The News in 2 Minutes

From The Associated Press

FDA declares it’s OK to eat tomatoes again

WASHINGTON D.C. — It’s OK to eat all kinds of tomatoes again, the U.S. government declared Thursday — lifting its salmonella warning on the summer favorites amid signs that the record outbreak, while not over, may finally be slowing.

Hot peppers still get a caution: The people most at risk of salmonella — including the elderly and people with weak immune systems — should avoid fresh jalapenos and serranos, and any dishes that may contain them such as fresh salsa, federal health officials advised.

Investigators still don’t know what caused the salmonella outbreak, which now has sickened 1,220 people in 42 states — the earliest falling ill on April 10 and the latest so far on July 4.

DC residents start applying for gun permits

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The plaintiff in the Supreme Court case that overturned Washington’s 32-year-old handgun ban was the first to arrive Thursday as the city began registering firearms. But security guard Dick Heller was turned away from police headquarters because he didn’t bring his weapon as required.

Thursday marked the first day that District of Columbia residents could begin registering or applying for handguns since the Supreme Court struck down one of the strictest gun laws in the nation.

The Supreme Court ruled June 26 that the Second Amendment guarantees the right to have guns for self-defense. Since then, city officials have moved quickly to abide by the decision. Under emergency legislation passed this week by the D.C. Council, residents may keep handguns only for self defense — at home unloaded and disassembled, or equipped with trigger locks. A weapon can be readied for use only if there’s the “reasonably perceived threat of immediate harm.”

Wall Street surges on falling energy prices

NEW YORK — Wall Street shot higher Thursday, extending its rally into a second session as tumbling energy prices bolstered an already upbeat mood that followed stronger-than-expected quarterly reports from big names like JPMorgan Chase and United Technologies. The Dow Jones industrial average rose more than 200 points, bringing their two-day advance to more than 480.

Gore: Carbon-free electricity doable

WASHINGTON D.C.— Former Vice President Al Gore called Thursday for a “man on the moon” effort to switch all of the nation’s electricity production to wind, solar and other carbon-free sources within 10 years, a goal that he said would solve global warming as well as economic and natural security crises caused by dependence on fossil fuels.

“The answer is to end our reliance on carbon-based fuels,” Gore told a packed auditorium in Washington’s historic Constitution Hall. “When you connect the dots, it turns out that the real solutions to the climate crisis are the very same measures needed to renew our economy and escape the trap of ever-rising energy prices.”

Gore won the Nobel Peace Prize for sounding the alarm about climate change and his documentary on the issue, “An Inconvenient Truth,” won an Oscar.

Republicans kill oil drilling plan

WASHINGTON D.C. —House Republicans on Thursday killed a Democratic plan designed to spur drilling on already available federal lands in Alaska, the West and the western Gulf of Mexico.

Republicans scoffed that the Drill Act, imposing a tougher “use it or lose it” rule on leases already held by oil companies, would do little to boost exploration. They renewed their demand to open up the Atlantic and Pacific coasts and the eastern Gulf of Mexico to exploration.

The bill won a 244-173 majority, but still failed because it did not get a two-thirds margin under rules requiring a supermajority vote.

Texas OKs major wind power project

AUSTIN, Texas — Texas, headquarters of America’s oil industry, is about to stake a fortune on wind power.

In what experts say is the biggest investment in the clean and renewable energy in U.S. history, utility officials in the Lone Star State gave preliminary approval Thursday to a $4.9 billion plan to build new transmission lines to carry wind-generated electricity from gusty West Texas to urban areas like Dallas.

“People think about oil wells and football in Texas, but in 10 years they’ll look back and say this was a brilliant thing to do,” said Patrick Woodson, vice president of E.On Climate & Renewables North America, which has about 1,200 megawatts of wind projects already in use or on the drawing board in Texas.

Pope says ‘insatiable consumption’ scarring planet

SYDNEY, Australia — Pope Benedict XVI said Thursday that mankind’s “insatiable consumption” has scarred the Earth and squandered its resources, telling followers that taking care of the planet is vital to humanity.

The 81-year-old pontiff, appearing rested and in good form, gave his first major speech for Roman Catholicism’s World Youth Day before adoring crowds who had traveled from 168 countries to see him in Australia’s largest city.

“Some of you come from island nations whose very existence is threatened by rising water levels, others from nations suffering the effects of devastating drought,” the pope said, referring to global warming. “Perhaps reluctantly we come to acknowledge that there are also scars which mark the surface of our Earth: erosion, deforestation, the squandering of the world’s mineral and ocean resources in order to fuel an insatiable consumption,” he said.