Microsoft plans 5-year Internet expansion
Microsoft is aiming to bring broadband Internet to millions of rural Americans within the next five years through what is now unused TV spectrum, the company announced Tuesday.
Microsoft’s ambitious plan, dubbed the Rural Airband Initiative, will invest in broadband connectivity alongside local telecom services. One of the partner telecom companies is CenturyLink, which is working on a broadband project in eastern Washington state, said Microsoft president and chief legal officer Brad Smith in an interview.
Right now, 23.4 million Americans in rural areas can’t get the fast internet access increasingly needed for tasks like homework, job applications, online medical treatment and remote repairs for farming equipment.
Air Force center explosion
The authorities said on Tuesday that they had taken a person of interest into custody as they continue to investigate an explosion outside an Air Force recruiting center in Bixby, Okla., a suburb of Tulsa.
The explosion occurred around 10:30 p.m. on Monday, and no injuries were reported, Jessi Rice, an FBI special agent, said. The center was closed at the time, she said, adding that the device that set off the explosion appeared to be a pipe bomb.
Photographs show the doors of the center bent and burned. Witnesses said someone on a red motorcycle tossed a backpack, which then exploded, Tulsa news station KJRH-TV reported.
Meredith Davis, a public information officer with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, said that it was too early to say whether the center was a target of domestic terrorism, but added that “anytime a military office, installation, or any representation thereof is targeted, you always have to keep that in the back of your mind.”
Soldier may be mentally ill
Clifford Kang, the father of a U.S. soldier arrested on terrorism charges, says his son may have post-traumatic stress disorder.
The FBI arrested Sgt. 1st Class Ikaika Kang in Hawaii over the weekend after a yearlong investigation. He made an initial appearance Monday in federal court.
Sgt. Kang’s court-appointed defense attorney, Birney Bervar, said it appears his client may suffer from service-related mental health issues of which the government was aware but neglected to treat.
A retired Army judge and prosecutor says he’s perplexed that the Army allowed Sgt. Kang to remain a soldier even after he made pro-Islamic State group comments.
Airliner nearly crashes
SANFRANCISCO — The pilot of an Air Canada plane carrying 140 passengers made a last-minute maneuver to avoid landing on a taxiway at San Francisco International Airport where four passenger jets were lined up to take off.
Federal officials said Tuesday they are investigating why the pilot mistakenly made his approach toward the taxiway instead of the runway just to the left. An air traffic controller ordered the Airbus 320 to abort and circle for another landing, which it did without incident Friday night.
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The National Rifle Association, criticized for its silence after a Twin Cities police officer was acquitted for killing permit-to-carry gun owner Philando Castile, has now responded to the verdict 3½ weeks later and said the death was a “tragedy that could have been avoided.”