Intelligencer Journal/Lancaster New Era

NATIONAL

Outdoor retail exec named to Interior post Minn. cancels moose hunting Man pleads guilty to FRC shooting 9/11 medical examiner retires Largest prime number found Woman flips off judge, is jailed

WASHINGTON -- President Barack Obama on Wednesday nominated Sally Jewell, the chief executive of Recreational Equipment Inc., to lead the Interior Department. She is in line to replace Ken Salazar.

If confirmed, Jewell, a former oil company engineer and longtime advocate for conservation and outdoor recreation, will take over a department that has been embroiled in controversy over the regulation of oil and gas on public lands and in the Gulf of Mexico and Arctic Ocean. She also will be the steward of hundreds of millions of acres of public lands.

Jewell, 56, who also had a 19-year career as a commercial banker, took over as chief executive of REI in 2005. The company, which is based in Kent, Wash., just south of Seattle, has since grown to nearly $2 billion a year in sales.

"She knows the link between conservation and good jobs," the president said.

MINNEAPOLIS -- Minnesota canceled its moose hunting season Wednesday, citing a precipitous decline in the moose population.

The population has dropped 35 percent over the past year and 52 percent from 2010 to an estimated 2,760 moose left in northeastern Minnesota, according to the annual aerial survey conducted by the Department of Natural Resources in January. That's down from an estimated 4,230 moose last winter. Minnesota's moose numbers were estimated as high as 8,840 in 2006.

WASHINGTON -- A Virginia man pleaded guilty Wednesday to wounding a security guard at the Washington headquarters of a conservative Christian lobbying group, a shooting that made headlines in part because the man was carrying 15 Chick-fil-A sandwiches.

Floyd Corkins II, 28, acknowledged in a plea agreement that he intended to kill as many people as possible during the August shooting at the Family Research Council. Corkins intended to smear the sandwiches in the faces of his victims to make a statement about gay rights opponents, he acknowledged during a hearing Wednesday.

Sentencing is set for April 29.

NEW YORK -- The city's long-serving medical examiner, who was injured in the Sept. 11 attacks but returned to work that day and then spent years overseeing the creation of the nation's biggest DNA lab and identifying remains, is retiring.

Dr. Charles Hirsch was appointed in 1989 by then-Mayor Ed Koch.

In his years in New York City, Hirsch oversaw the creation of the largest public DNA lab in the country. Because of that lab, the office was able to take on the task of trying to identify the remains of the victims of the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center.

Hirsch was injured when the south tower collapsed but returned to work that day despite broken ribs and cuts.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- University of Central Missouri mathematicians have found the largest prime number ever identified, but good luck remembering it.

The researchers identified the 17 million-digit number last month as the 48th known Mersenne prime. A different computer system running on different hardware confirmed that it is a prime number. Primes are whole numbers such as 3, 7 and 11 that can only be divided without a remainder by themselves and 1.

This is the third Mersenne prime identified at the university in Warrensburg, about 50 miles east of Kansas City.

Mersenne primes are named after their discoverer, 17th century French mathematician Marin Mersenne. They're expressed as 2P-1, or two to the power of "P" minus one. P is itself a prime number. For the new prime, P is 57,885,161.

MIAMI -- A Miami woman has been jailed on contempt charges after flipping off a judge during a drug possession hearing.

Miami television station NBC 6 reported that 18-year-old Penelope Soto laughed Monday when Circuit Judge Jorge Rodriguez-Chomat asked how much her jewelry was worth as he inquired about her financial assets. He set Soto's bond at $5,000 and said bye-bye. Soto laughed again and replied, "adios." He summoned her back and reset her bond at $10,000.

Soto asked whether the judge was serious and he said, "I am serious. Adios."

Soto flipped him off and blurted an expletive as she walked away. The judge summoned her again and sentenced her to 30 days in jail.