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Suborbital space tourism finally arrives | FCC prepares to run public C-band auction | The big four in the U.S. launch industry — United Launch Alliance, SpaceX, Blue Origin and Northrop Grumman — hope to be one of two providers that will receive five-year contracts later this year to launch national security payloads starting in 2022. | China’s launch rate stays high | The International Space Station is the largest ever crewed object in space.

 
Florida GOP fights to animate Trump’s base...
PANAMA CITY, Fla. (AP) — Nearly 300 Republicans packed shoulder-to-shoulder maskless and sweating inside a Holiday Inn conference room this week in the heart of the Florida Panhandle to see their party’s biggest political stars not named President Donald Trump. With Trump grounded in Washington, they chanted and cheered as the governor, the self-described “Trumpiest” Florida congressman and the president’s eldest son shared anti-Democratic conspiracy theories, attacked the media and warned that Joe Biden “is a puppet for the...

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McConnell tries to salvage Senate majority with...
WASHINGTON (AP) — Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell spent a year prepping his Republican colleagues for this moment, telling them the confirmation of a Supreme Court justice is the “most important” vote they will take as senators, the chance to make “seismic change” that will stay with the nation for generations to come. Now, three weeks before Election Day, the GOP leader needs this moment more than ever. Confirmation hearings are set to begin Monday for President Donald Trump’s...

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LEADING OFF: Rays thwart Yankees, seek revenge...
A look at what’s happening around the majors Saturday: ___ REVENGE RAYS The Tampa Bay Rays have more revenge in mind heading to the AL Championship Series. Mike Brosseau hit a tiebreaking homer in the eighth inning off All-Star closer Aroldis Chapman on Friday night, propelling Tampa Bay past the rival Yankees in their AL Division Series. It was a sweet piece of vengeance for Brosseau after Chapman buzzed a 101 mph fastball over his head during the regular...

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Lundqvist to Caps, goalie carousel spins in...
Nets around the NHL will look very different next season after a flurry of musical goaltenders in free agency. Henrik Lundqvist is joining a team he tormented in the playoffs for years, Braden Holtby is leaving the franchise he led to the Stanley Cup, Jacob Markstrom got big bucks to join the Battle of Alberta and Anton Khudobin is staying home, after all. Beyond Khudobin, who stayed with the Dallas Stars after carrying them to the Cup Final, a...

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Jets acquire Stastny as trade kicks off...
Center Paul Stastny is returning to the Winnipeg Jets after a trade with the Vegas Golden Knights, a move completed just before the NHL’s free-agency signing period opened on Friday. The Golden Knights acquired defenseman Carl Dahlstrom and a conditional 2022 fourth-round draft pick in dealing the 14th-year forward. The trade kicked off what is expected to be a busy day of signings and moves made by NHL teams challenged by a flat salary cap of $81.5 million. The...

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Marvin Sapp on new album and dealing...
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Even though Marvin Sapp finished recording his new album before the coronavirus rocked the world, the gospel singer believes his prophetic message of enduring transition and change still resonates during the pandemic. Sapp says his songs about being fearless of the unknown was heavenly sent for his 12th album, “Chosen Vessel,” out on Friday. While recording, he did not expect to release a gospel project during the pandemic, but he hopes his album can help...

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Enrollment drops worry public schools as pandemic...
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) — Rather than wait to see how her children’s Florida public school would teach students this fall, Erica Chao enrolled her two daughters in a private school that seemed better positioned to provide instruction online during the uncertainty of the coronavirus pandemic. The virtual lessons that Emily, 8, and Annabelle, 6, received in the spring while enrolled at a Miami-Dade County elementary school became a “free for all,” Chao said. The private school classes, by...

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Brazil’s poor squeezed by less virus aid,...
RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — Many people in Brazil are struggling to cope with less pandemic aid from the government and jumping food prices, with millions expected to slip back into poverty. Brazil’s government, starting this month, halved the amount of its monthly emergency cash transfers to help Brazil’s poor withstand the hardship of the economic meltdown, down to 300 reais ($54). As the government winds down the program through year-end, with unemployment still high, many of those people...

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Judge denies motion to extend Florida’s voter...
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — A federal judge has denied a motion to extend voter registration in Florida even though a computer meltdown on the final day of registration might have prevented thousands of potential voters from taking part in November’s presidential election. In a 29-page ruling on Friday morning, U.S. District Court Judge Mark E. Walker said his decision was “an incredibly close call” but added that “the state’s interest in preventing chaos in its already precarious —and perennially...

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DC’s Hotel Zena aims to make a...
Hotel Zena, the new hotel managed by West Hollywood, California-based Viceroy Hotels & Resorts in D.C.’s Logan Circle, isn’t just a boutique hotel. It aims to serve as a cultural hub celebrating female empowerment though provocative art and design and relevant programming. The 191-room Hotel Zena replaces the Kimpton-run Hotel Donovan at 1155 14th St. NW, in Logan Circle. Bethesda-based Pebblebrook Hotel Trust acquired the hotel in late 2018. Pebblebrook and Viceroy call the Zena an interactive venue, where...

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In VP debate, plexiglass an extra participant...
SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — There were three participants in Wednesday night’s vice presidential debate: Republican Mike Pence, Democrat Kamala Harris and the plexiglass between them. The clear partitions went largely unmentioned as Pence and Harris directed criticism at one another, and the home audience couldn’t see them in split-screen TV images. But when the cameras showed Pence or Harris from the side, the candidates’ reflections were evident on the barriers. It was a reminder of the coronavirus, prominent...

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AP FACT CHECK: Claims from Pence and...
WASHINGTON (AP) — Vice President Mike Pence and Sen. Kamala Harris tussled Wednesday in the first and only vice presidential debate before the Nov. 3 election, coming as the coronavirus sidelined President Donald Trump at the White House. A look at how the running mates’ statements from Salt Lake City stack up with the facts: RUSSIA INVESTIGATION PENCE, on the conclusions of special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation: “It was found that there was no obstruction, no collusion. Case...

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Man pleads not guilty in death of...
WEST SENECA, N.Y. (AP) — A New York bar patron accused of giving a fatal shove to an 80-year-old man during a confrontation about the need to wear a mask has pleaded not guilty to criminally negligent homicide. Donald Lewinski, 65, entered a plea of not guilty at a court on Tuesday and was released on his own recognizance, his attorney Barry Covert said. Rocco Sapienza confronted Lewinski at a bar in West Seneca on Sept. 26 because he...

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Wisconsin governor restricts public indoor gatherings
MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Gov. Tony Evers’ administration issued a new order Tuesday limiting the size of public indoor gatherings as COVID-19 spreads unchecked across the state, in a move certain to alienate Republicans as well as tavern and restaurant owners. Wisconsin has become one of the worst hot spots for the disease over the last month, with experts attributing the spike in cases to colleges and schools reopening and general fatigue about wearing masks and social distancing. The...

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3 scientists win Nobel physics prize for...
STOCKHOLM (AP) — Three scientists won the Nobel Prize in physics Tuesday for establishing the all-too-weird reality of black holes — the straight-out-of-science-fiction cosmic monsters that suck up light and time and will eventually swallow us, too. Roger Penrose of Britain, Reinhard Genzel of Germany and Andrea Ghez of the United States explained to the world these dead ends of the cosmos that are still not completely understood but are deeply connected, somehow, to the creation of galaxies. Penrose,...

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