MIAMI, Fla.
Zimmerman gets out of jail after posting $1 million bond
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George Zimmerman posted bond and walked out of jail Friday, a day after the judge in his second-degree murder case set his new bond at $1 million.
Zimmerman’s lawyer, Mark O’Mara, said donations to his client’s legal defense fund increased nearly 20-fold since Thursday.
O’Mara said the bond cost Zimmerman $85,000 cash, because he already spent $15,000 on a bondsman fee when he was first released in April.
Zimmerman’s earlier bond, set at $150,000 on April 20, was revoked because he misled the court about the amount of money he raised online. A legal defense site that normally gets about $1,000 in donations a day received an outpouring of support in the past 24 hours.
“Since the $1,000,000 bond was made public on July 5, supporters have donated approximately $20,000,” O’Mara said. “In the two months prior to the court’s order setting bail, the George Zimmerman Defense Fund had received approximately $55,000.”
SACRAMENTO, Calif.
Billions in funding approved to start high-speed rail line
California lawmakers approved billions of dollars Friday in construction financing for the initial segment of what would be the nation’s first dedicated high-speed rail line connecting Los Angeles and San Francisco.
The state Senate voted 21-16 on a party-line vote after intense lobbying by Gov. Jerry Brown, Democratic leaders and labor groups.
The bill authorizes the state to begin selling $4.5 billion in voter-approved bonds that includes $2.6 billion to build an initial 130-mile stretch of the high-speed rail line in the Central Valley.
The bill, which passed the state Assembly on Thursday, now heads to Brown for his signature.
The first segment of the line will run from Madera to Bakersfield.
The final cost of the completed project from Los Angeles to San Francisco would be $68 billion.
GLENVIEW, Ill.
Lawyer and wife killed in collapse of rail bridge
A successful lawyer and his wife who planned to celebrate the Fourth of July with dinner, watching a movie or perhaps visiting a botanical garden were killed when a suburban Chicago railroad bridge collapsed, sending train cars and tons of coal crashing onto their car on the road below, attorneys for the victims’ family said Friday.
Burton and Zorine Lindner were driving under the railroad bridge about 1:45 p.m. Wednesday when the train derailed. Twenty-eight of the rail cars piled up on the bridge, causing it to collapse.
Officials initially said no one was injured, but workers clearing debris discovered a bumper on Thursday morning. Then, as they cleared away yet more debris, they uncovered the crushed black Lexus with the Glenview couple inside.
Burton Lindner, 69, was a lawyer with a practice in downtown Chicago, where he worked with his oldest son, Robert. His 70-year-old wife was a retired a high school guidance counselor.
OYSTER BAY, N.Y.
Yacht to be raised to find cause of sinking that killed three
A sunken yacht on which three children died during an Independence Day fireworks outing was tethered on Friday to prevent it from drifting away but must be raised from the water before investigators can determine what caused it to capsize.
There were 10 children and 17 adults aboard the Kandi Won when it tipped over and sank after the fireworks show, trapping three children in the main cabin.
Boating experts said the vessel was too full and was bound to capsize. That, combined with weather and a strong wave, might have doomed the yacht as it was steering toward land amid a throng of boaters on Long Island Sound.
The U.S. Navy and Coast Guard may help raise the 34-foot-long boat, which is submerged 60 feet below the surface.
The yacht’s owner, Kevin Treanor, who’s related to some of the victims, bought it in April 2011, boating records show. An insurance company lawyer who’s representing him, James Mercante, said he’d like to know if something mechanical was responsible, “if something gave way.”
— From news service reports
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