SpaceX’s Falcon 9 blasts off
Compiled from news services
LOSANGELES — A SpaceX rocket carried 10 communications satellites into orbit from California on Sunday, two days after the company successfully launched a satellite from Florida.
The Falcon 9 rocket blasted off through low-lying fog at 1:25 p.m. PDT from Vandenberg Air Force Base northwest of Los Angeles. It carried a second batch of new satellites for Iridium Communications, which is replacing its orbiting fleet with a next-generation constellation of satellites.
About 7 minutes after liftoff, the rocket’s first-stage booster returned to earth and landed on a floating platform on a ship in the Pacific Ocean, while the rocket’s second stage continued to carry the satellites toward orbit.
Democrats offer platform
Democrats have been losing elections by not offering voters a bold economic agenda, and the party plans to change that by releasing a platform within a month that won’t be “baby steps,’’ Senate Minority Leader Leader Charles E. Schumer said Sunday.
Congressional Democrats will try to pass the plan legislatively over the next year –– a remote possibility given Republican control of Congress –– and will campaign on it during the 2018 midterm elections, Mr. Schumer, D-N.Y., said on ABC’s “This Week.’’
“Democrats need a strong, bold, sharp-edged and common-sense economic agenda,’’ Mr. Schumer said. “Policy, platform, message that appeal to the middle class, that resonate with the middle class.’’
Crowd catches falling teen
QUEENSBURY,N.Y. — A teenager fell about 25 feet from a stopped gondola ride at an upstate New York amusement park Saturday night, tumbling into a crowd of park guests and employees gathered below to catch her before she hit the ground.
The unidentified 14-yearold girl from Greenwood, Del., was taken to Albany Medical Center in stable condition with no serious injuries, the Warren County Sheriff’s Office said.
The accident happened on the Sky Ride at Six Flags Amusement Park, about 55 miles north of Albany, N.Y. Video posted online of the accident shows her dangling from the green gondola as a crowd gathers below her, before she loses her grip and falls.
“They’ll catch you, honey! Go ahead,” a man yells as the girl falls and bystanders applaud the crowd who caught her. She’s then carried off.
It’s not clear yet how she slipped under the safety bar.
Trump accuses Clinton
In the wake of a bombshell story about Russia’s meddling in the 2016 U.S. presidential election — and persistent allegations that President Donald Trump’s campaign may have colluded with Russia to win — Mr. Trump took to Twitter Sunday morning to accuse someone else of collusion: his Democratic rival, Hillary Clinton.
Ms. Clinton, he charged, had colluded with the Democratic Party to defeat Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., in the Democratic primary race.
“Is she allowed to collude? Unfair to Bernie!” Mr. Trump tweeted, seemingly defending the senator just characters after calling him “Crazy Bernie Sanders.”
The initial responses to the early morning tweet ranged from baffled to indignant. There was a difference, several Twitter users pointed out, between working with one’s own political party and “working with a foreign enemy.”