November 10, 1995
Web posted at: 9:45 p.m. EST
BROOKHAVEN, Mississippi (CNN) -- U.S. Representative Mike Parker is the latest in a string of representatives and senators to make the switch from Democrat to Republican. The four-term Mississippian announced the change Friday in his hometown.
"There are fewer and fewer conservative Democrats every year in Congress," he said. "I have not changed. I am still the same man I was before this switch."
Parker was joined on the steps of his district office by his family, Mississippi Gov. Kirk Fordice, and U.S. Sens. Thad Cochran and Trent Lott.
Johnnie Walls, chairman of the state Democratic Party, warned that party-switchers have not had an easy time in Mississippi.
"Mississippi voters have branded them as the turncoats that they are," Walls said. "People who cannot be trusted."
Parker's switch gives the Republicans a 234-198 majority in the House. One representative is an independent, and there are two vacancies.
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Arlington National Cemetery was the sight of a memorial Friday for the 749 U.S. soldiers and one sailor killed April 28, 1944, off Slapton Sands, England.
"Exercise Tiger" was designed as a dress rehearsal for the June 6, 1944, D-Day invasion of Normandy, but the operation turned deadly when German torpedoes attacked the participating U.S. fleet.
Exercise Tiger was one of World War II's best-kept secrets, essentially unheard of for 28 years. All involved, including survivors, were sworn to secrecy to avoid tipping off the Germans about the June 6 plans. All records were stamped "secret" and not made public until the Freedom of Information Act came into being in 1972.
FAYETTEVILLE, North Carolina (CNN) -- Three goats, kidnapped early Sunday from the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland, were handed over to a U.S. Army officer Friday for "repatriation" with Navy midshipmen, one of the kidnappers told CNN.
The goats, mascots for the U.S. Naval Academy, were taken as a prank planned by cadets of the U.S. Military Academy in West Point. There is a long tradition of such pranks leading up to the annual Army-Navy football game -- but this week's abduction was the first since 1991.
That year's heist -- an elaborate abduction of the Army's mule mascot that ended in a helicopter chase by New York State police -- resulted in a "memorandum of agreement" between the two academy's to cease the abductions.
BALTIMORE, Maryland (CNN) -- A huge fire in Baltimore's warehouse district was finally brought under control Friday morning. It started just after midnight and burned out of control for eight hours, causing an estimated $3 million in damage.
A warehouse and a complex housing 50 businesses were destroyed. Three firefighters suffered minor injuries. Investigators think homeless people may have set the fire while they tried to keep warm.
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- All U.S. Navy personnel will be taking a day off to shore up discipline in the wake of another sexual assault.
The Washington Post reported Thursday that a drunken petty officer groped a female sailor on a cross-country flight two weeks ago while 20 other sailors watched and did nothing.
The chief of naval operations has ordered a "stand down" for officers and enlisted men to attend seminars or group discussions on leadership and personal responsibility.
CNN has learned that the petty officer suspected in the recent assault was court martialed in 1992 on the same charges of drunk and disorderly conduct and indecent assault on a woman.
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