KAVANAUGH DOCUMENTS NOT READY UNTIL OCTOBER

WASHINGTON» The National Archives said Thursday it will not be able to produce the full cache of documents requested by the Senate on Supreme Court nominee Brett M. Kavanaugh until the end of October, but Republicans indicated they would press ahead with plans to hold confirmation hearings next month.

Gary Stern, the archives’ general counsel, told Senate Judiciary Committee Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, in a letter Thursday that the records he has requested could total more than 900,000 pages. Grassley, backed by other Senate Republicans, asked for all documents from Kavanaugh’s tenure in the George W. Bush White House as an associate White House counsel.

Police arrest man accused of biting off part of man’s ear.

CHICAGO» Police have arrested a man suspected of biting off part of another man’s left ear Thursday morning during an attack across the street from the Art Institute of Chicago where he works, authorities said.

The victim was standing on the sidewalk on South Michigan Avenue about 6:45 a.m. when a man walked up and asked if he had a cigarette, police said. The first man said no, and the other man punched him in the head and bit off part of his ear.

The attacker ran off, and the victim went to Northwestern Memorial Hospital, where he was listed as stable.

Judge orders Kris Kobach to pay $26,000 to ACLU in proof-of-citizenship case.

A federal judge on Wednesday ordered Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach to pay more than $26,000 in legal fees to the American Civil Liberties Union and a related legal team stemming from the fight over Kansas’ proofof-citizenship voting law.

U.S. District Judge Julie Robinson said Kobach’s office is on the hook for the money. Her order came less than two months after she struck down the proof-of-citizenship law long championed by Kobach.

Kobach, the state’s leading election official, is running in Kansas’ GOP primary for governor.

911 call amid training at base sets off fears of shooting.

A 911 call at a sprawling Air Force base on Thursday sent armored vehicles and unmarked police cars rushing to a medical center, where people hid behind locked doors until authorities determined there was no threat.

During an extensive search after the call, a security team member shot through a locked door while checking rooms throughout the hospital, according to officials at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base.

The call came during a training exercise that included an active-shooter scenario in another area of the base at least a half-mile away, said Daryl Mayer, a base spokesman.

Zimbabwe president wins 1st post-Mugabe election.

HARARE, ZIMBAB-

The nation’s electoral commission says President Emmerson Mnangagwa has won Monday’s election as the ruling party maintains control of the government in the first vote after the fall of longtime leader Robert Mugabe.

The opposition is almost certain to challenge the results in the courts or in the streets. Mnangagwa received 50.8 percent of the vote while main opposition challenger Nelson Chamisa received 44.3 percent.

While election day was peaceful in a break from the past, deadly violence on Wednesday against people protesting alleged vote-rigging reminded many Zimbabweans of the decades of military-backed repression under Mugabe.

Western election observers who were banned in previous votes have expressed concern at the military’s “excessive” force in the capital, Harare. Their assessments of the election are crucial to the lifting of international sanctions on a country whose economy collapsed years ago.

Shortly before the announcement early Friday, a man who said he was the chief agent with Chamisa’s opposition alliance claimed that they had not signed the election results and rejected them.

Hurricane season started early but may not create as many storms.

The Atlantic hurricane season got off to an early start this year, but it probably will produce fewer storms. Twelve named storms are likely to form in 2018, fewer than last year’s 17 and below the 1981-2010 average, according to a forecast Thursday from Colorado State University. That reduces the chance of Gulf of Mexico disruptions for energy and agriculture. But the outlook is a slight increase from July’s 11 and comes as the Atlantic Basin is about to enter its most active period.

“With all of our seasonal forecasts, we can still have a nasty hurricane,” said Phil Klotzbach, who cowrote the CSU report with Michael Bell. “People still need to prepare for every hurricane season regardless of our seasonal forecasts.”