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☆ Former astronaut Cunningham, member of first crewed Apollo flight, dies at age 90
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-03 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

[1/2] Astronaut Walter Cunningham, Apollo 7 lunar module pilot, is photographed during the Apollo 7 mission in this October 1968 NASA handout photo. NASA/Handout via Reuters/File PhotoWASHINGTON, Jan 3 (Reuters) - Former astronaut Walter Cunningham, who flew to space aboard Apollo 7 in 1968, part of the first crewed Apollo mission paving the way for 12 others to land on the moon in subsequent years, died on Tuesday at age 90, NASA said. Cunningham joined crewmates Walter Schirra and Donn Eisele for the successful 11-day mission, which was conducted in low-Earth orbit as the first human test flight of the new Apollo spacecraft that would later venture to the moon. Apollo 7 marked the resumption of NASA's lunar spaceflight program 21 months after the fire that killed all three members of the Apollo 1 crew during a ground-based launch rehearsal in late January 1967. "Walt Cunningham was a fighter pilot, physicist, and an entrepreneur – but, above all, he was an explorer," NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said in a statement announcing his death.

☆ Pioneering U.S. television journalist Barbara Walters dead at 93
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-31 | by ( Bill Trott | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +6 min

[1/2] Television personality Barbara Walters arrives for the premiere of the film "Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps" in New York September 20, 2010. "I asked Yeltsin if he drank too much, and I asked Putin if he killed anybody," Walters told the New York Times in 2013. "These two men were really quite brutal to me and it was not pleasant," Walters told the San Francisco Examiner. The New York Times called her "arguably America's best-known television personality" but also observed that "what we remember most about a Barbara Walters interview is Barbara Walters." Walters' three marriages - to businessman Robert Katz, theatrical producer Lee Guber and television executive Merv Adelson - ended in divorce.

☆ Factbox: Key facts about pioneering broadcast journalist Barbara Walters
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-31 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

WASHINGTON, Dec 30 (Reuters) - The following are key facts about the life and career of pioneering broadcast journalist Barbara Walters, the first woman to anchor an American network evening newscast, who died on Friday:* Walters was born in Boston on Sept. 25, but she did not like to reveal the year, which reportedly was 1929, 1930 or 1931. * Walters started at NBC's "Today" show as a writer in 1961 and in 1976 became the first woman to co-anchor a network evening news broadcast on U.S. television. * Walters singled out her "Today" co-host Frank McGee and Reasoner on ABC News for making her life miserable. * Walters felt she was unfairly mocked for her asking actress Katharine Hepburn what kind of tree she would like to be. * Walters' marriages to businessman Robert Katz, theatrical producer Lee Guber and television executive Merv Adelson all ended in divorce.

Poloncarz updated the death toll from the blizzard on Wednesday, reporting 37 deaths in Erie County, with one other storm-related fatality in neighboring Niagara County. The goal was to get at least one lane of traffic open on each street by Wednesday night, Poloncarz said. The mercury climbed above freezing on Wednesday, and forecasts called for the thaw to continue with spring-like temperatures and showers likely by week's end. "We're actually expecting a rapid melt over the next two days, because we're going to hit 50 degrees (Fahrenheit)," Poloncarz said. Showers and thunderstorms are expected in the Gulf Coast and lower Mississippi Valley, the weather service said.

"We're recovering from the worst storm I've ever seen, certainly in terms of death from mother nature's wrath," he said. Progress was slow due to the sheer volume and depth of the snow, which Poloncarz said "is not plowable." [1/7] A "let’s go Buffalo" sign is seen behind an abandoned car on the road following a winter storm in Buffalo, New York, U.S., December 27, 2022. New York Governor Kathy Hochul called it an "epic, once-in-a-lifetime" weather disaster, the worst blizzard to hit the Buffalo area in 45 years. Buffalo residents with plows attached to their Jeeps and pickup trucks helped clear side streets.

