QUOTE OF THE DAY “I knew this research would be contentious.” Adam Liska, the lead author of a study showing that biofuels made from corn-harvest leftovers are worse than gasoline for global warming in the short term Article, this page‘Easter Dragon’ arrives at space station
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - Space station astronauts got an Easter treat: a cargo ship full of supplies.
The shipment arrived Sunday morning via SpaceX’s cargo ship, Dragon.
“Gentlemen, the Easter Dragon is knocking at the door,” NASA’s Mission Control said as the capsule was bolted into place.
After its launch from Cape Canaveral, the cargo ship spent two days chasing the International Space Station.
Astronauts used a robot arm to capture the capsule 260 miles above Egypt.
More than 2 tons of food, spacewalking gear and experiments, including mating fruit flies, filled the Dragon. NASA also packed family care packages for the six spacemen.
On Wednesday, the stakes will be even higher when the two Americans on the station conduct a spacewalk to replace a dead computer. NASA wants a reliable backup in place as soon as possible, even though the primary computer is working fine. The backup failed April 11.
Half siblings die after children cause fire
NEW YORK - A basement blaze that killed 4-year-old half siblings was accidentally set by children playing with fire, authorities said Sunday.
The twin of one of the children survived the blaze that was reported to authorities just before midnight Saturday in a two-story brick home in the Far Rockaway section of Queens.
Khalid Baylor, spokesman with the Fire Department of New York, said the fire was accidental, but he wouldn’t elaborate on what caused it.
Within minutes of police and firefighters arriving, the children were carried outside, and rescue workers tried to resuscitate them as neighbors watched.
Two 4-year-olds, a boy and a girl, were pronounced dead at St. John’s Episcopal Hospital. Police identified the boy as Jai’Launi Tinglin and the girl as Ayini Tinglin.
Their 4-year-old sister - Jai’Launi’s twin - was hospitalized in stable condition at St. John’s.
The children’s 63-year-old grandfather and a 55-year-old woman were listed in stable condition at other hospitals.
General Mills ditches online no-sue plan
NEW YORK - General Mills is scrapping a contentious plan to strip consumers of their right to sue the food company.
The company had posted a notice on its website notifying visitors of a change to its legal terms - visitors using its websites or engaging with it online in a variety of other ways would have to give up their right to sue.
Instead, the new terms said, people would need to have disputes resolved through informal negotiation or arbitration.
The Minnesota-based company’s decision was widely denounced on social media after The New York Times wrote a story Wednesday with the headline, “When ‘Liking’ A Brand Online Voids the Right to Sue.” The next day, General Mills clarified the meaning of its new terms to say they did not apply when people engaged with its brands on Facebook and Twitter.
The terms would apply in instances such as when people subscribed to one of its publications or downloaded its coupons from its websites, General Mills said.
But criticism of the company continued, and it issued another statement late Saturday saying it had decided to return to the previous legal terms.
Father ‘crushed’ that body is his son, 5
BOSTON - The father of a missing boy whose body was found off a Massachusetts highway said he was crushed to hear that his 5-year-old son’s remains had been identified.
Jose Oliver told the Boston Herald he was “lost, angry and crushed” when the medical examiner called to confirm the body found Friday was his son’s.
“I wasn’t hoping to find him like that - wrapped in a blanket in a suitcase on the side of a highway like he was an animal or something,” Jose Oliver said.
Jeremiah Oliver was last seen in September but wasn’t reported missing until December.
Before his body was found, Jeremiah’s case led to criminal charges against his mother and her boyfriend and calls for changes within the state’s child-welfare agency. Three workers were fired.
Jeremiah’s mother, Elsa Oliver, 28, pleaded innocent in March to charges including kidnapping, assault and battery with a dangerous weapon, and reckless endangerment. Her boyfriend, Alberto Sierra, 23, pleaded innocent to similar charges.
Front Section, Pages 3 on 04/21/2014