Former NAACP chairman, activist, dies at 75
ATLANTA – Julian Bond’s life traced the arc of the civil-rights movement, from his efforts as a militant young man to start a student protest group, through a long career in politics and his leadership of the NAACP almost four decades later.
Year after year, the calm, telegenic Bond was one of the nation’s most poetic voices for equality, inspiring fellow activists with his words in the 1960s and sharing the movement’s vision with succeeding generations as a speaker and academic. He died Saturday at 75.
Former Ambassador Andrew Young said Bond’s legacy would be as a “lifetime struggler.”
“He started when he was about 17, and he went to 75,” Young said.
Bond died in Fort Walton Beach, Florida, after a brief illness, according to a statement issued Sunday by the Southern Poverty Law Center, an advocacy group that he founded in 1971 and helped oversee for the rest of his life.
Three dead in California two-plane midair collision
SAN DIEGO – Authorities say at least four people were killed after two small planes collided in the air near an airport in southern San Diego County.
Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Ian Gregor said the collision occurred around 11 a.m. Sunday about two miles northeast of Brown Field Municipal Airport.
The planes – a twin-engine Sabreliner and a single-engine Cessna 172 – caught fire when they hit the ground and broke apart.
The FAA and National Transportation Safety Board will investigate the collision.
Oregon cat, Corduroy, 26, is the world’s oldest
SISTERS, Ore. – A 26-year-old cat in Oregon has been named the oldest living cat by Guinness World Records.
The cat named Corduroy is owned by a family in the central Oregon city of Sisters. His owner, Ashley Reed Okura, has had him since he was a kitten and she was 7.
It’s the second time Corduroy has claimed the title. He was first recognized last year until officials discovered another cat, Tiffany Two, which lived to be just over 27. Corduroy reclaimed the title after Tiffany Two’s death.
Okura told The Oregonian that Corduroy is still active and in good health, except for some kidney problems. He still hunts on the family’s 160-acre property.
For his birthday Aug. 1, Okura bought him a live white mouse from Petco and says he enjoyed it “right away.”
Associated Press
