Deficit put at $1.58 trillion
Deficit put at $1.58 trillion
WASHINGTON — The White House plans to announce the federal deficit is about $262 billion less than officials predicted earlier this year — in part because the administration has provided less aid than expected to Wall Street.
The federal deficit this year will total $1.58 trillion, a senior White House official said late Wednesday. That’s three times more red ink than last year. The official spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the report before its release Tuesday while President Barack Obama will be on vacation in Massachusetts.
The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office is expected to release its midsession review the same day. It estimated in June that it expected a deficit of $1.825 trillion.
Shuttle launch set Tuesday
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — NASA will try to launch Discovery to the international space station next week, less than a month after the last shuttle mission.
Senior officials set Tuesday as the launch date after a two-day flight review that ended Wednesday. Hours later, the seven astronauts flew in from Houston.
Discovery and its crew will haul equipment and supplies to the space station, including a new treadmill named after Comedy Central’s Stephen Colbert. Earlier this year, the TV comedian tried to get a future space station chamber named after him. NASA chose Tranquility instead — after the Apollo 11 moon base — and Colbert had to settle for the treadmill.
Mercury found in fish from 291 streams in U.S.
WASHINGTON — No fish can escape mercury pollution.
That’s the take-home message from a federal study of mercury contamination released Wednesday that tested fish from nearly 300 streams across the country. The toxic substance was found in every fish sampled, a finding that underscores how widespread mercury pollution has become.
But although all fish had traces of contamination, only about a quarter had mercury levels exceeding what the Environmental Protection Agency says is safe for people eating average amounts of fish.
The study by the U.S. Geological Survey is the most comprehensive look to date at mercury in the nation’s streams. From 1998 to 2005, scientists collected and tested more than a thousand fish, including bass, trout and catfish, from 291 streams nationwide.
Man who tried to fake death sentenced to prison
PENSACOLA, Fla. — An Indiana money manger who crashed his plane and parachuted to safety in an elaborate scheme to fake his death and flee financial ruin was sentenced Wednesday to more than four years in federal prison.
Marcus Schrenker, 38, sobbed and gave a rambling speech during a four-hour sentencing hearing. He apologized to air-traffic controllers, his family and residents of the Florida Panhandle town where his plane went down near some homes Jan. 11.
Also Wednesday, prosecutors in Hamilton County, Ind., added nine felony counts of fraudulent sale of securities to the two Schrenker already faced there.
U.S. District Judge Roger Vinson ordered Schrenker to pay nearly $900,000 in restitution to the company that financed the single-engine Piper Malibu he destroyed and $35,000 to the U.S. Coast Guard for an extensive search-and-rescue effort.
2 die in helicopter crash
LEADVILLE, Colo. — A military helicopter crashed Wednesday near the peak of Colorado’s second-highest mountain, killing two people, injuring one and leaving the only other person aboard missing, authorities said.
The Black Hawk helicopter from Kentucky’s Fort Campbell was carrying out training exercises when it struck near the top of 14,200-feet tall Mount Massive near Leadville, according to the Lake County Sheriff’s office and the Federal Aviation Administration.
The injured person was flown to a Denver hospital, while rescue teams searched for the only other person aboard, said Sheriff spokesman Max Duarte. The condition of the injured person was not immediately known.
Duarte said he didn’t have any information on the identities of the dead and injured.
Priest charged with abuse
RIO DE JANEIRO — An Italian priest who ran an award-winning shelter for homeless children in Brazil has been charged with sexually abusing boys for years and allowing visiting foreigners to exploit the children, prosecutors said Wednesday.
Father Clodoveo Piazza, now working as a missionary in Mozambique, was charged along with another former director of the nonprofit group Fraternal Help Organization.
Lidivaldo Britto, chief prosecutor for Bahia state in northeastern Brazil, said at least 10 boys were sexually abused over several years while Piazza ran the group.
Associated Press