By W.J. Hennigan

SpaceX’s historic launch to the International Space Station was aborted in the pre-dawn hours at Cape Canaveral, Fla., when computers detected an anomaly in one of the rocket’s nine engines and automatically shut down.

Countdown to the launch, which was webcast on NASA TV, hit T-0 at 4:55 a.m. EDT when the rocket engines seemed to briefly light before the technical problem hit.

Elon Musk, SpaceX founder and CEO, tweeted shortly afterward: “Launch aborted: slightly high combustion chamber pressure on engine 5. Will adjust limits for countdown in a few days.”

The next window for the Hawthorne company to launch to the space station is May 22 at 3:44 a.m. EDT.

SpaceX, formally known as Space Exploration Technologies Corp., is due to launch its Falcon 9 rocket in a demonstration for NASA. The unmanned docking mission to the space station is intended to prove to NASA that SpaceX’s rocket and space capsule are ready to take on the task of hauling cargo for the space agency now that the space shuttle fleet has been retired.

NASA has already begun hiring privately funded start-up companies for spacecraft development and is moving toward eventually outsourcing NASA space missions.

When SpaceX does launch, the company is set to make history when its Dragon capsule docks with the space station three days later, marking the first time that a privately built craft has docked.

During the mission, SpaceX aims to do a flyby of the $100-billion space station, then approach it so the space station crew can snag it with a robotic arm and dock it.

SpaceX was profiled in The Times on May 15.  Here’s an interactive graphic on SpaceX’s planned mission that appeared along with the story.

The company already has a $1.6-billion contract to haul cargo in 12 flights to the space station for NASA. If the upcoming mission is successful, SpaceX would start to fulfill the contract in earnest. SpaceX also plans to carry astronauts to the space station one day.

The company makes its Dragon capsule and Falcon 9 rocket at a sprawling facility in Hawthorne that once was used to assemble fuselage sections for Boeing 747s. The hardware is put on a big rig and trucked to Cape Canaveral for launches.

In December 2010, SpaceX became the first private company to send a spacecraft into orbit and return it  intact. The company, which now employs around 1,800 people, has been planning the upcoming docking mission ever since

msn:

Three protesters at the NATO summit in Chicago have been charged with terrorism conspiracy stemming from allegations that they planned to make Molotov cocktails, police said.

Chicago police Lt. Kenneth Stoppa told The Associated Press early Saturday that the three were being held on charges of conspiracy to commit terrorism, possession of an explosive or incendiary device and providing material support.

He said they would face a bond hearing later Saturday morning.

Stoppa identified the men charged as 20-year-old Brian Church, of Ft. Lauderdale, Fla.; 24-year-old Jared Chase, of Keene, N.H.; and 24-year-old Brent Vincent Betterly, of Oakland Park, Mass

Their attorney, Sarah Gelsomino, told AP the men were “absolutely in shock and have no idea where these charges are coming from.”

“The National Lawyers Guild deplores the charges against Occupy activists in the strongest degree,”  Gelsomino said in a statement decrying the charges. “It’s outrageous for the city to apply terrorism charges when it’s the police who have been terrorizing activists and threatening their right to protest.”

Six others initially arrested have been released. They were all detained in a raid Wednesday on a home in Bridgeport on Chicago’s South Side, NBCChicago.com reported.

Beer or bombs? But the group of protesters said what police thought was suspicious was actually a home beer-brewing operation.

“We were handcuffed to a bench and our legs were shackled together. We were not told what was happening,” one of those detained but later released, Darrin Ammussek, told the station.

“I believe very strongly in non-violence, and if I had seen anything that even resembled any plans or anything like that, we wouldn’t have been there,” he added.

Scenes from Chicago protests surrounding NATO summit

He claimed that during 18 hours in custody, police never told him why he was arrested, read him his rights or allowed him to make a phone call, The Associated Pres reported. He said he remained handcuffed to a bench, even after asking to use a restroom.

“There were guards walking by making statements into the door along the lines of ‘hippie,’ ‘communist,” ‘pinko,’” a tired-looking Annussek told reporters just after his release.

Nurses (yes, nurses) lead charge for Wall Street ‘sin’ tax

NBCChicago.com said that the National Lawyers Guild had threatened legal action if the detained protesters were not released or charged by Friday night.

“They came in with guns drawn and broke into a unit that was not housing protestors in order to get into another unit in the building that was housing protestors,” Kris Hermes, of the National Lawyers Guild, told NBCChicago.com.

