North Dakota flood fight far from over

Minot, North Dakota (CNN) -- Minot and other North Dakota cities dealing with record flooding will continue to be threatened by the Souris River for days to come, even though the water is no longer rising along parts of the river, a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers commander said Monday.

Although the river crested in Minot early Sunday morning, it has only dropped a fraction of an inch since -- leaving crews with the tense, around-the-clock job of constantly inspecting and shoring up emergency levees built to protect critical structures, said Lt. Col. Kendall Bergmann, deputy district engineer for the Corps' St. Paul District.

"We're 99% complete, but it's an ongoing fight," Bergmann said Monday.

The river had crested in Minot and appeared to be cresting in the downstream community of Velva, Bergmann said. The remaining communities along the U.S. portion of the river -- which begins in Canada and loops back into that country downstream of Minot -- do not appear threatened, he said.

Overnight, crews had to deal with floodwaters seeping through storm sewer drains and levees, but none of those issues posed major threats, he said.

Workers had to build another ring levee near the Broadway Bridge to protect that critical north-south route through Minot from being cut off, Bergmann said. National Guard helicopters also had to drop one-ton sandbags around a school to keep it from flooding.

The Souris River crested Sunday at Minot at nearly 13 feet over flood stage -- below earlier predictions, but still almost 4 feet above an 1881 record, according to the National Weather Service. The river had fallen about 6 inches as of Monday morning, according to the weather service, and is predicted to remain above the 1881 record into next week.

The state was scheduled to open three recovery centers in North Dakota on Monday -- two in Minot and one in Bismarck -- for residents in the throes of the record-setting floods.

Residents can visit the locations to find out about assistance programs and have their questions answered, Gov. Jack Dalrymple told reporters. But, he said, it is not necessary for residents to visit the centers to register for disaster assistance, which can be done by telephone or online.

Dalrymple said a tour of the area Sunday was "sobering, to say the least."

A boil-water order, issued as a precaution Saturday, remained in effect. Minot officials told residents that tap water should be boiled for at least a minute before consuming in order to kill any dangerous organisms.

Republican Rep. Rick Berg said he had been in touch with officials in Washington -- which has authorized FEMA to grant assistance -- and expressed optimism that the government will work well with residents to overcome the challenges.

"You're seeing people at the highest levels working together, putting politics behind them," said North Dakota's lone congressman.

Many residents of Minot who evacuated ahead of the rising water returned to the area Sunday against the recommendations of the city officials, hoping to catch a glimpse of their homes, said CNN's Jim Spellman.

Spellman said when he toured the hardest-hit area by boat, several residents gave him their addresses and asked him to check on their homes. Everyone was hoping his or her home might be the one that was spared, he said, but he had to bring back bad news.

"It's a somber feeling, sitting here," said resident Steve Knab. He recalled "listening to the sirens go off, and they evacuated us, and coming back the next day and seeing this ... it's disheartening."

But, he said, "We'll get there. We're healthy."

Evacuee Robin Taylor said residents have been helping one another. When her family had to evacuate in a hurry, neighbors on both sides pitched in, she said.

Jim Sarroll has lived in Minot his entire life. He has sandbagged his home, located just outside the evacuation zone, with the help of neighbors, and said Sunday it was dry so far.

He was, however, very concerned about the water. "I flushed my toilet this morning, and the water was red," he said.

Still, he said he was able to see the positives, when neighbors, relatives and friends bond to get through a disaster the best they can.

CNN's Ed Payne, Alexandra Steele, Mike Pearson, Holly Yan, Phil Gast and Sara Weisfeldt contributed to this report.

CNN

A mother's biggest fight

Patricia S. Due, in a black dress, participates in a civil rights demonstration in Tallahassee, Florida, in 1963.Author's mother, Patricia Stephens Due, now 71, has thyroid cancerMother once spent 49 days in jail in 1960 for sitting-in at a Woolworth lunch counterCare is a monumental undertaking now for the Due family

(CNN) -- Days ago, I sat at my mother's bedside and helped her hold a copy of our 2003 memoir, "Freedom in the Family: A Mother-Daughter Memoir of the Fight for Civil Rights."

The cover pictures her leading a protest march when she was 20 years old.

"That's you," I said, pointing out her face, determined and stoic behind dark sunglasses.

"I remember this," Mom said, and smiled.

These days, I do not take my mother's memory for granted.

My mother, Patricia Stephens Due, now 71, has thyroid cancer. Although thyroid cancer is considered highly treatable, by the time Mom's disease was diagnosed in the fall of 2009, the cancer had spread throughout her body, including her spine, which was fractured by the tumors. She was in bed for months.

In sickness, Mom possesses the same fighting spirit she's had since she defied Jim Crow to spend 49 days in a Florida jail in 1960 for sitting-in at a Woolworth lunch counter.

"I've been to jail; I can do this," she told me from her hospital bed last year.

Patricia and John Due speak about civil rights at the University of Florida in February.

She did rise like a phoenix to reclaim her life a piece at a time. A year later, this past February, she was able to drive from Tallahassee to Gainesville, about 150 miles, to be a featured speaker at the University of Florida with my father, civil rights attorney John Due, where she spoke passionately about civil rights for two hours.

She disclosed her cancer fight with a warning to the audience to have a thyroid checkup.

"I guess I'm the first one to say I was so busy saving the world, I didn't try to save myself," Mom said. "You get so busy that you don't take care of yourself."

Finding thyroid cancer early

By April, her cancer was fighting back. Mom had trouble walking again, even with a cane. Now, she is unable to get out of bed and suffers from mental confusion and delirium that appeared so quickly that my sisters, father and I felt like we had fallen into a bad dream.

