NEWS OF THE DAY
From Across the Nation
_1 Elephant trophies: The Trump administration is lifting a federal ban on the importation of body parts from African elephants shot for sport. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service issued a written notice on Thursday saying that allowing elephants in Zimbabwe and Zambia to be killed will enhance the survival of the threatened species by raising money for conservation programs from wealthy trophy hunters who pay to shoot them. The change overrides a ban imposed during the Obama administration and applies to the remains of African elephants killed between January 2016 and December 2018.
_2 Space venture: The Pentagon is hiring Richard Branson to launch satellites into orbit. His Long Beach-based Virgin Orbit space company announced Thursday that it had won its first military contract: a demonstration flight that would carry “technology demonstration satellites” for the Air Force by early 2019. For years, Branson’s Virgin Galactic has been focused on flying tourists to the edge of space where they’d experience a few minutes of weightlessness and glimpse the Earth from a distance for $250,000 a ticket. But recently, his space venture has moved in another direction — launching small satellites, a market that many think could be large and lucrative as satellite technology continues to improve.
_3 Tainted officers: A judge in Chicago has thrown out the convictions of 15 men who say a corrupt Chicago police sergeant manufactured evidence that sent them to prison. Cook County prosecutors made the request Thursday as 10 of the men stood before Judge Leroy Martin Jr. It was the latest chapter in a scandal that resulted in former Sgt. Ronald Watts’ 2013 conviction for extorting money from drug dealers. State’s attorney spokesman Robert Foley says the office’s conviction-integrity unit is looking into dozens of other cases and identified a pattern suggesting “corrupt activity” involving Watts and “members of his crew.”
_4 Keystone oil spill: TransCanada Corp.’s Keystone pipeline leaked an estimated 210,000 gallons of oil onto agricultural land in northeastern South Dakota, the company and state regulators said Thursday, but state officials don’t believe the leak polluted any surface water bodies or drinking water systems. Crews shut down the pipeline and activated emergency response procedures after a drop in pressure was detected resulting from the leak south of a pump station in Marshall County. The cause was being investigated. Discovery of the leak comes just days before Nebraska regulators are scheduled to announce their decision Monday whether to approve the proposed Keystone XL oil pipeline, an expansion that would boost the amount of oil TransCanada is now shipping through the existing line, which is known simply as Keystone. The expansion has faced fierce opposition from environmental groups, American Indian tribes and some landowners.
5_ Thanksgiving travel: AAA predicts that 50.9 million Americans will travel over the holiday, a 3.3 percent increase over 2016. The auto club credits a growing economy and low unemployment for putting people in the traveling mood. More than 45 million will travel by car between next Wednesday and the Sunday after Thanksgiving, the Heathrow, Fla.based auto club said Thursday. The AAA says about 4 million will fly, a 5 percent increase.