NEWS OF THE DAY
From Across the Nation
_ 1 Pipeline dispute: Native American tribes opposed to the Dakota Access Pipeline have asked a federal judge to stop the flow of oil while the legal battle over the line’s future plays out. The Standing Rock Sioux and other tribes succeeded on their first attempt, only to have an appeals court overturn a U. S. District court’s shutdown order. Now, they’re asking the judge to clarify his earlier ruling and to again order the line to cease operations. The tribes argue that potential harm to their water supply outweighs any economic impacts of shutting down the line, which has been moving North Dakota oil to Illinois for three years.
2 _ Whitmer plot: A Wisconsin man charged in a plot to kidnap Democratic Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer has been released from jail after posting $ 10,000 cash bail. Columbia County District Attorney Brenda Yaskal requested $ 1 million bail for Brian Higgins, but Judge Todd Hepler set the lower amount. Authorities allege Higgins, 51, was part of a crew conducting surveillance for the kidnapping plot. He was arrested and charged on suspicion of material support in an act of terrorism.
3 _ Poe letter: A handwritten letter in which author Edgar Allan Poe politely pleads for $ 40 from a Philadelphia editor sold at an online auction this month for $ 125,125. The letter, dated Aug. 31, 1847, was addressed to Robert Taylor Conrad, a Philadelphia lawyer, playwright, and editor of the popular Graham’s Magazine. “It is now a month since I wrote you about the two articles I left with you — but, as I have heard nothing from you, I can only suppose that my letter has not reached you — or, at all events, that, in the press of other business, you have forgotten it and me,” Poe wrote. While living in Philadelphia, Poe wrote The TellTale Heart, Murders in the Rue Morgue, and The Masque of the Red Death.
4 _ Asteroid mission: A NASA spacecraft descended to an asteroid Tuesday and, dodging boulders the size of buildings, momentarily touched the surface to collect a handful of cosmic rubble for return to Earth. It was a first for the United States — only Japan has scored asteroid samples. The vansized OsirisRex spacecraft, which spent nearly two years orbiting asteroid Bennu more than 200 miles away, sent back confirmation of its contact. This drew cheers from the mission team in Cape Canaveral, Fla. But it could be a week before scientists know how much, if anything, was grabbed and whether another try will be needed. If successful, OsirisRex will return the samples to Earth in 2023.
_ 5 General removed: The Marine Corps removed a twostar general from command of Marine forces in Europe and Africa based on an investigation into allegations that he used a racial slur during a training event, officials said Tuesday. The decision to relieve Maj. Gen. Stephen Neary of command of Marine Corps Forces Europe and Africa was made by the commandant of the Marine Corps, Gen. David Berger. The Marines had investigated an allegation that Neary had used a derogatory term for Black people in the presence of other Marines.