LA’s new firefighter not human
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LOS ANGELES -- The Los Angeles Fire Department introduced its newest firefighter Tuesday, a chunky, low-slung little gadget on wheels that despite its humble appearance can blast out 2,500 gallons of water a minute, go where it's not safe for humans to tread and, in a pinch, even rescue a horse. The bright yellow machine, which evokes some images of a "Star Wars" droid but without the beeps and burps, is nicknamed RS3. That's short for Robot Solution 3. "The Los Angeles Fire Department is the first in our country to acquire this amazing piece of new equipment," Chief Ralph Terrazas told onlookers before before turning RS3 loose in a sprawling parking lot adjacent to the department's downtown training center. The chief said he became aware of the value of firefighting robots when he saw one nicknamed Colossus on the news last year as it rumbled into the bowels of Paris' Notre Dame Cathedral to take up the fight after human firefighters had to flee the building as the roof threatened to collapse. Colossus was widely credited with helping save both lives and the building. As Capt. Jason Ortiz ordered RS3 around with a device strapped to his waist that resembled a big video game controller, the robot blasted a fierce steam of water high into the air, shoved an old junked car out of its way and rumbled over a pile of debris as it dragged a pair of huge fire hoses behind it. During a fire, Ortiz said, RS3 can recognize his commands from a quarter mile away. Terrazas said it will not only be able to rush into a burning building, but push debris out of its way as it does so, opening a path later for its fellow human firefighters. On a freeway, it can push a car out of the way to get to a burning tanker truck. In a pinch, it can even rescue a horse trapped in a ditch. To accomplish that latter task, firefighters must now call in a helicopter to lift the horse to safety. With its strength and its off-road capability, RS3 can simply walk the animal out to safety, saving time and money. RS3 cost $278,000, with the non-profit Los Angeles Fire Department Foundation picking up the tab.
NASA has moonshot rules
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- NASA's new moonshot rules: No fighting and littering. And no trespassing at historic lunar landmarks like Apollo 11's Tranquility Base. The space agency released a set of guidelines Tuesday for its Artemis moon-landing program, based on the 1967 Outer Space Treaty and other agreements. So far, eight countries have signed these so-called Artemis Accords. Founding members include the U.S., Australia, Canada, Italy, Japan, Luxembourg, United Arab Emirates and the United Ki Rule No. 1: Everyone must come in peace. Other rules: secrecy is banned, and all launched objects need to be identified and registered; all members agree to pitch in with astronaut emergencies space systems must be universal so everyone's equipment is compatible, and scientific data must be shared;l historic sites must be preserved, and any resulting space junk must be properly disposed; rovers and other spacecraft cannot have their missions jeopardized by others getting too close. Violators could be asked to leave. The coalition can say, "Look, you're in this program with the rest of us, but you're not playing by the same rules," Bridenstine said. Russia is still on the fence. The country's space agency chief, Dmitry Rogozin, said at an International Astronautical Congress virtual meeting Monday that the Artemis program is U.S.-centric and he would prefer a model of cooperation akin to the International Space Station. China, meanwhile, is out altogether. NASA is prohibited under law, at least for now, from signing any agreements with China.
Ex-candidate held in 1984 killing
DENVER -- A former Idaho gubernatorial candidate has been indicted in the murder of Jonelle Matthews, a 12-year-old girl who went missing in Colorado after a holiday concert in 1984, officials said Tuesday. Steve Pankey ran as a Constitution Party candidate for governor in 2014 and as a Republican in the 2018 primary. He contacted the Idaho Statesman in September 2019 to tell his side of the story, fearing a possible arrest. Pankey lived near Jonelle's family when she disappeared. His family attended church with hers, but at different times. He said those are the only connections he has to her or her family. An autopsy by the medical examiner found that Jonelle died from a single gunshot wound to her forehead. Pankey faces several charges including the murder and kidnapping of Jonelle.
Barrett bats away Democrats
WASHINGTON -- Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett batted away Democrats' skeptical questions Tuesday on abortion, health care and a possible disputed-election fight over transferring presidential power, insisting in a long and lively confirmation hearing she would bring no personal agenda to the court but decide cases "as they come." The 48-year-old appellate court judge declared her conservative views with often colloquial language, but refused many specifics. She declined to say whether she would recuse herself from any election-related cases involving President Donald Trump, who nominated her to fill the seat of the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg and is pressing to have her confirmed before the the Nov. 3 election. "Judges can't just wake up one day and say I have an agenda -- I like guns, I hate guns, I like abortion, I hate abortion -- and walk in like a royal queen and impose their will on the world," Barrett told the Senate Judiciary Committee during its second day of hearings. "It's not the law of Amy," she said. "It's the law of the American people." Barrett returned to a Capitol Hill mostly locked down with COVID-19 protocols, the mood quickly shifting to a more confrontational tone from opening day. She was grilled by Democrats strongly opposed to Trump's nominee yet unable to stop her. Excited by the prospect of a judge aligned with the late Antonin Scalia, Trump's Republican allies are rushing ahead to install a 6-3 conservative court majority for years to come. A frustrated Sen. Dianne Feinstein, the top Democrat on the panel, all but implored the nominee to be more specific about how she would handle landmark abortion cases, including Roe v. Wade and the follow-up Pennsylvania case Planned Parenthood v. Casey, which confirmed it in large part. "It's distressing not to get a good answer," Feinstein told the judge. Barrett was unmoved. "I don't have an agenda to try to overrule Casey," she said. "I have an agenda to stick to the rule of law and decide cases as they come."
