'Don't tell' policy affects women more

The Army and Air Force discharged a disproportionate number of women in 2007 under the "don't ask, don't tell" policy that prohibits openly gay people from serving in the military. While women make up 14 percent of the Army and 20 percent of the Air Force, more than 45 percent of those discharged under the policy were women. The Servicemembers Legal Defense Network, which obtained the Pentagon data, could not explain the gap. (NYT News Service)

TRACY - Four men are missing and believed drowned after a boat that authorities say was overloaded sank in a California river delta. The skiff carrying 10 men sank Saturday night in a canal of the Sacramento-San Joaquin delta. Six made it to shore, but four who couldn't swim are missing. None was wearing a life jacket. The boat's operator, 43, was arrested on suspicion of boating while intoxicated. (AP)

DENVER - A gunfight in a crowded entertainment district early yesterday ended with police fatally shooting one man and critically wounding another after both allegedly fired a shotgun at officers. Four bystanders suffered minor injuries from shotgun pellets. The confrontation took place just before clubs closed in the popular Lower Downtown area when officers on routine duty approached a fight, police said. (AP)

MINNEAPOLIS - Shots were fired during the Juneteenth festival, sending people scrambling for cover, and three people were wounded. No one was seriously injured, police said. The shots were fired at about 6:30 p.m. Saturday. (AP)

TEXARKANA - Sixty years after becoming the first black man to study law at a public university in the South, the late Silas Hunt got his degree from the University of Arkansas. Hunt died of tuberculosis before earning his law degree, the Texarkana Gazette reported Saturday. (AP)

NEW YORK - Americans gave about $306 billion to charities last year, about the same as the previous year, despite the housing-market and credit crises. A study released today by the Giving USA Foundation said donations by Americans to charities remained at 2.2 percent of gross domestic product in 2007. (AP)