The World - July 28, 2011

THURSDAY

Space Shuttle Atlantis landed at Edwards Air Force Base just before dawn, ending the 135th and final flight of the United States’ 30-year-old shuttle program.

European Union officials approved a second bailout package for the busted Greek government. EU governments gave the nation 109 billion euros, and private bondholders contributed as much as 50 billion more.

Oklahoma eased commercial vehicle restrictions to speed delivery of hay and other feed to cattle whose grazing areas have been destroyed by a severe drought in the region.

David Cross, angry that a Massachusetts car dealership refused to take back a “lemon” van he had purchased, returned to the dealership at midnight and smashed seven vehicles on the dealer’s lot, including a Mercedes C300 and a Ford Mustang.

FRIDAY

Right-wing zealot Behring Breivik killed 76 people in a bomb attack and shooting spree in Oslo and an island youth camp. His attorney later asserted Breivik is insane.

House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner walked out of talks with President Barack Obama as negotiations to avoid an unprecedented U.S. debt default stalled over taxes and spending cuts.

The Texas Board of Education voted unanimously to approve mainstream middle school curriculum materials, including a rejection of creationist teaching in science classes as a theory of how life began.

Navy veteran Jack Smith of Conway, Ark., purchased a 120-foot-long, 3-million-year-old natural sandstone bridge in the Ozark Mountains at auction for $207,900.

Researchers in Germany developed a “seismic” wallpaper that can keep walls from collapsing during earthquakes.

WEEKEND

The Federal Aviation Administration, the arm of the U.S. Department of Transportation responsible for air passenger safety, furloughed about 4,000 of its workers on Saturday after Congress failed to reauthorize the agency’s funding.

A 42-year-old gunman walked onto a dance floor at Muckleshoot Casino in Auburn on Sunday and opened fire on his estranged wife and her companion, injuring seven people.

Retired General John Shalikashvili, a Polish immigrant who rose to the position of Chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff during the 1990s, died at the age of 75.

At least eight people were injured in a mass shooting at a low-rider car show in Kent on Saturday.

Democratic Oregon Congressman David Wu was accused of an unwanted sexual encounter by the teenage daughter of a long time campaign donor and high school friend of the seven-term Congressman.

MONDAY

The federal government reversed itself and withdrew permission it had granted to Oregon and Washington state to euthanize sea lions caught gobbling endangered salmon on the Columbia River at Bonneville Dam.

California Governor Jerry Brown signed into law a bill allowing illegal immigrants who earned a diploma after attending at least three years of high school to receive privately funded scholarships to attend the state’s public colleges and universities.

A 63-year-old California man with a hernia plunged a butter knife into his abdomen in an attempt to fix the problem, and later put a lit cigarette in the wound to cauterize the cut.

A mystery man arrested on July 1 for trespassing in a parking garage remains behind bars in Utah while law enforcement officials try to determine his identity, which he refuses to reveal.

The sale of a 200-year-old bottle of Chateau d’Yquem white wine for $121,000 set a new Guinness World Record for the most valuable bottle of white wine ever sold. The climatology of 1811 and the auspicious appearance of the Great Comet in that year supposedly indicate an excellent wine.

TUESDAY

At least 122 firearms from a botched U.S. ATF undercover operation have been found at crime scenes in Mexico or intercepted en route to drug cartels there, a congressional report revealed.

Democratic Congressman Luis Gutierrez of Illinois was one of about a dozen arrested in front of the White House while protesting deportation of illegal immigrants.

Australia police used pepper spray to overpower an aggressive kangaroo after it attacked a 94-year-old woman as she tended to the laundry in her backyard.

Jail guard Alfred Casas, 31, was convicted of smuggling a saw blade to a double murder suspect in Texas’s Bexar County Jail by hiding it in a folded soft taco shell.

WEDNESDAY

Deeply divided congressional leaders scrambled to find common ground on the $14.3 trillion U.S. debt ceiling, which the government is supposed to hit Aug. 2. Boehner rushed to rework his bill after an analysis found it would cut spending by $350 billion less than the $1.2 trillion over 10 years he had claimed. A rival plan by Top Senate Democrat Harry Reid calls for a $2.7 trillion deficit reduction with no tax increases.

Compiled by Gazette staff

from a variety of sources.