HOUSTON – NASA astronaut Janice Voss, who flew five shuttle missions in seven years, has died. She was 55.
The agency said in a statement Tuesday that Voss died after a battle with cancer.
A native of South Bend, Voss started with NASA while attending Purdue University in 1973. She later worked as an instructor before being selected as an astronaut in 1990.
Voss flew four missions in the 1990s before a flight to the International Space Station in 2000. Her final trip was part of a radar topography mission that mapped more than 47 million square miles of Earth’s surface.
NASA says Voss was one of six women to fly in space at least five times.
Court rules against Arizona candidate
The Arizona Supreme Court on Tuesday affirmed a ruling that barred a woman from running for a city council seat because she doesn’t speak English proficiently.
The state’s highest court ruled that Alejandrina Cabrera’s name shouldn’t appear on the March 13 election ballot in San Luis but didn’t list a reason for the decision. A full written ruling is expected at a later date.
State law requires elected officials to know English, but Cabrera’s attorneys claimed the law doesn’t define proficiency in the language.
John Minore, Cabrera’s attorney, said he is looking at ways to appeal the case to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Historian pleads guilty to theft
A presidential historian, collector and author pleaded guilty Tuesday in Baltimore to conspiring to steal documents signed by leaders throughout U.S. history.
Barry Landau of New York City admitted to taking documents from the Maryland Historical Society and conspiring with his assistant to steal documents from that institution and others in the Northeast.
Prosecutors say the 63-year-old Landau schemed for years, if not decades, to steal valuable documents.
Landau and Jason Savedoff, 24, were arrested in July in Baltimore after a Maryland Historical Society employee saw Savedoff stash a document into a portfolio and walk out of the library.
Prosecutors: Keep Sandusky indoors
Prosecutors asked Tuesday to have Jerry Sandusky kept indoors as part of his bail conditions, citing complaints that the former Penn State football assistant was seen outside and watching children in a schoolyard from the back porch of his home, where he remains under house arrest while awaiting trial on child molestation charges.
The Pennsylvania state attorney general’s office argued in a court filing that Sandusky’s bail conditions should be revised so that he is not allowed outside except to seek medical treatment.
Sandusky is awaiting trial on 52 child sex-abuse charges.
Bread is top source for salt, CDC says
Bread and rolls are the No. 1 source of salt in the American diet, accounting for more than twice as much sodium as salty junk food such as potato chips.
That surprising finding comes in a government report released Tuesday that includes a list of the top 10 sources of sodium. Salty snacks actually came in at the bottom of the list compiled by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Breads and rolls aren’t saltier than many of the other foods, but people tend to eat a lot of them, said Mary Cogswell, a CDC senior scientist who co-authored the report.
According to the CDC, breads and rolls account for about 7 percent of the salt that the average American eats in a day. Next on the list: cold cuts and cured meats; pizza; fresh and processed poultry; soups; fast-food hamburgers; and sandwiches and cheese.
Rounding out the list – and accounting for about 3 percent each – are spaghetti and other pasta dishes; meatloaf and other meat dishes; and snacks like potato chips and pretzels.
5 arrests made in murder of couple
Police said Tuesday that they arrested five people in the shocking deaths of an Arizona couple found tied up and burned beyond recognition in their stylish stucco home in the posh Phoenix suburb of Paradise Valley.
The murders of Lawrence and Glenna Shapiro, well-to-do philanthropists in their 70s, were the first in nearly eight years in Paradise Valley.
Police have released few details about the crime. But a murder weapon and stolen property have been recovered.
One of the suspects – Michael Lee Crane, 31 – is facing two murder charges, police Chief John Bennett told reporters Tuesday.
Four other suspects face theft or trafficking in stolen property charges.
