In brief: California teen accused of killing 8-year-old girl
Santa Cruz, Calif. – A 15-year-old boy lured an 8-year-old girl into his apartment and killed her before hiding her body in a recycling bin at the housing complex for artists where they lived, authorities said Tuesday.
Santa Cruz police Chief Kevin Vogel told reporters that Madyson Middleton went willingly into the apartment and was probably dead even before she was reported missing Sunday evening. The boy, who police say knew the girl as a neighborhood acquaintance, was arrested on suspicion of murder, Vogel said.
The police chief would not discuss a motive and declined to give details on the suspect’s background or the manner in which the girl was slain.
Madyson’s disappearance and death has shaken the unique artists’ community called Tannery Arts Center on the outskirts of this beach town.
Deadly spaceship crash blamed on pilot error
Los Angeles – Pilot error – and a lack of safeguards in place to prevent it – was the main cause of the deadly crash of Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo in a test flight last fall, federal safety officials said Tuesday.
The crash killed the co-pilot, Michael Alsbury, and injured the pilot, Peter Siebold, who survived despite being thrown from the disintegrating aircraft 10 miles above the Mojave Desert.
SpaceShipTwo broke apart Oct. 31 just seconds after separating from its carrier aircraft and firing its rocket engines because Alsbury prematurely unlocked the plane’s “feather system,” or movable tail, the National Transportation Safety Board concluded during a hearing in Washington.
The NTSB faulted the plane’s builder, Scaled Composites, and a lax Federal Aviation Administration for failing to head off the possibility that human error could lead to catastrophe. It called for more aggressive federal oversight and stronger industry safety standards.
Virgin Galactic, billionaire Richard Branson’s proposed ferry for taking wealthy tourists to the edge of space, said it had fixed the feather-unlocking problem cited by the NTSB and would press on with its program.
Earthquakes force shutdown of waste wells
Oklahoma City – Oil and gas operators shut down two wastewater injection wells in northern Oklahoma on Tuesday and reduced operations at a third after several earthquakes centered in the town of Crescent rattled the state.
Stephens Production and Devon Energy each voluntarily closed one well, and Stephens reduced operations at another well by 50 percent, Oklahoma Corporation Commissioner Matt Skinner said.
Crescent is a town of about 1,400 people that’s about 35 miles north of Oklahoma City. Earthquakes in the area recorded by the U.S. Geological Survey include a magnitude 4.5 quake at 1:12 p.m. Monday that is the strongest reported in the state so far this year.