Nation in brief: Microsoft, Yahoo speaking again
Microsoft Corp. said Sunday it is talking to Yahoo Inc. about a transaction that doesn’t involve a full buyout like the software maker’s $47.5 billion offer that fell apart earlier this month.
Redmond, Wash.-based Microsoft walked away May 3 from its offer to buy the Web pioneer. Since then, billionaire investor Carl Icahn has launched an effort to oust Yahoo’s board.
In a statement Sunday, Microsoft says it is considering a different kind of deal with Yahoo as it pursues ways to improve and expand its online services and advertising business.
“Microsoft is considering and has raised with Yahoo an alternative that would involve a transaction with Yahoo but not an acquisition of all of Yahoo,” the statement said.
GRESHAM, Ore.
Obama draws 65,000 in Oregon
Hours before being greeted by the biggest crowd of his campaign, Democrat Barack Obama told a small group of seniors Sunday that Republican John McCain would threaten Social Security because he supports privatizing the program.
Fire officials estimated 65,000 packed into an afternoon rally on the banks of the Willamette River in Portland. They said an 15,000 were left outside and dozens of boaters floated in the river.
“We have had a lot of rallies,” Obama said. “This is the most spectacular setting, the most spectacular crowd we have had.”
His apprearance early in the day before about 130 people at an assisted living facility to talk Social Security was an attempt to tie the GOP’s presidential nominee-in-waiting to an unpopular President Bush on a pocketbook issue that motivates seniors and concerns young people worried about retirement.
MIAMI
Wildfire, smoke spread in Florida
The Everglades wildfire burning in southwest Miami-Dade County continued to spread Sunday, scorching thousands more acres. And there was more bad news: The winds are not helping.
Steady southwesterly winds were blowing thick, smoky haze over Miami-Dade and Broward counties.
“Unfortunately, the winds will continue sending the smoke over the metropolitan area,” Bob Ebaugh, a weather service specialist, said Sunday. That could continue through Wednesday.
Officials warned the heavy smoke could pose health hazards and were keeping a watchful eye on the blaze as it continued to grow – although the wildfire did not pose any immediate threat to residential property.
LAFAYETTE, La.
Thousands remain dislocated by spill
Thousands of people remained evacuated from their homes Sunday as hazardous material workers cleaned up hydrochloric acid that spilled when six train cars derailed a day earlier.
Saturday’s spill spread a toxic cloud over the city. Five people, including two railroad workers, were sent to a hospital after complaining of skin and eye irritation, State Police Trooper David Anderson said.
Anderson said he couldn’t estimate how long the cleanup and evacuation would take. Hazardous materials specialists have to work cautiously because the acid is so dangerous.
Hydrochloric acid can cause respiratory problems and skin and eye irritation, said Joe Faust, a spokesman for Texas-based BNSF Railway, which operated the train.
An estimated 10,000 gallons spilled.