AG told 911 he hit 'something'
SIOUX FALLS, S.D. -- South Dakota Attorney General Jason Ravnsborg told a 911 dispatcher that he had hit "something" in the middle of the road the night he struck and killed a pedestrian, according to a recording of a 911 call authorities released Tuesday. When a 911 dispatcher asked if could have been a deer, Ravnsborg said at first, "I have no idea" before adding "it could be." The 911 recording was released as state officials gave an update into the ongoing investigation into the Sept. 12 crash, in which the attorney general killed Joseph Boever, 55. Officials said a toxicology report taken roughly 15 hours after the crash showed no alcohol in Ravnsborg's system. But even someone who had been drinking heavily would not have alcohol show up in their system 15 hours later, according to Ernest Lykissa, the lab director of a toxicology lab in Texas called ExperTox. Investigators, including a Wyoming crash reconstruction expert and the North Dakota Bureau of Criminal Investigation, are looking into the circumstances surrounding the crash and making a forensic map of the crash scene. A preliminary autopsy report showed Boever died from extensive traumatic injuries from the crash, but a complete report will take several weeks to complete, Secretary of Public Safety Craig Price said. The family of Boever has questioned how Ravnsborg could have mistaken a man for a deer, especially in a state where collisions with deer are a common hazard to driving rural highways.
Tech hitches ride to space
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin space company launched a New Shepard rocket for a seventh time from a remote corner of Texas on Tuesday, testing new lunar-landing technology for NASA that could help put astronauts back on the moon. The entire flight -- barely skimming space with a peak altitude of 66 miles -- lasted just 10 minutes. The booster landed vertically back at the launch complex after liftoff, and the capsule followed, parachuting onto the desert floor. The capsule carried science experiments, including 1.2 million tomato seeds that will be distributed to schoolchildren around the U.S. and Canada, and tens of thousands of children's postcards with space-themed drawings that will be returned to the young senders. NASA's navigation equipment for future moon landings was located on the booster. The sensors and computer -- tested during the booster's descent and touchdown -- will hitch another suborbital ride with Blue Origin. It's all part of NASA's Artemis program, which aims to put the first woman and next man on the moon by 2024, a deadline imposed by the White House. Texas-based Southwest Research Institute had a magnetic asteroid-sampling experiment on board, as well as a mini rocket-fueling test. Led by Amazon founder Bezos, Washington state-based Blue Origin is leading a team of companies to develop a lunar lander for astronauts. Elon Musk's SpaceX is also working on a lander, as is Alabama-based Dynetics. NASA chose three teams in this early phase of the Artemis moon-landing program to increase the chances of getting astronauts to the lunar surface by the end of 2024.
Two governors mentioned
GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. -- Members of anti-government paramilitary groups implicated in an alleged plot to kidnap Michigan's governor ahead of the November election because of her measures to slow the coronavirus also discussed abducting Virginia's governor, an FBI agent testified Tuesday. The disclosure came during a federal court hearing in Grand Rapids, where agent Richard Trask revealed new details about investigators' use of confidential informants, undercover agents and encrypted communication to thwart the purported scheme to abduct Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer. A judge ordered three of six men charged in the case held without bond until trial, delaying rulings on two defendants. Another was ordered returned to Michigan from Delaware. "They discussed possible targets, taking a sitting governor, specifically issues with the governor of Michigan and Virginia based on the lockdown orders" they had issued to deal with the pandemic, Trask said, referring to a June 6 meeting in Dublin, Ohio, attended by roughly 15 members of anti-government groups from "four or five states." A criminal complaint said at least two of the defendants were among them. It wasn't immediately clear if talk of targeting Virginia's Democratic governor, Ralph Northam, continued beyond the meeting. No has been charged with plotting against Northam.