We are a family accustomed to a plan of action, and now we feel a collective, growing helplessness.

In bed, Mom no longer wears the dark glasses she had worn since 1960, when a Tallahassee police officer lobbed a tear gas canister in her face during her protest march, which she blamed for a lifelong sensitivity to light.

Now, at last, we can see her eyes. Our mother, the bedrock of our family, looks at us for comfort and answers.

My sisters, Johnita and Lydia, Dad and I spent Mother's Day at a hospital in Tallahassee in protective smocks, gloves and booties so we could spend precious minutes at her bedside after her latest cancer treatment. Because she'd taken a radioactive iodine pill, even staff visits were limited for fear of radiation contamination. We could hold her hand only through gloves.

Those were hard days.

The gloves are gone now, but the days are still hard. We play her the classical music she loves and try to make her smile. I sing her to sleep.

From left: Tananarive Due, John Due, Patricia Stephens Due, Lydia Due Greisz and Johnita Due.

In confused moments, we have had to assure her that she and her grandchildren are not being chased by phantom dogs Florida farmers let loose against civil rights workers trying to register blacks to vote in the 1960s.

A voicemail message Mom left on my cell phone in April, warning me that it might be safer to fly than drive to visit her because of bad weather, brings back a day almost close enough to touch -- then it is gone forever in an electronic blip.

Erased messages open a wellspring of grief, Mom's voice from a better time suddenly lost.

Her voice -- a rich, textured contralto often compared to Maya Angelou's -- has inspired people far beyond her family.

At 15, she convinced high school classmates in Belle Glade, Florida, to sign a petition to try to fire their principal. When she was 19, she and her sister, Priscilla Stephens Kruize, organized a chapter of the Congress of Racial Equality on the campus of Florida A&M University in Tallahassee. Mom, Aunt Priscilla and three other students spent 49 days in jail rather than pay a fine -- the nation's first jail-in in the student sit-in movement.

She and the other jailed FAMU students received a telegram from the Rev. Martin Luther King applauding their stand. Baseball great Jackie Robinson published her letter from jail in his column in the New York Post and sent the students diaries to record their experiences.

The one thing Mom always wanted to do was tell the story, forever her generation's griot, so young people would understand that ordinary people could do extraordinary things.

This year, Florida Gov. Rick Scott sent Mom a letter on June 9 saying that her jail-in "was a significant moment in our country's history and your actions serve as an incredible inspiration still today."

Tallahassee Mayor John R. Marks III declared May 11 "Patricia Stephens Due Day" and visited her hospital beside to personally read the proclamation, holding her hand. She listened silently with tears in her eyes.

"If we were treated like second-class citizens, it was like we were already dead," Mom often said, explaining her activism despite the dangers.

Without the dark glasses that so long symbolized her public courage, we see in Mom's eyes a woman of private strength determined to fortify us all while she wages the struggle of her life.

If we were treated like second-class citizens, it was like we were already dead.
--Patricia Due

Because of her health crisis, my husband, son and I moved from Southern California to Atlanta to be closer to my parents. My sister Lydia has brought her two sons to spend part of the summer in Atlanta with my sister Johnita, who is assistant general counsel and diversity chairwoman for CNN.

The past two months have been a flurry of activity, our family acting as a small army to move Mom from Tallahassee to Atlanta, following up with doctors, case managers, social workers, rehab centers and family consultants.

Dad encourages her to exercise her limbs. Her sister, Priscilla, who went to jail with her, and her brother, Walter Stephens, are often at her bedside.

We research treatments on the Internet, memorize medications and ask question after question, taking shifts so others might rest. Care is a monumental undertaking.

What do patients do when they don't have help or resources? we wonder.

Thyroid cancer explained

In our hearts, we hear Mom's childhood mantra that followed every report card, every speech and debate competition, pass or fail, win or lose: Darling, I only ask that you try your best. And so we do. Too often, we feel helpless because we wonder what's best for Mom.

Because her closest daughter lived more than four hours away until recently, Mom missed us fiercely. She was an avid e-mailer, and she often wrote that she was sending us her energy, creating a chain. That energy still lives.

"We Due women recover," Mom told Johnita days ago, in a moment of lucidity.

We know that life owes no one tomorrow, but we find peace in those snapshot moments.

Today, she knows our names and returns our smiles.

Today, she is still here so we can tell her we love her.

Today, our Due family of five is intact, an unbroken chain.

Today, Mom still has her voice.

Tananarive Due is an American Book Award-winning author based in Atlanta. Learn more about her work at tananarivedue.com.

CNN

Barefoot college helps Venezuela Indians fight back (Reuters)

CANO TAUCA, Venezuela (Reuters) – Every morning, groups of tribespeople cross a jungle creek from their adobe student homes and wander barefoot through savanna inhabited by boa constrictors to reach class at Venezuela's first indigenous university.

The original residents of Venezuela's forests, Caribbean coves and swampy plains, dozens of Amerindian ethnic groups now make up only a fraction of the 29 million people in the South American country dominated by the oil industry.

Like similar groups across the world, their habitat and way of life in a vast, long-neglected region of forests and waterways around the Orinoco river are increasingly threatened by illegal mining, ranchers and evangelical Christianity.

Adding to the mix of influences are socialist aid programs from President Hugo Chavez, who has placed Venezuela's Indian identity at the heart of his home-spun revolution.

Many are grateful for the help, but others say it splits villages and draws them into cash economies dominated by non-Indians.

