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Parental responsibility, a surprise guilty plea and an empty spaceship

 
Today's NATIONAL story

Father of alleged Georgia school shooter arrested

What happened
Colin Gray, the father of the 14-year-old charged with murdering two fellow students and two teachers at a Georgia high school Wednesday, was arrested yesterday. The charges against Gray — multiple counts of involuntary manslaughter, second-degree murder and cruelty to children — stem from him "knowingly allowing his son Colt to possess a weapon," Georgia Bureau of Investigation Director Chris Hosey said.

Who said what
The shooter at Apalachee High School in Winder, Georgia, used a "black, semi-automatic AR-15 style rifle," according to Colt Gray's arrest warrant. Colin Gray, 54, told investigators this week he purchased the rifle for his son last December as a Christmas president, two law enforcement sources told CNN. That was about six months after a local sheriff's office, acting off an FBI tip, questioned the father and son about threats to shoot up a middle school; Colt Gray denied making the threatening Discord post and said his account was hacked, according to records released yesterday.

Charging the parents is a "new strategy in America's halting attempt to control the epidemic of school shootings," Reuters said. In a landmark case, the mother and father of a Michigan school shooter were convicted of manslaughter in April. About 75% of school shooters obtained their weapons at home, according to federal data.

"Let's require safe storage of firearms," President Joe Biden said. "You've got to hold parents accountable if they let their child have access to these guns." Republican vice-presidential nominee J.D. Vance said he didn't "like that this is a fact of life," but school shootings are "increasingly the reality that we live in" and "we have got to bolster security in our schools."

What next?
Colt Gray, who has been charged with four counts of felony murder, is scheduled to make his first court appearance this morning.

 
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Today's LEGAL story

Hunter Biden pleads guilty to tax charges

What happened
Hunter Biden pleaded guilty to nine federal tax charges yesterday, surprising prosecutors and the judge overseeing the case in Los Angeles.

Who said what
"I will not subject my family to more pain, more invasions of privacy and needless embarrassment," Biden said. He added that decisions by U.S. District Judge Mark Scarsi meant the jury "would never had heard" how his former crack cocaine addiction contributed to his tax evasion "or that I had paid every penny of my back taxes including penalties."

"Tax evasion is common," The Washington Post said, "but criminal charges for tax evasion are rare" and sentences are typically light. Before pleading guilty, Biden offered an Alford plea — accepting the charges while maintaining his innocence — but prosecutors strongly objected. The "atmosphere in the courtroom" was "tense, clamorous and chaotic," The New York Times said, but "much of the legal drama" was "drained of its national significance" the moment Biden's father, President Joe Biden, "withdrew from the 2024 race in July."

What next?
Scarsi, a Donald Trump appointee, cautioned Biden that without a plea deal, he faces up to 17 years in prison and $1.35 million in fines when he is sentenced Dec. 16. A federal judge in Delaware will sentence Biden for his June gun conviction on Nov. 13. The White House affirmed that the president will not pardon his son or commute any sentence.

 
 
Today's AEROSPACE Story

Boeing's Starliner to come home empty

What happened
NASA plans to bring Boeing's troubled Starliner space capsule back to Earth today, undocking it from the International Space Station while leaving behind the two astronauts who flew up in the craft's inaugural crewed flight in June. Barring weather delays or other setbacks, the Starliner capsule will land in New Mexico on Saturday. Astronauts Sunita Williams and Barry "Butch" Wilmore will return on a SpaceX spacecraft in February.

Who said what
"It's been a journey to get here, and we're excited to have Starliner undock and return," Steve Stich, NASA's commercial crew program manager, said Wednesday. There was "some tension in the room," he acknowledged, when NASA decided it was prudent to bring the capsule home empty, despite Boeing's confidence in the craft's thrusters. Williams and Wilmore, who expected an eight-day trip to the ISS, are "ready to execute whatever mission we put in front of them," said Dana Weigel, NASA's program manager for the space station.

