Shared from the 8/16/2018 Chattanooga eEdition

National News

Baker who refused to make cake for gays sues again

BDENVER — A Colorado baker who insisted his religious beliefs justified his refusal to make a wedding cake for a gay couple — an argument partly supported by the U.S. Supreme Court — has sued the state again for opposing his refusal to bake a cake celebrating a gender transition, his attorneys said Wednesday.

Lawyers for Masterpiece Cakeshop owner Jack Phillips allege in a federal lawsuit filed Tuesday that Colorado is on a “crusade to crush” Phillips because of his religious beliefs.

They are challenging a June 28 finding by Colorado’s Civil Rights Division that Phillips discriminated against a Denver-area attorney who requested a birthday cake in 2017 to celebrate the attorney’s gender transition from male to female.

Phillips refused the request, citing his belief that “the status of being male or female … is given by God, is biologically determined, is not determined by perceptions or feelings, and cannot be chosen or changed,” the lawsuit said.

Part of WWII ship found in Aleutians

ANCHORAGE, Alaska — Scientists said they have discovered part of a ship blown off a U.S. Navy destroyer during World War II in Alaska’s Aleutian Islands.

Researchers announced Wednesday they found the stern from the USS Abner Read last month in the Bering Sea, nearly 75 years after it hit a mine left by the Japanese after a bloody battle in the islands. It was the only one of the war fought on North American soil.

The blast killed 71 men aboard. The remaining 250 crew members made the ship watertight, and it limped back to the West Coast for repairs.

The Abner Read, named for a Civil War naval officer, went on to fight in the South Pacific before it was destroyed by a kamikaze attack in the Philippines in 1944.

California’s largest fire ever keeps growing

LOS ANGELES — The largest fire in California history continued to grow Wednesday while firefighters worked to protect threatened communities.

As of Wednesday, the Ranch fire had consumed 314,925 acres and was 64 percent contained. It had destroyed 147 homes so far. One firefighter, Matthew Burchett, 42, of Draper City, Utah, died battling the fire.

The Ranch fire is one of two fires that form the Mendocino Complex fire. Firefighters still were monitoring the smaller of the two, the River fire, which as of Monday was 100 percent contained.

Residents around Clearlake have been allowed to return home, but new evacuation orders were announced in the last few days for communities to the east and west of Mendocino National Forest, including Stonyford, Lodoga and Potter Valley.

That presents another challenge for firefighters. Unlike the Clearlake area, which is fairly accessible by road, those communities are farther into the forest and surrounded by more rugged terrain, said Cary Wright, a Cal Fire spokesman.

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