Oregon campus reopens after shooting
Faculty, staff and some students have returned to an Oregon community college for the first time since a gunman killed nine people on Oct.1.
Classes at Umpqua Community College won’t resume until next week, but the campus reopened Monday to staff, faculty and students who wanted to pick up belongings they left behind when they fled the shooting last Thursday.
South Carolina floods continue
After a week of steady rain, an inundated South Carolina turned to surveying a road system shredded by historic flooding.
The governor warned communities downstream that they may still see rising water and to be prepared for more evacuations. More than 900 people were already staying in shelters and nearly 40,000 people were without water. At least 11 weather-related deaths in two states were blamed on the vast rainstorm.
Container ship sank carrying 33 people
The captain of the 790-foot El Faro planned to bypass Hurricane Joaquin, but some kind of mechanical failure left the U.S. container ship with 33 people aboard helplessly — and tragically — adrift in the path of the powerful storm, the vessel’s owners say.
On Monday, four days after the ship vanished, the Coast Guard concluded it sank near the Bahamas in about 15,000 feet of water. One unidentified body in a survival suit was recovered, and the search went on for any trace of the other crew members.
The ship had 28 crew members from the U.S. and five from Poland.
Congress votes for new Speaker of the House
House Speaker John Boehner has scheduled the House election to replace him for Oct. 29 and delayed votes for lower-level posts until after that. House Republicans had planned to vote Thursday by secret ballot for a new leadership team.
But a number of members wanted more time to weigh their options and pursue rule changes amid general disarray in the aftermath of Boehner’s sudden resignation.
So on Thursday, a secret-ballot election will be held — but only for speaker. A floor vote in the full House will follow on Oct. 29.
US commander says Afghans requested US airstrike
Afghan forces who reported being under Taliban fire requested the U.S. airstrike that killed 22 people at a medical clinic in northern Afghanistan over the weekend, the top commander of American and coalition forces in Afghanistan said Monday, correcting an initial U.S. statement that the strike had been launched because U.S. forces were threatened.
The clinic was operated by the medical charity Doctors Without Borders. The attack killed at least 22 people and wounded dozens more, setting the hospital on fire.
