NASA moon rocket back in hangar, launch unlikely until Nov.

September 28, 2022

NASA's moon rocket returned to the safety of its hangar Tuesday as Hurricane Ian approached Florida, its launch now unlikely before mid-November. Instead of trying to send it on its first test flight, the launch team moved the 322-foot (98-meter) rocket off the pad at Kennedy Space Center. The four-mile (6.4-kilometer) trip took all night. NASA official Jim Free said it would be difficult to upgrade the rocket and get it back to the pad for an October launch attempt. Putting in fresh batteries is particularly challenging, Free noted, making it doubtful a launch could be attempted ...

Waterlife preserve — beautiful yet somber homage to water presented at The Grand

September 21, 2022

NEW ULM — An exhibit opening Friday at The Grand’s 4 Pillars Gallery will have viewers thinking of water in a new light. The “Pity the Water” exhibit features the photography and words of artist Kay Herbst Helms, who has spent her career focusing on nature and is a strong advocate ...

NTSB wants all new vehicles to check drivers for alcohol use

September 21, 2022

DETROIT (AP) — The National Transportation Safety Board is recommending that all new vehicles in the U.S. be equipped with blood alcohol monitoring systems that can stop an intoxicated person from driving. The recommendation, if enacted by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, could reduce the number of alcohol-related crashes, one of the biggest causes of highway deaths in the U.S. The new push to make roads safer was included in a report released Tuesday about a horrific crash last year in which a drunk driver collided head-on with another vehicle near Fresno, ...

Minnesota Ojibwe harvest sacred, climate-imperiled wild rice

September 21, 2022

ON LEECH LAKE, Minnesota (AP) — Seated low in her canoe sliding through a rice bed on this vast lake, Kendra Haugen used one wooden stick to bend the stalks and another to knock the rice off, so gently the stalks sprung right back up. On a mid-September morning, no breeze ruffled the eagle feather gifted by her grandmother that Haugen wore on a baseball cap as she tried her hand at wild rice harvesting — a sacred process for her Ojibwe people. "A lot of reservations are struggling to keep rice beds, so it's really important to keep these as pristine as we can. ... It renews our ...

Hertz to order up to 175K GM electric vehicles over 5 years

September 21, 2022

Hertz plans to order up to 175,000 electric vehicles from General Motors over the next five years. The agreement announced Tuesday includes electric vehicle deliveries through 2027 and will include SUVs, pickups and luxury automobiles from Chevrolet, Buick, GMC, Cadillac and BrightDrop. The companies expect deliveries of the Chevrolet Bolt EV and Bolt EUV will start in the first quarter of next year. "We are thrilled to partner with GM on this initiative, which will dramatically expand our EV offering to Hertz customers, including leisure and business travelers, rideshare drivers and ...

OECD: Russia war, virus and climate hurting world’s poorest

September 20, 2022

WASHINGTON (AP) — Russia's war against Ukraine, the lingering coronavirus pandemic and the damage of climate change are putting intense pressure on the world's poorest, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development warned Monday. The Paris-based OECD reported that 60 states, territories and locations fell last year into the category of "fragile contexts'' — meaning they were exposed to economic, environmental, social and political risks that they didn't have the capacity to absorb. And that was before Russia invaded Ukraine and intensified their burdens. Monday's report ...