In brief: Schumer backing Clinton candidacy
DES MOINES, Iowa – Democratic Sen. Chuck Schumer of New York is urging his former Senate colleague, Hillary Clinton, to run for president. In fact, he’s already endorsing her.
Schumer, the third-ranking Democratic member of the Senate, endorsed the former secretary of state during the party’s annual Jefferson Jackson dinner, joining a chorus of Democrats calling on Clinton to run again. In remarks to the crowd of 750 Democratic supporters, he said that with Clinton, the party can “vanquish the Ted Cruz, tea party Republicans in 2016.”
“It’s time for a woman to be president,” Schumer said as people rose to their feet with enthusiastic applause. “And so tonight here in Iowa, and I won’t get this opportunity again, I am urging Hillary Clinton to run for president and, when she does, she will have my full and unwavering support.”
Polls show that Clinton would be the leading contender for the Democratic nomination if she were to run.
West Point marriage a first for gay men
WEST POINT, N.Y. – Two West Point graduates were married Saturday in the military academy’s first wedding between two men.
Larry Choate III, class of 2009, married Daniel Lennox, class of 2007, before about 20 guests.
Choate, 27, taught Sunday school at the U.S. Military Academy’s Cadet Chapel and said he always thought of it as the place he would get married if he could.
West Point hosted two same-sex weddings of women in late 2012, more than a year after New York legalized gay marriage. But Saturday’s wedding was the first time two men wed at West Point.
Choate and Lennox are out of the military and wore tuxedoes for the ceremony. Some guests were in uniform.
Father, stepmother charged with murder
LAWRENCEVILLE, Ga. – The father and stepmother of a 10-year-old girl whose body was found in a trash can at a metro Atlanta apartment complex have been charged with murder.
Gwinnett County police said in a statement that a man called 911 at 3:43 a.m. Saturday and said he was suicidal. He also said his daughter drank some type of chemical and was dead.
The man pointed officers responding to the call to a trash can at the complex, where they found the badly burned body of a child.
The victim has been identified as Emani Moss. The father, Eman Moss, and the stepmother, Tiffany Moss, are both charged with felony murder, cruelty to children in the first degree, and concealing a body.
Second BART union approves contract
OAKLAND, Calif. – A second Bay Area Rapid Transit labor union ratified the contract agreement that brought to an end a bitter labor dispute that led to two San Francisco-area transportation strikes.
BART officials on Saturday said the company reached agreement with the Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1555, whose members voted to approve the four-year deal.
The other, Service Employees International Union Local 1021, announced late Friday that its members had approved the contract.
BART’s board of directors still needs to vote on the contract at its next meeting.