Tag: United States government

Atlanta house fire kills 2 during gas leak in front yard

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ATLANTA — An Atlanta house fire killed two people over the weekend and the National Transportation Safety Board is investigating, the agency announced Sunday.

The fire involved natural gas, according to a tweet from the NTSB, which investigates pipeline mishaps.

A fire department statement said crews responded to a northwest Atlanta home around 8:30 a.m. on Dec. 3, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported. Atlanta Fire Rescue Department officials said a gas leak was found in the front yard after crews extinguished the heavy blaze.

Other news reports said Atlanta Gas Light, the largest natural gas distributor in the Southeast, attributed the cause of the fire to the leak. Fire officials said the origins were still under investigation.

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December 4, 2022
Pentagon debuts its new stealth bomber, the B-21 Raider

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PALMDALE , Calif. — America’s newest nuclear stealth bomber made its debut Friday after years of secret development and as part of the Pentagon’s answer to rising concerns over a future conflict with China.

The B-21 Raider is the first new American bomber aircraft in more than 30 years. Almost every aspect of the program is classified.

As evening fell over the Air Force’s Plant 42 in Palmdale, the public got its first glimpse of the Raider in a tightly controlled ceremony. It started with a flyover of the three bombers still in service: the B-52 Stratofortress, the B-1 Lancer and the B-2 Spirit. Then the hangar doors slowly opened and the B-21 was towed partially out of the building.

“This isn’t just another airplane,” Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said. “It’s the embodiment of America’s determination to defend the republic that we all love.”

The B-21 is part of the Pentagon’s efforts to modernize all three legs of its nuclear triad, which includes silo-launched nuclear ballistic missiles and submarine-launched warheads, as it shifts from the counterterrorism campaigns of recent decades to meet China’s rapid military modernization.

China is on track to have 1,500 nuclear weapons by 2035, and its gains in hypersonics, cyber warfare and space capabilities present “the most consequential and systemic challenge to U.S. national security and the free and open international system,” the Pentagon said this week in its annual China report.

”We needed a new bomber for the 21st Century that would allow us to take on much more complicated threats, like the threats that we fear we would one day face from China, Russia, ” said Deborah Lee James, the Air Force secretary when the Raider contract was announced in 2015.

While the Raider may resemble the B-2, once you get inside, the similarities stop, said Kathy Warden, chief executive of Northrop Grumman Corp., which is building the bomber.

“The way it operates internally is extremely advanced compared to the B-2, because the technology has evolved so much in terms of the computing capability that we can now embed in the software of the B-21,” Warden said.

Other changes include advanced materials used in coatings to make the bomber harder to detect, Austin said.

“Fifty years of advances in low-observable technology have gone into this aircraft,” Austin said. “Even the most sophisticated air defense systems will struggle to detect a B-21 in the sky.”

Other advances likely include new ways to control electronic emissions, so the bomber could spoof adversary radars and disguise itself as another object, and use of new propulsion technologies, several defense analysts said.

“It is incredibly low observability,” Warden said. “You’ll hear it, but you really won’t see it.”

Six Raiders are in production. The Air Force plans to build 100 that can deploy either nuclear weapons or conventional bombs and can be used with or without a human crew. Both the Air Force and Northrop also point to the Raider’s relatively quick development: The bomber went from contract award to debut in seven years. Other new fighter and ship programs have taken decades.

The cost of the bombers is unknown. The Air Force previously put the price at an average cost of $550 million each in 2010 dollars — roughly $753 million today — but it’s unclear how much is actually being spent. The total will depend on how many bombers the Pentagon buys.

“We will soon fly this aircraft, test it, and then move it into production. And we will build the bomber force in numbers suited to the strategic environment ahead,” Austin said.

The undisclosed cost troubles government watchdogs.

“It might be a big challenge for us to do our normal analysis of a major program like this,” said Dan Grazier, a senior defense policy fellow at the Project on Government Oversight. “It’s easy to say that the B-21 is still on schedule before it actually flies. Because it’s only when one of these programs goes into the actual testing phase when real problems are discovered.” That, he said, is when schedules start to slip and costs rise.

The B-2 was also envisioned to be a fleet of more than 100 aircraft, but the Air Force built only 21, due to cost overruns and a changed security environment after the Soviet Union fell. Fewer than that are ready to fly on any given day due to the significant maintenance needs of the aging bomber.

The B-21 Raider, which takes its name from the 1942 Doolittle Raid over Tokyo, will be slightly smaller than the B-2 to increase its range, Warden said. It won’t make its first flight until 2023. However, Warden said Northrop Grumman has used advanced computing to test the bomber’s performance using a digital twin, a virtual replica of the one unveiled Friday.

Ellsworth Air Force Base in South Dakota will house the bomber’s first training program and squadron, though the bombers are also expected to be stationed at bases in Texas and Missouri.

U.S. Sen. Mike Rounds, a Republican of South Dakota, led the state’s bid to host the bomber program. In a statement, he called it “the most advanced weapon system ever developed by our country to defend ourselves and our allies.”

Northrop Grumman has also incorporated maintenance lessons learned from the B-2, Warden said.