The toll of confirmed storm-related deaths climbed to 27 in Buffalo and the rest of Erie County on Monday, from 13 the night before. The fatalities included cases of people found in snow banks and in cars or who had died from cardiac stress while plowing or blowing snow, county executive Mark Poloncarz said. The greater Buffalo region, on the edge of Lake Erie near the Canadian border, was hardest hit. [1/9] An ambulance passes an abandon car during a winter storm that hit the Buffalo region, in Amherst, New York, U.S., December 26, 2022. She and local officials ranked it as the worst Buffalo-area snowstorm since a 1977 blizzard that killed nearly 30 people.

☆ Convicted ringleader in Michigan governor kidnapping plot faces sentencing
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-27 | by ( Steve Gorman | Industry Insight | Saw Law Firms Move Past The Pandemic Into A More Client-Focused Service Environment | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

Dec 27 (Reuters) - The convicted leader of a foiled plot by members of right-wing militia groups to kidnap Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer faces a possible life term in prison when he is sentenced on Tuesday in U.S. District Court. Co-defendant Barry Croft Jr., another member of the Three Percenters militia group, was convicted of the same charges at the same trial and was scheduled for sentencing on Wednesday. Fox and Croft were among 13 men arrested in October 2020 on state or federal crimes in the kidnapping conspiracy. The same jury failed to reach a verdict for Fox and Croft, resulting in a mistrial for them. Two other men who pleaded guilty to kidnapping conspiracy charges testified for the prosecution at the first federal trial and during the retrial of Fox and Croft about four months later.

Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz said the storm's confirmed death toll climbed to 13 on Sunday, up from three reported overnight in the Buffalo region. The latest victims included some found in cars and some in snow banks, Poloncarz said, adding that the death tally would likely rise further. New York Governor Kathy Hochul called it an "epic, once-in-a-lifetime" weather disaster that ranked as the fiercest winter storm to hit the greater Buffalo area since a crippling 1977 blizzard that killed nearly 30 people. RESCUING THE RESCUERSThe latest blizzard came nearly six weeks after a record-setting but shorter-lived lake-effect storm struck western New York. [1/9] A snow plow is left stranded on the road following a winter storm that hit the Buffalo region on Main St. in Amherst, New York, U.S., December 25, 2022.

☆ Deadly blizzard, deemed worst in 45 years, paralyzes greater Buffalo, N.Y.
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-26 | by ( Gabriella Borter | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

[1/3] Vehicles are left stranded on the road following a winter storm that hit the Buffalo region in Amherst, New York, U.S., December 25, 2022. The greater Buffalo region, lying at the edge of Lake Erie near the Canadian border was one of the hardest-hit places. The governor called it an "epic, once-in-a-lifetime" weather disaster that ranked as the fiercest winter storm to hit Buffalo, New York state's second-largest city, since a crippling 1977 blizzard that killed nearly 30 people. The latest blizzard, which initially overwhelmed emergency crews, came nearly six weeks after a record-setting but shorter-lived lake-effect storm struck western New York. He said one electrical substation knocked offline was sealed off by an 18-foot-tall mound of snow, and utility crews found the entire facility frozen inside.

☆ Santa Claus undaunted by arctic blast, U.S. military says
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-24 | by ( Keith Coffman | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

[1/2] The Royal Canadian Air Force's 22 Wing holds it’s annual NORAD Tracks Santa promotion at Canadian Forces Base (CFB) North Bay in North Bay, Ontario, Canada December 9, 2021. Corporal Rob Ouellette/Canadian Forces/Handout via REUTERSDENVER, Dec 24 (Reuters) - U.S. military officials have assured anxious children the arctic blast and snowstorm that wreaked havoc on U.S. airline traffic this week will not prevent Santa Claus from making his annual Christmas Eve flight. The Santa tracker tradition originated from a 1955 misprint in a Colorado Springs newspaper of the telephone number of a department store for children to call and speak with Santa. U.S. and Canadian fighter jet pilots provide a courtesy escort for him over North America, and Santa slows down to wave to them, he added. Reporting by Keith Coffman in Denver; Editing by Steve Gorman and Philippa FletcherOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ U.S. deep freeze forecast to break Christmas Eve records
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-24 | by ( Rich Mckay | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

