Bad connectors likly to delay Atlantis liftoff
HOUSTON — The space shuttle Atlantis’ mission to the international space station is likely to be pushed back a few more days or weeks as engineers study problems with electrical connectors in the spaceship’s external fuel tank, a top NASA manager said Thursday.
Failures of shuttle fuel gauges — part of a critical safety system — forced launch delays earlier this month.
NASA had been aiming for a Jan. 10 liftoff of Atlantis with a European lab for the space station. But shuttle program manager Wayne Hale indicated last week that the launch probably would be delayed after a test pointed to a bad connector.
On Thursday, Hale said it would probably take a few days or weeks to pinpoint and solve the problem.
Illegal immigrants now ineligible for Michigan driver’s licenses
LANSING, Mich. — Illegal immigrants are ineligible for driver’s licenses, Michigan’s attorney general said Thursday in an opinion that affects one of the few states that have been granting licenses to undocumented residents.
Attorney General Mike Cox’s opinion is legally binding on state agencies and officers unless reversed by the courts. It was not immediately known how soon any changes would take place or what the opinion means for illegal immigrants with currently valid licenses.
Michigan law prohibits the secretary of state from issuing a driver’s license to a nonresident. Cox, a Republican, said it would be inconsistent with federal law to regard an illegal immigrant as a permanent resident in Michigan.
Cox cited national-security concerns, but the American Civil Liberties Union of Michigan contends his opinion could actually make the state less secure.
“It drives them further underground,” executive director Kary Moss said of illegal immigrants. “If they have licenses, then the state knows about them and has information about them. If there’s no form of state recognition, it’s essentially a much more invisible population.”
Teen highway sniper gets 42 years
BROWNSTOWN, Ind. — A teenager who pleaded guilty to killing one man and wounding another in a series of 2006 Indiana highway sniper shootings was sentenced Thursday to 42 years in prison.
Defense attorneys tried to portray 18-year-old Zachariah Blanton as troubled and the victim of teasing, but the judge said his emotional problems were no excuse for killing someone he’d never met.
Prosecutors said Blanton fired his hunting rifle into Interstate 65 traffic on July 23, 2006, from an overpass about 60 miles south of Indianapolis, killing 40-year-old Jerry L. Ross of New Albany.
An Iowa man traveling in another pickup truck also was injured.
Digital billboards to air FBI’s most-wanted
CLEVELAND — The FBI’s most-wanted bank robbers, violent criminals and terrorists will soon appear on 150 digital billboards in 20 cities nationwide.
The agency has teamed up with Phoenix-based Clear Channel Outdoor to begin airing mug shots following a successful test run in Philadelphia that led to several arrests.
“We’ll target very violent, dangerous fugitives,” said Scott Wilson, spokesman for the Cleveland FBI office.
Cleveland, Atlanta, Indianapolis, Los Angeles and Newark, N.J., are among the cities where the advertising company has electronic billboards along major roadways.
The company is donating the eight-second spots, which will also feature photographs of missing children.