Starliner's crewless return is a "stinging loss for Boeing" and "even a successful landing will be something of a hollow victory," The Washington Post said. The June test flight was supposed to "lead to regular operational missions" to the ISS, alternating with SpaceX's spacecraft, but now the Starliner's future is unclear.

What next?
The SpaceX Crew Dragon slated to bring Williams and Wilmore home is scheduled to launch Sept. 24, with two seats empty for their return flight.

 
 

It's not all bad

Scientists who studied the brainwave measurements and neural images of patients with treatment-resistant depression found that classical music initiated antidepressant effects by synchronizing the brain regions responsible for processing sensory and emotional information. "We hope to translate our research findings into clinical practice, developing convenient and effective music therapy tools and applications," said Professor Bomin Sun of Shanghai Jiao Tong University. The team also determined that synchronization is more significant in patients with higher music appreciation.

 
 
Under the radar

People expect summertime to feature uncomfortably muggy days, but the soaring temperatures and sticky dew-point levels across states like Iowa, Kansas and Minnesota are the direct result of a little-known agricultural and environmental phenomenon known as corn sweat. Yes, corn does indeed sweat, and when it does, millions of people feel its effect. 

It's not the ears of corn themselves that are sweating, David Nicholai, a field crops educator at the University of Minnesota, said at Kare11. It's "water movement coming out of the soil, going up through the plant, out through the leaves with a little opening." 

In large enough quantities, that vaporized water "can worsen stifling heat by driving up the humidity levels, making hot summer days all the more miserable," said USA Today. Iowa's corn crops, for example, push out a staggering "49 billion to 56 billion gallons of water into the atmosphere each day," said the National Weather Service. 

Excessive heat and humidity like the kinds experienced across much of the country recently have "never been unheard of or even rare," said Scientific American. What has changed, however, is that these events are "becoming hotter and happening more frequently than in the past" due to fossil fuel consumption. 

The good news in the short term is that "humidity from crops typically cuts back in September," said The Des Moines Register. After harvest, the "contribution from corn sweat is eliminated" — at least for another year.

 
 
On this day

September 6, 1916

Piggly Wiggly, considered the first completely self-service grocery store, was founded by Clarence Saunders in Memphis, Tennessee, though it would not open until five days later. Through the decades, Piggly Wiggly expanded to hundreds of locations throughout the U.S. and today has about 500 stores, primarily in the South and Midwest.

 
 
TODAY'S newspaperS

Donald Trump "backs federal panel on efficiency," an idea that "came from" Elon Musk, The New York Times says on Friday's front page. "Trump proposes role for Musk" as head of the panel, The Wall Street Journal says. Making Musk "efficiency czar" would give the billionaire Tesla and X boss "broad responsibilities for auditing federal spending and regulations," tightening his "pre-election alliance" with Trump, The Washington Post says. In vice-presidential election news, "voters favor Walz over Vance in national poll," USA Today says, finding Kamala Harris' running mate "real." 

► See the newspaper front pages

 
 
Tall tale

All hail our hair gel overlords

A "brainy" hydrogel learned how to play video games, according to scientists at Britain's University of Reading. The researchers challenged a hydrogel made of electro-active polymer, found in products like hair gel and contact lenses, to play the old-school video game "Pong." When the goo was given an electrical shock, particles moved, causing the gel to change shape and control the paddle. The ions then developed a memory, and the feedback loop between the hydrogel's paddle and the ball's position became more effective.

 
 

Morning Report was written and edited by Theara Coleman, Nadia Croes, Catherine Garcia, Scott Hocker, Anya Jaremko-Greenwold, Justin Klawans, Devika Rao, Rafi Schwartz and Peter Weber, with illustrations by Stephen Kelly and Julia Wytrazek.

Image credits, from top: Jessica McGowan / Getty Images; Robyn Beck / AFP via Getty Images; NASA / Associated Press; Illustration by Julia Wytrazek / Getty Images