CHICAGO – The wife of ousted Boeing CEO Harry Stonecipher has filed for divorce, less than a week after the aerospace company’s board forced him out for improper conduct related to an affair with a female executive. Joan Stonecipher, 68, cited irreconcilable differences in papers filed Friday in Cook County Circuit Court. The filing comes just a month after the couple celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary. She listed her occupation as housewife and demanded a “fair and reasonable sum” from her husband, also 68, who she described as having “substantial income and wealth.”
Florida: Largest satellite in orbit
An Atlas 5 rocket roared from its seaside launch pad Friday, carrying into space an EADS satellite to provide broadband access to mobile electronics users. The Inmarsat 4 is the first of a new breed of spacecraft designed to provide broadband Internet, video, fax, e-mail, phone and local area network access to mobile users almost anywhere in the world. The new spacecraft was billed as the largest commercial satellite ever launched , at 13,138 pounds.
D.C.: Rice won’t rule out running
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice described herself Friday as “mildly pro-choice” and “kind of libertarian” on abortion, and left the door open for a presidential race in 2008. Rice, 50, who took office Jan. 26 after four years as President Bush’s national security adviser, said she “can’t imagine” running to succeed her boss and that she is “not trying to be elected.” But she said she knows people are talking about the possibility, and she did not rule it out in an interview with the Washington Times editorial board.
Wisconsin: 8 die in shooting spree
A gunman opened fire Saturday at a Living Church of God service at a suburban Milwaukee hotel, killing seven people before taking his own life, authorities said. Officers found four people and the gunman dead when they arrived about 1 p.m. at the Sheraton hotel. Three others died later at a hospital, police said. “There is nobody else being sought at this time as a suspect,” a police spokesman said. The suspect, a man of about 45 who was armed with a handgun, was affiliated with the church.
Kentucky: Cigarette taxes to rise
Kentucky smokers, long accustomed to a barely noticeable cigarette tax, just learned that tobacco isn’t as big as it used to be. The state’s 3-cent-per-pack cigarette tax – the lowest in the nation – will rise 27 cents June 1 as part of a tax overhaul passed by the General Assembly this week in hopes of solving the state’s fiscal woes. Gov. Ernie Fletcher, a physician who originally proposed a 31-cent increase, called it a historic day for Kentucky, the nation’s leading producer of burley tobacco.
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