Astronauts prepare for rare spashdown
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- A pair of NASA astronauts face the final and most important part of their SpaceX test flight: returning to Earth in a rare splashdown.
Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken took part in a farewell ceremony Saturday at the International Space Station, several hours ahead of their planned departure on a SpaceX Dragon capsule.
Despite approaching Hurricane Isaias, NASA said the weather looks favorable for a splashdown todayin the Gulf of Mexico near Pensacola, Fla., the new prime site. It will be the first splashdown for astronauts in 45 years. The last time was after the joint U.S.-Soviet mission in 1975 known as Apollo-Soyuz.
The astronauts' homecoming will cap a two-month mission that ended a prolonged launch drought in the U.S., which has relied on Russian rockets to ferry astronauts to the space station since the end of the shuttle era.
In launching Hurley and Behnken from NASA's Kennedy Space Center on May 30, SpaceX became the first private company to send people into orbit. Now SpaceX is on the verge of becoming the first company to bring people back from orbit.
Missing service members hunt goes on
SAN DIEGO -- The search continued Saturday for eight U.S. service members missing after their landing craft sank in hundreds of feet of water off the Southern California coast following a deadly accident.
Helicopters and boats ranging from inflatables to a Navy destroyer were searching a roughly 200-square-mile area for seven Marines and a Navy corpsman.
They were aboard an amphibious assault vehicle that had just completed a training exercise when it began taking on water about a half-mile from Navy-owned San Clemente Island, off San Diego.
The 26-ton, tank-like craft quickly sank in hundreds of feet of water -- too deep for divers -- making it difficult to reach.
One of eight Marines rescued from the water later died.
All of the Marines aboard were attached to the 15th Marine Expeditionary Unit, based at nearby Camp Pendleton, north of San Diego. They all were wearing combat gear, including body armor and flotation vests, Lt. Gen. Joseph Osterman, commanding general of the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force, said last week.
Year's killings, shootings soar in Chicago
CHICAGO -- Homicides and shootings have surged in Chicago during the first seven months of the year.
From Jan. 1 through the end of July, there were 440 homicides in Chicago and 2,240 people shot, including many of those who died, according to statistics released Saturday by the Police Department.
There were 290 homicides and 1,480 shootings, including people who were killed, in the first seven months of 2019.
July was especially violent, as the city recorded 105 homicides and 584 shootings. Among them was a 9-year-old boy who was killed Friday when someone opened fire in the direction of a number of people, including him and his friends, according to police.
There were 308 shootings and 44 homicides in July 2019.
Despite the increase in violent crime, overall crime, which includes violent crimes, burglaries and thefts, was down 9% compared with the same period last year. The decrease was driven by a 26% decline in thefts and a 19% decline in sexual assaults, police said.
Suit over abortion clinic rules dropped
BATON ROUGE -- A Shreveport abortion clinic and two doctors who perform abortions have dropped their lawsuit challenging Louisiana's clinic-licensing regulations, after a federal appeals court questioned the legal approach.
The dismissal paperwork was filed in Baton Rouge federal court Wednesday with little attention, until abortion opponents hailed the ending of the lawsuit in statements Friday.
The decision by Hope Medical Group For Women and the two doctors listed as John Does to drop the lawsuit came after an October ruling from a three-judge panel of the 5th U.S. Circuit of Appeals. The judges said abortion-rights advocates lack standing to pursue many of their claims, and a lower court judge erred in allowing the entire case to proceed.
The clinic and doctors argued that Louisiana's entire regulatory and licensing structure for abortion clinics creates medically unjustified barriers to a legal medical procedure.
But the appeals panel said the lawsuit would have to disentangle each allegation to determine legal standing.
Attorney General Jeff Landry praised the ending of the lawsuit in a statement, calling it a "victory for Louisiana women." Benjamin Clapper, executive director of Louisiana Right to Life, also issued a statement applauding the dismissal and saying the lawsuit was "aimed at dismantling nearly every one of Louisiana's health and safety requirements related to abortion."
Jenny Ma, a lawyer at the Center for Reproductive Rights, said the abortion-rights organization continues to challenge several of the state's clinic regulations in a separate lawsuit.
-- Compiled by Democrat-Gazette staff from wire reports