The Baltimore Sun du lieu suivant : Baltimore, Maryland • A6

6 THE BALTIMORE SUN NEWS TUESDAY, AUGUST 16, 2016 'Act of God' flooding catches state off guard Biden goes after Trump in Pa. pitch for Clinton MAX BECHERERAP The Louisiana National Guard transports people out of flood-hit areas around the city of Walker on Monday. CAROLYN KASTERAP Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden visit Biden's childhood home now owned by Anne Kearns in Scranton, Monday. Review sought The State Department wants a chance to review notes and other materials from the FBI's probe of former Secretary Hillary Clinton's email use before any documents are provided to Congress, a spokeswoman said Monday. House Republicans are pressing the FBI to release notes from its agents' July interview with the Democratic presidential By Michael kunzelman, melinda Deslatte and Rebecca Santana Associated Press BATON ROUGE, La An "act of God" is how some are describing it, a catastrophic 48-hour torrent of rain that caused flooding that sent thousands of people in Louisiana scrambling for safety and left many wondering how a region accustomed to hurricanes could get caught off guard so badly.

At least six people have been killed and more than 20,000 have been rescued since Friday in some of the worst flooding the state has ever seen. A seventh body was pulled from floodwaters Monday, said Casey Rayborn Hicks, a spokeswoman for the East Baton Rouge Parish sheriff's office. A volunteer patrolling in his boat found the body. The manner of death and identification confirmation of a flood-related death will come from the coroner's office, Hicks said. As of Monday, the rain had mostly stopped, but rivers and creeks in many areas were still dangerously bloated and new places were getting hit by flooding.

More than 11,000 people were staying in shelters. The state Department of Children and Family Services said more people continued to arrive at shelters Monday as new parts of Baton Rouge, its suburbs and other areas took on water draining from other hard-hit neighborhoods. "It was an absolute act of God. We're talking about places that have literally never flooded before," said Anthony "Ace" Cox, who started a Facebook group to help collect information about where people were stranded. danger into an already unstable world.

Offering himself as a character witness for Clinton, Biden portrayed the former secretary of state as the most qualified person to lead the country, singling out her foreign policy experience and passion for improving people's lives. He cited his long history with Clinton, saying he's known her for three decades, since before she was first lady in the 1990s. "Hillary has forgotten more about American foreign policy than Trump and his entire team will ever understand," he said. And he cited Clinton's gender as a powerful asset, saying electing the first female president would change the lives of American women and girls. "Hillary Clinton is going to write the next chapter in American history," he said.

Introducing Biden, Clinton sought to sow doubts about Trump's ability to bring jobs back to blue-collar communities like Scranton, where Biden lived for the first decade of his life before moving to Delaware. She acknowledged that many people in the audience might have friends who are considering voting for the Republican but offered this advice: "Friends should not let friends vote for Trump." Biden and Clinton had planned to campaign together here before last month's Democratic National Convention, but their rally was postponed because of the deadly police shooting in Dallas. Also Monday, President Barack Obama added a By Ken Thomas Associated Press SCRANTON, Pa Vice President Joe Biden on Monday assailed Donald Trump's ability to lead the U.S. at home and abroad, branding him as indifferent to the needs of Americans. Biden, in his first campaign appearance with Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, said in his native city of Scranton that Trump was "totally, thoroughly unqualified" to be president, calling him a dangerous voice on national security and foreign policy.

On the economy, he said, Trump's reveling in his reality TV show tag line, "You're fired," showed his true colors. "He's trying to tell us he cares about the middle class? Give me a break. It's such a bunch of malarkey," Biden told a crowd of about 3,000 at Riverfront Sports. Pennsylvania has not supported a Republican in a presidential election since 1988 but is among the most-contested battleground states between Clinton and Trump, who are both vying for white worldng-class voters here. Even as polls show her leading Trump, Clinton has faced lingering questions about her trustworthiness in the fallout of her use of a private email server as secretary of state and over her family's sprawling foundation.

She has tried to make the case that worldng-class voters would fare better under her economic policies than Trump's and that her opponent would inject Cross, shelters for those driven from their homes by the flooding were set up more haphazardly by parish officials. As the scope of the disaster became clear, churches, schools and other places opened their doors to take evacuees. Shelters filled up fast. And some shelters had to shut down when they, too, started to take on water. Marc and Crystal Math-erne and their three children loaded up their cars with their three dogs and drove out of their flooded Baton Rouge neighborhood Sunday.

After a night in a shelter, Marc Matherne planned to head back to see if he could help stranded neighbors. His wife said she felt pangs of "survivor guilt," knowing that their home was probably still dry while so many neighbors had flood damage. "I don't know if anybody knew" how bad the flooding would be, she said. Volunteers have been dropping off supplies and food at shelters. They have also been going out in boats to rescue people, supplementing the efforts of National Guard troops, state officials and Coast Guard officials.

