NEWS OF THE DAY
From Across the Nation
1 Space telescope: NASA is pulling the plug on one of its great observatories — the Spitzer Space Telescope — after 16 years of scanning the universe with infrared eyes. The end comes Thursday when ground controllers at Cape Canaveral, Fla., put the aging spacecraft into permanent hibernation. For years, Spitzer peered through dusty clouds at untold stars and galaxies, uncovered a huge, nearly invisible ring around Saturn, and helped discover seven Earthsize planets around a nearby star. Designed to last just 2.5 years to five years, the telescope got increasingly difficult to operate as it drifted farther behind Earth, NASA said.
2 Handcuffed suspect killed: Investigators didn’t find any evidence of a fight between a Maryland police officer and the handcuffed man he is accused of fatally shooting in the front passenger seat of his patrol car, police said in a report on a murder charge against the officer. Prince George’s County Police Cpl. Michael Owen Jr. fired seven shots at William Howard Green and struck him multiple times, said the report on Monday’s shooting. Owen had handcuffed Green, 43, behind his back and placed him in the cruiser after responding to a traffic accident and finding him sleeping in his vehicle, apparently under the influence of an unknown substance, said the report released Wednesday.
3 Georgia execution: A Georgia man convicted of killing his exwife and her boyfriend more than two decades ago was executed Wednesday evening. Donnie Cleveland Lance, 66, received a lethal injection at the state prison in Jackson for the killings of Sabrina “Joy” Lance and Dwight “Butch” Wood Jr. The two were slain on Nov. 8, 1997, at Wood’s home in Jackson County, about 60 miles northeast of Atlanta. Lance maintained he did not kill the pair. On Wednesday evening, the U.S. Supreme Court denied defense requests to block the execution.
4 Longest tunnel: U.S. authorities on Wednesday announced the discovery of the longest smuggling tunnel ever found on the Southwest border, stretching more than threequarters of a mile from Tijuana, Mexico, into the San Diego area. U.S. Customs and Border Protection said the tunnel originates in an industrial area in Mexico and extends a total of 4,309 feet. It features an extensive rail/cart system, forced air ventilation, high voltage electrical cables and panels, an elevator at the tunnel entrance, and a complex drainage system, the agency said. The next longest tunnel in the U.S. was discovered in San Diego in 2014. It was 2,966 feet long. 5 Weinstein case: A woman who described herself as an aspiring actress and big fan of Harvey Weinstein’s films told jurors Wednesday that she jumped at his invitation to screentest for movie roles. At a followup meeting at a New York City hotel, Dawn Dunning testified that Weinstein led her to a bedroom, put his hand up her skirt and fondled her genitals. Dunning, now 40, is one of several women whom prosecutors are calling to testify that could be a big factor in whether he goes to prison at the end of the landmark #MeTooera trial.