Gay marriage: N.J. Assembly approves measure, Christie vows veto

New Jersey lawmakers passed legislation Thursday to recognize gay marriage, making the state the eighth to do so and setting the stage for Gov. Chris Christie to veto the measure.

The 42-33 vote in the Democratic-controlled Assembly followed the Senate's approval Monday and came after emotional speeches from both sides.

One lawmaker, Democrat Cleopatra Tucker, said that as a deaconess in her church, she had "struggled over this. ...I really had problems and struggled with this."

But she said she had decided to support the Marriage Equality and Religious Exemption Act. "This bill today is not a religious issue. It's a civil rights issue," she said.

In the visitors gallery overlooking the floor, rival groups either gave standing ovations to speakers or sat in stony silence, depending on their leanings.

Republican Nancy Munoz said she had decided to vote against the measure after comments from her constituents convinced her that they opposed the measure. She said voters should get to make the final decision in a ballot referendum. "I trust the people of New Jersey and I say they should be allowed to voice their opinion," she said as opponents of the act, dressed uniformly in bright red, burst into whoops and applause.

The reaction drew an angry lecture from the Assembly speaker, who threatened to have security evict the next person who violated his demands to stay quiet.

The bill now goes to Christie, presumably to be vetoed. Lawmakers have until the end of the legislative session in January 2014 to muster enough votes to override a veto. In the meantime, Christie has said he'll back a referendum that would let voters decide the issue.

Seven states and the District of Columbia recognize same-sex marriage, and a gay-marriage bill in Maryland advanced to the House of Delegates floor Tuesday, with a vote expected Friday. Gov. Martin O’Malley supports the law, but it is unclear whether it will get the 71 votes it needs to pass. The bill has support from both parties, but the issue has divided state lawmakers along religious and racial lines, with some Christians and blacks opposing the measure.

A similar measure passed in the state Senate last year, but failed to clear the house. Opponents of the bill have announced plans to hold a referendum in November if it passes.

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-- Tina Susman in Trenton, N.J., and Ian Duncan in Washington

Photo: Supporters show their appreciation after the New Jersey State Legislature passes the gay marriage bill in Trenton, N.J. Credit: Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times

New Jersey expected to approve gay marriage; Christie vows veto

 
New Jersey lawmakers are expected to pass legislation Thursday that would legalize same-sex marriage, but Gov. Chris Christie's vow to veto the measure could force a drawn-out battle similar to those that have roiled California and other states that have recognized gay unions.

The state Senate approved the proposed Marriage Equality and Religious Exemption Act on Monday. The measure was likely to pass in the Democratic-controlled Assembly during Thursday afternoon's session.

A Rutgers-Eagleton poll released Tuesday indicated that a majority of New Jersey voters support the right of same-sex couples to marry. Christie, a Republican who has been mentioned as a possible future presidential contender, opposes same-sex marriage and has said that if New Jersey is to become the latest state to recognize such unions, voters -- not politicians -- should decide the issue. He has said he'll veto the bill if it comes to him and back a November referendum on the matter.

Despite the veto vow, Steven Goldstein of Garden State Equality told the Star-Ledger newspaper that the state was on a clear path toward guaranteeing same-sex marriage, and he noted that advocates of the measure had until the end of the legislative session -- in January 2014 -- to muster enough votes to override Christie's veto.

"Look how the world has changed since Jan. 7, 2010," Goldstein said, referring to the last time lawmakers took up same-sex marriage. Then, the Senate voted down the act with 14 "yes" votes and 20 "no" votes. On Monday, it voted 24-16 in favor of same-sex marriage.

"We're talking about at least a 50% increase in support" since 2010, said Goldstein, adding that activists' next goal was to build Republican support to override Christie's veto.

One Republican who joined Democrats in voting for the legislation earlier this week was Sen. Diane B. Allen. "I look at this as just another venue where discrimination has occurred and where we must right a wrong," she said after the vote.

But Sen. Christopher Bateman, also a Republican, said he supported Christie's call for a referendum. "An issue of this importance, I think really should be decided by all the voters," he said.

Washington became the seventh state in the nation to recognize same-sex marriage when the governor signed a bill into law Monday, but conservatives have said they will collect signatures to put a referendum on the ballot to overrule the decision. Opponents of gay marriage in California put the brakes on same-sex unions with a ballot measure, but an appellate court last week threw out that proposition.

