“Nation Marks 75th Anniversary”

The nation on Wednesday will mark the 75th anniversary of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in Hawaii, an assault that left 2,403 Americans dead and propelled the country into World War II. Around 4,000 people are expected to attend a commemoration ceremony at Pearl Harbor. At the ceremony, a moment of silence will be held to mark the time that Japanese planes hit their first target in the harbor. It was a sunny Sunday morning when the attack began at around 7:55 a.m. By the time the attacks on Pearl Harbor and other military bases were over, 21 ships were sunk or damaged and more than 300 aircraft were damaged or destroyed. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt famously declared Dec. 7 "a date which will live in infamy" in an address to the nation the following day, during which he asked Congress for a declaration of war. Since that moment, the U.S. has never apologized for the use of nuclear weapons against Hiroshima and Nagasaki to end the war nearly four years later. Obama in May became the first sitting president to visit a memorial of the bombing in Hiroshima. The US Army Corps of Engineers said it would not authorize the final section of the Dakota Access Pipeline to be built so that alternative routes can be further considered. The decision is a win for the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe who have protested against the pipeline for months. The multi-billion, 1,200-mile pipeline, crossing four states, is intended to slash the costs of transferring crude. It is nearly complete except for a section planned to run under Lake Oahe, a reservoir on the Missouri River. The Standing Rock Sioux Tribe and their supporters fear it will contaminate drinking water and run over sacred burial sites. Months of protests, on federal land, have seen clashes between the demonstrators and law enforcement. The final stretch required a permit from federal authorities but on Sunday, the US Army Corps of Engineers refused to grant it so it could undertake "an environmental impact statement to look at possible alternative routes." A memorandum from the US Army Corps of Engineers might strongly suggest that the pipeline will be re-routed but it does not actually say that will happen.

In Other News A rock-loving orangutan named Rubih went ape on the observation windows of her St. Louis zoo enclosure, forcing nearly $200,000 in repairs and the temporary closure of the exhibit. Zookeepers say the 12-year-old female orangutan repeatedly tapped and banged rocks against four 7-foot-tall windows over several months, causing considerable damage. Susan Gallagher, a spokeswoman for the zoo, said replacing the triple layer of glass with 3-inch thick acrylic required re-engineering the frames that hold them, plus caulking requiring three weeks to cure. The zoo's ape care team taught the orangutan to bring them rocks in exchange for treats. But the ape started banging on the windows with rocks when zookeepers weren't around, presumably to get someone's attention for a reward. Zookeepers now hope to train Rubih to drop rocks in a tube — regardless of whether staffers are around to reward her — and give her a treat if they later find rocks when they check the tube.