WASHINGTON

Obama cites King’s words, joins in volunteer project

President Obama evoked Martin Luther King Jr.’s words about public service Monday as he and his family celebrated the life of the late civil rights leader with a volunteer project.

The president, along with his wife, Michelle, and daughter Malia, joined other volunteers at Browne Education Center in Washington.

During brief remarks, the president said there was no better way to honor King than to do something on behalf of others.

He also acknowledged the controversy surrounding a quote on the new MLK memorial in Washington, which is being changed amid criticism that it did not accurately reflect King’s words.

“What he really said was all of us can be a drum major for service, all of us can be a drum major for justice,” Obama said. “There is nobody who can’t serve, nobody who can’t help somebody else.”

SEATTLE

Missing snowshoer found alive by team of rescuers

A 66-year-old snowshoer who had been missing on Mount Rainier since Saturday was found alive Monday by a team of rescuers, a national park spokeswoman said.

Yong Chun Kim, of Tacoma, Wash., was alert and conscious, and was cold but otherwise stable, park spokeswoman Lee Taylor said. Weather conditions prevented a helicopter from landing in the area, and rescuers were bringing in a Sno-Cat snow vehicle to carry him out – hopefully by Monday evening, she said.

Kim, who has been snowshoeing for a decade, was well equipped for a day of snowshoeing but didn’t have overnight gear.

Temperatures dropped into the teens, and eight inches of new snow fell in some areas since Saturday. With winds whipping on the mountain, some areas saw as much as 30 inches of snow. “He’s a very strong person,” she said.

Kim was leading a group of 16 members in the Paradise area, a popular high-elevation destination on the mountain’s southwest flank. He became separated from his party after sliding down a slope. Kim radioed to the group twice to say he was OK, but failed to meet up with them in the parking lot.

FRESNO, Calif.

Woman recorded herself before shooting family

A woman who shot her two children, their father and a cousin in California’s Central Valley before committing suicide took video of herself on her iPad as she smoked methamphetamine prior to the killings, police said Monday.

The apparent murder-suicide by 23-year-old Aide Mendez began Sunday morning when she argued with the father of her two children, 33-year-old Eduardo Lopez.

Police arrived to find Lopez outside the Silver Lakes Apartment with knife and gunshot wounds, said Lt. Mark Salazar, homicide commander for the Fresno Police Department.

They heard a muffled shot from inside the first-floor apartment and discovered Mendez had killed herself, her boyfriend’s cousin, Paul Medina, 27, as well as her two children, 17-month-old Aliyah Echeverria and Isaiah Echeverria, 3.

LONGWOOD, Fla.

Arson ruled out in blaze that destroyed famed tree

The cause of an early morning fire in Seminole County that destroyed one of the world’s oldest cypress trees remained a mystery Monday, but an investigator is convinced it was not the work of an arsonist.

An investigator with the state Division of Forestry has listed the cause of the fire as “undetermined,” but has ruled out arson as the cause, said Cliff Frazier, a spokesman for that agency.
Frazier said he could not speculate on a cause and said the investigation is ongoing.

The tree, which sprouted some 3,400 years before there even was a Seminole County, was officially named “The Senator,” but to most in Central Florida, it was simply called “The Big Tree.”

It was one of the area’s leading attractions before the arrival of the region’s theme parks and while the park was in neither city, advertising associated it with Sanford and Longwood.

– From news service reports

Copy the Story Link