Nation in brief: Same-sex marriage debate postponed
Massachusetts lawmakers ended debate on proposed constitutional amendments Wednesday before dealing with the most volatile issue on their agenda: a proposal to outlaw gay marriage in the only state where it is legal.
The move to recess until Nov. 9 put off the decision on the politically charged issue until after the general election.
The House gallery erupted in applause from gay-rights supporters after the vote to recess was announced.
If approved, the gay marriage amendment would block future same-sex marriages in Massachusetts. More than 8,000 same-sex couples have taken vows since gay marriages began in May 2004.
To get on the ballot, the question must twice win the backing of 25 percent – or 50 – of the state’s 200 lawmakers: once during the current session and again during the session starting in January.
Yucca Valley, Calif.
Fire threatens but spares movie sets
Desert winds and blistering heat Wednesday challenged firefighters battling a 36,000-acre wildfire that destroyed buildings and forced hundreds of people to leave but spared historic structures in a town developed decades ago as a movie set for Westerns.
Temperatures hit 108 degrees as 2,500 firefighters attacked flames devouring greasewood, Joshua trees, pinyon pines and brush in hills and canyons of the high desert about 100 miles east of Los Angeles.
Containment was just 16 percent. The fire, ignited during the weekend by lightning, had destroyed 30 homes and other buildings.
The fire was moving northeast as winds gusted to 40 mph, DeRosier said, and 800 to 1,000 people remained evacuated from Pioneertown, Burns Canyon, Rimrock, Gamma Gulch, Flamingo Heights and Little Morongo Canyon.
Firefighters used picks and shovels against hotspots in the Pioneertown area, where the fire raged Tuesday. There was no damage to the historic area, which dates to the 1940s when Hollywood cowboys such as Roy Rogers and Russ “Lucky” Haden began establishing it as a filming site.
Millersburg, Ohio
Amish farmer can’t sell raw milk
A judge has ruled that a state law prohibiting the sale of raw milk does not violate an Amish dairy farmer’s religious beliefs and has ordered him not to sell unlabeled milk from his farm.
Arlie Stutzman, who owns a herd of 27 cows near Mount Hope, in northeast Ohio, appeared in court June 30 to protest a law that he says violates his religious beliefs because it prohibits him from sharing milk he produces with others.
Judge Thomas D. White wrote that Stutzman may give his unpasteurized milk away to people in need but may not accept money for it.
“Calling the compensation for milk a ‘donation’ is clearly a subterfuge to skirt the requirements of the law,” White wrote in his decision issued Friday.