NEWS OF THE DAY
From Across the Nation
1 Ship collision: The top two officers and the top enlisted sailor who were aboard the destroyer Fitzgerald are among about a dozen sailors who will face discipline after a collision June 17 that killed seven crew members, a senior Navy officer said Thursday. Adm. William Moran, the vice chief of naval operations, said at the Pentagon that most punishments will be delivered Friday. One sailor received an undisclosed administrative punishment. The discipline will include likely career-ending actions against Cmdr. Bryce Benson, the ship’s captain, and Cmdr. Sean Babbitt, Moran said. They and the senior enlisted sailor for the ship, Command Master Chief Brice Baldwin, will be removed as leaders of the ship permanently.
2 Birth control suit: A Tennessee sheriff and judge violated the constitutional rights of jail inmates by promising to reduce their sentences if they underwent birth control procedures, an ex-inmate says in a federal lawsuit. Mike Donovan, president of the group Nexus Services Inc., which is funding the lawsuit filed Wednesday in Nashville, said White County Sheriff Oddie Shoupe, Deputy Donna Daniels and Judge Sam Benningfield were “playing God” by offering inmates 30day sentence reductions in exchange for receiving free sterilization procedures. Donovan called it a policy of eugenics. The lawsuit says men were offered vasectomies and women were offered the birth control implant Nexplanon, which lasts three to five years.
3 Montana wildfires: A month-old wildfire flared up near western Montana community of Lolo, forcing the evacuation of hundreds more homes and devouring another large chunk of forest as the drought-stricken state struggles with one of its worst wildfire seasons in years. Fires burning across the West include one threatening 400 homes near an Oregon town within the path of Monday’s total solar eclipse and another near Yosemite National Park. More than 500 homes had been evacuated by Thursday morning, but additional evacuations were ordered in Missoula and Ravalli counties.
4 Record heat: Earth sweated to its second-hottest month in July since record-keeping began in 1880, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said Thursday. At 61.89 degrees, it was behind July 2016’s all-time record by .09 degrees. But Earth’s land temperatures in July were the hottest on record at 59.96 degrees, passing July 2016’s by oneseventh of a degree. Earlier this week, NASA calculated that July 2017 was a tad hotter than 2016, making it essentially a tie for all-time hottest month.
5 Huge jackpot: The Powerball jackpot has climbed to an estimated $510 million, making it one of the largest in U.S. history. No one matched all six numbers in Wednesday night’s drawing, so the national lottery game will continue to grow ahead of the next drawing Saturday night. At $510 million, the drawing would be the eighth-largest lottery jackpot, officials in Des Moines, Iowa, say. The odds of winning the jackpot are one in 292.2 million.