Gay pride parades draw thousands
Hundreds of thousands of raucous parade-goers took to the streets from New York to San Francisco on Sunday for annual gay pride parades just weeks after the 25th anniversary of the start of the AIDS epidemic.
Thousands lined Market Street for San Francisco’s 36th annual Gay Pride parade. Marching bands, dancers and floats bearing corporate logos of such companies as Delta Airlines and Wells Fargo streamed by.
“There’s much greater acceptance in corporate America,” said Michael Crowe, 63, who said high-profile corporate sponsorship is new to the event.
The parades commemorate the Stonewall uprising of 1969, when patrons of a New York gay bar resisted a police raid.
CAMARILLO, Calif.
Gasoline prices drop slightly
U.S. gas prices declined in the past two weeks, but hardly enough to provide relief for summer travelers, a nationwide survey released Sunday showed.
The average price for self-serve regular gas on Friday was down 4.5 cents to $2.89 a gallon, according to the Lundberg Survey of 7,000 gas stations across the country.
That’s just 6 cents less than this year’s peak price of $2.95 a gallon in early May, but still 68 cents higher than last year’s average.
The average mid-grade price was $2.99 a gallon while premium ran $3.09.
Charleston, S.C., had the lowest average price of gas in the U.S., selling at $2.61 a gallon. The highest average pump price, at $3.26 per gallon, was in Honolulu.
DENVER
Gunman leaves one dead, 5 hurt
A gunman opened fire Sunday afternoon at a Safeway Inc. distribution center, killing one person and injuring five others, including a police officer, before the shooter was killed.
Several fires were burning inside the estimated 1.3 million-square-foot building near Interstate 70, said Denver Fire Chief Larry Trujillo.
Police could not immediately confirm whether officers shot the suspect or whether he committed suicide. They also would not identify the suspect or say whether he worked for Safeway.
ATLANTA
Obesity hinders prostate treatment
Being overweight hurts men’s chances of having successful radiation treatment for prostate cancer, according to a study released today.
The study by researchers at the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center is being called the first to examine the link between obesity and prostate cancer progression after radiation treatment.
Researchers found that moderately and severely obese men had a 70 percent higher risk of having a tumor recur after radiation treatment than did thinner men.
SEDONA, Ariz.
Progress against wildfire continues
A 4,200-acre wildfire that threatened hundreds of homes was 35 percent contained early Sunday, fire officials said.
Though an evacuation order was lifted for some residents of scenic Oak Creek Canyon on Saturday, the blaze still threatens homes in the canyon’s southern end, where crews focused on finishing a protection line.
Officials hope to have full containment by Wednesday, barring any weather disturbances that could push the flames.
North of Sedona, officials reopened two roads leading to the Grand Canyon National Park that were closed because of a 17,589-acre wildfire.