In October 2001, B-2 pilots set a record when they flew 44 hours straight to drop the first bombs in Afghanistan after the Sept. 11 attacks. The B-2 often does long round-trip missions because there are few hangars globally that can accommodate its wingspan, which limits where it can land for maintenance. The hangars also must be air-conditioned because the Spirit’s windows don’t open and hot climates can cook cockpit electronics.

The new Raider will also get new hangars to accommodate its size and complexity, Warden said.

However, with the Raider’s extended range, ’it won’t need to be based in-theater,” Austin said. “It won’t need logistical support to hold any target at risk.”

A final noticeable difference was in the debut itself. While both went public in Palmdale, the B-2 was rolled outdoors in 1988 amid much public fanfare. Given advances in surveillance satellites and cameras, the Raider was just partially exposed, keeping its sensitive propulsion systems and sensors under the hangar and protected from overhead eyes.

“The magic of the platform,” Warden said, “is what you don’t see.”

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Follow the AP’s coverage of the Air Force at https://apnews.com/hub/air-force.

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This story has been corrected to show the B-2 rollout was in 1988, not 1989.

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December 2, 2022
Report: No altitude advice before Dallas air show crash

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DALLAS — Just before a midair collision that killed six at a Dallas air show, a group of historic fighter planes was told to fly ahead of a formation of bombers without any prior plan for coordinating altitude, according to a federal report released Wednesday. The report did not give a cause of the crash.

A P-63 Kingcobra fighter was banking left when it struck a B-17 Flying Fortress bomber behind the left wing during the Nov. 12 air show featuring World War II-era planes, the National Transportation Safety Board said in its preliminary findings. All six people aboard the planes — the pilot of the fighter and the bomber’s pilot, co-pilot and three crew members — died as both aircraft broke apart in flight, with the bomber catching fire and then exploding on impact.

There had been no coordination of altitudes in briefings before the flight or while the planes were in the air, the NTSB said. The report said that the Kingcobra was the third in a formation of three fighters and the B-17 was the lead of a five-ship bomber formation.

Eric Weiss, an NTSB spokesperson, said the agency is trying to determine the sequence of maneuvers that led to the crash. It is also examining whether such air shows normally have altitude deconfliction plans.

“Those are precisely the types of questions our investigators are asking,” Weiss said. “What was the process? What’s the correct process? And what happened?”

John Cox, a former airline captain with more than 50 years’ experience, was surprised that the NTSB found there wasn’t an altitude deconfliction brief before or during the flight. He said these take place in other air shows, but he’s not certain whether they’re standard for the Commemorative Air Force, which put on the Wings over Dallas show.

A person familiar with the show’s operations that day said the air crews were given general altitude direction in their morning pre-show briefing. However, there was not a discussion of specific altitudes for each pass the aircraft were going to perform, said the person, who was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly and did so on condition of anonymity.

Typically fighters fly above bombers, and when a group is called to make a pass that could put planes at the same or nearly the same altitudes, they maintain a lateral separation from each other, the person said. In general, the person continued, it’s the responsibility of the air boss to set out a plan for maintaining either vertical or lateral separation.

Wings Over Dallas was the group’s last show of the season, the person said.

The NTSB said the fighter formation had been told by the air boss to proceed to a line that was 500 feet (152 meters) from where the audience was lined up at Dallas Executive Airport, while the bomber formation was told to fly 1,000 feet (304 meters) from the audience viewing area.

The NTSB said a navigation device on the bomber “contained position information relevant to the accident” but a device on the fighter didn’t record during the flight.

The Commemorative Air Force, which put on the show for Veterans Day, said Wednesday that they’re continuing to work with the NTSB and are grateful for that agency’s “diligence in looking into anything that could have been a factor to cause the accident.” The group said they can’t speculate on the crash’s cause.

The Commemorative Air Force previously identified the victims as: Terry Barker, Craig Hutain, Kevin “K5” Michels, Dan Ragan, Leonard “Len” Root and Curt Rowe.

All the men were volunteers who had gone through a strict process of logging hours and training flights and were vetted carefully, Hank Coates, CEO of Commemorative Air Force, said after the crash.

Cox said the planes were flown by experienced pilots and that it’s “virtually certain” the pilot of the smaller, more maneuverable fighter didn’t see the bomber. He said understanding how this happened will be a central challenge for investigators.

“What happened for two pilots of this skill level to end up in the same airspace at the same time?” said Cox, the founder of Safety Operating Systems, which helps smaller airlines and corporate flight services around the world with safety planning.

The air show collision came three years after the crash of a bomber in Connecticut that killed seven, and amid ongoing concern about the safety of shows involving older warplanes.

The B-17, a cornerstone of U.S. air power during World War II, is an immense four-engine bomber that was used in daylight raids against Germany. The Kingcobra, a U.S. fighter, was used mostly by Soviet forces during the war. Most B-17s were scrapped at the end of World War II and only a handful remain today, largely featured at museums and air shows, according to Boeing.

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Associated Press writer Tara Copp in Washington contributed to this report.

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Follow AP’s full coverage of plane crashes: https://apnews.com/hub/plane-crashes

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November 30, 2022
US Medal of Honor recipient Hiroshi Miyamura dies at 97

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PHOENIX, Ariz. — Hiroshi “Hershey” Miyamura, the son of Japanese immigrants who was awarded the U.S. Medal of Honor for holding off an attack to allow an American squad to withdraw during the Korean War, has died.