The National Weather Service warned there is still a danger of new flooding as the water works its way toward the Gulf of Mexico. He was in Baton Rouge to help his parents and grandparents. "Everybody got caught off guard," he said. Forecasters said one reason was the sheer, almost off-the-charts intensity of the storms and the difficulty of predicting how bad they would be. Meteorologist Ken Graham of the National Weather Service's office in Slidell said forecasters alerted people days in advance of the storms.

The forecasts Thursday were for 8 inches of rain, with higher totals expected in some areas. But Graham emphasized that forecasting exactly how much rain is going to fall and where is nearly impossible. "It's one thing to say we're getting set up for a lot of rain. It's another thing to say where is this going to be," he said. Some areas, such as the town of Zachary, received more than 2 feet of rain in a 48-hour period that ended Saturday morning.

Another hard-hit area, Livingston, got nearly 22 inches over the same stretch. Graham said the odds of that much rain were 1 in 500 in some places and 1 in 1,000 in others. Unlike in a hurricane, when shelters are established well in advance by parish governments and the Red touch of politics to his vacation, urging Democrats to campaign aggressively for the next 80 days to elect Clinton, saying that "if we do not do our jobs, then it's still possible for her to lose." "When I say 'do our jobs' what I mean is we are going to have to continue to be engaged, write checks, make phone calls, rally people behind her candidacy," Obama said, urging Democratic donors at a fundraiser in Massachusetts to help counter an "unrelenting negative campaign" against the former secretary of state "that has made a dent in the opinion of people who even are inclined to vote for her." Legal Defense Fund seeks shooting documents "Considering what BcoPD contends was Ms. Gaines' stance throughout the day (holding a shotgun on officers for hours), what about her words constituted an escalation that justified the officer's decision to open fire on Ms. Gaines after hours of negotiation?" the letter asks.

The letter also pointed to "varying reports" on whether there are recordings of interactions between Gaines and police officers. Initially, Johnson said at a news conference that the department was "transcribing the tapes of the dialogue between the hostage negotiators and tactical personnel," according to the letter. Later, the department said there were no audiotapes of the negotiations with Gaines. Armacost said that as soon as Johnson learned there wasn't a recording, the department updated the public. In addition, the defense fund letter asks for an update about when the department plans to release the names of all the officers who were at Gaines' apartment.

"Certainly, it is in the public's interest to know the identity of all officers who were at the scene during the incident involving Ms. Gaines, particularly those who are still on active duty," the letter states. alisonkbaltsun.com twitter.comaliknez outside were wearing cameras. The department has not released those recordings. The letter points out that of six people fatally shot by county police since the beginning of last year, four were black, including Gaines.

A copy of the letter was sent to Vanita Gupta, who leads the civil rights division at the U.S. Department of Justice. The department led the investigation into the Baltimore Police Department that was released last week. Elise Armacost, a spokeswoman for the county Police Department, said the agency is working on a response to the defense fund's questions. She said the department has tried to provide as much information as possible to the public, and that what the defense fund described as inconsistencies are "the result of updates and new information we have provided as the investigation progressed." "All the facts of the case do not instantly appear hours after the incident," Armacost said in an email to The Baltimore Sun.

"Sometimes information changes and evolves as interviews are conducted, statements are vetted and facts are gathered. Our commitment to transparency should be evident in the fact that we provide updates as they occur, based on the best and most recent information gathered during the course of the investigation." At a protest Sunday as the Maryland Fraternal Order of Police conference opened in downtown Baltimore, demonstrators wore T-shirts reading "Justice 4 Korryn Gaines" and demanded that police release the name of the officer who shot her and her son. Armacost said Monday the department is continuing to withhold the name for now because of threats against police. The department typically releases the last names of officers involved in shootings within about two days. Under a new state law, police departments are required to file a report with the Governor's Office of Crime Control Prevention about officer-involved deaths.

The Sun obtained a copy of the county's report Monday under the Maryland Public Information Act. It states that the officer who shot Gaines is a 46-year-old white male, but does not identify him. In the letter sent Monday, Ifill and Dixon said a previous phone conversation between them and Johnson "raised more questions than answers about how events unfolded that fateful day." They questioned what led to an escalation the day police shot Gaines. Al NES, From page 1 policing practices in communities of color, and that information will help us to advance recommendations for changes in these communities," Monique Dixon, deputy director of policy, said in an interview. Dixon and Sherrilyn Ifill, president of the Legal Defense Fund, signed a letter to the department asking for the information.

