Charles Manson gets license to marry 26-year-old woman who visits him in prison
CORCORAN, Calif. — Mass murderer Charles Manson has gotten a license to marry a 26-year-old woman who visits him in prison.
The Kings County marriage license, viewed Monday by The Associated Press, was issued Nov. 7 for the 80-year-old Manson and Afton Elaine Burton, who left her Midwestern home nine years ago and moved to Corcoran, California — the site of the prison — to be near Manson. She maintains several websites advocating Manson’s innocence.
The license does not specify a wedding date and indicates the couple has 90 days to get married or they will have to reapply.
Burton, who goes by the name “Star,” told the AP that she and Manson will be married next month.
“Y’all can know that it’s true,” she said. “It’s going to happen.”
Scientists ‘confident’ comet lander will wake up again when it nears the sun
BERLIN — A burst of sunshine in the spring could be just the wakeup call for Europe’s comet lander.
Scientists raised hopes Monday that as the Philae lander nears the sun its solar panel-powered battery will recharge, and the first spacecraft to touch down on a comet will send a second round of scientific data back to Earth.
Since landing with a bounce on the comet Wednesday, Philae has already sent back reams of data that scientists are eagerly examining. But there were fears its mission would be cut short because it came to rest in the shadow of a cliff. Its signal went silent Saturday after its primary battery ran out.
Shortly before that happened, the European Space Agency decided to attempt to tilt the lander’s biggest solar panel toward the sun — a last-ditch maneuver that scientists believe may have paid off.
“We are very confident at some stage it will wake up again and we can achieve contact,” Stephan Ulamec, the lander manager, told The Associated Press.
Pope confirms he’ll travel to Philadelphia for families conference in September
PHILADELPHIA — Organizers of the World Meeting of Families were coy for months when asked if Pope Francis would come to Philadelphia for the massive Roman Catholic-sponsored gathering.
It turns out that when the pontiff finally confirmed his attendance Monday, organizers already had gotten inside information from an unimpeachable source: Francis told Gov. Tom Corbett during a Vatican meeting in March that he would make the journey, his first papal visit to the United States.
“The Holy Father answered our invitation by whispering three words in Tom’s ear: ‘I will come,’” said Susan Corbett, Pennsylvania’s first lady.
Protocol kept them from saying anything publicly until now, she said at a news conference hours after the pope’s statement.
Still, the timing of Francis’ announcement — made during an interreligious Vatican conference on traditional family values — came as a bit of a surprise and set cellphones abuzz in Philadelphia around 3:30 a.m. EST. Organizers had not expected official word until later next year.
Huge California solar plant, hailed as turning point in green energy, lags in early production
LOS ANGELES — The largest solar power plant of its type in the world — once promoted as a turning point in green energy — isn’t producing as much energy as planned.
One of the reasons is as basic as it gets: The sun isn’t shining as much as expected.
Sprawling across roughly 5 square miles of federal desert near the California-Nevada border, the Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating System opened in February, with operators saying it would produce enough electricity to power a city of 140,000 homes.
So far, however, the plant is producing about half of its expected annual output for 2014, according to calculations by the California Energy Commission.
It had been projected to produce its full capacity for 8 hours a day, on average.
By wire sources