Heat wave hardest on nation’s poor

Heat wave hardest on nation’s poor

HORIZON CITY, Texas

With much of the nation in the grip of a broiling heat wave, few people are hit as hard as the poor, and few places are poorer than the ramshackle communities along the Texas-Mexico border known as “colonias.”

The misery was widespread Monday, with the worst conditions blanketing a broad band from Texas to Minnesota and the Dakotas. Seventeen states issued heat watches, warnings or advisories. And the heat index easily surpassed 100 degrees in many places: 126 in Newton, Iowa; 120 in Mitchell, S.D.; and 119 in Madison, Minn.

The high temperatures were nearly certain to persist for the entire week. Forecasters expected the extreme discomfort to spread soon to the East Coast.

Sources: Gadhafi, US officials met

WASHINGTON

U.S. officials met face-to-face with representatives of Moammar Gadhafi’s regime last weekend to underscore the Obama administration’s commitment to seeing the longtime Libyan leader leave power, two U.S. officials said.

The meeting was not a negotiating session, and there were no plans to meet with the Gadhafi regime again, the officials said. The meeting followed a decision Friday by the U.S. and several other nations to formally recognize Libya’s main opposition group as the country’s legitimate government, a major boost for the rebel movement.

A senior U.S. official traveling with Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton in India said the U.S. agreed to meet the Libyans only after the U.S. officially recognized the rebels.

Last space-shuttle crew bids goodbye

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla.

The astronauts on NASA’s final shuttle voyage floated out of the International Space Station for the last time Monday, leaving behind a historic U.S. flag and a commemorative shuttle model to mark the end of a 30-year era.

Atlantis was set to undock from the orbiting lab early today — providing the last glimpses of a space shuttle in flight before the fleet is retired.

Second London police official quits

LONDON

Scotland Yard’s assistant commissioner resigned Monday, a day after his boss also quit, and fresh investigations of possible police wrongdoing were launched in the phone-hacking scandal that has spread from Rupert Murdoch’s media empire to the British prime minister’s office.

Prime Minister David Cameron called an emergency session of Parliament on the scandal and cut short his visit to Africa to try to contain the widening crisis. Lawmakers today are to question Murdoch, his son, James, and Rebekah Brooks, the former chief executive of Murdoch’s U.K. newspaper arm.

In another twist, a former News of the World reporter who helped blow the whistle on the scandal was found dead Monday in his home, but it was not believed to be suspicious.

Agent-groping case

DENVER

A Colorado woman accused of groping a female Transportation Security Administration agent in Phoenix is getting some support from people unhappy about airport-security procedures.

A Facebook page supporting Yukari Miyamae had more than 900 backers Monday afternoon, with some praising her for her bravery and others offering to donate money to her defense. Others defended the TSA’s screening procedures, saying that people who don’t want to comply with security requirements shouldn’t fly.

Associated Press