The Congressional Medal of Honor Society announced that Miyamura died Tuesday at his home in Phoenix. He was 97.

Born in Gallup, New Mexico, Miyamura’s parents operated a 24-hour diner near the Navajo Nation where the family interacted with the diverse population of miners and travelers who passed along Route 66.

Miyamura’s mother died when he was 11 and his father never talked about Japan, Miyamura said in later interviews. He would earn the nickname “Hershey” because a teacher couldn’t pronounce his first name.

Miyamura worked as an auto mechanic during high school. He joined the U.S. Army late in World War II after the federal government lifted restrictions on Japanese Americans serving. Miyamura was allowed to join the 442nd Infantry Regiment, composed almost entirely of “nisei” — those born in the U.S. to parents who were Japanese immigrants.

After the war, Miyamura met Terry Tsuchimori, a woman from a family who had been forced to live at the Poston internment camp in southwestern Arizona following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. They married in 1948 and had three children.

Miyamura continued to serve in the Army Reserves and was called into action during the Korean War.

On the night of April 24, 1951, near Taejon-ni, Miyamura’s company came under attack by an invading Chinese force. Miyamura ordered his squad to retreat while he stayed behind and continued to fight, giving his men enough time to evacuate.

Miyamura and fellow squad leader Joseph Lawrence Annello, of Castle Rock, Colorado, were captured. Though wounded, Miyamura carried the injured Annello for miles until Chinese soldiers ordered him at gunpoint to leave Annello by the side of a road. Miyamura refused the orders until Annello convinced him to put him down.

Annello was later picked up by another Chinese unit and taken to a POW camp, from which he escaped.

Miyamura was held as a prisoner for two years and four months.

Upon his release, he was presented the Medal of Honor by President Dwight D. Eisenhower. It had been awarded in secret while he was still a prisoner of war.

“I never ever thought I would receive the Medal of Honor for doing my duty, which I thought that’s all I was doing, was my duty,” Miyamura said in the 2018 Netflix documentary “Medal of Honor.”

Miyamura and Annello later met up and remained lifelong friends. Annello died in 2018.

After the Korean War, Miyamura returned to Gallup as a hero. More than 5,000 people came to meet his train. He spent much of the rest of his life working in town as an auto mechanic.

In his Living History documentary in the Congressional Medal of Honor Society library, Miyamura reflected on the soldiers who deserved recognition but never received it.

“There are so many Americans who don’t know what the Medal represents or what any soldier or servicewoman or man does for his country. And I believe one of these days — I hope one of these days — they will learn of the sacrifices that a lot of the men and women have made for this country,” he said.

Miyamura remained active in veterans’ issues and gave annual summer lectures to military members in Gallup, New Mexico. The talks drew hundreds of servicemen and servicewomen over the years.

In 2019, an aide announced that Miyamura had likely given his last public talk due to declining health.

New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham and Navajo Nation Vice President Myron Lizer both called Miyamura a hero, saying he will be missed by many who are forever grateful for his service.

Miyamura is survived by numerous family members. Funeral arrangements are pending.

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November 30, 2022
Raimondo: US isn’t seeking to sever economic ties with China

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WASHINGTON — The United States isn’t seeking to sever economic ties with China — even as Washington takes steps to protect America’s technological and military prowess from Beijing, U.S. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo said.

Speaking to reporters in advance of a speech Wednesday on the Biden administration’s China policy, Raimondo said: “We’re not seeking the decoupling from China. We want to promote trade and investment in areas that don’t threaten our core economic and national security interests or compromise human rights values.’’

Relations between the world’s two biggest economies have chilled over the last decade, partly because the communist government in Beijing has cracked down on dissent in Hong Kong and on Muslims in the northwestern region of Xinjiang.

President Donald Trump imposed massive taxes on Chinese imports in a dispute over the strong-arm tactics — including the alleged theft of trade secrets — that Beijing has used to challenge America’s edge in technology.

The Biden administration has kept Trump’s tariffs and has stepped up a campaign to keep the Chinese from acquiring sensitive technology that could speed its military buildup. Most notable was the decision last month to block exports of advanced computer chips to China.

The administration has also sought to make the United States more competitive by investing in infrastructure and pouring more than $50 billion into the semiconductor industry.

For years, Raimondo said, the United States “pursued a policy of engagement with China,’’ hoping that Beijing would open its economy to foreign competition.

“But China took a different path,’’ she said. “China’s leaders have made it very clear they don’t plan to pursue political and economic reform and opening. Instead, they are committed to increasing the role of the state in the Chinese society and economy, constraining the free flow of capital and information. Further, they’re accelerating their efforts to fuse their economic and technology policies with their military ambitions.’’

The result, she said, was that “interdependence with China introduces significant new risks for our national security.’’

But Raimondo rejected the idea that the United States should seek to isolate its economy completely from China’s.

“We need to continue to do business with China,’’ she said. “Trade with China supports American jobs.’’

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November 30, 2022
San Francisco may allow police to deploy robots that kill

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SAN FRANCISCO — Police in San Francisco could get the ability to deploy potentially lethal, remote-controlled robots in emergency situations if supervisors of the politically Democratic city grant permission Tuesday in a highly watched board vote.

