Hawaii: Volcano park evacuated
Elevated levels of sulfur dioxide pouring from Kilauea volcano Wednesday forced the evacuation of Hawaii Volcanoes National Park for the second time this month. About 2,000 people were forced to leave the park when a lack of wind kept the noxious gas from Halemaumau Crater lingering over the Big Island volcano, a park spokeswoman said. The plume from the volcano’s main crater was lingering over the area rather than getting blown away by trade winds the way it had been earlier in the week.
Arkansas: Limit on rice purchases
Sam’s Club, a division of Wal-Mart Stores Inc., is limiting how much rice customers can buy because of what it called on Wednesday “recent supply and demand trends.” The broader chain of Wal-Mart stores has no plans to limit food purchases, however. The move comes as U.S. rice futures hit a record high amid global food inflation, although one rice expert said the warehouse chains may be reacting less to any shortages than to stockpiling by restaurants and small stores.
D.C.: Iraqi oil revenue surging
New data on Iraq oil revenues suggests that country’s government will reap an even larger than expected windfall this year — as much as $70 billion — according to the special U.S. auditor for Iraq. The previously undisclosed information is likely to strengthen the hand of U.S. lawmakers complaining that Iraqis aren’t footing enough of the bill for rebuilding their nation — particularly in light of rising oil production and world prices. Oil prices Wednesday hovered near $120 a barrel.
@3. Headline Briefs 14 no:Bush honors famed heart surgeon
Famed heart surgeon Michael DeBakey can add a Congressional Gold Medal to his long list of honors. President Bush presented DeBakey with the medal during a ceremony Wednesday in the Capitol Rotunda. The Houston surgeon, 99, pioneered such procedures as heart bypass and invented medical devices to help heart patients. He’s also recognized for developing the idea of battlefield mobile surgical hospitals known as MASH units.
Syria: Iraqi antiquities returned
Syria handed over a trove of some 700 looted artifacts to Iraq on Wednesday after seizing the items from traffickers since the U.S.-led invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein. The head of the Syrian Antiquities Department said some of the objects were from the Bronze Age and early Islamic era. He did not specify the value of the artifacts or single out the most important pieces, but clay jars, coins, daggers and what appeared to be a large trunk were displayed at the ceremony. During the chaos that followed the invasion, Iraqi museums were pillaged of treasures dating back 5,000 years.
India: Temple elephant kills three
An elephant rampaged through a Hindu temple in southern India on Wednesday, killing three people, including one of its handlers, police said. Television footage showed the adult male elephant charging through the temple compound. It knocked down a thatched awning, tried to batter its way through a steel gate and finally trampled a man, kicking the limp body several yards through the air. The elephant was being used during a ceremony for a regional festival in the southern Thrissur district when it suddenly went wild, killing a man and a woman and then a handler who was trying to bring it under control, police said.
From Herald news services
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