National Roundup

California
Transit strike continues in San Francisco area
OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) — Transit officials on Monday warned San Francisco Bay area commuters that train workers would likely strike a second day after hundreds of workers demanding higher wages went on strike and the region’s heavily used rail system ground to a halt.
The Bay Area Rapid Transit agency said that there had been no progress in labor negotiations with its two largest unions.
The walkout derailed hundreds of thousands of riders who use the nation’s fifth-largest rail system each day, forcing them to find other means of transportation in the second-most congested region in the country.
Morning rush hour did not come to a standstill as feared, and some travelers who used carpool lanes and other options added relatively little time to their commutes.
Later, evening commuters lined up early for ferries, buses and casual carpools to get a jump on the heavy traffic.
Two of the largest unions representing Bay Area Rapid Transit workers went on strike early Monday after their contract expired Sunday night. No new talks were scheduled. It was the first strike by BART workers since a six-day walkout in 1997.

Illinois
Sentencing is delayed for Jesse Jackson Jr., wife
CHICAGO (AP) — A federal judge on Monday postponed the sentencing hearing for former Illinois Congressman Jesse Jackson Jr. and his wife, noting it was being done to “accommodate the court” and not at the request of the couple’s attorneys or the prosecution.
U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson in Washington, D.C., posted a brief note on the court’s docket saying Wednesday’s hearing for the Chicago Democrat and his wife would be held later. She didn’t set a new date.
Jackson, the son of civil rights leader the Rev. Jesse Jackson Sr., pleaded guilty this year to spending $750,000 in campaign funds on personal items, including a gold-plated Rolex and mounted elk heads, among other things.
He faces a maximum five-year prison term. Under his plea agreement, Jackson must pay back the $750,000 and he will be subject to a host of other financial penalties.
Jackson’s wife, Sandi Jackson, was to be sentenced at the same hearing on a related conviction.
Last week, prosecutors filed a forfeiture motion listing the Jackson’s two homes, which observers said could result in them losing one or both of them.
The Jacksons have two school-aged children, and the judge must decide whether to stagger their sentences so that they won’t both be in prison at the same time.

West Virginia
Boy Scout fest to host hundreds of girls for 1st time
GLEN JEAN, W.Va. (AP) — Make room, guys. The girls are coming to the Boy Scouts of America’s national jamboree.
Hundreds of female participants will be among the more than 40,000 Scouts and leaders attending the national gathering that occurs every four years. The jamboree runs July 15 to 24 at the Summit outdoor adventure site in southern West Virginia.
The girls are part of the Scouts’ youth development program called Venturing. It started in 1998 and involves members of both sexes ages 14 to 20. Many of their activities involve physical challenges and travel, making it especially attractive to older teens.
While girls attended past Jamborees in limited numbers, organizers say this year is the first time they’ve widely allowed female Venturers. About 2,000 Venturers are signed up this year, and National Jamboree director Larry Pritchard estimates about half of them are females.
“Yes, it’s a big deal,” said John R. McGhee Jr., a Charleston attorney and board member of the Boy Scouts’ local Buckskin Council. “It speaks well for the future of scouting. It brings a whole new segment of the population into the program.”
The Boy Scouts of America’s youth membership declined from 3.3 million in 2002 to about 2.6 million last year.

Massachusetts
Ex-agent offers apology at Bulger trial for killing
BOSTON (AP) — A former FBI agent who admitted taking payoffs from James “Whitey” Bulger appeared to choke back tears as he offered a dramatic apology to the family of one of the reputed gangster’s alleged murder victims.
“Not a day in my life has gone by that I haven’t thought about this. Not a day in my life has gone by that I haven’t prayed that God gives you blessing and comfort for the pain that you suffered,” John Morris, his voice cracking, told a widow and her three sons Monday during cross-examination by a defense lawyer at Bulger’s racketeering trial.
The 83-year-old Bulger is charged with participating in 19 murders in the 1970s and ‘80s while he allegedly led the notorious Winter Hill Gang.
Morris testified that he told fellow FBI agent John Connolly that Edward “Brian” Halloran had given authorities information about a murder Bulger’s gang was suspected of committing. At the time, both Morris and Connolly — his subordinate — had corrupt relationships with Bulger, who he said was a longtime FBI informant at the same time he was committing a litany of crimes.
Prosecutors say Halloran and Michael Donahue — an innocent bystander who had offered Halloran a ride home — were killed in 1982 after Connolly leaked the information to Bulger. Bulger is accused of opening fire on the car as the two men left a Boston restaurant.
Morris’ voice cracked as he looked at Donahue’s widow, Patricia, and his three sons seated in the courtroom. Morris apologized for “things that I may have done and things that I didn’t do.”
Patricia Donahue said she believes Morris was sincere, but his apology came “way, way too late.”
“Those words didn’t mean anything to me,” she said. “While he’s getting his (FBI) promotions, I’m mourning my husband.”

Nevada
Death Valley temp may tie June record
LAS VEGAS (AP) — A heat wave smothering the West was rewriting record books, likely tying a more than century-old U.S. record in California as Las Vegas and other cities came out of their hottest June ever into a July that brought little relief.
California’s Death Valley National Park tentatively recorded a high temperature of 129 degrees, which would tie the all-time June record high for the United States, the National Weather Service said Monday. It could take months to verify whether Sunday’s high beats the record set in 1902 at Volcano, a former town near the Salton Sea in southeastern California.
The reading, however, was definitely short of the all-time world record of 134 degrees set in Death Valley on July 10, 1913.
Las Vegas temperatures have been at 115 and above in recent days — including a record-tying 117 on Sunday — helping make the hottest June ever in Sin City.