"They offer me an outboard motor for my canoe, then I have to get a job to buy gasoline and oil," said Najiru, a 23-year-old student, whose Warao tribe lives scattered in the delta at the mouth of the Orinoco.

On a campus that sprawls from grassland into thick jungle, 100 students drawn from many of the country's 44 recognized tribes are trying to fight back at the university, which teaches ancient customs alongside modern law and technology.

"This university is the best hope for saving our cultures," said Najiru, working on a plan for a forest farming thesis on a laptop in a dirt-floor hut.

The goal is to create leaders who can defend land rights and prevent a headlong rush into modernity from destroying thousands of years of knowledge about forest and river life.

Students and teachers are also racing to put into writing the wisdom of elders that is not being handed down orally as in previous generations and may soon vanish.

"The elders are living libraries," said teacher and Ye'kuana Indian Emjayumi Torres, 27, one of the school's first graduates.

Unlike peers who study in regular schools in Venezuelan towns and often sever ties with their rural homelands, these students need no city clothes for class. They sleep in hammocks and cook on open fires.

AID AND DEPENDENCY

Founded seven years ago, the Venezuelan Indigenous University is to be incorporated into the national higher education system this year. That will bring funds for classrooms and curriculum.

It also carries risks.

Torres, the teacher, chalks a timeline of Venezuela's indigenous history across a blackboard in an airy classroom. A dozen students take notes, the faces of some painted with traditional symbols, others fiddling with mobile phones.

"The door has opened so Indians can participate in the state," said Torres after class, wearing a Bob Marley tee-shirt. "But that door also brings problems. In his contact with the government the Indian is at times just an assistant."

Soon after taking office in 1998, Chavez created a new constitution which for the first time enshrines indigenous rights, including claims to long-occupied land.

Chavez himself claims indigenous roots and the tribes' support gives a home-grown identity to his revolution, along with the ideas of independence hero Simon Bolivar.

Twelve years on, a government presence is common even in the most remote Indian villages deep in the Amazon, where Hercules cargo planes and helicopters deliver food, medicine and doctors.

Therein lies the problem. While aid and government jobs are a welcome relief from the harsh reality of jungle life, for many Indians, Chavez is creating dependency and weakening traditional elders with politicized community councils.

"They are going to wipe out these cultures in no time if these policies are not corrected," said Jose Korta, 81, a Jesuit priest who is a founder of the university.

He says money flowing into villages often ends up spent on alcohol in stores owned by non-Indian ranchers who have invaded their territory, pushing Indians to shrinking patches of land.

The thorny subject of recognizing tribal land, much of which straddles borders with Colombia and Brazil and is rich in minerals, is bogged down as Chavez tries to balance economic priorities and sovereignty concerns with the obligations in the constitution.

University alumni are mapping territory using GPS handsets to pinpoint hills and rivers that elders have identified for their tribes.

LAPTOPS BUT NO ELECTRICITY

Out in the villages, many Indians long for modern comforts, including protection against preventable diseases.

In the village of Keipon, about 40 Enapa Indian families live in adobe huts nestled in a lush range of hills near a broad tributary of the Orinoco river. The Enapa hunt birds and grow rice, fruit and vegetables in family gardens.

Most here work the land, unlike other hamlets where government cash lets many buy subsidized food that can cause dietary issues as pasta and flour replace traditional fare.

Like most Indian groups, the Enapa have long been in contact with the world but now face faster change. The government, Evangelicals and university graduates are all jostling for influence.

"We need a more comfortable life," said village nurse Kushewa, inside a crumbling adobe clinic, stocked with a small range of medicines. Officials have approved funds to build a new brick clinic, but so far only the roof has arrived.

"We have no transport and when someone falls sick here we have no way of taking them elsewhere," he said.

The government also gave simple laptops to a dozen schoolchildren in April. But there is no electricity supply, so the computers can only be charged with a small generator, when villagers have gasoline to spare.

Funds won by the government-aligned community council were used to build houses with gleaming zinc roofs in the center of the village. Though liked for offering less refuge for snakes, they are so hot that in summer families move back into their old palm-roofed homes for relief.

One man, Wine, returned to Keipon after graduating from the university. After consulting with villagers, he helped pipe clean water from a mountain spring into homes. That's the kind of approach the university is seeking: changes that improve people's lives without destroying their traditional ways and are not imposed upon them.

But there is a bigger change to life in Keipon. Last year, one family converted to Protestant Christianity, and now half the villagers have followed suit.

Elsewhere south of the Orinoco, entire villages have switched from Catholicism, which most indigenous groups have some allegiance to and often tolerates pre-Hispanic customs.

Pre-school teacher Yaneth Avila, 23 gives classes in Enapa. She says religious schisms cause tension and could end rites such as a month-long mass-naming ceremony for young children.

"We are practically losing our culture because Creole ways are squeezing in, we are switching one culture for another," said Avila, breast-feeding her baby as parrots flitted by.

(Reporting by Frank Jack Daniel; Editing by Kieran Murray)

Yahoo! News

Supporters of New York Public Library fight budget cuts

Saturday's human chain at the 42nd Street branch was part of a nationwide campaign against funding cuts for public libraries.Librarians join public in massive "hug" around 42nd Street branchLibraries that serve Manhattan, Bronx, Staten Island face $40 million in proposed cutsFree public access to internet among benefits cited by library advocatesCuts in funding and staffing widespread nationally, according to a survey

New York (CNN) -- A group of supporters encircled the New York Public Library's 42nd Street branch in Manhattan arm-in-arm Saturday to show their love.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg's proposed budget cuts $40 million from the branches in Manhattan, the Bronx and Staten Island. Queens and Brooklyn library branches have their own separate budget and are facing their own reductions.