Police superintendent Garry McCarthy would not discuss the incident. “We’re not going to talk about it, it’s an ongoing investigation that is not completed, we are not going to talk about it,” McCarthy told the station Friday.

National Lawyers Guild representatives are seeking a copy of the search warrant affidavit used in the raid.

Security has been high throughout the city in preparation for the summit, where delegations from about 60 countries, including 50 heads of state, will discuss the war in Afghanistan and European missile defense.

(Reuters) – Damascus has sent a letter to the United Nations accusing some Lebanese areas of helping al Qaeda and the Muslim Brotherhood to take root along the Syrian border, adding to its criticism of Turkeyand Libya for allegedly providing arms to Syrian rebels.

“Some Lebanese areas next to the Syrian border are incubating terrorist elements from al Qaeda and the Muslim Brotherhood, who are messing with the security of Syrian citizens and work on undermining the United Nations Special Envoy’s plan,” Syrian U.N. Ambassador Bashar Ja’afari wrote.

The letter, which was sent to U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and the Security Council, was delivered on Thursday and obtained by Reuters on Friday.

“In some areas (of Lebanon) … warehouses have been set up for weapons and ammunition that is arriving to Lebanon illegally, either by sea, or sometimes through using the planes of specific countries to transport weapons to Lebanon and then smuggle them to Syria, under the excuse that they (aircraft) are carrying humanitarian aid for Syrian refugees,” Ja’afari said.

He specifically said charities run by Lebanese Salafists and the Future Movement, led by the son of assassinated statesman Rafik al-Hariri, were being used to provide safe haven to terrorists in Lebanon.

Lebanon has had a complicated relationship with Syria, which continues to exercise some influence over its neighbor despite the 2005 departure of thousands of Syrian troops and intelligence operatives from Lebanese soil.

Last week Ja’afari accused Turkey and Libya arming Syria’s opposition, which forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad have tried unsuccessfully for 14 months to crush, killing over 10,000 people in the process, according to the United Nations.

“The case of the ship Lutfullah 2, which was intercepted by the Lebanese Army, proves that Libya and Turkey are cooperating with other States to send murderous weapons to terrorist groups, in order to wreak more carnage and destruction,” he said in a letter to Ban and the Security Council last week.

Lebanese authorities said that they seized a large consignment of Libyan weapons, including rocket-propelled grenades and heavy caliber ammunition, from the ship, which it intercepted in the Mediterranean.

Turkey reacted this week with a vehement denial. “Turkey strongly rejects the unfounded allegations,” Turkish Ambassador Ertugrul Apakan said in a response to Ban and the council.

NO ‘HARD EVIDENCE’ OF AL QAEDA LINK

readmore:

Kodak may be going under, but apparently they could have started their own nuclear war if they wanted, just six years ago. Down in a basement in Rochester, NY, they had a nuclear reactor loaded with 3.5 pounds of enriched uranium—the same kind they use in atomic warheads.

But why did Kodak have a hidden nuclear reactor loaded with weapons-grade uranium? And how did they get permission to own it, let alone install it in a basement in the middle of a densely populated city?

Nobody really knows. Kodak officials now admit that they never made any public announcement about it. In fact, nobody in the city—officials, police or firemen—or in the state of New York or anywhere else knew about it until it was recently leaked by an ex-employee. Its existence and whereabouts were purposely kept vague and only a few engineers and Federal employees really knew about the project.

It’s extremely strange that Kodak managed to get something like this. According to Miles Pomper, from the Center for Nonproliferation Studies in Washington. it’s “such an odd situation because private companies just don’t have this material.” While 3.5 pounds of weapons-grade uranium is not enough to create a nuclear bomb, illegal arm merchants are seeking small amounts like this to put them for sale in the black market—which is why the United States has such a tight control on this material. The government doesn’t want Iran or al-Qaeda getting their hands all over the atomic candy for obvious reasons.

Kodak’s purpose for the reactor wasn’t sinister: they used it to check materials for impurities as well as neutron radiography testing. The reactor, a Californium Neutron Flux multiplier (CFX) was acquired in 1974 and loaded with three and a half pounds of enriched uranium plates placed around a californium-252 core.

The reactor was installed in a closely guarded, two-foot-thick concrete walled underground bunker in the company’s headquarters, where it was fed tests using a pneumatic system. According to the company, no employees were ever in contact with the reactor. Apparently, it was operated by atomic fairies and unicorns.

It wasn’t until 2006, well after the terrorist attacks of 9/11, that it was decided to dismantle it.