Dec 24 (Reuters) - An arctic blast that has gripped much of the United States this week, disrupting daily life and holiday travel for millions of Americans, was expected to produce the coldest Christmas Eve on record in several cities from Pennsylvania to Florida. Temperatures are forecast to top out on Friday at just 8 degrees Fahrenheit (-13 Celsius) in Pittsburgh, the largest city in western Pennsylvania, surpassing its previous all-time coldest Christmas Eve high of 13 F, set in 1983, the National Weather Service (NWS) said. The capital cities of Florida and Georgia - Tallahassee and Atlanta - were likewise expected to record their coldest daytime Christmas Eve high temperatures, while Washington, D.C., was forecast to experience its chilliest Dec. 24 since 1906. Extreme winter weather was blamed for at least five deaths on Friday. The NWS said its map of existing or impending meteorological hazards "depicts one of the greatest extents of winter weather warnings and advisories ever."

As the storm took shape over the Great Lakes on Thursday, a weather phenomenon known as a bomb cyclone was likely to develop from a "rapidly deepening low-pressure" system, the National Weather Service (NWS) said. The cyclone could spawn snowfalls of a half inch (1.25 cm) per hour and howling winds from the Upper Midwest to the interior Northeast, producing near-zero visibility, the weather service said. "It's dangerous and threatening," President Joe Biden said at the White House, urging Americans with travel plans to not delay and to set off on Thursday. Hundreds of Texans died in February 2021 after the state's power grid failed amid wintry storms, leaving millions without electricity. Greg Carbin, chief of forecast operations at the NWS Weather Prediction Center in Maryland, said freezing or below-freezing cold would bisect central Florida, with temperatures about 25 degrees below normal.

With the deep freeze stretching from Montana to Texas as it crept eastward, some 240 million people - more than two-thirds of the U.S. population - were under winter weather warnings and advisories on Friday, the National Weather Service (NWS) said. The map of existing or impending wintry hazards "depicts one of the greatest extents of winter weather warnings and advisories ever," the NWS said. [1/5] A driver makes their way through a flooded street at high tide during a winter storm in Gloucester, Massachusetts, U.S., December 23, 2022. Their plight has added to local agencies scrambling to get people off the streets as the arctic blast arrived. While some areas downwind from the Great Lakes received a foot or more of snow on Friday, "the big story wasn't so much the falling snow but the blowing snow," weather service meteorologist Brian Hurley said.

☆ Deep freeze grips U.S. as winter 'bomb cyclone' looms ahead of holiday weekend
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-23 | by ( Steve Gorman | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

Numbing cold intensified by high winds was expected to extend as far south as the U.S.-Mexico border. The NWS map of existing or impending wintry hazards, stretching from border to border and coast to coast, "depicts one of the greatest extents of winter weather warnings and advisories ever," the agency said. The bomb cyclone could unleash snowfalls of a half inch (1.25 cm) per hour driven by gale-force winds, cutting visibility to near zero, the weather service said. Power outages were expected from high winds, heavy snow and ice, as well as the strain of higher-than-usual energy demands. The weather service said relief from the deep freeze was in sight for the northern Rockies and High Plains, where the arctic blast first materialized on Thursday.

☆ Crews work to restore running water, power to quake-rattled northern California
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-22 | by ( Steve Gorman | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

[1/5] CalTrans workers assess damage to a bridge after a strong 6.4-magnitude earthquake struck off the coast of northern California, in Rio Dell, California, U.S. December 20, 2022. Property inspections also continued a day after the quake, with at least 30 homes and a grocery store declared structurally unsafe from quake damage, officials said. Most of the damage occurred in the hard-hit town of Rio Dell, whose 3,400 residents remained without running water on Wednesday, the county sheriff's office reported. The cities of Eureka and Rio Dell have done likewise. On Tuesday night, California Governor Gavin Newsom declared a state of emergency for Humboldt County to support emergency response efforts there.

