Midday Roundup: 'Draft Biden' gets serious about VP running for president

Next level. A top adviser to late Delaware Attorney General Beau Biden has joined a group that wants Vice President Joe Biden to run for president. Josh Alcorn’s joining the Draft Biden super PAC lends credibility to an effort that previously had few legitimate connections to the Biden family. Biden reportedly is considering a run as Hillary Clinton, so far the most likely Democratic presidential candidate, faces an image problem with voters, according to recent polls. Biden’s son Beau died earlier this year from brain cancer, prompting an outpouring of support for the vice president, who also lost a daughter and his first wife in a 1972 car accident.

Emissions omission. President Barack Obama will announce today even steeper greenhouse gas limits on U.S. power plants than previously expected. Opponents plan to sue to stop the unprecedented emissions limits. The National Mining Association wrote the Environmental Protection Agency a letter today requesting the agency put the rule on hold while the legal challenges play out. Washington is assigning individual emissions reduction targets to each state. Some states will be given a more lenient target than they were assigned under the proposed version of the rules, while others will have tougher targets to meet. The Obama administration has yet to disclose those state-specific targets.

Lost and found. Residents of Reunion Island, where part of an airplane wing washed up last week, have been combing the beaches for more debris. The plane part, called a flaperon, belonged to a Boeing 777, the same model as the Malaysia Airlines flight that vanished over the Indian Ocean in March 2014. As scientists analyze the piece, locals have come out to look for more clues about MH 370’s disappearance. The only object of any significance turned out to be part of a household ladder. “Today, a lot of people go to the beach and bring objects to the police, but we think it is nothing,” said Jean-Yves Sambimanan, a city official on the island.

Killed in action. For the third time in just four years, Memphis, Tenn., is mourning the loss of another police officer killed in the line of duty. Officer Sean Bolton, 33, was gunned down Saturday during a traffic stop. Police are looking for a suspect, Tremaine Wilbourn, who is on supervised release from a 121-month federal prison sentence for robbing a bank. Police suspect Bolton interrupted a drug sale when he approached an illegally parked car Saturday night. The two people in the car fled after one of them shot Bolton. Memphis Mayor A.C. Wharton said police are at a disadvantage because they have to follow strict rules when confronting suspects: “Men and women in blue have certain rules of engagement they have to follow, but at any given minute in a 24-hour day, they’re dealing with folks who have no rules of engagement.”

Ablaze. As dozens of wildfires burn across drought-stricken northern California, investigators are looking into the tragic loss of one firefighter. Engine Capt. David Ruhl of South Dakota was working in California’s Modoc National Forest, when he died battling a fire over the weekend. Black Hills National Forest Service spokesman Scott Jacobson said Ruhl’s family is grief-stricken. “He’s a husband, got a wife and two kids. He was a great outdoorsman, loved to fish and hunt, and he was just really kind of a quiet guy,” Jacobson said. Extremely dry conditions and lightning strikes contributed to the wildfires raging in northern California.

WORLD Radio’s Jim Henry and The Associated Press contributed to this report.