Shorts (left)
East swelters in triple digits; more to come
BOSTON — Children at a day camp near here were pulled from the swimming pool once an hour so the lifeguards could plunge in and cool off. Commuter trains in Washington were slowed because of overheating tracks. Horse-racing tracks were closed in Philadelphia and Wilmington, Del.
Up and down the Eastern Seaboard on Tuesday, safety concerns upended the usual routines as a brutal blast of heat brought temperatures in excess of 100 degrees in several cities, with little relief expected for days to come.
The high of 103 in New York broke a record for the date. Baltimore hit 105, the highest temperature recorded since 1983, and in Boston, the temperature reached 100 degrees for the first time since 2002.
The culprit was a high pressure system “tethered along the East Coast,” said Charlie Foley, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Taunton, Mass.
Coastal areas of New England got a modest reprieve from a shallow sea breeze, but inland regions sweltered.
In Philadelphia, a 92-year-old woman was found dead in her home on the second floor, where all but one window was closed. The medical examiner ruled that extreme heat was a factor in her death.
And in Worcester, Mass., the state’s lieutenant governor, Timothy Murray, was hospitalized Monday night with fatigue and chest pains after marching in five parades over the Fourth of July weekend. A spokesman said that the extreme heat was partly to blame and that Murray would be released Wednesday.
In Boston, nine firefighters were taken to hospitals and given intravenous fluids after fighting a blaze fueled by an unattended propane grill on the roof of a brownstone.
In Washington, commutes were longer after trains were ordered to operate at least 20 mph under maximum speeds because of the heat. In Baltimore, officials planned to distribute bottled water to the homeless over the coming days.
U.S. and Israel shift attention to peace process
WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama said Tuesday that he expected direct negotiations between Israelis and Palestinians to begin “well before” a moratorium on settlement construction expires at the end of September, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ’75 of Israel pledged to take “concrete steps” in the coming weeks to get the talks moving.
Law in Arizona is causing a split in border talks
PHOENIX — For nearly 30 years, the governors of the states that line both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border have gathered to celebrate border bonhomie. They issue proclamations and pledges to work together, air grievances and concerns behind closed doors and pose for the cameras in symbolic showings of cooperation.
But this year the 28th annual conference has collided headlong with Arizona’s crackdown on illegal immigration, inspiring bitter recriminations among Mexican governors and rancor among some U.S. ones.
Gov. Jan Brewer of Arizona has championed the new state law that gives local police officers broader authority to question people they stop about their immigration status. On Tuesday, the U.S. Justice Department filed suit to challenge the law.