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December 03, 2015

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ByMarciaDunn TheAssociatedPress CAPE CANAVERAL, FLA. NASA hopes to resume commercial shipments this week to the International Space Station, following months of frustrating delay. The last successful U.S. supply run was in April. Russia and Japan have managed to fill the gap, but the 250-mile-high pantry isn't as full as it should be. An unmanned Atlas V rocket arrived at its launch pad Wednesday. It's due to lift off early Thursday eve- ning with 7,400 pounds of space station supplies packed into a capsule named Cygnus after the swan constellation. The six space station as- tronauts are the ultimate customers, said Frank Cul- bertson of shipper Orbital ATK Inc., "so we want to take them what they need." "I'm guessing that San- ta's sleigh is somewhere in- side the Cygnus, and they're probably excited about their stockings coming up, too," Culbertson, president of the company's space systems group, said at a news con- ference Wednesday. Orbital is launching the Cygnus from Cape Canav- eral this time. Its Antares rocket is still grounded fol- lowing a 2014 launch ex- plosion that damaged the Virginia launch pad. The rocket and the company's cargo ship were destroyed. The Virginia-based Or- bital purchased two United Launch Alliance rockets to fulfill its shipment obliga- tions to NASA. NASA's other contracted shipper, SpaceX, has been grounded since a failed launch in June. The Califor- nia company expects to re- sume deliveries in January. It had the last U.S. resupply success, back in April. Orbital plans another shipment via an Atlas in March, followed by the re- turn of Antares in May with a new type of Russian-built engine. A fire and explosion in the old Russian rocket engines doomed the Octo- ber 2014 flight, the compa- ny's fourth resupply mis- sion. Orbital's latest cargo ship contains food, clothes, equipment, science experi- ments and even storybooks, part of an astronaut-read- ing project for children. Some of the experiments represent redo's by school- children who lost their original tests on the failed launches. NASA briefly considered squeezing in a spare part to restore the space station to full power. A short circuit knocked out one of eight power channels in mid-No- vember. Space station pro- gram manager Kirk Shire- man told reporters that the astronauts first will test an old and possibly radiation- degraded spare already on board, before a replace- ment is put on a SpaceX Dragon capsule sometime next year. Orbital's rocket men ac- knowledge being a little nervous about the upcom- ing launch, even though the Atlas has been around for decades and is a tried and true workhorse. It typically hoists satellites for the Air Force and other customers; this will be its first crack at a space station run. "You're always a little nervous, but highly confi- dent," Mike Pinkston, gen- eral manager for the An- tares, said on the eve of the launch. Culbertson noted it's been a challenge to get to this point, "but return-to- flight became the compa- ny's very, very sharp focus" following the launch acci- dent. Commercial space is in- evitable, NASA's Shire- man stressed, failures and all. He called them "grow- ing pains" in what still is a transition period. SpaceX opened the commercial pipeline to the space station in 2012, a year after NASA's shuttles retired. Russia, which also ex- perienced a failed sup- ply mission last April be- fore getting back on track, will launch another load of cargo in late December. Forecasters put the odds of good weather at 60 per- cent for Thursday's 5:55 p.m. EST launch attempt. The outlook worsens Friday. The Cygnus capsule is named after Mercury astro- naut Deke Slayton, a com- mercial space pioneer. So was the one that was lost; this one is S.S. Deke Slay- ton II. Online: Orbital ATK: https:// www.orbitalatk.com NASA USspacestationdeliveryon tap a er 8-month stoppage UNITEDLAUNCHALLIANCE An Atlas V rocket, carrying the Orbital ATK Cygnus spacecra , is rolled from the Vertical Integration Facility to a launch pad at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Cape Canaveral, Florida, on Wednesday. By Alan Fram The Associated Press WASHINGTON Republicans ignored a White House promise of a veto Wednes- day and pushed toward Sen- ate passage of legislation de- molishing President Barack Obama's health care over- haul and blocking Planned Parenthood's federal funds. After weeks of strate- gizing, GOP leaders be- gan rolling out a measure they said would attract the votes needed for approval by week's end. To achieve that, they balanced victories for some of the most conserva- tive GOP senators with con- cessions for more moderate Republicans facing compet- itive 2016 re-elections. The WhiteHouseaccused Republicans of "refighting old political battles," a refer- ence to unanimous GOP op- position to the measure ever since Obama began pushing itthroughCongressanddoz- ens of votes lawmakers have staged to undo the statute. Repeal would "roll back coverage gains and would cost millions of hard-work- ing families the security of affordable health coverage they deserve," the White House wrote in its letter pledging a veto. