Tsunami warning is canceled following Alaska quake

(CNN) -- A tsunami warning has been canceled for a number of coastal communities in Alaska following a magnitude 7.2 earthquake that struck Thursday near the Aleutian Islands, officials said.

The strength of the earthquake, which was initially reported with a magnitude of 7.4, was revised to a magnitude 7.2, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

"No destructive tsunami has been recorded, and no tsunami danger exists along the coast of the U.S," the Tsunami Warning Center said.

The warning, which was issued for a 250-kilometer (155 mile) radius from the epicenter, covered the coastal communities from Unimak Pass, located about 80 miles northeast of Dutch Harbor, to Amchitka Pass, about 125 miles west of Adak.

CNN

Tsunami warning is canceled following Alaska quake

NEW: Tsunami warning is canceled, center says U.S. Geological Survey downgrades quake off coast of Alaska to 7.2Official: "We have told folks in the effected area to get to higher ground"

(CNN) -- A tsunami warning has been canceled for a number of coastal communities in Alaska following a magnitude 7.2 earthquake that struck Thursday near the Aleutian Islands, officials said.

The strength of the earthquake, which was initially reported with a magnitude of 7.4, was revised to a magnitude 7.2, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

"No destructive tsunami has been recorded, and no tsunami danger exists along the coast of the U.S," the Tsunami Warning Center said.

The warning, which was issued for a 250-kilometer (155 mile) radius from the epicenter, covered the coastal communities from Unimak Pass, located about 80 miles northeast of Dutch Harbor, to Amchitka Pass, about 125 miles west of Adak.

CNN

FAA Announces New Rules Following Aborted Landing of First Lady's Plane

FoxNews.com

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The Federal Aviation Administration has announced new procedures following the aborted landing of a presidential plane carrying first lady Michelle Obama that flew too close to a military cargo jet on Monday. 

FAA spokeswoman Laura Brown said that the agency will start requiring a supervisor to monitor movements of flights involving the vice president and first lady, just as the FAA requires for flights carrying President Obama. 

"As of today, we are making the same supervisor oversight requirement for VPOTUS and FLOTUS flights in the DC area and at their destinations where possible," she said. 

The announcement comes as both the FAA and National Transportation Safety Board launch investigations into the incident. It marked the latest embarrassment for the agency, which is trying to tamp down growing anxiety over flying after suspending nine air traffic controllers and supervisors across the country in recent weeks, including five for sleeping on the job.

Monday's mishap didn't involve a sleeping air traffic controller. Instead, the civilian controller at the regional radar facility in Warrenton, Va., allowed the Obama plane to get too close to an Air Force C-17 plane in front of it.

The FAA requires a minimum separation of 5 miles between planes when the plane in the lead is as large as the 200-ton cargo jet because the turbulence created by the wings can be dangerous to trailing aircraft. 

Obama and Jill Biden, wife of the vice president, were aboard a Boeing 737, one of the fleet of presidential passenger jets, returning from an appearance on ABC's "The View" in New York, when the near-collision occurred on final approach to Andrews. 

The civilian controller in Warrenton told the military's controller at Andrews that the distance between the planes was 4 miles -- an estimate that turned out to be inaccurate. The distance was just more than 3 miles. 

The controllers at Andrews ordered the Obama plane to execute a series of "S-turns" in an effort to increase the distance, but that was ineffective. The military controllers weren't sure there was enough time for the C-17 to get off the runway once it landed before the first lady's plane could land on the same runway. So they instructed the Obama plane to abort its landing.

The FAA said it was investigating the incident as a possible error by controllers at Warrenton and added that the aircraft were never in any danger.

Michelle Obama's office said it would not be commenting on the incident.

After a series of incidents this year involving sleeping air traffic controllers, the FAA official in charge of the U.S. air traffic system resigned last week.

The first disclosed case of a controller falling asleep on duty occurred March 23 at Washington's Reagan National Airport. The most recent was this week, when a controller at a regional radar facility near Cleveland was suspended for watching a movie on a DVD player when he was supposed to be monitoring air traffic.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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D.C. Mayor Arrested, Released Following Budget Protest

AP

April 11: Mayor Vincent Gray is searched by Capitol Hill police after being arrested in Washington.

WASHINGTON -- The budget deal lawmakers struck to avoid a government shutdown was greeted by some with relief, but it has one city already reeling: the capital itself. 