Police oversight groups are urging the 11-member San Francisco Board of Supervisors to reject the idea, saying it would lead to further militarization of a police force already too aggressive with poor and minority communities. They said the parameters under which use would be allowed are too vague.

The San Francisco Police Department said it does not have pre-armed robots and has no plans to arm robots with guns. But the department could deploy robots equipped with explosive charges “to contact, incapacitate, or disorient violent, armed, or dangerous suspect” when lives are at stake, SFPD spokesperson Allison Maxie said in a prepared statement.

“Robots equipped in this manner would only be used in extreme circumstances to save or prevent further loss of innocent lives,” she said.

The proposed policy does not lay out specifics for how the weapons can and cannot be equipped, leaving open the option to arm them. “Robots will only be used as a deadly force option when risk of loss of life to members of the public or officers is imminent and outweighs any other force option available to SFPD,” it says.

The vote comes under a new California state law that requires police and sheriffs departments to inventory military grade equipment and seek approval for their use. San Francisco police currently have a dozen functioning ground robots used to assess bombs or provide eyes in low visibility situations, the department says. They were acquired between 2010 and 2017.

The state law was authored last year by San Francisco City Attorney David Chiu while he was an assemblymember. It is aimed at giving the public a forum and voice in the acquisition and use of military grade weapons that have a negative effect on communities, according to the legislation.

San Francisco police did not immediately respond to a question about how the robots were acquired, but a federal program has dispensed grenade launchers, camouflage uniforms, bayonets, armored vehicles and other surplus military equipment to help local law enforcement.

In 2017, then-President Donald Trump signed an order reviving the Pentagon program after his predecessor, Barack Obama, curtailed it in 2015, triggered in part by outrage over the use of military gear during protests in Ferguson, Missouri, after the shooting death of Michael Brown.

Like many places around the U.S., San Francisco is trying to balance public safety with treasured civilian rights such as privacy and the ability to live free of excessive police oversight. In September, supervisors agreed to a trial run allowing police to access in real time private surveillance camera feeds in certain circumstances.

Dissenting supervisors said they were astonished that a city that cherished its activism, diversity and privacy would even consider giving such powers to law enforcement.

The San Francisco Public Defender’s office sent a letter Monday to the board saying that granting police “the ability to kill community members remotely” cuts against San Francisco’s progressive values. The public defender’s office would like the board to reinstate language prohibiting the police from using robots in a show of force against any person.

The Oakland Police Department across the San Francisco Bay dropped a similar proposal after public backlash.

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November 29, 2022
India, US armies hold exercises close to China border

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AULI, India — Indian and U.S. troops on Tuesday participated in a high-altitude training exercise in a cold, mountainous terrain near India’s disputed border with China, at a time both countries are trying to manage rising tensions with Beijing.

During the exercise, Indian soldiers were dropped from helicopters to flush out gunmen from a house in a demonstration of unarmed combat skills. Other drills involved sniffer dogs and unmanned bomb-disposing vehicles, and trained kites were deployed to destroy small enemy drones.

“Overall, it has been a great learning experience. There has been sharing of best practices between both the armies,” said Brig. Pankaj Verma of the Indian Army.

The annual drills took part around Auli, a hill station in the northern state of Uttarakhand. The U.S. troops came from the 2nd Brigade of the 11th Airborne Division, and their Indian counterparts were members of the army’s Assam Regiment.

India’s Defence Ministry has said the exercise will focus on surveillance, mountain-warfare skills, casualty evacuation and combat medical aid in adverse terrain and climatic conditions. It will also include humanitarian assistance, disaster relief, and operations related to peacekeeping, it said.

The “Yudh Abhyas” exercise has alternated between the U.S. and India since it began in the early 2000s. It was held in Alaska last year.

Earlier editions had taken place elsewhere in northern India, but this year’s exercise is being held only about 100 kilometers (62 miles) from the Line of Actual Control, a disputed border that separates Chinese and Indian-held territories.

India and China fought a war along the border in 1962. The latest dispute flared in June 2020, when at least 20 Indian soldiers and four Chinese troops were killed in a brawl in the Ladakh region. It led to the two countries stationing tens of thousands of soldiers backed by artillery, tanks and fighter jets along the Line of Actual Control.

Some Indian and Chinese soldiers have pulled back from a key friction point but tensions between the two countries have persisted.

The exercise also reflects the strengthening defense ties between India and the U.S. They have steadily ramped up their military relationship and signed a string of defense deals and deepened military cooperation. In recent years, relations have been driven by a convergence of interests to counter China.

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November 29, 2022
Virginia Rep. McEachin dies at 61 after cancer battle

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WASHINGTON — U.S. Rep. A. Donald McEachin, D-Va., died Monday after a battle with colorectal cancer, his office said. He was 61.

Tara Rountree, McEachin’s chief of staff, said in a statement late Monday: “Valiantly, for years now, we have watched him fight and triumph over the secondary effects of his colorectal cancer from 2013. Tonight, he lost that battle.”

McEachin represented Virginia’s 4th Congressional District, which includes part of Richmond and extends south to the North Carolina border. He was reelected to a fourth term earlier this month.

Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., released a statement saying: “Up until the very end, Don was a fighter. Even though he battled cancer and faced other trials in recent years, he never lost his focus on social and environmental justice. Tonight, Virginia has lost a great leader and I have lost a great friend.”

Rep. Gerry Connelly, D-Va., called McEachin an “environmentalist, civil rights advocate, faithful public servant, and a man of consequence. There was no better ally to have.”

Richmond TV station WTVR said McEachin is survived by his wife, Richmond Commonwealth’s Attorney Colette McEachin, and their three adult children.

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November 28, 2022
Biden eases Venezuela sanctions as opposition talks resume

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WASHINGTON — The Biden administration on Saturday eased some oil sanctions on Venezuela in an effort to support newly restarted negotiations between President Nicolás Maduro’s government and its opposition.

The Treasury Department is allowing Chevron to resume “limited” energy production in Venezuela after years of sanctions that have dramatically curtailed oil and gas profits that have flowed to Maduro’s government. Earlier this year the Treasury Department allowed the California-based Chevron and other U.S. companies to perform only basic upkeep of wells it operates jointly with state-run oil giant PDVSA.

Under the new policy, profits from the sale of energy would be directed to paying down debt owed to Chevron, rather than providing profits to PDVSA.

Talks between the Maduro government and the “Unitary Platform” resumed in Mexico City on Saturday after more than a yearlong pause. It remained to be seen whether they would take a different course from previous rounds of negotiations that have not brought relief to the political stalemate in the country.

A senior U.S. administration official, briefing reporters about the U.S. action under the condition of anonymity, said that easing the sanctions was not connected to the administration’s efforts to boost global energy production in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and that the decision was not expected to impact global energy prices.

The official said the U.S. would closely monitor Maduro’s commitment to the talks and reserved the right to reimpose stricter sanctions or to continue to ease them depending on how the negotiations proceed.

“If Maduro again tries to use these negotiations to buy time to further consolidate his criminal dictatorship, the United States and our international partners must snap back the full force of our sanctions that brought his regime to the negotiating table in the first place,” said Democratic Sen. Bob Menendez of New Jersey, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, in a statement.

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November 26, 2022
‘Miracle’: Missing cruise ship passenger found OK in water

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NEW ORLEANS — The U.S. Coast Guard says a passenger who went overboard from a cruise ship in the Gulf of Mexico was rescued on Thanksgiving after likely being in the water for hours.

The 28-year-old man was reported missing at noon Thursday while the vessel, the Carnival Valor, was heading to Cozumel, Mexico. According to Carnival Cruise Line, the man was with his sister at a bar on Carnival Valor Wednesday at 11 p.m. and went to use the restroom. His sister reported him missing the next day after the man did not return to his stateroom.

The Coast Guard launched search and rescue crews Thursday afternoon and alerted nearby ships to be watchful.

Coast Guard Lt. Seth Gross said a cargo ship later saw a person in the water about 20 miles (32 kilometers) south of Southwest Pass, Louisiana, and the mouth of the Mississippi River. Gross said the man confirmed he was the missing cruise ship passenger after he was hoisted into a helicopter about 8:25 p.m. Thursday.

“He appeared to be suffering from mild hypothermia, shock, dehydration, but his condition overall appeared stable,” Gross told WWL-TV, adding the man was taken for medical care.

Gross called the rescue “a miracle especially on a holiday like Thanksgiving.”

In a statement, Carnival said: “We greatly appreciate the efforts of all, most especially the U.S. Coast Guard and the mariner who spotted the guest in the water.”

The man’s name has not been released.

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November 25, 2022
NASA’s Orion capsule enters far-flung orbit around moon

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CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — NASA’s Orion capsule entered an orbit stretching tens of thousands of miles around the moon Friday, as it neared the halfway mark of its test flight.

The capsule and its three test dummies entered lunar orbit more than a week after launching on the $4 billion demo that’s meant to pave the way for astronauts. It will remain in this broad but stable orbit for nearly a week, completing just half a lap before heading home.

As of Friday’s engine firing, the capsule was 238,000 miles (380,000 kilometers) from Earth. It’s expected to reach a maximum distance of almost 270,000 miles (432,000 kilometers) in a few days. That will set a new distance record for a capsule designed to carry people one day.

“It is a statistic, but it’s symbolic for what it represents,” Jim Geffre, an Orion manager, said in a NASA interview earlier in the week. “It’s about challenging ourselves to go farther, stay longer and push beyond the limits of what we’ve previously explored.”

NASA considers this a dress rehearsal for the next moon flyby in 2024, with astronauts. A lunar landing by astronauts could follow as soon as 2025. Astronauts last visited the moon 50 years ago during Apollo 17.

Earlier in the week, Mission Control in Houston lost contact with the capsule for nearly an hour. At the time, controllers were adjusting the communication link between Orion and the Deep Space Network. Officials said the spacecraft remained healthy.

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The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

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November 25, 2022
Woman dies on hike in Utah’s Zion Park, husband hospitalized

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SPRINGDALE, Utah — A woman died and a man was rescued and treated for hypothermia after they were caught in extreme cold weather while hiking in Utah’s Zion National Park, officials said.

The married couple were on a permitted, 16-mile (25-kilometer) hike through the park area known as the Narrows, the National Park Service said in a statement Thursday.

