Building a promising vaccine for Ebola

Building a promising vaccine for Ebola

WASHINGTON

It took 16 years of twists and turns. Over and over, Dr. Nancy Sullivan thought she was close to an Ebola vaccine, only to see the next experiment fail.

“A case of resuscitation more than once,” is how the National Institutes of Health researcher describes the journey.

But it is those failures that Sullivan credits for finally leading her to a vaccine promising enough to test in parts of West Africa ravaged by Ebola. Last week, volunteers in Liberia’s capital began rolling up their sleeves for the first large-scale testing of two potential Ebola vaccines, the one Sullivan developed at NIH and a similar one created by Canada’s government.

Ebola has claimed nearly 9,000 lives in West Africa over the past year.

Ga. man, ex fought over child custody

DOUGLASVILLE, Ga.

Cedric Prather Jr.’s three children were his whole life, and when he lost his job as a truck driver recently, the pressure over supporting them may have led him to snap and kill four people, his sister said Monday.

The shooting rampage happened just after 3 p.m. Saturday. Prather, 33, walked inside the suburban Atlanta home of his ex-wife, Latoya A. Andrews, police said. Prather gunned down Andrews and her boyfriend, Joseph Terry Brown, and killed two of his own children, including one who begged him not to pull the trigger, police said. He also shot two other children, leaving them critically injured. He then killed himself in the street.

SpaceX delays again

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla.

A deep-space observatory has to wait yet another day before flying.

SpaceX called off Sunday evening’s launch attempt because of trouble with the Air Force rocket-tracking radar. The company targeted Monday, but decided to wait until today for better weather. That gives SpaceX time to replace a video transmitter on the first-stage booster of the Falcon 9 rocket.

Spending $3.2M to help butterflies

WASHINGTON

The federal government on Monday pledged $3.2 million to help save the monarch butterfly, the iconic orange-and-black butterfly that can migrate thousands of miles between the U.S. and Mexico each year. In recent years, the species has experienced a 90 percent decline in population, with the lowest recorded population occurring in 2013-14.

About $2 million will restore more than 200,000 acres of habitat from California to the Corn Belt, including more than 750 schoolyard habitats and pollinator gardens. The rest will be used to start a conservation fund — the first dedicated solely to monarchs — that will provide grants to farmers and other landowners to conserve habitat.

Hundreds gather for funeral of slain teen

JEANNETTE, Pa.

As seven men and teenage boys escorted Ryan Mangan’s coffin to the altar, pew after pew of classmates, friends and relatives cried and consoled one another.

About 250 people — at least half teenagers — gathered at Sacred Heart Church in Jeannette, southeast of Pittsburgh, Monday morning for the funeral of the 16-year-old found shot to death in his home Wednesday.

Ryan’s death made national news, as police said they identified Ryan’s killer through a “selfie” the teenager posted to Snapchat.

Maxwell Marion Morton, 16, of Jeannette, is charged with criminal homicide, first-degree murder and illegally possessing a 9 mm handgun. Police said Morton confessed shooting Mangan.

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