Other states that have approved same-sex marriage include New York, Connecticut, Iowa, Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Vermont, as well as the District of Columbia.

-- Tina Susman in New York

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Photo: Members of Garden State Equality watch as the New Jersey Senate on Monday approved a marriage equality measure. Credit: David Gard / Associated Press

Whitney Houston: Plans for private funeral dismay some fans

 

Whitney Houston will be mourned by family and friends in a private service Saturday at the Newark, N.J., church where she first began singing in public, and there will be no public events surrounding the funeral.

The announcement has left some fans crestfallen, especially after early reports indicated that the family was considering a public service for thousands of people at the Prudential Center sports arena in Newark, where Houston was born 48 years ago and where she sang in the choir at the New Hope Baptist Church.

Carolyn Whigham, the owner of the Whigham Funeral Home, which is handling the arrangements, disclosed the plans Tuesday. She also said that Houston, who died Saturday, would not be buried in Newark, but she did not say where the pop queen would be laid to rest.

"They have shared her for 30-some years with the city, with the state, with the world. This is their time now for their farewell," Whigham said by way of explaining the family's desire for a private ceremony inside the New Hope Baptist Church, which since early Sunday has been visited by Houston fans leaving flowers, cards and other mementos at the church gate.

One of those who came by Tuesday, and who was disappointed to learn that the public would not be invited to the service, was Calvin Taylor, who said he had skipped work as a forklift driver to pay his respects.

"The public should have an opportunity to give a last goodbye to one of the city's most beloved daughters," he told the Star-Ledger. "She touched so many people, I think it's terrible," he said. "She's got a lot of love here."

Sharon Bailey agreed. "They should have one," Bailey said of the idea for a public memorial. "She's the queen of pop. Her death feels like a loss in my family."

Local media reported that police planned to close the street on which the church is located to keep crowds away, but that if the family agreed to let a camera inside the church, large screens would be erected outside so fans could watch the service.

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Video: Associated Press Television / YouTube

 

Gay marriage poll: Most in New Jersey support it, but want vote

Most voters in New Jersey support gay marriage, but a majority also say the issue should be put on the ballot for voters to make the final decision, a new poll finds. The poll was released as New Jersey lawmakers prepare to vote Thursday on a bill that would make the state the eighth in the nation to recognize same-sex unions.

The Rutgers-Eagleton poll, released Tuesday, surveyed 914 registered voters and found that 54% of them support gay marriage, which New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie opposes. Thirty-five percent oppose gay marriage, the poll found.

At the same time, 53% support Christie's call for voters to decide on gay marriage in a November referendum. Critics of such a vote say that would be akin to letting voters decide on crucial civil rights matters.

Pollster David Redlawsk, a political science professor at Rutgers University, said it was "surprising" that the poll indicated majority support both for gay marriage and for the voters to decide on the question. "It may be that given several polls showing majority support among voters, supporters of same-sex marriage think it would win in November. But in the face of a likely intensive campaign from opponents, this could be wishful thinking," he said in a statement accompanying the poll results.

The survey was released a day after New Jersey's state Senate, by a vote of 24 to 16, approved a bill that would legalize same-sex marriage, and as Washington state became the seventh to legalize same-sex marriage at a bill-signing ceremony. Conservatives and religious leaders there have vowed to collect signatures to give voters the chance to overturn the bill in a referendum.

In New Jersey, lawmakers in the Assembly are expected to vote on the gay marriage bill Thursday in the state capital, Trenton, but Christie has vowed to veto the bill if it passes and to let voters decide on it.

Despite the California appellate court decision last week that struck down just such a referendum -- Proposition 8, which had limited marriage to a union between a man and a woman -- other states are pursuing the referendum route in hopes of blocking lawmakers from making gay marriage legal. Referendums in Minnesota and North Carolina would limit the definition of marriage to male-female unions.

In Maine, meanwhile, supporters of gay marriage are planning a ballot measure that would expand the definition of marriage to a union involving same-sex couples. This came in response to a 2009 referendum approved by voters that limited marriage's definition to include male-female unions only -- a referendum that overturned lawmakers' earlier approval of gay marriage.

New York, Connecticut, Iowa, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Vermont, Washington and the District of Columbia are the only places in the United States so far where same-sex couples' marriages are legally recognized.