The woman, 31, and the man, 33, were not identified by the park service.

The Zion National Park Search and Rescue Team responded on Wednesday morning after shuttle drivers said visitors reported an injured man and a non-responsive woman in the Narrows, the park service said.

The rescue team found the man on a trail being helped by other hikers and transported him to the Zion Emergency Operations Center for treatment. Rescuers moved further up the Narrows and found the woman near the Virgin River. They administered emergency aid but determined the woman had died, the park service said.

The couple started their trip through the Narrows on Tuesday. They stopped about 1.5 miles (2.4 kilometers) from the north end of Riverside Walk, a paved trail. The man told rescuers they became “dangerously cold” overnight and experienced symptoms consistent with hypothermia, the park service said.

Early on Wednesday morning, the man sought help and the woman remained in place. Other visitors administered CPR to the woman before the rescue team arrived, the park service said.

The Washington County Sheriff’s Office, Utah Office of the Medical Examiner and the park service are investigating the cause of the woman’s death.

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November 25, 2022
Correction: Colorado Springs Shooting-Heroes story

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In a story published Nov. 22, 2022, about a shooting at a gay nightclub in Colorado Springs, The Associated Press erroneously reported the rank of U.S. Navy Information Systems Technician Thomas James

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. — In a story published Nov. 22, 2022, about a shooting at a gay nightclub in Colorado Springs, The Associated Press erroneously reported the rank of U.S. Navy Information Systems Technician Thomas James. He is a Petty Officer, Second Class, not an officer.

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November 23, 2022
Fed at last meeting saw few signs that inflation was easing

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WASHINGTON — Federal Reserve officials at their last meeting saw “very few signs that inflation pressures were abating” before raising their benchmark interest rate by a substantial three-quarters of a point for a fourth straight time.

Rising wages, the result of a strong job market, combined with weak productivity growth, were “inconsistent” with the Fed’s ability to meet its 2% target for annual inflation, the policymakers concluded, according to the minutes of their Nov. 1-2 meeting released Wednesday.

But they also agreed that smaller rate hikes “would likely soon be appropriate.″ The Fed is widely expected to slow its rate hikes to a half-point increase when it next meets in mid-December.

At their meeting early this month, the Fed officials also expressed uncertainty about how long it might take for their rate hikes to slow the economy enough to tame inflation. Chair Jerome Powell stressed at a news conference after this month’s meeting that that the Fed isn’t even close to declaring victory in its fight to curb high inflation.

Still, some of the policymakers expressed hope that falling commodity prices and the unsnarling of supply chain bottlenecks “should contribute to lower inflation in the medium term.’’ Earlier this month, the government reported that price increases moderated in October in a sign that the inflation pressures might be starting to ease. Consumer inflation reached 7.7% in October from a year earlier and 0.4% from September. The year-over-year increase was the smallest rise since January.

Wednesday’s minutes revealed that Fed officials expected ongoing rate increases to be “essential’’ to keep Americans from expecting inflation to continue indefinitely. When people expect further high inflation, they act in ways that can make those expectations self-fulfilling — by, for example, demanding higher wages and spending vigorously before prices can further accelerate.

The Fed officials noted that employers were resisting layoffs even as the economy slowed, apparently “keen” to hold onto workers after a year and a half of severe labor shortages. The U.S. unemployment rate is 3.7%, just above a half-century low.

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November 23, 2022
Wife of Texas man killed by police in Arizona settles suit

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PHOENIX — The widow of an unarmed Texas man fatally shot by police outside his suburban Phoenix hotel room in 2016 has agreed to settle her wrongful death lawsuit.

A notice of settlement filed Tuesday in federal court in Arizona shows that Laney Sweet, the wife of Daniel Shaver, and her two children will receive $8 million from the city of Mesa.

A probate court has approved the settlement’s terms and appointed a temporary conservator.

In exchange, all of Sweet’s legal claims will be dismissed with prejudice.

In a statement released by her attorneys, Sweet acknowledged the settlement will help her family financially. But “no amount of money can undo the transgressions that cruelly removed Daniel from his family’s lives forever.”

“This settlement does nothing to cure the blatant lack of accountability by all involved since the night of Daniel’s death, which stands as an irredeemable blight on the criminal justice system,” Sweet said.

Spokeswomen for the city of Mesa and the Mesa Police Department declined to comment Wednesday.

Sweet first filed a lawsuit in 2017 against both parties seeking $75 million in damages. She contended Shaver had not provoked the killing and it could have been avoided if officers had investigated more.

The city settled with Shaver’s parents in a similar lawsuit last year for an undisclosed amount.

In January 2016, Mesa police officers went to the hotel after getting a call that someone there was pointing a gun out a window.

They ordered Shaver, 26, from Granbury, Texas, to exit his hotel room, lie face-down in a hallway and refrain from making sudden movements — or he risked being shot.

Then-Officer Philip Brailsford shot Shaver as the man lay on the ground outside his hotel room and was ordered to crawl toward officers.

Brailsford was charged with murder in Shaver’s death, but a jury acquitted him of the charge.

Although no gun was found on Shaver’s body, two pellet rifles related to his pest-control job were later found in his room.

