National Roundup

Illinois
Legal pursuit of 1922 massacre victims continues
HERRIN, Ill. (AP) — A southern Illinois community is renewing its legal push to excavate portions of a cemetery in search of remains of people who died in the 1922 Herrin Massacre.
The massacre took place during a union strike and killed dozens of replacement workers at the Southern Illinois Coal Co.
Lawyers representing Herrin’s city attorney and an author of a book about the massacre have asked a court to allow archaeological work at Herrin Cemetery. Such work has been banned since last year by a Williamson County judge following two failed bids to find the massacre’s victims, the Southern Illinoisan reported Tuesday. Herrin’s aldermen agreed last month to ask that the injunction be lifted.
Scott Doody, who in April published a book about the violence, believes some modern burials have taken place atop the remains of the victims of the bloody, armed skirmish, between striking union workers and the temporary miners hired to replace them. While hundreds of indictments were returned, no one was convicted.
Doody suspects that nearly a dozen victims were buried in a potter’s field and possibly an adjoining part of the cemetery. The motion seeking the excavation said the work would only occur at specific burial sites, and that notice of the court filing has been given to all owners of burial spaces that may be affected.
The minimal excavation is being sought by geologists and researchers from Eastern Illinois University and Southern Illinois University, the newspaper reported.

Texas
Appeals court affirms soldier’s life sentence
NEW ORLEANS (AP) — A federal appeals court has affirmed the life sentence of an AWOL soldier who planned to detonate a bomb inside a Texas restaurant frequented by Fort Hood soldiers.
The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans denied Naser Jason Abdo’s request to consider his initial detention by police a full arrest, which would have made it unlawful and rendered as inadmissible evidence and statements obtained at the time. The court Monday also rejected Abdo’s argument that his trial was unfair because he was denied access to an expert witness.
Abdo was AWOL from Fort Campbell, Ky., when he was arrested with bomb-making materials in 2011. A federal jury convicted him May 2012 on six charges, including attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction.

Nevada
Judge: Teachers’ work emails are not public record
LAS VEGAS (AP) — A conservative think tank says it will take its fight for the release of teachers’ work emails to the Nevada Supreme Court.
Clark County District Judge Douglas Smith on Monday dismissed Nevada Policy Research Institute’s lawsuit against the Clark County School District.
The Las Vegas Sun reports the judge ruled the email database requested is not a public record.
Smith’s order said the school district’s interests for nondisclosure outweigh the interest of public access..
NPRI sued the school district after it denied several public records requests for the teacher emails.
The organization has been waging an email campaign against the Clark County Education Association, sending email blasts to thousands of teachers encouraging them to drop their union memberships.

Nebraska
State appeals court reverses lawsuit dismissal
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — The Nebraska Court of Appeals says a jury should hear the claims of a mother who sued Union Pacific Railroad and the estate of her ex-husband over the 2007 death of their 15-year-old son in a collision with a train.
Mario Becerra III was killed, along with his father, Mario Becerra Jr., when the car the father was driving drove onto train tracks, despite warning lights and an oncoming train’s horn. The train smashed into the car, sending the car into a concrete signal base. Both the father and son were killed.
Mary Becerra sued the railroad and her ex-husband’s estate.
A Douglas County District Court judge dismissed the lawsuit, but the appeals court on Tuesday said a jury should decide the merits of some of Mary Becerra’s claims.

Pennsylvania
Court to hear arguments over gay marriage
PHILADELPHIA (AP) — A Pennsylvania court will hear arguments next month on the governor’s attempt to stop a county outside Philadelphia from issuing same-sex marriage licenses.
The state Commonwealth Court scheduled oral arguments for Sept. 4 in Harrisburg.
Republican Gov. Tom Corbett’s administration contends that Montgomery County officials are violating the state’s one-man, one-woman marriage law and the state Health Department is seeking a court order to halt the practice.
However, Democratic officials in the affluent county near Philadelphia believe the law defining marriage as the union of one man and one woman is unconstitutional.
They began issuing same-sex marriage licenses on July 24, shortly after the U.S. Supreme Court struck down parts of the federal Defense of Marriage Act and after Democratic state Attorney General Kathleen Kane said she would not defend the state law against a federal lawsuit because she believes it is unconstitutional.
More than 130 gay and lesbian couples have since trekked to Norristown, the county seat, to obtain licenses from Register of Wills D. Bruce Hanes, and dozens have returned the forms after getting married.
In their legal briefs, the Health Department predicts that untold “chaos” would result from Hanes’ stance, and threatened that he and other officials could be subject to misdemeanor charges.
Meanwhile, at least two mayors around the state are stepping into the fray.
In western Pennsylvania, Braddock Mayor John Fetterman said he has performed several same-sex marriages at his home. In State College, Mayor Elizabeth Goreham instead hosted a same-sex wedding while inviting a local minister to perform the service.
Goreham said she supports same-sex marriage but believes that performing the ceremony herself would “violate my oath of office, and I’m not going to do that.”?