Thirty to 50 veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars may have fought hard for or suffered for their medals, but this weekend, they plan to hand those medals back during the NATO summit in Chicago, MSNBCreports.

The group will stage the demonstration in protest of the war on terror, according to the itinerary for Sunday published on the blog Iraq Veterans Against the War.

The group will convene at 10 a.m. for music and speeches and at 3 p.m. march to the convention center where the NATO meeting will take place to return the medals, according to the intinerary.

If they are unable to hand their medals to NATO officials, they will toss them toward the convention center, MSNBC reports.

“We, Afghanistan and Iraq veterans from around the country will converge in Chicago on May 20 to ceremoniously return our medals to NATO generals,” according to the blog. “We were awarded these medals for serving in the Global War on Terror, a war based on lies and failed policies. This endless war has killed hundreds of thousands, stripped the humanity of all involved, and drained our communities of trillions of dollars, diverting funds from schools, clinics, libraries, and other public goods.”

Steven Acheson, 27, a college student in Wisconsin, is one of those who plans to hand back his medal this weekend, according to MSNBC. Acheson told the news organization that he spent five years in the Army, including more than a year in Iraq, and that he suffers from post0-traumatic stress disorder.

“I feel like this is a really good way for me to kind of, not clear my conscience, but just take a step in the direction of healing and kind of reconciling with the Afghan people and the Iraq people,” Acheson told MSNBC.

A government spokesman told MSNBC the veterans are free to do what they want with their medals.

“We’re very proud of the service rendered by our soldiers and veterans, and they are free to do with their awards and decorations as they please,” Army spokesman George Wright told MSNBC in an email.

The world’s prison capital is not the United States, per capita, although it leads the world for its overall prison population. One state far outdoes America itself and incarcerates nearly double the national average.

First among Americans means first in the world. Louisiana’s incarceration rate is nearly triple Iran’s, seven times China’s and 10 times Germany’s. (Source)

The U.S. prison business has become the essence of predatory corporatism: it privatizes profits and socializes losses. This combination has led to a situation where correctional facilities have very little incentive to correct the behavior of those who reside within their walls, but every incentive to ensure that new bodies arrive as fast as possible, and keep them in a state of indentured servitude.
Naturally, this is exactly what is happening in Louisiana, as the vast majority of inmates are not housed in state-run prisons, but in those owned by private corporations. The social fallout has been profound.
Corrections Corporation of America has led the charge toward creating a sound business model for those who would profit from crime and punishment since it won the first private prison contract from Tennessee in 1984. CCA has expanded nicely, recently submitting letters to 48 states with an offer to buy their prisons: “In exchange … for a 20-year management contract, plus an assurance that the prison would remain at least 90 percent full.” (Source)
America already holds 25% of the world’s prison population, with the number of these prisoners held in private prisons rising dramatically over the past 10 years from 2,000 housed in 5 private prisons, to more than 60,000 housed in 100. It is a number expected to rise to 360,000 prisoners over the next decade. (Source) Moreover, as the economy declines, there has even been a revival in debtors prisons, formally abolished in the early 1800s. Perhaps more troubling is the heightened criminalization of children for behavior which previously was considered merely a nuisance, not something worthy of handcuffs and the big house

JASPER COUNTY, Ind. (WLFI) – From the waiting room to a jail cell. A case of mistaken identity leads to a 12-year-old who said he was wrongfully jailed.

Now the Jasper County Sheriff’s Office is investigating.

“He was holding his belt in one hand and had tears coming down his face and I said, ‘Jacob, where were you,’ and he said, ‘I was in jail,” Michelle Magruder said. “I said, ‘what do you mean, did you ask for them to show you’ and he said, ‘no.’ ”

12-year-old Jacob Magruder said it all happened as he was sitting alone in the lobby while he was waiting for his family at the Jasper County Jail. Jacob said his family was upstairs with his 17-year-old brother who had just been arrested.

“I saw a police officer and he had a phone and he goes, ‘is this the boy I’m supposed to take,’ and the lady goes, ‘yeah,’” Jacob said.

Jacob said he was then asked to stand up as the officer patted him down.

“He said, ‘can you put your hands on the wall and spread your legs,’ and he checked me and he was like, ‘just to make sure you have no weapons on you,’ ” Jacob said.

The boy said he was then taken behind a closed door and put in a holding cell.

“This lady came and said, ‘can you get in this cell for me,’ and I was like, ‘sure,’ ” Jacob said. “They locked the door and it was cell number 1206 and they locked it.”

Jacob said he sat in 1206 for several minutes until officials realized they took him, thinking it was his 17-year-old brother.