NEWS OF THE DAY
1 Ecigarettes: A Michigan judge blocked the state’s twoweekold ban on flavored ecigarettes. Court of Claims Judge Cynthia Stephens issued a preliminary injunction Tuesday. She says Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s administration’s delay in implementing the ban undercut its position that emergency rules were needed. Stephens also says there is evidence that if flavored vaping products are prohibited, adults will return to using more harmful combustible tobacco products. The lawsuit was filed by vaping businesses that say they will go out of business due to the ban. Whitmer has said the ban is necessary to combat an epidemic of teens vaping.
2 School explosion: Montana authorities say a device they initially thought to be the remnants of a homemade bomb in an elementary school playground wasn’t a bomb. Lewis and Clark County Sheriff Leo Dutton said Tuesday that the plastic bottle wrapped in black tape was full of washers, nuts and bolts, along with a nonflammable unidentified liquid. Dutton says a homeless person carried the bottle from a nearby construction site and left it in Helena’s Rossiter Elementary School playground.
3 Nuclear plant shut: The U.S. Supreme Court has shut down South Carolina’s attempt to complete a nuclear fuel facility. The justices declined on Tuesday to hear the state’s appeal of a ruling allowing the federal government to stop construction. The government has already spent $8 billion on the plant, under construction at the Savannah River site near Aiken. The U.S. Energy Department has said it should cut its losses because the plant is over budget and decades away from completion. The Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility would have taken plutonium used in nuclear weapons and processed it into nuclear plant fuel.
4 Manhole corpse: Police say a utility worker has discovered a decomposed corpse inside a manhole near Columbus Circle in Manhattan. The New York Police Department says the grisly discovery was made around 3:30 a.m. on Tuesday at West 58th Street and Eighth Avenue. The area is near Central Park and the Time Warner Center and hums during the day with tourists and New Yorkers. The medical examiner will determine how the man died.
5 Sex misconduct trial: A Manhattan prosecutor says she intends to use the testimony of a dozen accusers at the sexual misconduct trial of Cuba Gooding Jr. Prosecutor Jenna Long made the comment on Tuesday as the actor pleaded not guilty to an indictment alleging two instances of sexual misconduct. Gooding appeared Tuesday before a judge in New York City and was released on his own recognizance. The 51yearold “Jerry Maguire” star was previously accused of groping a woman’s breast at a bar on June 9. The woman told police she believed Gooding was intoxicated. The defense has said there are two witnesses who say it never happened and a bar video that backs up that claim.