10 things you need to know today: September 17, 2014

1. Joint Chiefs chairman says ground troops might be needed if ISIS withstands airstrikes

Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Martin E. Dempsey told Congress on Tuesday that he would recommend sending combat troops to fight against the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria if airstrikes fail to defeat the Islamist extremist group and there are threats against the U.S. When President Obama announced he was expanding American involvement in the campaign against ISIS, he said the U.S. would "not get dragged into another ground war in Iraq." White House spokesman Josh Earnest said Dempsey was speaking hypothetically, and Obama's position "has not changed."

The New York Times The Telegraph

2. NASA picks private companies to build spacecraft to carry astronauts

Boeing and Space Exploration Technologies, or SpaceX, have won multi-billion-dollar contracts to build spacecraft to carry astronauts to the International Space Station and back, NASA announced on Tuesday. The companies will be the first private businesses to take astronauts into space. Astronaut Mike Fincke said the outsourcing is one of "the keys to the doorway to space," because it would be a boost to the commercial space industry that could one day take paying passengers into orbit.

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Wired

3. Ukraine ratifies closer ties to the European Union

Ukraine's parliament on Tuesday approved a historic proposal to expand its economic links to the European Union, starting in 2016. The country's former pro-Russian president, Victor Yanukovych, was ousted last year after rejecting a similar proposal, triggering a separatist uprising. Lawmakers also granted separatist-held areas temporary autonomy, and granted amnesty to militants. "No nation has ever paid such a high price to become Europeans," Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said.

NPR

4. Labor market improvement leads to a drop in the U.S. poverty rate

The poverty rate in the U.S. dropped last year for the first time since 2006, the Census Bureau reported Tuesday. The decrease, to 14.5 percent from 15 percent, came partly because the number of year-round, full-time jobs in the country increased by 2.8 million to 105.8 million. Nearly 1 million of the households with a newfound job included children, leading to the first significant decline in child poverty in more than a decade. Latinos made the biggest improvement with a 2.1 percent poverty-rate drop.

Los Angeles Times

5. Scotland nearly evenly split ahead of Thursday independence referendum

A day ahead of Scotland's Thursday independence vote, polls showed neither side with a significant lead. "No" voters, who want to keep Scotland in the United Kingdom, held a four percent lead with 52 percent, but that count excludes undecided voters. When they are included in the tally, the secessionists trail by a narrower margin — 47.7 percent "no," 44.1 percent "yes" — with 8.3 percent still uncertain. British political leaders promised Scotland new powers if it stays in the U.K.

Daily Mail CNN

6. Former Auschwitz guard, age 93, accused of role in 300,000 murders

A 93-year-old former Auschwitz guard was charged in Germany on Tuesday with 300,000 counts of being an accessory to murder. The man, Oskar Groning, was a member of Adolf Hitler's SS unit at the concentration camp. Prosecutors accused him of taking money from new arrivals — providing "the Nazi regime with economic advantage" — and supporting "systematic killings." Groning said that, as a bookkeeper, he was just a "small cog in the gears," and that he did not serve the Nazis voluntarily.

The Wall Street Journal

7. U.N. brokers deal for rebuilding Gaza

The United Nations has pulled together a deal agreed to by Israel and the Palestinians on rebuilding the Gaza Strip, the U.N.'s top Middle East envoy says. More than 2,100 Palestinians were killed in Gaza in an Israeli offensive aimed at halting Hamas attacks in southern Israel. The violence, which also killed 66 Israelis, destroyed an estimated 18,000 houses, leaving 100,000 Gazans homeless. Under the deal, the Palestinian Authority and private firms will have major roles in the rebuilding.

BBC News

8. New York man accused of plotting with ISIS to kill Americans

A federal grand jury in New York has indicted a Rochester man, Mufid Elfgeeh, on charges that he tried to help the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria and plotted to kill U.S. soldiers, the Justice Department announced Tuesday. Elfgeeh, 30, allegedly tried to help three people travel to Syria to join ISIS fighters. Federal authorities also said Elfgeeh plotted to kill American soldiers who had returned from Iraq, and bought two pistols equipped with silencers, although the FBI had disarmed them before letting a source sell them.

Reuters

9. American arrested trying to swim to North Korea

South Korean Marines arrested an American man for allegedly trying to swim across a river into North Korea to meet Kim Jong Un, the communist country's leader, a defense ministry spokesman said Wednesday. Attempting to cross the heavily fortified border is dangerous. A South Korean man was shot and killed trying to swim across the Han River last year. The arrest came as North Korea is holding three U.S. citizens accused of "hostile acts." One, Matthew Miller, was sentenced Sunday to six years of hard labor.

The Washington Post

10. Vikings reverse course and suspend Adrian Peterson

The Minnesota Vikings suspended running back Adrian Peterson early on Wednesday until his child abuse case is resolved. Peterson, the National Football League's 2012 Most Valuable Player, missed last Sunday's game after being indicted for allegedly injuring his 4-year-old son by spanking him with a switch, a thin tree branch used for corporal punishment. The team and the NFL came had faced sharp criticism since reinstating Peterson — who has apologized and said he was "without a doubt, not a child abuser" — on Monday. Radisson hotels pulled its team sponsorship on Tuesday.

Bloomberg News