Hug the Library was part of the savenyclibraries.org campaign organized by the advocacy group Urban Librarians Unite in response to nationwide cuts to public libraries.

"We chose the Schwarzman building for its iconic status, but we feel that the most important library in America is the one that is in every community," said ULU representative Christian Zabriskie in a statement.

The continuous human chain also symbolized a human shield to protect the library from the most significant decrease of weekly access, books on the shelf and staff in its 100-year history.

"We have three weeks to save the library. This is a clarion call to librarians all over the country to embolden people to speak up to their council members and mayors to save our libraries," said City Councilman Jimmy Van Bramer of Queens.

Libraries across the country have been facing budget cuts. In a Library Journal 2010 budget survey, 72% of responding libraries reported budget cuts and 43% reported staff cuts.

"When the economy declines, people come to the library for help with finding jobs. We've helped tens of thousands reposition themselves to find jobs ever since the economy tanked," said NYPL President Paul LeClerc. "One of the most important things that libraries do across America is to let people be online for free."

According to a Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation study, two-thirds (67%) of U.S. public libraries are the only provider of free public access to computers and the Internet in their community.

A library advocacy flier quoted Pedro Munoz, a junior high school dropout and recovering addict, as saying the library "has saved my life. Without it I would still be out there on the street." According to the flier, he is learning to read and write in free adult literacy classes at the Tompkins Square Library in Manhattan.

"The public values the free books, music, DVDs and e-books that libraries provide. The institution of the library exists as a cultural storehouse, a common space and a center of learning, self-improvement and entertainment in the community," ULU Communications Director Lauren Comito said in a statement.

New York's City Council and Mayor Michael Bloomberg will negotiate a budget in a few weeks.

CNN

Tumblr Can Now Fight Crime (The Atlantic Wire)

Just when you thought that every hipster's favorite website could do it all, a Tumblr blog launched a worldwide manhunt for a laptop thief less than 24 hours ago. Police recovered the laptop and arrested the suspected thief earlier this afternoon. This, on top of that Urban-Outfitters-rips-off-artists scandal last week? Social media's power has become utterly unstoppable in the face of villains everywhere!

Yesterday, Joshua Kaufman started a new Tumblr blog with a helpful URL (thisguyhasmymacbook.tumblr.com) and asked the world to help him recover his stolen computer. Using an anti-theft program called Hidden, Kaufman had photographed the thief using the MacBook's webcam and throughout the day uploaded photos of a shady-looking man, just like the one above. The link to Kaufman's blog went viral yesterday--perhaps in part due to Kaufman's nearly 6,000 followers on Twitter and connections with the San Francisco tech community. (He's an interaction designer for an email marketing firm.)

This was not, however, Kaufman's first attempt at using the Internet to get his laptop back. Evidently the machine had been stolen back in April, and using Flickr and the tracking software caught the attention of the Oakland Police Department. The Tumblr flare-up yesterday was just the latest in a Kaufman's much-tweeted-about saga to recover his lost property.

Which leads us to a hypothesis put forth almost immediately after the Tumblr went up. Could this whole fiasco and its breakaway success be another ingenius viral marketing ploy? One of the top comments on Kaufman's first Tumblr post makes this suggestion and a few minutes of Googling reveals that Kaufman earned his degree in London, where Hidden is based. Could he be helping out a friend's start-up with a lot of free internet chatter about their product? It certainly can't be bad press for Kaufman's current employer who offer "one-to-one marketing solutions." But maybe the world--laptop-thieving villains, superhero blog technology, creepy spying computer software and all, plus don't forget the precedent-setting Times Square fake hack for publicity--has just made us cynical.

Yahoo! News

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'Grease' actor Jeff Conaway in fight for life

Actor Jeff Conaway is shown at the sixth annual TV Land Awards in Santa Monica, California, in June 2008.Drug abuse delayed Conaway from getting help for pneumonia, source saysNext 72 hours are crucial in Conaway's fight for life, source saysThe actor is in a medically induced coma, Dr. Drew Pinsky saysConaway starred in "Grease" and "Taxi" three decades ago

Los Angeles (CNN) -- Actor Jeff Conaway is on the "razor's edge," fighting for his life against pneumonia and a blood infection, according to a source familiar with Conaway's medical condition, who asked not to be identified.

The next 72 hours are crucial for Conaway's recovery, the source said Saturday afternoon.

Conaway, 60, who was in the TV series "Taxi" and the movie "Grease" more than three decades ago, was rushed to an Encino, California, hospital on May 11. He apparently had been unconscious for eight or nine hours before he was found, manager Phil Brock said.

Initial reports that he suffered a drug overdose were inaccurate, the source said. However, his use of drugs caused him not to realize how ill he was, keeping him from getting treatment until it was almost too late, the source said.

Conaway's struggle with alcohol and drug addiction was chronicled in 2008 on the TV reality show "Celebrity Rehab With Dr. Drew."

Dr. Drew Pinsky, who treated Conaway on the show, posted Twitter messages after he visited him in the hospital Friday evening.

"He is stable & looks like he will recover from his pneumonia. Not an OD like press is alleging & certainly not dead," Pinsky tweeted.

Conaway's manager told CNN on Thursday that he believed it was a drug overdose, but the source with knowledge of his condition said the only illnesses were pneumonia and sepsis.

Pinsky's Twitter postings confirmed the same information. "Pneumonia with sepsis. No evidence of intentional OD," said Pinsky, who hosts the HLN show "Dr. Drew."

Doctors are using the surgical anesthetic propofol to keep Conaway sedated in a medically induced coma, according to Pinsky's tweets. "That also means he's intubated and on a vent," Pinsky tweeted.