City officials say Washington was used as a pawn in last week's budget bargaining, with new restrictions part of the price of a deal. 

Angry that Congress appears ready to take away autonomy granted to the city in the last several years, Mayor Vincent Gray and six Council members including the chairman were among 41 people arrested Monday outside the Capitol while protesting the changes that might be inevitable. 

Seven hours later, they were released from jail. 

"We needed to make a statement," Gray said after his release. 

He said protesters' shoelaces, ties and belts were removed while they were in jail. The district restrictions that were part of the budget deal reached Friday were "completely unacceptable," Gray said. 

The city will likely be unable to spend its own tax dollars on abortions for low-income women. It may also be banned from spending city money on needle exchange programs believed vital to curbing the spread of HIV in the district, where the disease is considered an epidemic. Also back: a school voucher program favored by Republicans. 

The news is considered a setback for a city that is unique in that it has a city government but its budget and laws are overseen by Congress. It had enjoyed more freedom in the past four years when both the House and Senate were controlled by Democrats, the party traditionally more friendly to pleas of autonomy from the heavily Democratic city. 

When Republicans took control of the House in January, the city readied for changes. Still, city leaders said they are outraged that Washington appears to have been used as a bargaining chip. 

"If this isn't taxation without representation, I don't know what is," the mayor said before being arrested. 

He and Council members, dressed in business attire, sat down in the street outside a Senate office building. U.S. Capitol Police arrested them, cuffing their hands behind them with plastic loops, and loaded them into police wagons to cheers from the crowd. 

They were cited for blocking the street with an unlawful assembly, a misdemeanor that can be resolved by paying a $50 fine. 

Gray said after he was released that he was proud to be part of the demonstration and would continue to fight the restrictions, but wasn't specific. 

Gray became the second D.C. mayor to go to jail while advocating for home rule. Sharon Pratt Kelly was arrested during a statehood protest in August 1993. Gray also was a council member before becoming mayor, so he is familiar with the home-rule fight. 

Ilir Zherka, the executive director of D.C. Vote, a nonpartisan group that lobbies for more independence for the district, said his group doesn't intend to let the budget pass this week without a fight. 

"We're not going to accept that they decided to throw the District of Columbia under the bus," Zherka said. 

But while the news is considered a setback for the capital city and its 600,000 residents, the restrictions wouldn't be new. 

The city's ability to spend money on abortions for low-income women has seesawed over the last two decades. When Democrats have controlled both houses of Congress and the presidency, in 1993 and 1994 and again in 2009 and 2010, the city has been able to spend its own money to pay for abortions for women on Medicaid. When Republicans have controlled at least one branch of government that ability has been taken away. 

The fact that Congress will likely re-impose the ban on abortion funding wasn't a shock to Tiffany Reed, the president of D.C. Abortion Fund, a non-profit organization that makes grants to poor women to pay for abortions, which can cost $300 to $500 or more. Reed said her group, which helped pay for more than 300 abortions a year, had expected the ban to be re-imposed, but she was angry Congress had stepped in again to local affairs just as the lifting of the ban was beginning to take effect. 

"It gives me a lot of rage quite frankly," she said. "I'm really disappointed in our pro-choice president that he allowed this to happen." 

As for a possible reintroduction of a ban on city money for needle exchanges, it would be a step back. Congress prohibited the city from using its own money for the programs for two decades beginning in the late 1980s. Other groups stepped in to provide the service with private dollars, but it is a widely held belief that the city's inability to pay for needle exchange led to an increase in the number of residents contracting HIV. Approximately 3 percent of city residents are currently living with HIV or AIDS, a level considered by health officials to be epidemic. 

When the ban was lifted in 2007, the city invested money in community programs that collected 300,000 used syringes in the last year. People who work at the city's three needle exchange programs say they aren't sure how they will cope if the city is again unable to provide money. 

"It would be nothing short of disastrous," said Cyndee Clay, executive director of HIPS, an organization that works with sex workers and drug users and is currently exchanging about 8,000 needles a month. "I don't understand why they're doing this to us." 

Eleanor Holmes Norton, the city's representative in Congress, said she has not yet seen the actual language in the budget but has been told the abortion rider and school vouchers are in. Norton, a Democrat who is not allowed to vote on the House floor, said she doesn't believe needle exchange is part of the deal, but she said she won't be sure until she sees final language. 

"We got bargained away," Norton said of the budget deal. "I don't know for what."

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