In the News 9/2/08

Hundreds to be charged after RNC protests

ST. PAUL, Minnesota (CNN) -- Almost 300 people will be formally charged in Ramsey County District Court on Tuesday after they were arrested during protests at the Republican National Convention, a police spokesman said.

Police arrested 284 people Monday after firing projectiles, pepper spray and tear gas to disperse a crowd demonstrating near the convention site

Police used plastic handcuffs to detain between 20 and 30 of them a few blocks from the security perimeter around the Xcel Energy Center in downtown St. Paul.

St. Paul police said 130 of the 284 arrested were being held on felony charges. The rest were charged with various misdemeanors.

A crowd of about 300 people conducted what appeared to be a sit-in in a parking lot near the Mississippi River on Monday.

Earlier in the day, a group of self-described anarchists threw park benches into streets and smashed windows, police said.
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Obama says Palin's family off limits
From Alexander Marquardt
CNN

MONROE, Michigan (CNN) -- Sen. Barack Obama said firmly that families are off-limits in the campaign for president, reacting to news that GOP running mate Sarah Palin's 17-year-old daughter is pregnant.

"Let me be as clear as possible," Obama said. "I think people's families are off-limits, and people's children are especially off-limits. This shouldn't be part of our politics. It has no relevance to Gov. Palin's performance as governor or her potential performance as a vice president."

Obama said reporters should "back off these kinds of stories" and noted that he was born to an 18-year-old mother.

"How a family deals with issues and teenage children, that shouldn't be the topic of our politics, and I hope that anybody who is supporting me understands that's off-limits." more of this story


‘These people want to go home’
Gustav evacuees wait to hear when they can leave overcrowded shelters

TYLER, Texas - Hurricane Gustav didn't barrel ashore as the devastating terror everyone feared, leaving some of the 2 million people who evacuated second-guessing their decision to flee.

Better safe than sorry? Definitely, evacuees said. But better home than stranded elsewhere, too.

Impatience at overcrowded shelters around the Gulf Coast figured to rise Tuesday as evacuees from New Orleans to Southeast Texas waited to learn when buses that whisked them to safety during mandatory evacuations would return to take them home.

"That's the first question everyone is asking," said Jim Rollins, whose First Christian Church in Tyler took in about 140 people from Beaumont. "If you know, please tell me. These people want to go home."continue story