CAPE CANAVERAL, FLA.
New weather system in orbit
The most advanced weather satellite ever built rocketed into space Saturday night, part of an $11 billion effort to revolutionize forecasting and save lives. This new GOES-R spacecraft will track U.S. weather as never before: hurricanes, tornadoes, flooding, volcanic ash clouds, wildfires, lightning storms, even solar flares. Indeed, about 50 TV meteorologists from around the country converged on the launch site — including NBC’s Al Roker — along with 8,000 space program workers and guests.
STOCKTON, CALIF.
Gold Star family is booed
The father of a California soldier recently killed in Afghanistan says he felt disrespected and hurt by passengers who booed him and his family when they were on a flight to meet his son’s remains. Stewart Perry, his wife and daughter were on an American Airlines flight Monday from Sacramento to Philadelphia with a transfer in Phoenix to receive the remains of his son, Sgt. John Perry, of Stockton, when the flight was delayed, the Stockton Record reported Saturday. Perry, an ex-Marine, said the flight to Phoenix was 45 minutes late and the crew, fearing the Gold Star family could miss their connecting flight, made an announcement for passengers to remain seated to let a “special military family” deplane first. Perry said several passengers in first class booed, complaining that it was “baloney” and that they paid first-class fares.
ELKO, NEV.
Four killed in Medflight crash
An air-ambulance plane taking a heart-disease patient to a Utah hospital crashed in a parking lot in northern Nevada, killing all four people aboard and sending up explosions and flames. Three crew members and a patient were killed in the Friday night crash in Elko, American Medflight said Saturday.
WASHINGTON
Bank hit with restrictions
A federal banking regulator imposed tighter restrictions on Wells Fargo & Co., requiring the banking giant to get advance approval from regulators before making a wide range of business decisions. The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency announced the action late Friday. The OCC will require the bank to get prior approval before making changes in its board of directors and senior executive officers and also before making “golden parachute” payments to departing executives.
Compiled from wire reports