Ex-President Bush, 91, breaks bone in neck

KENNEBUNKPORT, Maine — Former President George H.W. Bush fell at home on Wednesday and broke a bone in his neck but was doing OK, a spokesman said.

Mr. Bush, 91, was in stable condition and was doing “fine” after Wednesday’s fall, said spokesman Jim McGrath, who tweeted that the 41st president would be in a neck brace.

Mr. Bush, the oldest living former U.S. president, was hospitalized in Houston in December for about a week for treatment of shortness of breath.

He has a form of Parkinson’s disease that has forced him in recent years to use a motorized scooter or wheelchair for mobility.

Black children and poverty

WASHINGTON — Black children were almost four times as likely as white children to be living in poverty in 2013, a new report has found, the latest evidence that the economic recovery is leaving behind some of the United States’ most vulnerable citizens.

The share of American children living in poverty fell to about 20 percent in 2013 from 22 percent in 2010, according to the report by the Pew Research Center, which analyzed data from the United States Census Bureau.

But the poverty rate remained stable for black children, while it fell for Hispanic, white and Asian children, a sign of just how pervasive and stubborn poverty has been for African-Americans, the report said. About 38.3 percent of black children lived in poverty in 2013, nearly four times the rate for white children, at 10.7 percent. About 30.4 percent of Hispanic children and 10.1 percent of Asian children live in poverty.

A household in poverty in 2013 was defined as a family of four, two of whose members were children, living on an annual income of less than $23,624.

Solar plane grounded

HONOLULU — A team trying to fly a solar-powered plane around the world said Wednesday it is suspending the journey in Hawaii after the plane suffered battery damage during its recordbreaking flight to the islands.

The Solar Impulse team said in a news release that it will continue the attempt to circumnavigate the globe, but irreversible damage caused by overheating batteries has grounded the flight until at least April.

Pilot Andre Borschberg and his single-seat aircraft landed at Kalaeloa, a small airport outside Honolulu, on July 3. His voyage of nearly 118 hours from Nagoya, Japan, broke the record for the world’s longest nonstop solo flight, his team said.

Kennedy Center honors

WASHINGTON — The Eagles, singer-songwriter Carole King and “Star Wars” director George Lucas are among those artists to be recognized at the 2015 Kennedy Center Honors, one of the highest awards in American culture.

The awards will be presented at a gala at Washington D.C.'s John F. Kennedy Center on Dec. 6, attended by President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama.