10 things you need to know today: September 2, 2016

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1. Potentially 'life-threatening' Hurricane Hermine hits Florida
2. Clinton scores biggest monthly fundraising haul yet
3. Trump hires Citizens United head as deputy campaign manager
4. SpaceX rocket explodes on Florida launchpad
5. Samsung recalls new Galaxy Note 7 over battery problem
6. Georgetown atones for 1838 slave sales
7. Florida confirms its first Zika-infected mosquitoes in Miami Beach
8. Hacker 'Guccifer' sentenced to four years
9. Deadly protests erupt in Gabon over allegations of election fraud
10. Ex-astronaut James Halsell indicted for 2 Alabama girls' traffic deaths

published 2 September 2016

1. Potentially 'life-threatening' Hurricane Hermine hits Florida

Hurricane Hermine hit Florida's Gulf Coast south of the state's capital, Tallahassee, early Friday with top sustained winds of 80 mph. Hermine, the first hurricane to strike Florida since 2005, flooded streets and downed trees and power lines, quickly weakening to tropical storm strength as it moved inland. Gov. Rick Scott (R) urged people to stay indoors as the storm passed and warned of "life-threatening storm surge," which forecasters warned could reach six to nine feet. Georgia officials warned of flash flooding over the next 48 hours as the storm moved across the state on its way up the East Coast.

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Donald Trump's presidential campaign has hired David N. Bossie, a conservative operative and, until this week, president of Citizens United, as deputy campaign manager. Trump called Bossie a "friend of mine for many years. Solid. Smart. Loves politics, knows how to win." Bossie is taking a leave of absence from Citizens United, the conservative advocacy group best known for the Supreme Court decision Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, a ruling that ended many restrictions on political spending for corporations and unions. The latest addition to Trump's team came as several members of his National Hispanic Advisory Council quit after his fiery Thursday speech on illegal immigration.

A SpaceX rocket exploded on a Kennedy Space Center launchpad early Thursday, two days before its scheduled launch. A fire broke out during a pre-launch fueling operation before several explosions rattled the test site in Cape Canaveral, Florida, and sent smoke billowing into the sky. The accident destroyed the rocket and the Amos 6 satellite it was to carry into orbit. The explosion came after a series of successes for tech entrepreneur Elon Musk's company, which succeeded in landing booster rockets on floating platforms — advancing its plan to cut costs by reusing rockets.

Samsung on Friday recalled its new Galaxy Note 7 smartphones over a battery problem that can cause the devices to catch fire. The company has sold 2.5 million of the waterproof phones, which only made their debut on Aug. 19. Samsung said it had found 35 cases of faulty devices globally. The South Korean company's stock plunged on Thursday on reports a battery problem would delay future deliveries. The recall and its cost will be so big, said Koh Dong-jin, the head of Samsung’s handset division, "it almost breaks my heart."

Georgetown University President John J. DeGioia on Thursday offered a formal apology for the university's profiting from the sale of 272 slaves more than 200 years ago. The Washington, D.C., school sold the slaves in 1838 in an effort to shore up its finances and stay open. To make amends, DeGioia said, the school will take several steps, including offering preferential treatment in the admissions process — but, so far, not scholarships — to descendants of the enslaved, erecting a monument, and creating an institute for the study of slavery.

Florida officials said Thursday that three mosquito samples collected in Miami Beach had tested positive for Zika, marking the first confirmation that local insects were carrying the virus. The Florida Department of Health says 49 people are believed to have contracted Zika in the Miami area so far. The mosquitoes carrying Zika, which can cause devastating birth defects, were caught in an area where authorities are stepping up mosquito control measures. As Zika fears rise, millions of honeybees died this week in one South Carolina county that conducted aerial mosquito spraying after four travel-related Zika cases were confirmed in the area.

A federal judge in Virginia on Thursday sentenced Marcel Lehel Lazar, a Romanian hacker known online as Guccifer, to 52 months in prison for aggravated identity theft and unauthorized access to a protected computer. Lazar was the first to reveal that Hillary Clinton used a private email account while serving as secretary of state. He admitted to hacking accounts of dozens of celebrities, business executives, and political figures such as Sidney Blumenthal, who corresponded with Clinton via her personal email account. "This epidemic must stop," U.S. District Judge James C. Cacheris said.

Riots broke out in Gabon on Thursday after allegations of fraud in the Saturday election narrowly won by President Ali Bongo. Security forces, reacting to the torching of parliament by "armed criminals," stormed the headquarters of defeated presidential candidate Jean Ping. Ping disputed voting results in one province showing 99.93 percent turnout and 95 percent of the votes going to Ali Bongo. At least three people were killed in the violence, and hundreds were arrested.

An Alabama grand jury on Thursday indicted former NASA astronaut James Halsell on two counts of reckless murder and two of second-degree assault for a June traffic accident that killed two girls. Halsell, traveling at high speed, rear-ended a Ford Fiesta driven by Pernell James, killing James' daughters, Niomi James, 11, and Jayla Parler, 13. James and another passenger were hospitalized. Investigators said Halsell, who flew into orbit on five Space Shuttle missions, was so intoxicated that he tried to flee the scene of the accident in a witness' truck.

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Harold Maass is a contributing editor at The Week. He has been writing for The Week since the 2001 debut of the U.S. print edition and served as editor of TheWeek.com when it launched in 2008. Harold started his career as a newspaper reporter in South Florida and Haiti. He has previously worked for a variety of news outlets, including The Miami Herald, ABC News and Fox News, and for several years wrote a daily roundup of financial news for The Week and Yahoo Finance.