The detective investigating the shooting had agreed Shaver’s movement was similar to reaching for a pistol, but has said it also looked as though Shaver was pulling up his loose-fitting basketball shorts that had fallen down as he was ordered to crawl toward officers.

Mesa initially fired Brailsford, but he was later rehired to apply for a pension and then took medical retirement.

The U.S. Department of Justice opened a civil rights violation investigation against Brailsford. In March 2018, the Mesa Police Department revealed the DOJ had subpoenaed the department for all documents about the shooting.

The investigation is still ongoing, according to Sweet and her attorneys who called for the DOJ to “swiftly proceed.”

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November 23, 2022
Woman gets 20 years for bilking Chinese in $26M hotel fraud

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LOS ANGELES — A woman who bilked investors in a Southern California hotel and condominium project out of at least $26 million was sentenced Monday to 20 years in federal prison.

Ruixue “Serena” Shi, 38, of Arcadia was sentenced after a judge refused to allow her to withdraw her plea last year to wire fraud.

“There has been no acceptance of responsibility; there has been a denial of responsibility,” U.S. District Judge R. Gary Klausner said, according to a press release from the U.S. Department of Justice.

Prosecutors said that from late 2015 to mid-2018, Shi was the general manager of a real estate company based in China that had a Los Angeles office. She solicited investments, mainly from Chinese investors, in a 207-unit luxury complex to be built in the city of Coachella, in the desert southeast of Los Angeles.

In reality, Shi spent much of the money on luxury cars, travel, clothing, dining and shopping, prosecutors said. That included $800,000 at a “full-service styling agency” in Beverly Hills, prosecutors said.

“While her victims suffered financial ruin and psychological torment, (Shi) was living large off their investments,” prosecutors said in a sentencing document.

In court statements, more than two dozen victims submitted statements.

“Several discussed their reliance on Shi’s false promises that their investments would assist them in securing visas to immigrate to the United States. One victim even wrote that, after losing his retirement savings to Shi’s scheme, he ‘even contemplated suicide,’ the Department of Justice statement said.

In addition to prison time, Shi was ordered to pay $35.8 million in restitution.

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November 21, 2022
NASA capsule buzzes moon, last big step before lunar orbit

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CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — NASA’s Orion capsule reached the moon Monday, whipping around the far side and buzzing the lunar surface on its way to a record-breaking orbit with test dummies sitting in for astronauts.

It’s the first time a capsule has visited the moon since NASA’s Apollo program 50 years ago, and represents a huge milestone in the $4.1 billion test flight that began last Wednesday.

Video of the looming moon and our pale blue planet more than 230,000 miles (370,000 kilometers) in the distance left workers “giddy” at Houston’s Johnson Space Center, home to Mission Control, according to flight director Judd Frieling. Even the flight controllers themselves were “absolutely astounded.”

“Just smiles across the board,” said Orion program manager Howard Hu.

The close approach of 81 miles (130 kilometers) occurred as the crew capsule and its three wired-up dummies were on the far side of the moon. Because of a half-hour communication blackout, flight controllers in Houston did not know if the critical engine firing went well until the capsule emerged from behind the moon. The capsule’s cameras sent back a picture of the Earth — a tiny blue dot surrounded by blackness.

The capsule accelerated well beyond 5,000 mph (8,000 kph) as it regained radio contact, NASA said. Less than an hour later, Orion soared above Tranquility Base, where Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin landed on July 20, 1969. There were no photos of the site because the pass was in darkness, but managers promised to try for pictures on the return flyby in two weeks.

Orion needed to slingshot around the moon to pick up enough speed to enter the sweeping, lopsided lunar orbit. Another engine firing will place the capsule in that orbit Friday.

This coming weekend, Orion will shatter NASA’s distance record for a spacecraft designed for astronauts — nearly 250,000 miles (400,000 kilometers) from Earth, set by Apollo 13 in 1970. And it will keep going, reaching a maximum distance from Earth next Monday at nearly 270,000 miles (433,000 kilometers).

The capsule will spend close to a week in lunar orbit, before heading home. A Pacific splashdown is planned for Dec. 11.

Orion has no lunar lander; a touchdown won’t come until NASA astronauts attempt a lunar landing in 2025 with SpaceX’s Starship. Before then, astronauts will strap into Orion for a ride around the moon as early as 2024.

Mission manager Mike Sarafin was delighted with the progress of the mission, giving it a “cautiously optimistic A-plus” so far.

The Space Launch System rocket — the most powerful ever built by NASA — performed exceedingly well in its debut, Sarafin told reporters. He said teams are dealing with two issues that require workarounds — one involving the navigational star trackers, the other the power system,

The 322-foot (98-meter) rocket caused more damage than expected, however, at the Kennedy Space Center launch pad. The force from the 8.8 million pounds (4 million kilograms) of liftoff thrust was so great that it tore off the blast doors of the elevator, leaving it unusable.

Sarafin said the pad damage will be repaired in plenty of time before the next launch.

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The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

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November 21, 2022
Navy SEAL wins appeal of sentence in soldier’s hazing death

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NORFOLK, Va. — A military appeals court has ordered a new sentencing hearing for a U.S. Navy SEAL who got 10 years in prison for his role in the hazing death of a U.S. Army Green Beret while the men served in Africa.