-- Tina Susman in New York

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Photo: Spectators applaud as New Jersey's Senate on Monday approves a bill by a vote of 24-16 recognizing same-sex marriage. The Assembly takes up the measure Thursday, but Gov. Chris Christie has vows a veto. Credit: David Gard/Associated Press

Whitney Houston memorials spring up at N.J. school, church

Outside the Whitney E. Houston Academy of Creative and Performing Arts, the flag flew at half-staff in the icy wind as Principal Henry W. Hamilton remembered the gangly 15-year-old who lived up the road, and who excitedly showed off her modeling portfolio one afternoon in 1978.

Back then, before the red brick school had been renamed for the future pop queen, Hamilton didn’t expect Whitney Houston to become a star.

 Houston died Saturday in Beverly Hills of undetermined causes. 

“She was in the choir and the chorus. She used to sing at church. But I didn’t expect she’d become a great singer –- the greatest singer in the world,” said Hamilton, who acknowledges he missed the explosive talent that developed in the young girl as she made her way through the halls of this school in suburban New Jersey, where her first classroom, No. 6, is just to the right of the main entrance.

Hamilton isn’t usually at school on Sunday. But after his phone began ringing on Saturday evening with news of Houston’s death, he knew this would not be a normal day for anyone who knew Houston as a child, or who had seen her sing at the New Hope Baptist Church in neighboring Newark.

“Her start was a beautiful, innocent thing,” said Hassan Munford, who attended the school now named for Houston and who grew up in the same neighborhood.

“I remember when she first made it, she brought a red drop-top and drove it down Dodd Street,” Munford said with a smile as he left flowers outside the school.

“You always have your controversies,” he said of Houston’s well-publicized struggle with drugs and her turbulent relationship with ex-husband Bobby Brown. “But at the end of the day, the influence she had on the community –- on the kids and aspiring musicians and singers –- far outweighs the controversy.”

Throughout the day, fans came bearing flowers, candles and heart-shaped balloons to the school and the church, which shares a nondescript street with an auto shop and a tavern and which, on this frigid February morning, was the only building with any hint of life or color.

Parishioners and fans, bundled up in fur coats, down jackets or flimsy sweaters too thin to block the cold, began arriving at the church before dawn for a morning memorial and kept coming throughout the day for additional services.

“Our hearts are very heavy today,” said the Rev. Jesse Jackson as he headed into the church to address the third and last service of the day. “The suddenness of it all … we’re just traumatized.”

Every seat was filled inside the 112-year-old church, where Houston sang as a teenager and where her mother, Cissy Houston, and cousin Dionne Warwick also were regulars in the choir.

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie called Houston “a true New Jersey treasure.” 

Hamilton has been principal of the Whitney E. Houston school for 40 years, since the days when it was called the Franklin School. It was renamed for Houston in 1997.

His office is decorated with pictures that include photographs of him and Houston over the decades.

When his phone rang Saturday night and a nephew told him Houston had died, Hamilton initially did not believe it. But it’s never easy to accept when one of your pupils dies, he said.

“It’s hurtful. Sometimes we say, ‘Is there something we could have done to save that youngster?’ ” said Hamilton, admitting that there is only so much the school can do once pupils move on.

"Once she left here, we felt she was on the right path,” he said. “The things that happened later ... that’s show biz. Unfortunately, some survive and some don’t.”

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--Tina Susman in East Orange, N.J. 

Photo:  At New Hope Baptist Church in Newark, N.J., where Whitney Houston began her career as a child, a memorial to the singer grew. She died Saturday in Beverly Hills. Credit:  John W. Ferguson / Getty Images 

 

 

Love and empathy for Whitney Houston in Newark

As an icy wind sliced the air outside the New Hope Baptist Church in Newark, N.J., Donna Thorn stuffed another bouquet of flowers between the iron bars of the church gate.

On the surface, Thorn, a short woman in sweatpants and a wool cap, didn't appear to have much in common with Whitney Houston, who as a child sang gospel in the red brick church. On Saturday, Houston was found dead in a Beverly Hills hotel room. Thorn's eyes filled with tears and her voice shook as she described her own struggle with drugs and the empathy she had for the dead pop star, who went through the same thing.

The cause of Houston's death has not been determined and an autopsy is planned.

PHOTOS: Stars react

"If you was never an addict you don't know what it's like to struggle and stay clean ... to hit rock-bottom," said Thorn, recalling her own battle to get off drugs as she grew up on the gritty streets of Newark, where Houston was born 48 years ago.

