2 Tuskegee Airmen die in LA on same day
LOS ANGELES – Two members of the Tuskegee Airmen – the famed all-black squadron that flew in World War II – died on the same day. The men, lifelong friends who enlisted together, were 91.
Clarence E. Huntley Jr. and Joseph Shambrey died on Jan. 5 in their Los Angeles homes, relatives said Sunday.
Huntley and Shambrey enlisted in 1942. They were shipped overseas to Italy in 1944 with the 100th Fighter Squadron of the Army Air Force’s 332nd Fighter Group. As mechanics, they kept the combat planes flying.
Law prompts towns to rescind gun measures
Barely a week after taking effect, a novel state law that makes it easier for gun-rights groups to challenge local firearms measures in court is already sparking change: Nearly two dozen Pennsylvania municipalities have agreed to get rid of their potentially problematic ordinances rather than face litigation.
Joshua Prince, an attorney for four pro-gun groups and several residents, cited the new law in putting nearly 100 Pennsylvania municipalities on notice that they would face legal action unless they rescinded their firearms laws.
Judge could rule in MLK dispute
ATLANTA – The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s traveling Bible hasn’t gone on regular display since President Barack Obama used it while taking his second oath of office two years ago. The public hasn’t seen the slain civil-rights icon’s 1964 Nobel Peace Prize medal in recent years, either.
Both relics reside in a safe deposit box, the keys held since March by an Atlanta judge presiding over the latest – and in many eyes, the ugliest – fight between King’s heirs.
The Estate of Martin Luther King Jr. Inc., which is controlled by Martin Luther King III and his younger brother, Dexter Scott King, asked a judge a year ago to order their sister Bernice to turn over their father’s Nobel medal and traveling Bible. The brothers want to sell them to a private buyer.
Tribes join effort to protect grizzlies
BILLINGS, Mont. – Leaders of Native American tribes in the Rocky Mountains and Great Plains have joined an effort to retain federal protections for grizzly bears in and around Yellowstone National Park.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is expected to decide this year whether it will move to lift protections for the roughly 1,000 grizzlies that scientists say live in the Yellowstone region of Montana, Idaho and Wyoming.
The campaign to enlist tribal backing for continued protections is being coordinated in large part by wildlife advocates. Organizers say more than two dozen tribes have signed on with resolutions and other declarations of support.
Tribal leaders cited their ancestral connection to the Yellowstone area and the cultural importance of grizzly bears to their people.
Associated Press