☆ University of California's striking academic workers begin vote on labor deal
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-20 | by ( Steve Gorman | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

The proposed contract agreement was hailed by union and university supporters as a landmark labor deal that would set a new national standard boosting wages and working conditions for graduate students employed at public universities. The walkout dragged on for weeks as the fall term drew to a close, disrupting final exams, study sessions and grading of papers throughout California's flagship university system. In terms of workers involved, it ranked as larger than any previous strike at a U.S. academic institution, union leaders said. Two other UAW locals negotiating on behalf of 12,000 post-doctoral scholars and researchers ratified a separate settlement and returned to work earlier this month. Reporting by Steve Gorman in Los Angeles; Editing by Muralikumar AnantharamanOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Father of accused Illinois gunman faces charges in July 4 parade mass shooting
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-17 | by ( Steve Gorman | Industry Insight | Saw Law Firms Move Past The Pandemic Into A More Client-Focused Service Environment | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

[1/3] Robert E. Crimo III's mother Denise Pesina and father Robert Crimo Jr. attend a hearing for their son in Lake County court, in Waukegan, Illinois, U.S., August 3, 2022. Rinehart declined to specify what knowledge the father had that should have dissuaded him from sponsoring his son's application. The alleged threat in September 2019 followed a prior incident in which police responded to an emergency call reporting that the younger Crimo had attempted suicide. The younger Crimo could not have legally applied for a FOID card in 2019 without a parent or guardian signing for him because he was under 21 at that time. But a state police officer later disregarded that report as based on "second-hand" information, so it was not a factor when the Crimo FOID application was later reviewed by state police.

☆ U.S. labor board region sides with USC athletes seeking 'employee' designation
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-16 | by ( Steve Gorman | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) director of the agency's Region 31 office issued a finding of merit in an unfair labor practice charge brought by the student athletes against USC, the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) and the Pac-12 athletic conference. The parties to the case were informed of the decision on Thursday, according to NLRB spokesperson Kayla Blado. read moreA separate case filed by college athletes in Indianapolis against the NCAA and others has been held in abeyance pending the outcome of the USC case. The judge's ruling could then be appealed to the full NLRB, which would render a decision as to whether USC, NCAA and Pac-12 are employers under labor law, and could order its own remedies. The National College Players Association, which brought the charges on behalf of 113 USC athletes, also could not be reached for comment.

☆ SpaceX rocket launches world's first global water survey mission
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-16 | by ( Steve Gorman | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

The upper stage of the two-stage rocket was expected to reach its initial orbit about 530 miles (850 km) above Earth within minutes. Its payload, the Surface Water and Ocean Topography satellite, or SWOT, incorporates advanced microwave radar technology to collect high-definition measurements of oceans, lakes, reservoirs and rivers over 90% of the globe. Components of the SUV-sized satellite were built primarily by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) and French space agency CNES. SWOT's ability to discern smaller surface features also will help study the impacts of rising ocean levels on coastal areas. Reporting by Steve Gorman in Los Angeles; Editing by Lisa Shumaker and John StonestreetOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Unexplained leak from docked Soyuz spacecraft cancels Russian ISS spacewalk
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-15 | by ( Steve Gorman | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Dec 14 (Reuters) - A routine spacewalk by two Russian cosmonauts aboard the International Space Station (ISS) was called off as it was about to begin after flight controllers noticed a stream of particles spewing from a docked Soyuz spacecraft, a NASA webcast showed. NASA said none of the seven members of the current International Space Station (ISS) crew - three Russian cosmonauts, three U.S. NASA astronauts and a Japanese astronaut - were thought to be in any danger. The spacewalk planned for Wednesday was postponed once before, in late November, because of faulty cooling pumps in the cosmonauts' spacesuits, Navias said. The spacewalk was to be the 12th this year at the ISS and the 257th in the history of the 20-year-old platform. Spacewalks are typically done for space station assembly, maintenance and upgrades, according to NASA.

