15 of 17 stuck N.Y. miners rescuedLANSING, N.Y. — Emergency crews rescued 15 of 17 miners who were stuck for hours in an elevator 900 feet underground at a central New York salt mine that’s the deepest in the Western Hemisphere, officials said today.Mark Klein, a spokesman for Minneapolis-based Cargill, said efforts to rescue the two remaining miners were continuing. Klein said they were not in danger.Four miners were hoisted to the surface in a basket around 7 a.m. at the Cayuga Salt Mine.Four more miners were rescued in the same manner about 30 minutes later, and another seven were brought to the surface by 8:30 a.m., Klein said.Klein said the elevator — large enough to accommodate a forklift — got stuck around 10 p.m. Wednesday while descending to the floor of the 2,300-foot-deep mine. Workers were able to communicate via radio with the miners, who had blankets, heat packs and other supplies lowered to them.

Sheriff tells armed group to ‘go home’BURNS, Ore. — Cheers erupted at a packed community meeting in rural Oregon when a sheriff said it was time for a small, armed group occupying a national wildlife refuge to “pick up and go home”The group objecting to federal land policy seized buildings at the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge on Saturday. Authorities have not yet moved to remove the group of roughly two dozen people, some from as far away as Arizona and Michigan.“I’m here today to ask those folks to go home and let us get back to our lives,” Harney County Sheriff David Ward said Wednesday.Group leader Ammon Bundy has told reporters they will leave when there’s a plan in place to turn over federal lands to locals.

Health law repeal sent to ObamaWASHINGTON — The GOP-led Congress sent legislation to President Barack Obama Wednesday repealing his signature health law, fulfilling a promise to Republican voters in a presidential election year but inviting a certain veto.The nearly party-line vote in the House was 240-181. The legislation already passed the Senate last year under special rules protecting it from Democratic obstruction, so it goes straight to the White House.Republicans boasted of a signal achievement, saying they were forcing Obama to face up to the failures of his law while illustrating the stark political choices voters face.