CAPE CANAVERAL — NASA’s chief says the Trump administration’s proposed $1.6 billion budget boost is a “good start” for putting astronauts back on the moon.

Administrator Jim Bridenstine addressed employees Tuesday, a day after the White House introduced the budget amendment.

He says $1.6 billion is enough for 2020 “to get out of the gate.” But more money will be needed in the years ahead to land “the next man and the first woman” on the moon by 2024.

NASA is once again turning to Greek mythology for the name of the project. It’s being called Artemis, after the twin sister of Apollo. Apollo was the name of NASA’s moon-landing program of the 1960s and 1970s. This July will mark the 50th anniversary of the first manned moon landing.

 

Officials warn fish
unsafe after accident

BAYPORT — Texas health officials have advised people not to fish or eat seafood from parts of some Houston-area bays as cleanup continues following last week’s tanker and barges accident and toxic leak.

An official with the Texas Department of State Health Services on Tuesday said the advisory involves portions of Galveston and Trinity bays. Spokesman Chris Van Deusen says water sample results are pending.

The agency closed private oyster harvesting areas in Galveston Bay following Friday’s collision along the Houston Ship Channel near Bayport. The accident involved a tanker, a tugboat and two barges, including one leaking about 9,000 barrels of a gasoline blend stock into the water.

Coast Guard spokesman Greg Beuerman said Tuesday that cleanup continues using booms and skimmers. The Houston Ship Channel fully reopened Monday afternoon.

 

Suspect in 2 deaths
also found dead

GAINESVILLE — A man sought in the deaths of two people whose bodies were found in a burning car in North Texas has himself been found dead.

Authorities say the body of 37-year-old Mandeep Singh of Fort Worth was found Monday. It was found in a heavily wooded area of Cooke County near where a car was found burning Sunday night with two bodies inside.

Cooke County Sheriff Terry Gilbert says Singh had been wanted on a capital murder charge. He says an autopsy has been ordered to determine what caused his death.

Authorities haven’t released the identities of those found dead in the back seat of the burning car near the Red River north of Muenster, about 18 miles northwest of Gainesville.

Suspect pleads guilty
in 2 bank robberies

WACO — A Central Texas man faces up to 80 years in federal prison after pleading guilty to a pair of bank robberies and shooting a police officer.

Prosecutors say Dallas Scott Bohanan pleaded guilty Tuesday in Waco to bank robberies in 2016 and this year. The 25-year-old Waco man also pleaded guilty to three counts of discharging a firearm during a crime of violence.

Investigators say Bohanan robbed Temple Santa Fe Community Credit Union in November 2016. He robbed Pointwest Bank in Hewitt on Feb. 5 and opened fire with a shotgun, exchanging gunfire with police and wounding an officer in the arm. Bohahan was nabbed in Waco.

Prosecutors say Bohanan discharged guns during both holdups, plus during a 2016 bank robbery in Waco.

He’s jailed pending sentencing.