[1/4] NASA's next-generation moon rocket, the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket with the Orion crew capsule, lifts off from launch complex 39-B on the unmanned Artemis 1 mission to the moon, seen from Sebastian, Florida, U.S. November 16, 2022. REUTERS/Joe Rimkus Jr.Dec 11 (Reuters) - NASA's uncrewed Orion capsule hurtled through space on Sunday on the final return leg of its voyage around the moon and back, winding up the inaugural mission of the Artemis lunar program 50 years to the day after Apollo's final moon landing. The gumdrop-shaped Orion capsule, carrying a simulated crew of three mannequins wired with sensors, was due to parachute into the Pacific at 9:39 a.m. PST (1739 GMT) near Guadalupe Island, off Mexico's Baja California peninsula. They were the last of 12 NASA astronauts to walk on the moon during a total of six Apollo missions starting in 1969. "It is our priority-one objective," NASA's Artemis I mission manager Mike Sarafin said at a briefing last week.

☆ Colorado shooting suspect's previous case dismissed for lack of witnesses, records show
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-09 | by ( Keith Coffman | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

[1/4] A person looks on at the flowers and mementos left at a memorial at Club Q after a mass shooting at the LGBTQ nightclub in Colorado Springs, Colorado, U.S. November 26, 2022. Allen said he wanted to counter what he called a "false narrative" about the 2021 case suggesting authorities did not pursue it or missed an opportunity to prevent the deadly shooting nearly three weeks ago. At Thursday's news conference, Allen said that after initially giving statements implicating Aldrich in the 2021 case, Aldrich's mother and grandparents testified on the suspect's behalf for a bail reduction. After the alleged victims declined to testify for the prosecution, the judge threw out the case, Allen said. A different rifle and handgun were recovered from the Club Q shooting.

☆ Man who shot Lady Gaga's dog walker in pet theft sentenced to 21 years
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-06 | by ( Steve Gorman | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

LOS ANGELES, Dec 5 (Reuters) - The man who shot and wounded Lady Gaga's dog walker during the theft of two of the singer's French bulldogs in Hollywood last year pleaded no contest to attempted murder on Monday and was immediately sentenced to 21 years in prison. Several other charges Jackson faced were dismissed in the plea deal, according to the Los Angeles City News Service (CNS). Another co-defendant, Harold White, pleaded no contest on Monday to a weapons charge and will be sentenced next year, prosecutors said. Two others, Jaylin White and Lafayette Whaley, each previously pleaded no contest to second-degree robbery, receiving sentences of four years and six years in prison, respectively. Reporting by Steve Gorman in Los Angeles; Editing by Leslie AdlerOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Colorado suspect set to be charged for LGBTQ club shooting that killed five
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-06 | by ( Keith Coffman | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

[1/2] Flowers, candles, and mementos are left at a memorial after a mass shooting at LGBTQ nightclub Club Q in Colorado Springs, Colorado, U.S. November 26, 2022. DowningDENVER, Dec 6 (Reuters) - The suspect in the fatal shooting of five people in a Colorado LGBTQ nightclub last month is set to be formally charged on Tuesday, potentially facing dozens of counts including murder, attempted murder, assault and hate crimes. Anderson Lee Aldrich, 22, has been held without bond at the El Paso County jail stemming from the Nov. 19 rampage at Club Q in Colorado Springs. Although authorities have not publicly identified a motive, the Colorado shooting was reminiscent of the 2016 Pulse nightclub massacre in Orlando, Florid, where a gunman killed 49 people before police shot him dead. If convicted of first-degree murder, Aldrich faces a mandatory life sentence without the possibility of parole.

[1/2] Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia, Mohammed bin Salman is pictured during his meeting with South Korea's President Yoon Suk-yeol in Seoul, South Korea, November 17, 2022. Bandar Algaloud/Courtesy of Saudi Royal Court/Handout via REUTERSNov 17 (Reuters) - The Biden administration has determined that Saudi Arabian Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has legal immunity from a lawsuit filed against him over the 2018 killing of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, the U.S. Department of Justice said in a court filing on Thursday. The prince has denied ordering Khashoggi's killing but acknowledged later that it took place "under my watch." Biden, who fist-bumped the crown prince on a visit to Saudi Arabia in July to discuss energy and security issues, had told Prince Mohammed that he considered him responsible for Khashoggi's killing. He had traveled to the Saudi consulate in Istanbul to obtain papers he needed to marry Hatice Cengiz, a Turkish citizen.

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