Rosetta’s lander Philae is safely on the surface of Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, as the CIVA image confirms. One of the lander’s three feet can be seen in the foreground. The image is a two-image mosaic. -courtesy ESA/Rosetta/Philae/CIVA
BERLIN (AP) — The European Space Agency has released the first picture taken by its Philae probe on the surface of a comet.
Philae became the first spacecraft to land on a comet when it touched down Wednesday on the comet, 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. The photo released Thursday shows a rocky surface with one of the lander’s three feet.
Harpoons meant to anchor the lander to the surface failed to work properly, causing Philae to bounce twice.
But ESA says the lander is stable. Gerhard Schwehm, a scientist on the Rosetta mission, told The Associated Press on Thursday that it may still be possible to fire the harpoons but in any case the lander is “very healthy.”
LAWRENCE, Kan. – Kansas women’s basketball head coach Bonnie Henrickson announced the signing of four individuals to the 2015 signing class, which has been ranked as the No. 19 recruiting class in the nation by ESPN’s Hoopgurlz. Jayde Christopher, Tyler Johnson, Kylee Kopatich and Aisia Robertson have all signed valid National Letters of Intent (NLI) to play for the for Jayhawks.
“The class being ranked high is a product of where they are each are ranked individually and should give them confidence,” said Henrickson. “I think all four of those young ladies understand and are mature enough to realize that it’s like preseason polls and it’s about coming here and being able to produce. I am more impressed by the competitiveness and basketball IQ of this group than I am with how they are ranked.”
The No. 19-ranked 2015 signing class hails from near and far as half of the incoming class are from the Sunflower State (Johnson and Kopatich), while the other two are headed to Lawrence via the West Coast (Christopher and Robertson). ProspectionNation also has Kansas’ recruiting class ranked in the top 20 in the country and has the Jayhawks selected as the 20th-best signing class. Henrickson signed three recruits that are ranked in ESPN’s top 100 and three from ProspectNation’s 150 Elite.
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — U.S. Sen. Claire McCaskill has continued to pour large amounts of money into the Missouri Democratic Party.
Online Missouri Ethics Commission records show McCaskill has now given the party a total of $850,000 this year.
Most of that money was contributed before the Nov. 4 election with the intent of helping Democratic candidates cut into the large Republican majorities in the state House and Senate. But McCaskill gave $50,000 a couple of days after the election and an additional $50,000 on Wednesday.
The money did not appear to pay off in the elections, as Republicans gained seats in both legislative chambers. The GOP will control 118 of the 163 Missouri House seats and 25 of the 34 Senate seats when the Legislature convenes in January.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The House and Senate will vote in coming days on legislation to build the Keystone XL pipeline in a high-stakes political poker game.
The two candidates in the Dec. 6 runoff for a Louisiana Senate seat are both pushing the bills. They are three-term Democrat Mary Landrieu in the Senate and Republican Rep. Bill Cassidy in the House.
The House is virtually certain to approve the bill on Thursday. Landrieu says she has the votes to pass it in the Senate next Tuesday.
That would leave the fate of the bill up to President Barack Obama. The White House had no immediate comment on the day’s developments.
KANSAS CITY (AP) – Two Kansas City men have been charged with second-degree murder in connection with a drive-by shooting that left a 6-year-old girl dead.
The Kansas City Star reports Jackson County prosecutor Jean Peters Baker announced charges Wednesday afternoon against 19-year-old Howard Chase and 21-year-old Leandre Smith. The two also are charged with unlawful use of a weapon and two counts of armed criminal action.
Angel Hooper was with her father leaving a Kansas City convenience store on Oct. 17 when someone in a passing car filed multiple shots toward the store, hitting the little girl. Baker says she was not the intended target.
Prosecutors have asked that Chase and Smith be held without bond. Online court records indicate neither had obtained an attorney Wednesday evening.
DALLAS (AP) — Federal officials say crash tests will show by early 2015 whether guardrails found along many U.S. highways are safe.
The Federal Highway Administration said Wednesday that crash tests involving guardrails made by Trinity Industries Inc. will be done at an independent lab in San Antonio.
Critics say that a 2005 design change made it more likely that cars would be impaled if they hit either end of a guardrail head-on. The company faces several wrongful-death and injury lawsuits.