The coma is needed to keep the patient from thrashing around, the source said.

"He's a really wonderful soul, a very kind and wonderful person," Brock said.

CNN

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Two men charged after Vt. snowball fight

JAY, Vt. (AP) — The Vermont State Police say two Massachusetts men are facing criminal charges after they got into a fight in the town of Jay when one of the men threw a snowball at the car of the other.

Police say the incident began Friday afternoon when 49-year-old Charles Dow of Newton, Mass., threw a snowball at a moving vehicle belonging to 39-year-old Robert Earley of Nantucket, Mass.

Police say Earley then stopped the vehicle and assaulted Dow, who was treated for his injuries at the North Country Hospital in Newport.

Earley was cited into court on a charge of simple assault. Dow was charged with disorderly conduct.

Both men are due in court in May.

Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

For more information about reprints & permissions, visit our FAQ's. To report corrections and clarifications, contact Standards Editor Brent Jones. For publication consideration in the newspaper, send comments to letters@usatoday.com. Include name, phone number, city and state for verification. To view our corrections, go to corrections.usatoday.com.We've updated the Conversation Guidelines. Changes include a brief review of the moderation process and an explanation on how to use the "Report Abuse" button. Read more.

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Two men charged after Vt. snowball fight

JAY, Vt. (AP) — The Vermont State Police say two Massachusetts men are facing criminal charges after they got into a fight in the town of Jay when one of the men threw a snowball at the car of the other.

Police say the incident began Friday afternoon when 49-year-old Charles Dow of Newton, Mass., threw a snowball at a moving vehicle belonging to 39-year-old Robert Earley of Nantucket, Mass.

Police say Earley then stopped the vehicle and assaulted Dow, who was treated for his injuries at the North Country Hospital in Newport.

Earley was cited into court on a charge of simple assault. Dow was charged with disorderly conduct.

Both men are due in court in May.

Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

For more information about reprints & permissions, visit our FAQ's. To report corrections and clarifications, contact Standards Editor Brent Jones. For publication consideration in the newspaper, send comments to letters@usatoday.com. Include name, phone number, city and state for verification. To view our corrections, go to corrections.usatoday.com.We've updated the Conversation Guidelines. Changes include a brief review of the moderation process and an explanation on how to use the "Report Abuse" button. Read more.

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Whoopie pies spark food fight between Pennsylvania, Maine

BIRD-IN-HAND, Pa. — It consists of two round, textbook-thick, palm-sized chocolate cakes that sandwich a creamy vanilla filling to create one sinfully rich snack. It's the whoopie pie, a snack so beloved that residents in two states have cooked up a good-natured tug of war over which place is its rightful home — Maine or Pennsylvania?

A baker makes whoopie pies at the S. Clyde Weaver market in East Petersburg, Pa.

By Matt Rourke, AP

A baker makes whoopie pies at the S. Clyde Weaver market in East Petersburg, Pa.

A state legislator in Maine whipped up passions when he introduced a bill in January to make the whoopie pie Maine's official state dessert. Like a group of chefs tweaking a recipe, a legislative committee has since dropped "dessert" in favor of making the snack Maine's official "treat."

No matter — residents in Pennsylvania's Lancaster County say that's just baloney. Those round mounds of cakey goodness originated from kitchens of the area's Amish families, dating back generations, they say.

"We've had this thing going with the whoopie pie here for years and years and decades," John Smucker, CEO of the family-run company that owns the Bird-in-Hand Bakery, said as kitchen workers busily put together a batch of red velvet whoopie pies. "And all of a sudden they try to enter into the picture ... It's just a bunch of nonsense."

At the S. Clyde Weaver store in East Petersburg, staff piece together their version of the traditional chocolate-with-vanilla-filling variety.

By Justin David Graybill, AP

People hold signs at a whoopie pie rally held Feb. 19 at Penn Square in Lancaster, Pa.

"We do the original," baker Nancy Rexroad said. "When something's the original, you can't improve on it."

Maine state Rep. Paul Davis got things brewing with a bill to laud the whoopie pie. Davis got the idea from speaking with people at the Maine Whoopie Pie Festival, which last year attracted 4,000 visitors to Dover-Foxcroft, part of Davis' district.

Amos Orcutt, president of the Maine Whoopie Pie Association, was one of the Mainers who lobbied Davis to make a stand. In a phone interview, Orcutt, whose full-time job is president of the University of Maine Foundation, said he got steamed after reading a New York Times story on whoopie pies in March 2009 that cited food historians on the likelihood that the whoopie pie got its start in Pennsylvania.

"Having grown up in Maine, I used that well-worn term 'appalled and aghast,' so I started looking into it," Orcutt said. "A lot of our older alumni said, 'Oh no, I remember whoopie pies as a child."

Davis said he's been told Maine whoopie pies may date back as far as 1925. The website for Labadie's Bakery in Lewiston, Maine, says bakers there started making whoopie pies that year.

About the time he read the Times story, Orcutt said a local high school's mock legislature exercise proposed a "bill" to give the whoopie pie the official dessert designation.

"One thing led to another, and folks kept saying, 'Well, gee, you've got to do something about it,'" Orcutt said. Davis estimates that about 400 to 500 bakeries — from commercial operators to small-town markets to individuals who sell kitchen-baked goods at farmers markets — sell whoopie pies.

Word of Davis' bill reached the Pennsylvania Dutch Convention and Visitors Bureau in Lancaster, and organizers there decided to answer back. They touted a website — www.saveourwhoopie.com — that likened Maine's actions to "confectionary larceny."

