NATION
ORANGEBURG, S.C. — A woman who watched divers pull the limp bodies of two toddlers out of a car that had floated downriver near her home said she can't understand why the boys' mother, who was arrested, didn't bang on her door for help.
Ramona Milhouse, whose side porch door is steps from South Carolina's North Edisto River, said at first Monday she thought the boys were unconscious, until she realized their bodies were being taken to the ambulance with no attempt to revive them.
Devean C. Duley, 2, and Ja'van T. Duley, 18 months, were dead by the time divers got to the car near a rural boat landing, Orangeburg County Sheriff Larry Williams said. County Coroner Samuetta Marshall would not speculate on a cause of death until autopsies were completed today, and police were trying to determine whether their deaths were accidental.
The boys' mother, Shaquan Duley, 29, was charged with leaving the scene of an accident, and it was unclear if she had a lawyer.
SAN FRANCISCO — Gay couples who had been gearing up to get married in California this week had to put their wedding plans on hold once again after a federal appeals court said it first wanted to consider the constitutionality of the state's same-sex marriage ban.A three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals imposed an emergency stay Monday on a trial court judge's ruling overturning the ban, known as Proposition 8. Chief U.S. District Court Judge Vaughn Walker had ordered state officials to stop enforcing the measure starting Wednesday, clearing the way for county clerks to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples.
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. — A federal judge ruled Monday that Missouri laws restricting protests near funerals are unconstitutional.Missouri legislators passed two laws in 2006 in response to protests at servicemembers' funerals by members of Westboro Baptist Church of Topeka, Kan. The church contends the deaths are God's punishment for the U.S. tolerating homosexuality.U.S. District Judge Fernando Gaitan ruled the laws violate the right of free speech guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution.The primary state law had barred protests near any funeral, procession or memorial service from an hour before until an hour after the service. The secondary measure specifically stated protesters must stay back at least 300 feet.
