Midday Roundup: Another police shooting ignites protests in St. Louis

Police shooting. Demonstrators are again gathering near St. Louis, Mo., to protest a police shooting. Late Tuesday night, an officer with the Berkeley Police Department shot and killed an 18-year-old African-American who approached him and drew a gun. The officer had approached the teen and another man during what police describe as a routine check at a gas station. When the officer stepped out of his car, Antonio Martin pointed a gun at him. During a news conference this morning, police officials said they do not believe Martin ever fired his gun. A crowd quickly gathered and protestors yelled at the other police officers at the scene. When a scuffle broke out, several people were arrested. This shooting comes four months after another shooting in nearby Ferguson touched off protests around the country, in which a grand jury decided not to indict the officer, Darren Wilson, in Michael Brown’s death.

Downed jet. Islamic State militants shot down a Jordanian fighter jet and captured its pilot near Raqqa, Syria, earlier today. The pilot has been identified as Mu’ath Safi Yousef al-Kaseasbeh, 26. He has been in the Jordanian air force for six years and was married in July. The militants released several photos of al-Kaseasbeh, including of him surrounded by jubilant fighters. Another showed him half-naked and soaking wet as he was taken out of a lake. It wasn’t immediately clear what targets al-Kaseasbeh might have been ordered to strike. Jordan is one of four Middle Eastern nations—including Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, and the United Arab Emirates—conducting airstrikes against the Islamic State militants in Iraq and Syria.

Blood ban. In what appears to be an attempt to assuage criticism from gay activists, the Food and Drug Administration announced late yesterday it would partially lift the ban on blood donations from homosexual men. The ban was put in place in the 1980s as the AIDS crisis unfolded. But the new proposal isn’t making anyone happy. Under the new rules, homosexual men could give blood as long as they have been celibate for a year. Officials say that will not put the nation’s blood supply at risk. But gay activists say the modified ban remains discriminatory. They claim modern tests for HIV can detect the virus quickly enough to prevent anyone from receiving tainted blood. But the tests don’t work in the earliest stages of infection, when even the donor doesn’t know he’s infected. Homosexual men account for the most new HIV cases in the United States.

Bad weather. Severe storms that spawned several tornados left four people dead in Mississippi on Tuesday. The weather system stretched across the country, from bottom to top, dumping snow in the North and rain in the South. The twisters injured another 50 people. “You could feel the pressure real bad in your ears whenever it was coming over,” said Melissa McKenzie, store manager of a flower shop in Columbia, Miss. “It was pretty scary. Before we knew it was actually coming, you could see this really dark spot come out that was clear on both sides, and we both thought that might be a tornado.” The nasty weather is wrecking havoc on holiday travel, with officials expecting flight delays and cancellations from Atlanta to New York.

Hospitalized. Former President George H.W. Bush was hospitalized yesterday in Houston for shortness of breath. He was admitted to Houston Methodist Hospital as a precaution, a spokesman said. Two years ago, the 41st president spent seven weeks over the holidays in the hospital recovering from bronchitis and related ailments. It is not clear how serious this latest illness is. Bush, who served two terms as Ronald Reagan’s vice president before being elected president, is 90. Despite some health problems, he has remained active. Earlier this year, he celebrated his birthday with a parachute jump in Kennebunkport, Maine.

Here comes Santa. Volunteers in Colorado Springs, Colo., are already busy tracking Santa’s progress from the North Pole, fielding phone calls and answering emails from children anxiously awaiting the jolly old dlf’s arrival. The North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) tracking program started in 1955 and has become a holiday tradition. The operation even has its own control center at Peterson Air Force Base. Hundreds of volunteers come out to help on Christmas Eve. More than 117,000 children called NORAD in 2011. So far this year, the NORAD Tracks Santa Facebook page has more than 1.5 million likes and 136,000 followers on Twitter. To get an update, call 877-HI-NORAD or visit noradsanta.org.