Area residents say Amish and other Pennsylvania Dutch families have passed down whoopie pie recipes for generations. Smucker said his bakery's recipe dates back at least 50 years to his grandmother's kitchen. Further west in Pennsylvania, the treats were also known in the Johnstown area as "gobs."

Dan Neff, owner and president of the S. Clyde Weaver market, said he suspected that one possible origin for the whoopie pie was home cooks looking for a creation to replace cream-filled doughnuts, which would be difficult to make in a home kitchen.

Smucker relayed another story passed on in Bird-in-Hand about the origin of the "whoopie pie" name in 1958, in which one in a group of young Amish women exclaimed "whoopie" when checking on the progress of her cakes in the oven. (Several variations of the story have made the rounds.)

It's also about that time, Smucker said, that whoopie pies started to become a more popular snack in the larger community.

Residents are backing their bakers. Visitors bureau spokesman Joel Cliff said about 1,700 signatures have been collected for an online petition "objecting to any other state, county or town claiming the whoopie pie as its own."

The Hershey Farm Restaurant and Inn, in Strasburg, makes over 100 different flavors for its Whoopie Pie Festival which started six years ago — or several years before the Maine event.

And 21-year-old Josh Graupera of Lancaster got so worked up after hearing about Maine's move that he and a friend organized a rally in downtown Lancaster on Feb. 19 attended by 100 people, including one person who carried a sign "Give Me Whoopie, or Give Me Death."

"We thought we would organize as many people as possible to stand up and say, 'You're not going to take our heritage from us,'" he said. "This is a Lancaster County tradition."

All sides say they're turning up the heat all in good fun.

"They can have their lobsters," Graupera said.

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Whoopie pies spark food fight between Pennsylvania, Maine

BIRD-IN-HAND, Pa. — It consists of two round, textbook-thick, palm-sized chocolate cakes that sandwich a creamy vanilla filling to create one sinfully rich snack. It's the whoopie pie, a snack so beloved that residents in two states have cooked up a good-natured tug of war over which place is its rightful home — Maine or Pennsylvania?

A baker makes whoopie pies at the S. Clyde Weaver market in East Petersburg, Pa.

A state legislator in Maine whipped up passions when he introduced a bill in January to make the whoopie pie Maine's official state dessert. Like a group of chefs tweaking a recipe, a legislative committee has since dropped "dessert" in favor of making the snack Maine's official "treat."

No matter — residents in Pennsylvania's Lancaster County say that's just baloney. Those round mounds of cakey goodness originated from kitchens of the area's Amish families, dating back generations, they say.

"We've had this thing going with the whoopie pie here for years and years and decades," John Smucker, CEO of the family-run company that owns the Bird-in-Hand Bakery, said as kitchen workers busily put together a batch of red velvet whoopie pies. "And all of a sudden they try to enter into the picture ... It's just a bunch of nonsense."

At the S. Clyde Weaver store in East Petersburg, staff piece together their version of the traditional chocolate-with-vanilla-filling variety.

By Justin David Graybill, AP

People hold signs at a whoopie pie rally held Feb. 19 at Penn Square in Lancaster, Pa.

"We do the original," baker Nancy Rexroad said. "When something's the original, you can't improve on it."

Maine state Rep. Paul Davis got things brewing with a bill to laud the whoopie pie. Davis got the idea from speaking with people at the Maine Whoopie Pie Festival, which last year attracted 4,000 visitors to Dover-Foxcroft, part of Davis' district.

Amos Orcutt, president of the Maine Whoopie Pie Association, was one of the Mainers who lobbied Davis to make a stand. In a phone interview, Orcutt, whose full-time job is president of the University of Maine Foundation, said he got steamed after reading a New York Times story on whoopie pies in March 2009 that cited food historians on the likelihood that the whoopie pie got its start in Pennsylvania.

"Having grown up in Maine, I used that well-worn term 'appalled and aghast,' so I started looking into it," Orcutt said. "A lot of our older alumni said, 'Oh no, I remember whoopie pies as a child."

Davis said he's been told Maine whoopie pies may date back as far as 1925. The website for Labadie's Bakery in Lewiston, Maine, says bakers there started making whoopie pies that year.

About the time he read the Times story, Orcutt said a local high school's mock legislature exercise proposed a "bill" to give the whoopie pie the official dessert designation.

"One thing led to another, and folks kept saying, 'Well, gee, you've got to do something about it,'" Orcutt said. Davis estimates that about 400 to 500 bakeries — from commercial operators to small-town markets to individuals who sell kitchen-baked goods at farmers markets — sell whoopie pies.

Word of Davis' bill reached the Pennsylvania Dutch Convention and Visitors Bureau in Lancaster, and organizers there decided to answer back. They touted a website — www.saveourwhoopie.com — that likened Maine's actions to "confectionary larceny."

Area residents say Amish and other Pennsylvania Dutch families have passed down whoopie pie recipes for generations. Smucker said his bakery's recipe dates back at least 50 years to his grandmother's kitchen. Further west in Pennsylvania, the treats were also known in the Johnstown area as "gobs."

Dan Neff, owner and president of the S. Clyde Weaver market, said he suspected that one possible origin for the whoopie pie was home cooks looking for a creation to replace cream-filled doughnuts, which would be difficult to make in a home kitchen.

Smucker relayed another story passed on in Bird-in-Hand about the origin of the "whoopie pie" name in 1958, in which one in a group of young Amish women exclaimed "whoopie" when checking on the progress of her cakes in the oven. (Several variations of the story have made the rounds.)

