Around the Nation

Problems Spur NASA To Delay Two Launches

CAPE CANAVERAL -- NASA is delaying next month's shuttle launch to the Hubble Space Telescope because of problems stemming from Hurricane Ike and replacement parts for the observatory.

The space shuttle Atlantis is now set to blast off late on Oct. 14 for the last visit to the orbiting telescope, officials said Wednesday. Liftoff had been scheduled for the wee hours of Oct. 10, technically making this a five-day postponement. Senior managers will reassess the launch date next week.

Atlantis's seven astronauts, who wrapped up a practice countdown at the launch site, lost a week of training because of Hurricane Ike. The storm closed the Johnson Space Center in Houston, which did not reopen until this week.

The delay also pushes back the launch of Endeavour's space station mission to Nov. 16. Endeavour will serve as the rescue ship for Atlantis, if needed.

No Gas? No Classes.

ASHEVILLE, N.C. -- A gasoline shortage that is frustrating drivers in the Southeast has prompted a community college in North Carolina to cancel classes for the rest of the week. Officials say an increasing number of the 25,000 commuter students at several campuses of Asheville-Buncombe Technical Community College are not showing up. A spokeswoman for the college in western North Carolina says that even professors are calling to say they are stuck at home. Drivers across much of the Southeast have been scrambling to find gas since Hurricane Ike shut down or reduced work at more than a dozen refineries on the Texas Gulf Coast.

32-Year Fugitive Gets Probation

DETROIT -- A California woman who escaped from a Michigan prison 32 years ago and lived on the lam as a suburban mother was sentenced to two years of probation, five months after her capture. "I knew for years this was coming," Susan LeFevre said. Wayne County Circuit Judge David Groner said LeFevre had already served 14 months in prison on a drug conviction when she escaped. LeFevre, 53, was arrested in the spring. She was living under the name Marie Walsh in the posh Carmel Valley neighborhood of San Diego, where she is married with three children. She pleaded guilty to the escape Sept. 9.

Ellis Island to Tell Slaves' Stories

NEW YORK -- Ellis Island is expanding its story of U.S. immigration history, adding modern arrivals and including for the first time Native Americans and African slaves. A new center being created within the Ellis Island Immigration Museum will tell the history of arrivals before and after the peak immigration era in the United States of 1892 to 1954, the Statue of Liberty-Ellis Island Foundation said. When the Peopling of America Center is completed in 2011, the museum will be renamed Ellis Island: The National Museum of Immigration.

-- From News Services