Great white sharks cause swimming ban

Great white sharks cause swimming ban

CHATHAM, Mass. — The sightings of several great white sharks have prompted a swimming ban for much of the Labor Day weekend at some oceanside beaches in Massachusetts.

Officials at North Beach, Lighthouse Beach, South Beach and Hardings Beach in Chatham and Nauset Beach in Orleans put up red “no swimming” signs after a shark expert with the state Division of Marine Fisheries spotted four great whites off Chatham’s coast Saturday.

The expert, senior biologist Gregory Skomal, and his crew were able to tag two of the sharks with electronic tracking devices. He says the sharks were 8 and 10 feet long.

Obama adviser quits

WASHINGTON — The White House environmental adviser under fire for inflammatory statements made before he joined the administration resigned after what he called a “vicious smear campaign against me.”

Van Jones “understood that he was going to get in the way” of President Barack Obama’s agenda, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said Sunday.

The resignation was disclosed without advance notice by the White House in a dead-of-the-night e-mail on a holiday weekend. It came as Obama is working to regain his footing in the contentious health-care debate.

Jones, who specialized in environmentally friendly “green jobs” with the White House Council on Environmental Quality, was linked to efforts suggesting a government role in the Sept. 11 attacks and to derogatory comments about Republicans.

Astronauts packing up

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — The astronauts aboard the linked space shuttle and space station are nearly finished packing up a moving van for return to Earth in a few days.

The Italian-built van — essentially a giant cylinder — flew up aboard Discovery with seven tons of space station supplies and equipment. It will come back filled with a ton of trash, surplus gear and completed science experiments.

The astronauts will place the van back aboard Discovery on tonight, just in time for Tuesday’s shuttle undocking.

On Sunday, the 13 space fliers got the night off after a week of virtually nonstop work together. Astronaut Danny Olivas, who went out on all three spacewalks, was looking forward to doing nothing for a change. He said he wanted to gaze out the window and snap some pictures.

4 slain in La. family

HOLDEN, La. — A man shot his estranged wife, son and 2-year-old grandson to death and seriously wounded his pregnant daughter-in-law at their rural Louisiana home, then killed himself as police tried to pull over his car 20 minutes later, authorities said.

The pregnant woman later gave birth, about three months early, her father said.

The shootings late Saturday appeared to stem from an ongoing dispute between 50-year-old Dennis Carter Sr. and his wife, Donna Carter, who had a restraining order against him, Livingston Parish Sheriff’s Office Chief of Operations Perry Rushing said Sunday.

Authorities were called around 10:30 p.m. Saturday to the home in Holden, about 30 miles east of Baton Rouge. Donna Carter, 49, and Dennis Carter Jr., 26, were dead inside. Dennis Carter Jr.’s wife, Amber Carter, was badly hurt, and their son, Masson Carter, 2, was found dead outside.

Rushing said it appeared Amber Carter, who was about six months pregnant, and Masson Carter managed to escape from a second-floor window but it was not clear if the gunman shot them inside or followed them outside and shot them there.

Arms dealer arrested

WASHINGTON — The arrest of a reputed arms dealer known as “The Field Marshal” is the latest success in a global cat-and-mouse game between federal agents and a network of shadowy business figures trying to smuggle weapons and equipment to Iran from the country most determined to stop them: the United States.

Jacques Monsieur, a Belgian long pursued by various governments for shipping military supplies to trouble spots around the world, was arrested in late August after an undercover Immigration and Customs Enforcement investigation. He is accused of trying to buy fighter jet engines for Iran.

Associated Press