It's also about that time, Smucker said, that whoopie pies started to become a more popular snack in the larger community.

Residents are backing their bakers. Visitors bureau spokesman Joel Cliff said about 1,700 signatures have been collected for an online petition "objecting to any other state, county or town claiming the whoopie pie as its own."

The Hershey Farm Restaurant and Inn, in Strasburg, makes over 100 different flavors for its Whoopie Pie Festival which started six years ago — or several years before the Maine event.

And 21-year-old Josh Graupera of Lancaster got so worked up after hearing about Maine's move that he and a friend organized a rally in downtown Lancaster on Feb. 19 attended by 100 people, including one person who carried a sign "Give Me Whoopie, or Give Me Death."

"We thought we would organize as many people as possible to stand up and say, 'You're not going to take our heritage from us,'" he said. "This is a Lancaster County tradition."

All sides say they're turning up the heat all in good fun.

"They can have their lobsters," Graupera said.

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Two men charged after Vt. snowball fight

JAY, Vt. (AP) — The Vermont State Police say two Massachusetts men are facing criminal charges after they got into a fight in the town of Jay when one of the men threw a snowball at the car of the other.

Police say the incident began Friday afternoon when 49-year-old Charles Dow of Newton, Mass., threw a snowball at a moving vehicle belonging to 39-year-old Robert Earley of Nantucket, Mass.

Police say Earley then stopped the vehicle and assaulted Dow, who was treated for his injuries at the North Country Hospital in Newport.

Earley was cited into court on a charge of simple assault. Dow was charged with disorderly conduct.

Both men are due in court in May.

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Renewed fight for gay marriage in N.Y. hits suburbs

By Mike Groll, AP

Andrew Chapin of New York holds a sign during a rally outside the Capitol in Albany, N.Y.

EnlargeCloseBy Mike Groll, AP

Andrew Chapin of New York holds a sign during a rally outside the Capitol in Albany, N.Y.

New Yorkers opposed to gay marriage are being swamped by younger people who support it, while polls seem to show a new tact by advocates is working in the suburbs and upstate, the more conservative region where the issue will be won or lost.

Five states, New Hampshire, Vermont, Connecticut, Iowa and Massachusetts, and the District of Columbia have approved gay marriage laws. New York has always been a goal of advocates because of its size, high-profile, and unparalleled media presence.

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Boehner seeks to divert funds for gay marriage fight

Updated at 2:20 p.m. ET

House Speaker John Boehner said he intends to divert funding from the Justice Department to the U.S. House so Congress can defend the federal law that bars recognition of same-sex marriage.

The Ohio Republican disclosed this in a letter to House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., who is strongly opposed to Congress going to court to defend the 1996 law. An estimate on court costs was not given.

Earlier this year, Attorney General Eric Holder announced that Obama administration would no longer defend the constitutionality of the federal Defense of Marriage Act, a Clinton-era law that defines marriage as between a man and a woman. The law also says that states cannot be forced to recognize same-sex marriages from other states.

While President Obama does not support same-sex marriage, he views the Defense of Marriage Act as "unfair," according to spokesman Jay Carney.

Boehner asked the Bipartisan Legal Advisory Group -- consisting of the top leaders of Congress -- to defend the law in court. The GOP members of the group sided with Boehner.

"By the president's action through the attorney general we have no choice," Boehner's letter says. "The House now faces that additional burden and cost."

Boehner said he has directed the House's counsel and the House Administration Committee to ensure that there are "sufficient resources" and expertise to defend the law. Paul Clement, a former solicitor general for President George W. Bush, has been retained by Boehner and the Republicans to defend the Defense of Marriage Act.

Clement's hiring has been slammed by the Human Rights Campaign, the largest gay and lesbian civil rights group.

"Not only are House Republican leaders defending the indefensible, they've brought in a high-priced attorney to deny federal recognition to loving, married couples, " said Joe Solmonese, president of the Human Rights Campaign.

Solmonese said Boehner is "grasping at straws" in his call to divert funds from the Justice Department for the law's defense.

Matt Miller, a spokesman for the Justice Department, declined to comment.

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Cities, space centers, museums fight for retired shuttle

States bid for space shuttle orbiterSTORY HIGHLIGHTSSeveral sites are vying to be the final homes of the retiring space shuttlesThe shuttles Discovery, Endeavour and Atlantis carry historic and economic valueNASA administrator Charlie Bolden will announce Tuesday where the shuttles will goApril 12 marks the date of the first human space flight and, 20 years later, the first shuttle flight Kennedy Space Center, Florida (CNN) -- Russian Cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first human in space -- the date was April 12, 1961. Twenty years later on April 12, astronauts John Young and Robert Crippen got on board the space shuttle Columbia, a craft that looked more like a plane that a rocket ship. It launched an entirely new era in space flight.

Now, on the anniversary of those two historic events, NASA is scheduled to announce where the retiring orbiters Discovery, Endeavour and Atlantis will call home.

NASA Administrator Charlie Bolden will make the announcement Tuesday during a ceremony at the Kennedy Space Center commemorating that first flight of Columbia on April 12, 1981. NASA officials say the orbiter Atlantis, being readied for the final shuttle flight this summer, will be the backdrop for the announcement. Hundreds of center workers are expected to attend -- many of them will likely lose their jobs when the shuttle program ends.

Because the announcement is being made at Kennedy, the speculation is that the visitor center here will be awarded one of the shuttles. It is one of more than 20 locations around the country with collective fingers crossed.

The drama mirrors the bidding to host an Olympic games. In Texas, home of the Johnson Space Center, members of that state's delegation publicly lobbied for a shuttle. Rep. Pete Olson, R-Texas, said during a news conference, "No city in the world deserves an orbiter more than Houston, Texas."

