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Nation news briefs
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• ZIMMERMAN AT ‘SAFE HOUSE’ IN CENTRAL FLORIDA: ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — The neighborhood watch leader charged with fatally shooting Trayvon Martin is in a safe house that is being protected by his security team.

George Zimmerman was released Friday after posting bail for the second time on a second-degree murder charge. His attorney said Sunday he was in Seminole County in central Florida.

Some of Martin’s supporters have been angry Zimmerman was not arrested until 46 days after the February shooting, and Zimmerman has received death threats.

He was released from jail after his defense fund helped him post 10 percent of the $1 million bond.

A judge revoked his previous $150,000 bond last month when prosecutors presented evidence that Zimmerman and his wife misled the court about how much money they had.



• 3 BOYS DROWN IN MARYLAND CREEK: FEDERALSBURG, Md. (AP) — Authorities say three boys have drowned in a creek on Maryland’s Eastern Shore.

The boys were two 12-year-old cousins and an 8-year-old friend. They were last seen late Saturday afternoon playing basketball in a church parking lot.

Capt. Jerry Kirkwood of the Maryland Natural Resources police says the boys’ parents were at work Saturday. The boys were reported missing early Sunday.

Kirkwood says it’s possible they went into the creek to cool off. The creek is 25 feet wide and 5-to-10 feet deep.

Rescue dogs helped lead authorities to the bodies Sunday morning. The third body was recovered with the help of a dive team.

Officials say the bodies were pulled from Marshyhope Creek in Federalsburg.

No foul play is suspected in the deaths.



• TRAGIC ‘GUYS DAY’ FOR NY CLAN; BOAT CRASH KILLS 3: SYLVAN BEACH, N.Y. (AP) — It was a “guys day,” a celebration of family and summer. Three boys and their dad took a 20-foot powerboat out on the central New York lake where they grew up, partly to mark the oldest boy’s upcoming engagement.

The family patriarch and two sons would die on Oneida Lake that Thursday night. A third son was badly injured, and his mother said he now carries the burden of surviving.

The oldest boy, Stephen Aceto, had told his family he was there to propose to his girlfriend, Krista Zeisman. She suspected the big question was coming her way but didn’t know for sure, said Stephen’s mother, Carolyn Aceto. Up from Tampa, Fla., where she and Stephen lived, she was meeting the large, close-knit Italian family for the first time since they started dating a year ago.

As the women, Carolyn and Krista included, mingled at home in nearby Utica, the men were on Oneida Lake, watching fireworks a day after Independence Day. It was a lake, Carolyn said, they knew “like the back of your hand” from family outings over the decades before.

Shortly after 10 p.m., the pilot, believed by Carolyn Aceto to be 33-year-old Timothy Aceto, got distracted by fireworks. He looked away for a second and hit the concrete base of a buoy, wrecking the boat and sending all four men into the water. None wore a lifejacket.



• WOODCHUCKS SUSPECTED IN NY CEMETERY FLAG THEFTS: HUDSON, N.Y. (AP) — Who would steal flags from Civil War graves?

Authorities in Hudson, N.Y. believe they have found the culprit in a rash of cemetery flag thefts: woodchucks.

Mayor Bill Hallenbeck tells the Register-Star that police used cameras and confirmed that the flags were in the woodchucks’ burrows.

Around 75 flags were reported missing from Civil War graves in the days leading up to and following Independence Day.

Hallenbeck said he was glad the culprit wasn’t a human resident. He said some flags are now coated with a substance that attracts woodchucks.

Woodchucks are also known as groundhogs. They are excellent burrowers.

Hudson is a city of about 7,000 on the shore of the Hudson River 30 miles south of Albany.



• CONGRESSMAN BARNEY FRANK MARRIES LONGTIME PARTNER: NEWTON, Mass. (AP) — U.S. Rep. Barney Frank has tied the knot with his longtime partner in a ceremony officiated by Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick.

Frank spokesman Harry Gural says the 72-year-old congressman married 42-year-old Jim Ready in a Saturday evening wedding at the Boston Marriott hotel in Newton. Gural says more than 300 friends, family and colleagues attended.

Frank, a Democrat who is retiring after more than three decades in office, represents the 4th Congressional District in southeastern Massachusetts.