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., tauntingly suggested that Democrats reconsider their defense of the health care law. "This is their chance, and President Obama's chance, to begin to make amends for the pain and hurt they've caused" by the statute, which Republicans blame for rising health care costs. On Wednesday, a Depart- ment of Health and Human Services report said that health care spending grew last year at 5.3 percent, in part because over his law's coverage expansion and the steepest climb since Obama took office. The GOP said a veto would only help its presi- dential and congressional candidates by underscoring that Republican control of the White House and Con- gress could spell the end of the law they derisively la- bel "Obamacare" and of Planned Parenthood's fed- eral dollars. Pleasing conservatives, the measure would all but kill the 2010 Affordable Care Act, effectively ending its requirements that indi- viduals obtain health insur- ance and that large compa- nies offer coverage to work- ers by erasing the financial penalties enforcing those obligations. The bill would repeal the law's expanded Medicaid coverage for lower-income people and its federal sub- sidies for those buying pol- icies in insurance market- places. It would also an- nul a slew of tax increases the law imposed to cover its costs, including levies on medical devices, costly in- surance policies, investment income of higher-earning people and indoor tanning salons, according to docu- ments obtained by The As- sociated Press. For GOP senators facing tough re-election fights, the measure offers some relief: a two-year delay in its re- peal of the exchange sub- sidies and the Medicaid ex- pansion. That would allow Republicans to argue that the bill creates a two-year bridge until the next pres- ident takes office and can offer a replacement health care plan. In the five years since the health statute be- came law, the GOP hasn't coalesced behind a replace- ment proposal. POLITICS Senate GOP health law repeal delivers wins to party's wings By Joseph Krauss The Associated Press CAIRO The Islamic State's rampage across the Middle East has left the world in horror divided over how to refer to the extrem- ist group, with observers adopting different acro- nyms based on their trans- lation of an archaic geo- graphical term and the ex- tent to which they want to needle the extremists. The Associated Press refers to it as the Islamic State group — to distin- guish it from an interna- tionally recognized state — or IS for short, usually as an adjective before the words group, organization or extremists. ISISorISIL? The group traces its roots back to Al-Qaida in Iraq, which declared an Is- lamic State of Iraq (ISI) in 2006. The name never re- ally caught on, however, because the militants were never able to seize and hold significant territory. That began to change when the group expanded into neigh- boring Syria, exploiting the chaos of its civil war. In 2013 the leader of the Islamic State of Iraq, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, re- named it the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham, sig- naling its emergence as a transnational force while sowing the first seeds of confusion over what to call it. Al-Sham is an ar- chaic word for a vaguely defined territory that in- cludes what is now Syria, Lebanon, Israel, the Pales- tinian territories and Jor- dan. In English, the group's name was translated var- iously as the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS), the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (also ISIS), or the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), the term usually used by the U.S. government and var- ious U.N. agencies. Daesh Mainly in the Middle East but increasingly be- yond, those opposed to the group turned the Ar- abic acronym into a word — "Daesh" — which is non- sensical in Arabic and in- sulting to the group be- cause it diminishes its claim to have revived the Islamic caliphate. The IS group's opponents, includ- ing public officials like French President Francois Hollande and U.S. Secre- tary of State John Kerry, have used to condemn or diminish the group. Dawaesh, a plural form of the word that sounds even sillier in Arabic, is widely used in the Middle East. IS itself bans the use of the term Daesh in areas it controls. NAMES Is it IS, ISIS or ISIL, and what's a Daesh? By Nomaan Merchant and Tim Talley The Associated Press OKLAHOMA CITY The woman wore orange jail scrubs, handcuffs and leg irons as she testified about the police officer who she said raped her. Hours ear- lier, she had been jailed on drug charges after relaps- ing on crack cocaine. She was the second wit- ness in a row to appear wearing inmate garb, and neither the first nor the last with a history of drug prob- lems. They were among 13 women who've testified in the sexual assault trial of former Oklahoma City po- liceofficerDanielHoltzclaw, many providing visual cues to the challenges prosecu- tors face as they conclude their case this week. Holtzclaw, 28, is accused of abusing his role to prey on vulnerable women while on duty. He faces 36 counts of rape, forcible oral sod- omy, sexual battery and other charges that carry a possible sentence of life in prison. His attorney told ju- rors Holtzclaw was an hon- orable but naive officer try- ing to help troubled women who lied about him, and has made their credibility the cornerstone of his de- fense strategy. SincethetrialbeganNov. 2, many of the women's de- scriptions have traced a similar arc: The officer stopped them while out on patrol, ran background checksfor outstandingwar- rantsorconductedsearches that turned up drug para- phernalia,thenforcedthem to have sex to avoid arrest. Most testified that they never reported the assaults to authorities for fear no one would believe them. "What's the good of tell- ing the police? What kind of police do you call on the police?" asked one woman. 13 WOMEN Witness credibility attacked in ex-officer's sex abuse trial PublishedbyTheDailyNewswithgreatappreciationfor the support of local businesses! After just 3 weeks in business I have gained multiple new clients directly from the Business Builder ads run in our local paper. With a constant flow of "I saw your ad" asking me for more information about what I do. Thank you Daily News for helping my business grow. Appreciate it Gayla, TheresaWood 40 Chestnut Avenue Red Bluff 530-330-1096 BRING BALANCE TO YOUR BODY Bring balance to your LIFE TABATA BOOTCAMP 6:30am,7:00am,5:30pm $100 8 weeks. 40 Chestnut Ave., Red Bluff 530-330-1096 | NEWS | REDBLUFFDAILYNEWS.COM THURSDAY, DECEMBER 3, 2015 4 B

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