It was "that fast-track life in L.A." that surely did not help Houston, said Thorn, who echoed other parishioners and fans Sunday as they lamented the premature loss of a Newark native who achieved stardom but whose roots remained deeply planted in the area.

"It's a big loss for us here," said Thorn, noting that the city has been "cleaned up" but still battles high crime and depressed neighborhoods. "She came from my hometown, she made it out of Newark, and she was on top of the world."

PHOTOS: Whitney Houston, 1963-2012

The Rev. Jesse Jackson was among those who attended the Sunday service at the church. "Our hearts are heavy today," he said before going in. "The suddenness of it all. ... We're just traumatized."

Gunman killed after opening fire in Middletown, N.Y., courthouse

A gunman opened fire inside the Middletown, N.Y., courthouse Wednesday, injuring a court officer before being shot to death by another officer.

Local news reports said the gunman had a grudge against the mayor of the small Hudson Valley city, Joseph DeStefano, and had been arrested last year after showing up at the mayor's home with a machete. He was identified as Tim Mulqueen, a former landlord apparently angry over DeStefano's crackdown on code enforcement and rental properties.

The shooting threw the downtown area into chaos. Witnesses said the incident began about 9 a.m. when a man wearing a scarf over his face and a hooded jacket parked a dirt bike outside the complex housing the courts and municipal offices and marched up the stairs holding a shotgun.

He took aim at two court officers, hitting one in the arm before the other officer shot back. Some workers dove under their desks as the shots rang out. The gunman, who the Associated Press said was 43 years old, died later in a hospital.

Middletown, a city of 28,000 people, is about 70 miles northwest of New York City.

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Photo: A person injured in a courthouse shooting is moved into an ambulance by emergency responders in the New York town of Middletown. The gunman was killed. Credit: Steve Borland / Times Herald-Record

No rape charge for New York police commissioner's son, D.A. says

 

Prosecutors have ruled that there is not enough evidence to warrant a rape charge against Greg Kelly, the son of New York's police commissioner and a local Fox television personality, saying an investigation into a woman's allegation that Kelly assaulted her did not convince officials that a crime had occurred.

 

The investigation against Kelly came to light on Jan. 26, and his attorney, Andrew Lankler, said at the time that Kelly was innocent and was "cooperating fully" with the probe. Local media reports had identified the alleged victim as a woman in her late 20s or early 30s who said she had met Kelly, a former Fox TV reporter and current host of its morning "Good Day New York Show," in October.

Kelly is the son of Raymond Kelly, the New York City police commissioner. So to avoid a conflict of interest, the investigation had been carried out by the office of the district attorney, not the Police Department.

According to the accuser, the two had drinks one evening in October and then went to her Manhattan office, where she said the assault took place. Kelly has not appeared on "Good Day New York" since the investigation was announced but in a statement Tuesday night said he was looking forward to getting back on the air soon.

"I am thankful that the investigation established what I've known all along, that I am innocent," he said.

Martha Bashford, the head of the district attorney's sex crimes unit, said in a letter to Lankler that the two-week investigation included the review of physical evidence, including text messages and phone calls, as well as interviews with Kelly and the accuser, both of whom cooperated with the probe. "After reviewing all the evidence, we have determined that the facts established during our investigation do not fit the definitions of sexual assault crimes," the letter said.

Local news reports have said that the woman was prodded to report the alleged rape after her boyfriend learned that she had shared drinks with Greg Kelly and confronted Raymond Kelly, telling him that his son had destroyed his girlfriend's life.

According to his biography, Greg Kelly served as a Marine fighter pilot before moving into journalism, and covered the White House as well as the 2003 invasion of Iraq before joining "Good Day New York."

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Occupy Pittsburgh goes quietly as D.C., Oakland resist

 With a Monday deadline to dismantle its camp, supporters of Occupy Pittsburgh began dismantling tents and removing other fixtures in place more than three months after the bank that owns the land sued to reclaim it. But protesters in Oakland and in Washington, D.C., remained defiant. 

At least 11 people were arrested in Washington's McPherson Square since police over the weekend began clearing tents from the site, Associated Press reported. One of those arrested had been charged with felony assault on a police officer after allegedly hitting the officer in the face with a brick Saturday night, police told the AP.

Occupy Oakland supporters planned a day of action Monday, and dozens marched in the city on Saturday. There was no repeat of the violence that erupted a week earlier, when some protesters clashed with police and hundreds were arrested.