Prosecutors failed to disclose that a U.S. Marine who testified against the SEAL — and who participated in the hazing — had asked for clemency in exchange for his testimony, the court ruled. The SEAL’s defense attorneys missed the chance to question the Marine about a “potential motive to misrepresent events.”

The United States Navy-Marine Corps Court of Criminal Appeals published the ruling last week, nearly two years after Tony DeDolph received his decade-long punishment.

DeDolph, a Wisconsin native, was a member of the elite SEAL Team 6. He was one four American servicemembers — two SEALs and two Marines — who were charged in the death of Army Staff Sgt. Logan Melgar, a Texas native.

The hazing occurred in 2017 while the men served in Mali. Charging documents don’t state why they were there. But U.S. Special Forces had been in Africa to support and train local troops in their fight against extremists.

The case offered a brief window into how some of America’s most elite servicemembers have addressed grievances outside the law.

DeDolph testified during his 2021 court-martial that the four men were trying to get back at Melgar and teach him a lesson over perceived slights. In particular, some were upset that they missed a party at the French Embassy in the capital city of Bamako because Melgar and the others got separated in traffic.

DeDolph said they plotted an elaborate prank for Melgar known as as a “tape job.” That included binding Melgar with duct tape, applying a choke hold to temporarily knock him out and then showing Melgar a video of the incident sometime later.

DeDolph said his role in the prank was to cause Melgar to temporarily lose consciousness by placing him in a martial-arts-style chokehold. DeDolph said the “rear naked choke” restricts blood flow in the neck and is used in the military.

“I effectively applied the chokehold as I have done numerous times in training,” DeDolph said.

Melgar lost consciousness in about 10 seconds, but failed to wake up after the typical 30 seconds, DeDolph testified.

“Usually by that time, the individual has gotten up,” DeDolph said. “And he did not.”

DeDolph pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter and hazing, among other charges. A sentencing hearing followed, during which one of the Marines testified on behalf of the government. The appeals court used a synonym to identify the Marine in its ruling.

The Marine’s role in the hazing included raising the mosquito netting around Melgar’s bed and binding his arms and legs with tape, the appeals court wrote. The Marine offered a detailed account of the assault, including the methods that DeDolph used to render Melgar unconscious.

DeDolph’s attorneys knew that the Marine had already pleaded guilty to charges that included negligent homicide and hazing, while agreeing to testify against DeDolph, the court wrote. But DeDolph’s attorneys were unaware that the Marine was also requesting less prison time, specifically two years instead of the four he got.

“The fact that (the Marine) sought additional clemency … in exchange for his testimony is clearly information that tended to demonstrate (his) bias, and bore on his credibility,” the appeals court wrote. DeDolph’s attorneys were denied the opportunity to examine the Marine’s potential bias and whether he had a “motive to exaggerate his testimony.”

The Marine’s sentence was later reduced from four years confinement to three years.

“(T)here is a reasonable possibility that the outcome of the trial would have been affected by the disclosure of the clemency request,” the court wrote.

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November 21, 2022
4 drowned, 5 missing from capsized boat off Florida Keys

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MARATHON, Fla. — At least four people are believed to have drowned and rescuers were searching for another five people off the Florida Keys after a homemade vessel capsized during a failed migration attempt, authorities said Sunday.

The U.S. Coast Guard said nine people were rescued and the body of one person was recovered Saturday after the boat capsized about 50 miles (80 kilometers) from Little Torch Key, Florida.

Some of those rescued were wearing life jackets which likely saved their lives in the waves that hit as high as 8 feet (2.4 meters) amid 30 mph (48 kph) winds, the Coast Guard said in a tweet.

The Coast Guard did not immediately say from where the people on the boat were migrating.

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November 20, 2022
4 die outside Seattle after Alaska company’s plane crashes

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SNOHOMISH, Wash. — Four people were killed in a fiery plane crash Friday morning northeast of Seattle, authorities said Saturday.

The single-engine Cessna 208B crashed in a field, the Federal Aviation Administration said, not too far from a small airport near Snohomish. The four deaths were reported after the wreckage of the plane owned by an Alaska company was searched with the help of the Snohomish County Medical Examiner’s Office, Sheriff’s Office spokesperson Courtney O’Keefe told The Seattle Times. First responders initially reported Friday that two people had died.

The FAA has yet to give other details about the plane but according to aviation tracking website Flight Aware, a Cessna 208B with identifier number N2069B departed Renton Airport at around 9:25 a.m. and then appears to have crashed near U.S 2 at around 10:20 a.m. The highway was temporarily closed after the collision.

The aircraft was N2069B owned by Copper Mountain Aviation of Alaska, according to the FAA website.

A flight route map shows the plane flew north and completed several circles near Everett before descending 5,100 feet (1,1554 meters) near U.S. 2.

The names of the people who died haven’t been released. Authorities have said their identities would be released later by the county Medical Examiner’s Office.

The FAA and the National Transportation Safety Board are investigating.

Drone footage and photos posted by Fox News 13 show the badly burned wreckage in a field next to an irrigation ditch.

People had tried to fight the fire using handheld extinguishers, but were unsuccessful because of the “large volume of fire,” Snohomish Fire District 4 said Friday. Officials said the plane was difficult to access because of the “terrain, vegetation and irrigation canals.”

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November 19, 2022