Episcopalians voting on gay marriage

SALT LAKE CITY — Episcopalians are set to vote Wednesday on allowing religious weddings for same-sex couples, just days after the U.S. Supreme Court legalized gay marriage nationwide.

In 2003, the denomination made the trailblazing move of electing the first openly gay Episcopal bishop. Since then, many dioceses have allowed their priests to perform civil same-sex weddings.

Still, the church hadn’t changed its own laws on marriage.

The vote on gay marriage is expected around midday in Salt Lake City at the denomination’s national assembly.

Source: Fire at black church wasn’t arson

GREELEYVILLE, S.C. — A fire that destroyed a black church that 20 years ago was a target of the Ku Klux Klan was not the work of an arsonist, a federal law enforcement source said Wednesday.

Preliminary indications are that the fire at the Mount Zion African Methodist Episcopal Church in Greeleyville was not intentionally set and was not arson, the source said. The official spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the case publicly. The fire is still under investigation, the official said.

Greeleyville is a town of about 400 people around 50 miles north of Charleston, where a pastor and eight members of a historic black church were fatally shot June 17 in what authorities are investigating as a hate crime.

The fire occurred as federal authorities also investigate a series of fires at black churches in several Southern states.

Man in wheelchair robs bank in NYC

NEW YORK — It may not have been the fastest getaway, but police are searching for a man in a wheelchair who robbed a bank in New York City.

It happened at the Santander Bank in Queens shortly after 2 p.m. Monday.

Police say a man in his late 20s and wearing a grey hoodie wheeled into the bank and passed a note to the teller demanding cash. After receiving over $1,200 in bills, police say the suspect then fled westbound on Broadway in the wheelchair.

He remains at large.