Nation in brief: Recruitment high in armed services
The Army exceeded its recruiting goal for June, staying on track to meet its target of 80,000 new soldiers this year, the Pentagon announced Monday.
Active-duty components of the Air Force, Marines and Navy also met or topped their monthly goals. All are on pace to meet their goals for the fiscal year, which ends Sept. 30.
“We have made our goal 13 months in a row,” said Douglas Smith, a spokesman for the U.S. Army Recruiting Command.
Some new soldiers are eligible for as much as $40,000 in enlistment bonuses.
The Army also raised the age limit for recruits to 42 on June 21. In January, it had raised the age limit from 35 to 40. Smith said 324 new soldiers this year are older than 35.
SALT LAKE CITY
Pilot accused of drinking on job
A Southwest Airlines co-pilot accused of being intoxicated minutes before takeoff was charged in federal court Monday.
Prosecutors charged Carl Fulton, 41, of Fort Worth, Texas, with one count of operation of a common carrier under the influence of alcohol or drugs. The charge carries a maximum penalty of 15 years in prison and up to $250,000 in fines.
Fulton did not enter a plea. A preliminary hearing is set for July 28.
A Transportation Security Administration screener reported smelling alcohol on Fulton’s breath Sunday morning at a security checkpoint. That was about 30 minutes before Southwest Flight 136, on which Fulton was the first officer, was set to depart from Salt Lake City International Airport for Phoenix.
Fulton was removed from the plane’s cockpit and arrested. He spent the night in the Salt Lake County Jail.
NEW YORK
‘Pirates’ breaks box office record
Johnny Depp’s Jack Sparrow – the drunken buccaneer famously modeled on the Rolling Stones’ Keith Richards – propelled “Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest” to the all-time largest opening box-office gross.
The film, a sequel full of special effects, plot twists and heartthrobs, earned a record haul of $135.6 million in its opening weekend, besting 2002’s “Spider-Man,” which took in $114.8 million in its first weekend.
Detroit
More mastodon remains unearthed
Scientists sifted through a road construction site Monday in search of more remains of a mastodon uncovered Friday about 30 miles northwest of Detroit.
“We had a wonderful morning. We recovered ribs, scapulas, feet and anklebones and a tibia,” said Michael Stafford, director of the Cranbrook Institute of Science in Bloomfield Hills, Mich.
By 2 p.m. Monday, the work was completed and a peat bog that had preserved the remains was replaced with sand that would serve as the foundation for an extension of a road between Rochester Hills and Auburn Hills.
From the tooth recovered, Stafford said they could discern that the mastodon, which has been given the name Adams, was a mature adult.