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Red River Valley flood fight shifts north of Fargo

By Scott Olson, Getty Images

A cemetery sits under flood water in the yard of a rural church April 10 near Gardner, North Dakota. The Red River crested yesterday about 25 miles south of Gardner in Fargo, North Dakato at 38.5 feet.

EnlargeCloseBy Scott Olson, Getty Images

A cemetery sits under flood water in the yard of a rural church April 10 near Gardner, North Dakota. The Red River crested yesterday about 25 miles south of Gardner in Fargo, North Dakato at 38.5 feet.

Fargo officials said the metropolitan area appears to be in good shape, but urged residents not to travel outside the city. About 60 miles of roads were closed in Cass County, where Fargo is located, and another 10 miles of roads were washed over, officials said. Interstate 29 north of Fargo was closed for about 25 miles.

Some tributaries of the Red River were at record levels.

"In the southern part of the valley, it's quiet," Fargo Mayor Dennis Walaker said Sunday. "In the northern part of the valley, especially in Cass County, they're having extreme problems."

About 425 National Guard members were on duty in Cass County and were ready to help with evacuations if needed, North Dakota Gov. Jack Dalrymple said Sunday. He said there haven't been "many very serious situations," but officials were monitoring the rise of overland flooding.

"Things are pretty rough in the county," Dalrymple said.

One man was rescued by a Cass County Sheriff's Department airboat Sunday when he became stuck in his tractor near Argusville after the flooded road gave out beneath him, National Guard officials said. Five other people and a dog near Argusville were evacuated by airboat when a dike reportedly gave way.

Residents in Harwood, north of Fargo, and Casselton, west of Fargo, were told to stop using water because their sanitary sewer systems were starting to back up. Several other communities asked citizens to restrict use of water.

The National Weather Service reported Sunday that the river crested in Fargo about 6:15 p.m. Saturday at a level of 38.75 feet. The only higher floods were 40.84 feet in 2009, 39.72 feet in 1997, and 39.10 feet in 1897. Flood stage for the river is 18 feet.

This spring's flood threat was set up by high moisture in the soil after back-to-back wet years, followed by an extremely snowy winter. The Red River Valley's extremely flat topography also makes it prone to flooding in any year.

Heavy rain fell at times in the Fargo area on Sunday, but the weather service said it shouldn't impact the Red River level. Dry weather was forecast for most of the week.

"We're still looking at high waters for a while," said Jim Scarlett, weather service meteorologist. "The threat is not over, but it's subsiding."

Scarlett said the added rain would prolong overland flooding in the county "and that's a bad thing."

Fargo and Moorhead officials reported few problems with clay levees and sandbag dikes. About 10 people reported minor problems with pumps overnight, said Tim Mahoney, Fargo deputy mayor.

"Tomorrow we'll talk about plans for taking sandbags out of the neighborhoods. Do some things to promote more normal activities," Mahoney said.

Fargo was already scraping mud off the streets from the delivery of clay and sand. In one neighborhood, city commissioner Mike Williams said, "You could eat off the street."

Fargo was trucking some of its clay to Harwood for the construction of levees, Mahoney said.

"They're in a fight," the deputy mayor said.

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California Democrats Take Cue From Wisconsin GOP in Fight Over Budget Deal

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A massive state deficit. A frustrated governor. Uncooperative lawmakers. Sound familiar?

Probably. But this battle is taking place not in Wisconsin, it's in California.

That's where Democratic lawmakers are considering using the same parliamentary tricks they claim Republicans used in Wisconsin, leveraging their majority power to cram down the minority's throat something their governor could not get at the negotiating table.

In Wisconsin, it was about collective bargaining. In California, it's about taxes.

"When you folks say no, no vote, no plan, no," Democratic Gov. Jerry Brown told Republicans. "That's not American. It's not acceptable."

"Give me a break," shot back Republican State Sen. Bob Huff. "They're taxes he's putting out there. He wants our guys to violate core principals to put this up to the people."

California needs $26 billion to balance its budget. Brown wanted roughly half in cuts, half in higher taxes. But he needed four Republican votes to put the tax hike on the ballot. After weeks of negotiation, talks broke down last week.

"Even though we came very close, there are issues that I think are impossible to resolve at this time," Brown told supporters in a You Tube video.

Republicans plan was to reduce spending and change the reward system for state employees.

They wanted:

-- a state spending cap based on population;

-- no state pension higher than the $106,000 -- something more than 500 state employees already have;

-- a 50-50 split on pension contributions from employees and employers, not the 90 percent taxpayers currently pay for most state pensions;

-- all new state employees would receive a 401K, not a state pension; and 

-- an end to seniority in education.

"One of the problems is the Democrats want something right now, the Republicans want something that is going to take a number of years. And frankly there is a lot of distrust between these parties," said economist Christopher Thornberg of Beacon Economics in Los Angeles.

California public employee unions oppose the pension reforms pushed by the GOP, making the package tough politically on Brown.

"I think he can dig in. I don't think this is about power bases or money bases as much as it is about his personal preferences," Thornberg said.

So where does the state go from here?

Democrats are planning to go around minority republicans to extend the temporary tax increase for another five years without the required two-thirds vote. That will be challenged in court.

Brown is barnstorming the state this week, gathering support to put the tax increase on the ballot in November should lawmakers fail.

Meanwhile voters are getting both barrels -- as Brown and the well-funded unions paint a picture of financial Armageddon if California is forced to balance its budget on cuts alone.

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Elderly man stabs neighbor in fight over cats

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