Trinity stopped selling the ET-Plus guardrails last month after a Texas jury ruled that the company should pay at least $175 million for failing to tell regulators about the change. Trinity has hinted that it will appeal.
ST. LOUIS (AP) — Monsanto Co. says it will pay $2.4 million to settle a dispute with farmers in the Pacific Northwest over genetically modified wheat.
The discovery of the genetically modified wheat in Oregon in 2013 prompted Japan and South Korea to temporarily suspend some wheat orders, and the European Union called for more rigorous testing of U.S. shipments.
No genetically engineered wheat has been approved for U.S. farming.
Federal agriculture officials determined the wheat is the same strain as one tested by Monsanto a decade ago that was never approved.
Monsanto will put $2.1 million into a settlement fund to pay farmers in Washington, Oregon and Idaho who sold soft white wheat between May 30 and Nov. 30 last year. It also will make payments to several regional growers associations.
Location of Wednesday afternoon quake-USGS graphic
CONWAY SPRINGS, Kan. (AP) — An earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 4.8 has shaken parts of Kansas and Oklahoma.
The U.S. Geological Survey says the quake struck around 3:40 p.m. Wednesday. It had an epicenter about 8 miles south of Conway Springs, which is a town of about 1,200 people about 30 miles southwest of Wichita. It wasn’t immediately clear how much damage the quake may have caused.
The southern part of Kansas has been experiencing an upsurge in earthquakes this year. A panel commissioned by Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback found there wasn’t enough evidence to link the temblors to oil and gas exploration. The panel is recommending more study and the installation of more monitoring stations.
On Election Day, the people of Kansas spoke loud and clear.
Kansas stood up and said enough. Enough of the status quo, enough of the gridlock, enough of the president’s “pen and phone,” enough of the autocratic and unconstitutional march toward a bigger, more intrusive federal government.
The same message was sent throughout the country as Americans stood together and made a stand for our jobs, for our families, for our children and for our future.
We made a stand to return Republican values to Washington, D.C., and fight for the principles of limited government, fiscal discipline and free enterprise.
In the Senate majority, my focus will be to change the direction of our country and deliver constructive, conservative solutions to Washington.
I will be bold. I will be conservative. I will fight loudly and aggressively for our Kansas values and to stop President Barack Obama’s failed liberal policies.
And here in Kansas, that starts with agriculture, the backbone of our economy.
As your champion, we will achieve great things for Kansas and the country. Farmers, ranchers and the rural communities that support them endeavor every day to feed an unstable world. These hardworking Americans deserve to be treated with dignity and respect.
However, under the Obama administration, our rural communities have been targeted rather than supported.
You can trust that I will bring dignity, common sense and respect back to farm country.
We will restore free market principles. We will open new markets for our exports. We will remove burdensome regulations and we will use American agriculture as a tool in our foreign policy to bring peace to a hungry and troubled world.
With the new Republican majority, I will endeavor to work with my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to ensure similar efforts are made across the federal government.
We will repeal and replace Obamacare, lifting the burden on our job creators and lowering costs for patients.
We will stand up to unconstitutional attempts to impose amnesty for undocumented immigrants by executive order.
We will open the Keystone Pipeline, shed the yoke of the EPA and finally become energy independent.
We will grow our economy and create jobs. We will get the Obama regulators off the backs of our main street businesses, and reform the tax code so you can take home more of your paycheck.
We will protect and restore our constitutional rights to free speech and bear arms.
We will restore common sense in our foreign policy, and America will begin to lead the world again.
This election was so important because so much was at stake — our values, our prosperity, our future and our very faith in government.
America spoke with a strong voice at the polls: Get this country back on track.
This Marine is ready to do just that.
Pat Roberts is a Republican U.S. senator from Dodge City.
WASHINGTON (AP) — A company with ties to the nation’s largest overseer of subprime mortgages is promising under pressure to stop collecting controversial insurance fees from homeowners whose properties were under foreclosure. The announcement comes three months after The Associated Press highlighted its business practices.
Altisource Portfolio Solutions S.A. of Luxembourg said legal concerns drove its decision to stop collecting commissions on the insurance fees. Consumer advocates and insurance regulators have accused banks and mortgage companies of gouging struggling homeowners on the insurance. The policies are intended to protect the homes of uninsured borrowers.
Shares in Altisource fell by more than 15 percent on the news, causing a drop of more than $200 million in the company’s market value.
