REBURIAL CEREMONY IN GERMANY
ITALIAN TOWN STRUCK BY MAGNITUDE 6.1 EARTHQUAKE
Central Italy was rocked by a magnitude 6.1 earthquake in the early hours of the morning Wednesday, according to the European-Mediterranean Seismological Centre.
The earthquake struck just after 3:30 a.m. local time southeast of Norcia, a medieval town in the Perugia region. Residents in Rieti fled their homes and ran into the streets as the earthquake damaged buildings, the Associated Press reported. Blackouts have been reported.
The shocks were felt in Rome, roughly 100 miles west. People in homes in the capital felt a long swaying followed by aftershocks, the AP reported.
— Stephanie Solis
NON-TRAVEL ZIKA CASE ON FLORIDA’S WEST COAST
There were five new non-travel-related cases of the Zika virus reported in Florida on Tuesday, one of them in Pinellas County, Gov. Rick Scott announced.
Four other cases of non-travelrelated Zika were reported in the Wynwood neighborhood of Miami.
That was the first area Florida Department of Health officials identified as a place where trans- missions of the virus took place.
Scott said the state Department of Health does not believe the case in Pinellas County, on the state’s west coast, was an active transmission.
Active transmissions have occurred only in Wynwood and Miami Beach, which was officially identified Friday. — Arek Sarkissian, Naples Daily News
5 STATES FILE LAWSUIT OVER TRANSGENDER RULES
Texas and four other states filed another lawsuit Tuesday in U.S. District Court, this time claiming the Obama administration’s new non-discrimination health rules could force doctors to act against their judgment and religious convictions.
Wichita Falls’ federal court was also the site chosen for conservative states to sue the government for opening school bathrooms to transgender students.
“The regulation forces doctors to perform controversial and sometimes harmful medical procedures ostensibly designed to permanently change an individual’s sex — including the sex of children,” the states — which include Kansas, Kentucky, Nebraska and Wisconsin — claimed in the newest lawsuit.
— Christopher Collins