Cut cable cuts online registration
RICHMOND, Va. -- An accidentally severed fiber optic cable shut down Virginia's online voter registration system for several hours Tuesday, the last day to register before the November general election, authorities said. The Virginia Department of Elections said in statement on Twitter that a "fiber cut" affected connectivity for multiple agencies, including the department's citizen portal and registrar's offices. The cable was inadvertently cut during a Chesterfield County roadside utilities project, according to the state's information technology agency. Six hours later, the Department of Elections issued a statement saying the portal was back online. But the fallout already included threats of legal action and concern that voters were being disenfranchised at a crucial moment. Voting advocates said the accident couldn't have come at a worse time and lambasted state officials for the technological failure. The day of the deadline is when many Virginians decide to register, particularly after being reminded on social media and in the news. The Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law and the Advancement Project are planning to file a lawsuit arguing that the state's voter registration deadline should be extended for 48 hours, according to committee spokesman Ian Weiner. And Democratic members of Virginia's congressional delegation had called for a 72-hour extension.
Delta posts $5.4 billion 3Q loss
The summer travel season was even worse than expected for Delta Air Lines, which said Tuesday that it lost $5.4 billion in the third quarter as people hunkered down at home during the pandemic. Delta officials pushed back their timetable for breaking even, from year-end to next spring, as their previous expectation that COVID-19 would be contained proved too rosy. The airline's shares fell almost 3% on Tuesday. However, Delta's executives said passengers are starting to return and bookings for Thanksgiving and Christmas are looking up. "It's slow, but it's steady -- week by week, they are coming back," CEO Ed Bastian said of passengers. Bastian said Delta plans to stop blocking middle seats in the first half of next year. That would reverse a policy that Delta has used to distinguish itself during the pandemic from its closest peers, American Airlines and United Airlines, who do not block seats. The number of people screened at U.S. airports is down 65% this month, compared with last October, but that's better than the 68% decline in September, the 71% drop in August and the 96% plunge in mid-April. Most of the people flying now are low-fare leisure travelers. Bastian said business travel is down 85% but that most corporate customers are putting at least a few employees back in the air. Bastian said video technology might replace some trips, and there could be a 10% to 20% drop "in the next couple of years when we get to that new normal of business travel." Some analysts found that troubling.
Soccer star Ronaldo tests positive
Cristiano Ronaldo has become the latest international soccer star to test positive for the coronavirus. The Portuguese soccer federation said Tuesday that Ronaldo was doing well and had no symptoms after he tested positive while with his country's national team. He was in isolation and was dropped from the country's Nations League match against Sweden on Wednesday in Lisbon. "Ronaldo is doing great. He is dealing very well with this," Portugal coach Fernando Santos said. "He is asymptomatic, he has no problems. He doesn't even know how this happened to him." Ronaldo, one of the most prolific goal scorers in the sport's history, played in the 0-0 draw at France in the Nations League on Sunday and in the 0-0 draw against Spain in a friendly last week. On Monday, the Juventus forward posted a photo on Twitter and Instagram showing him and the rest of the Portugal squad having a meal together. The players were all close to each other at a table, with a smiling Ronaldo apparently taking the photo himself at the front end.
Held in pregnant woman's slaying
IDABEL, Okla. -- A woman suspected of killing a pregnant woman and removing the baby from the victim's womb appeared in an Oklahoma courtroom Tuesday and waived extradition to Texas. Taylor Parker, 27, of Simms, Texas, appeared in McCurtain County District Court and agreed to be sent to Bowie County, Texas. Parker is wanted in Texas for the death of 21-year-old Reagan Simmons-Hancock, who was found dead Friday with her baby removed from her body. The baby also died. Simms was stopped by a Texas state trooper in DeKalb, Texas, on Friday and said she had given birth on the side of the road and that the baby was not breathing.
Holiday shopping in early start
NEW YORK -- Halloween is still weeks away, but retailers are hoping you'll start your holiday shopping now. The big push is coming from Amazon, which is holding its annual Prime Day sales event Tuesday and Wednesday, kickstarting the holiday shopping season. It's the first time Prime Day has been held in the fall, after the pandemic forced it to postpone from July. Walmart, Best Buy and Target are also offering online deals over the same two days, hoping to lure deal seekers. "Beat the holiday hustle," Amazon's site said on Tuesday. "Holiday savings start now," a message on Target.com said. There's good reason for the early start. Retailers are worried that a rush of online orders later could lead to shipping delays in November and December. And stores want to avoid big crowds inside their stores during the pandemic. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said shopping in crowded stores during Thanksgiving holiday weekend, when stores typically start their holiday deals, is a higher risk activity. Whether people will start shopping early remains to be seen. Market research firm eMarketer expects Amazon to bring in $9.9 billion in sales worldwide during the two-day event, up 43% from last year. Amazon hasn't released sales numbers for past Prime Days.