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MOJAVE, Calif. (AP) — For the second time in less than a week, there's been a commercial space explosion, this time a deadly one. A prototype of Virgin Galatctic's SpaceShipTwo blew up after being released from a carrier aircraft, killing one pilot and seriously injuring a second pilot. Debris from the tourism rocket ship came down about 120 miles north of Los Angeles in the Mojave desert.
WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — Heavy construction equipment is being used to take apart a building at a Wichita, Kansas, airport that was struck by a small plane after takeoff yesterday. The pilot and three people in a flight simulator inside the building were killed. Witnesses have told federal investigators the plane drifted to the left during takeoff and made a steep left bank before crashing.
NEW YORK (AP) — The NYPD's highest-ranking black official has abruptly resigned instead of taking a new post as first deputy commissioner. Chief Philip Banks III was to have been promoted Monday. Commissioner William Bratton cites "personal and professional factors." Banks had been mentioned as a possible successor to Ray Kelly before Bratton was selected. The position he was offered has been considered mostly ceremonial under previous administrations.
DENVER (AP) — A Colorado school superintendent says he'll keep disciplining students by placing them in isolated, 4-by-6-foot rooms to study during school hours. Center Consolidated School District Supt. George Welsh says the rooms are an alternative to expulsion and a way to reduce a high dropout rate. He says the dropout rate in the southern Colorado district has dropped from 13 percent to less than 2 percent last year.
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Tens of thousands of people have lined the streets of San Francisco to honor the city's World Series champions. The champs were covered with a steady drizzle mixed with clouds of orange, black and white confetti shot from sidewalk cannons. Many skipped work and pulled their children out of class against the pleas of local schools so they could catch what they described as a glimpse of history.
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