Cops: Day care hid drugs

Cops: Day care hid drugs

NEW YORK — Police shot and wounded an armed man during a brazen robbery attempt at a day-care center that functioned as a drug haven, with a trove of marijuana and more than $100,000 in cash in its basement, authorities said Saturday.

Police initially thought the Special Moments Daycare might have been targeted for a holdup Friday because it was payday. But “it appears now that the day-care center was a repository for drugs and money,” Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said.

Special Moments owner Donna Rogers, 37, was arrested Saturday on a marijuana-possession charge after police said they found the money and 10 pounds of the drug in the Brooklyn center. Her husband was in negotiations to surrender, Kelly said.

BYU lifts YouTube ban

PROVO, Utah — Brigham Young University, the Mormon church school where students agree to live a chaste and virtuous life, has lifted its almost three-year policy of blocking access to YouTube.

Administrators lifted the ban Friday, citing an increasing amount of educational material on the popular video-sharing site, university spokeswoman Carri Jenkins said.

YouTube has its own filters for porn, but BYU added it to the list of Web sites blocked by campus online filters in 2006 because administrators felt there was too much content that could violate the school’s strict, conservative standards.

The university’s software also blocks pornography, adult content and violence from other sites.

Church celebrates firearms

LOUISVILLE, Ky. — For one day, at least, it was OK to pack heat in church.

More than 200 people answered gun-toting Pastor Ken Pagano’s call to celebrate the Second Amendment at New Bethel Church in Louisville on Saturday. There was just one rule for the several dozen who brought their guns along: No bullets.

“We are wanting to send a message that there are legal, civil, intelligent and law-abiding citizens who also own guns,” Pagano said during the 90-minute event, which was open to the public. “If it were not for a deep-seated belief in the right to bear arms, this country would not be here today,” he told the crowd, drawing hearty applause and exclamations of “Amen!”

The “Open Carry Celebration” included a handgun raffle, patriotic music and screening of gun-safety videos. Some gun owners carried old-fashioned six-shooters in leather holsters, while others packed modern police-style firearms. Kentucky allows residents to openly carry guns in public with some restrictions.

New weather satellite

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — A sophisticated new weather satellite rocketed into orbit Saturday, giving forecasters another powerful tool for tracking hurricanes and tornadoes.

An unmanned rocket carrying the nation’s latest Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite blasted off early Saturday evening, a day late because of thunderstorms. The satellite headed toward a 22,000-mile-high orbit, where it will undergo six months of testing. It will circle Earth as a spare and be called into service when needed.

The GOES satellite network provides continuous weather monitoring for 60 percent of the planet, including the United States. The newer ones also monitor solar flares that can disrupt communications on Earth, and track climate change.

Protestant groups disarm

LONDON — Northern Ireland achieved another important milestone in peacemaking Saturday as the territory’s two major Protestant paramilitary groups announced their first acts of disarmament — and pledged that their decades of slaughtering Catholic civilians were over for good.

One group, the Ulster Volunteer Force, said it had destroyed its entire stockpile of weaponry during a secret June 12 meeting with disarmament chiefs. The other, the Ulster Defense Association, said it had handed over its first, unspecified portion of its arsenal and would continue the process in coming months.

Funeral set for Fawcett

LOS ANGELES — A private funeral service will be Tuesday for Farrah Fawcett at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels in downtown Los Angeles.

Church officials say the service is set for 4 p.m.

Fawcett died Thursday from a rare cancer. She was 62.

The actress, best known for her role in TV’s “Charlie’s Angels,” chronicled her battle with cancer in a documentary called “Farrah’s Story” that aired last month.

Associated Press