Since the Occupy movement began in mid-September with the original Occupy Wall Street protesters camping in a small park in Lower Manhattan, police and mayors have faced the challenge of enforcing no-camping rules in most parks and city squares even as they proclaim their support of freedom of speech and assembly.

In instances in which the occupied parks are private, that challenge has fallen to the property owners. That was the case in Pittsburgh's Mellon Green park, which is owned by the Bank of New York Mellon Corp.

The bank posted an eviction notice in the park in December, two months after people began camping there round-the-clock on Oct. 15. The notice said that the use of generators, propane heaters and other equipment intended to keep campers warm as winter arrived created hazardous conditions in the park -- the same argument used by officials who have closed Occupy camps elsewhere, including in Manhattan and Philadelphia.

After protesters ignored the bank's Dec. 11 deadline to leave, officials sued to get the protesters out, and a judge on Thursday upheld the eviction order and gave campers three days to vacate. 

Jeff Cech of Occupy Pittsburgh said about half of the estimated 50 tents had been taken down by Sunday night and that no clashes were anticipated with police, AP reported. "I think that everyone here realizes that after [Monday] the encampment will not be here," Cech said, according to AP. "It's not going to be about trying to hold the ground."

But WTAE, the local NBC affiliate, said some people were not convinced that they should go quietly. "I do understand that there has been some talk by some members of Occupy Pittsburgh about doing some civil disobedience, but it's all up in the air, and it's all up to them personally," protester Carmon Elliot told WTAE. "We'll see what happens. Stay tuned, as they say."

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Photo: Isaac Hill of Industry, Pa., helps break down the Occupy Pittsburgh encampment in Mellon Green park. Credit: Gene J. Puskar / Associated Press

 

Toto as state dog of Kansas? Bad idea, PETA says

Toto the dog survived flying inside a Kansas tornado, being abducted by flying monkeys and, of course, bouncing around in Dorothy's bicycle basket, but the little cairn terrier from "The Wizard of Oz" now faces another challenge: He's in the middle of a war between politicians and PETA over whether to make him the state dog of Kansas.

Animal-rights activists from PETA say the proposal by state Rep. Ed Trimmer, who has put a bill before lawmakers, would lead to more puppy mills churning out little cairn terriers for customers eager to have their own official state dog.

"As you know, dogs in puppy mills are typically kept in tiny, feces-caked cages and are never given any love, attention or opportunity to do anything that is natural or important to them -- not even to roll in the grass," PETA wrote to Trimmer this week in hopes of getting him to withdraw House Bill 2513.

"Kansas' animal shelters are already overcrowded -- the last thing they need is a deluge of Totos," PETA vice president Daphna Nachminovitch said in a news release announcing the group's opposition to Trimmer's plan. "If Kansas is set on naming an official state dog, PETA suggests the humble, healthy, and 100 percent lovable all-American mutt."

But the Wichita Eagle reported that Trimmer says he has received plenty of positive response to his plan and doesn't see a causal relationship between it and a proliferation of puppy mills, a major issue for animal-advocacy groups.

In December 2010, 1,200 dogs at a large-scale breeding operation in Kansas were put to death after an outbreak of distemper. An internal government report that year said dogs were dying and living in poor conditions because of lax enforcement of puppy mills nationwide.

States vary in their laws governing puppy mills, and according to the Humane Society of the United States, Kansas requires them to be licensed and subject to inspections. But the state didn't fare well in the Humane Society's latest survey of states' treatment of animals, scoring 23 of 66 possible points and ranking 33 out of the 50 states. California topped the list; South Dakota was at the bottom.

According to the Wichita Eagle, 11 states have officially designated state dogs, so if the legislation, which has yet to come up for debate, were to pass, Toto wouldn't be alone. The newspaper quoted Brenda Moore of the South Central Kansas Kennel Club as among those in favor of elevating Toto's status.

"We've got to find little bits of happiness along the way," she said. "To me, the cairn terrier is as much of Kansas as sunflowers are.”

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Photo: Judy Garland as Dorothy, with the dog playing Toto in "The Wizard of Oz." Credit: Turner Entertainment / Warner Bros.

 more here: http://www.kansas.com/2012/02/02/2199796/peta-opposes-making-toto-state.html#storylink=cpy

 

Read more here: http://www.kansas.com/2012/02/02/2199796/peta-opposes-making-toto-state.html#storylink=cpy

Read more here: http://www.kansas.com/2012/02/02/2199796/peta-opposes-making-toto-state.html#storylink=cpy