"We are experiencing a crisis in the level of confidence that black and brown communities have in law enforcement," Dixon said. The Legal Defense Fund frequently speaks out on policing issues and has raised questions in other high-profile police shootings, such as those in Ferguson, and North Charleston, S.C. A tactical officer shot and killed 23-year-old Gaines inside her Randallstown apartment after an hours-long standoff. The officer also shot Gaines' 5 -year-old son, Kodi, in the cheek while firing at Gaines. Police say Gaines had threatened to kill the officer and pointed her gun at him.

Officers initially went to the home to serve warrants on Gaines and her boyfriend, Kareem Kiean Courtney, 39. Police have said there is no body camera footage from inside the apartment, but that some officers assigned to "support roles" $15hour minimum-wage proposal sent back to committee Green Middleton, Nick J. Mosby, Edward Reisinger and Brandon Scott. Donald C. Fry, president of the pro-business Greater Baltimore Committee, said his organization will continue to oppose the legislation.

"The Greater Baltimore Committee appreciates that the City Council considered the many points of view expressed on this proposal, including the GBC's, and has determined there are serious issues that need more review," he said. "The GBC stands firm in its belief that this bill should be defeated as it will have very serious consequences for employers and hurt Baltimore's ability to compete for business and jobs." But Ricarra Jones, a political organizer for a local health care union, said advocates are confident they can eventually win a minimum-wage increase for an estimated 90,000 workers in Baltimore. "We look at it as not a defeat but a delay," Jones said. "We want to get this passed. Would it be great if we can get it passed this year? Yes.

But are we willing to wait? Of course. We have a much more progressive council who is coming in. We're very confident we're going to have the votes on the new council." lbroadwaterbaltsun.com twitter.comlukebroadwater wage is raised. In a survey of 322 Baltimore businesses by the Baltimore Development 97 said the bill would cause them to reduce hours for workers, 69 said they would lay off workers, 56 said they would close, and 33 said they would move out of Baltimore. "It would have an adverse affect on the economy of Baltimore City," Young said.

"Whether they want to believe that or not, it's reality." Advocates say raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour would help working families make ends meet, giving them more money to spend and thus boosting local businesses. Katrina Johnson, a 45-year-old housekeeper from Northeast Baltimore, said a $15 minimum wage would improve life for her and her 12 -year-old daughter. "At $15 an hour, I would be able to take care of my bills and everything else, and I wouldn't need the assistance I receive from social services," Johnson said in an interview. "I'm living from paycheck to paycheck. It would really help me out in the long run and give me some kind of stability." Clarke's bill calls for the minimum wage paid in Baltimore to increase to $9.50 an hour next July, with $1 raises thereafter until reaching $13.50 in 202L It would jump to $15 an hour in 2022 and after that would rise with the cost of living.

The legislation exempts businesses with fewer than 25 workers and those with less than $500,000 in gross annual income from paying the proposed minimum wage. Baltimore is the latest jurisdiction nationwide to consider a minimum-wage increase. The District of Columbia, Seattle and San Francisco all have approved increases to $15 an hour. Montgomery County is considering a similar increase. Young and council members Rochelle "Rikld" Spector, Eric T.

Costello, Warren Branch, Helen Holton, William "Pete" Welch, James Kraft and Carl Stokes opposed the bill. Stokes said he backs Young's compromise of raising the minimum wage to $1L50 an hour but no higher. He also took issue with the exemption for small businesses, which he said would mean it wouldn't apply to a majority of city businesses. "Baltimore need not pass a law that puts its minimum wage at $4 or $5 above every other state jurisdiction while in fact exempting the greater majority of the workers from receiving the increase," Stokes said. "This presents a cruel and false hope to workers." Joining Clarke in supporting the bill were Robert Curran, Bill Henry, Sharon MINIMUM, Frompagel The measure advanced by a preliminary vote of 7-4 last week but needed eight votes to pass the 15-member council Monday.

Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake has said she will sign the legislation if the council passes it. The vote to send the bill back to committee came after intense lobbying. As council members entered the City Council chamber Monday, supporters of the legislation, including local NAACP President Tessa Hill-Aston, urged them to vote yes. Even the priest giving the invocation, the Rev. Ty Hullinger of St.

Dominic's Catholic Church, urged council members to pass the bill. "The council is still divided," said City Council President Bernard C. "Jack" Young, one of eight members to oppose the bill. "Everybody wants to get a raise. I believe people deserve a raise.

But I don't think Baltimore should be the one to lead this national movement." Young has said he doesn't believe the council should vote for a bill that raises the city's minimum wage any higher than $1L50 per hour. He and other opponents say they worry about how it would affect Baltimore's economy, citing surveys of small businesses who say they would close or move if the.