Fighter Jet Down in Calif. Desert

Native Americans fear for wildlife, sacred sites

(NEWSER) - Sure, solar energy plants are aimed at helping the environment—but planned sites in the Mojave Desert area could do more harm than good, Native American groups argue. That's because making way for the plants would damage the habitats of the horny toad and desert tortoise, Alfredo Figueroa, a 78-year-old Chemehuevi Indian tells the Guardian . "Of all the creatures, the horny toad is the most sacred to us because he's at the center of the Aztec sun calendar," he notes. "And the tortoise also, who represents Mother Earth." More»

Visitors will pass through underground tunnel in 'Terminal'

(NEWSER) - Swiss artist Christoph Buchel has applied for a permit for a truly big, truly strange art exhibit: He wants to bury a 727 in the Mojave Desert, allowing guests to visit it through an underground tunnel. The piece will be called "Terminal," and the group Buchel organized for it, Terminal Project LLC, has already shelled out $21,000 for 5.3 acres of undeveloped desert, according to real estate records found by the Bakersfield Californian . More»

Driver unhurt, chased from scene by mob

(AP) - An off-road truck plowed into a crowd and scattered "bodies everywhere" moments after sailing off a jump at a California race yesterday, killing eight people and leaving 12 injured, authorities and witnesses said. " There were just bodies everywhere," he said. "One woman with a major head wound (was) lying in a pool of blood. Someone else was crushed beneath the car," a photographer covering the event for off-road magazines, told the AP. More»

(NEWSER) - The Army plans to evict more than 1,000 endangered desert tortoises to expand a tank training ground in the Mojave Desert, the Los Angeles Times reports. Conservationists warn that the last effort to shift the tortoises proved disastrous: Many were wiped out by predators, and others traveled up to 8 miles to return to their old territory. More»

Stormy Florida weather prompted NASA to go to Plan B

(NEWSER) - With weather conditions in Florida remaining too soggy for a safe shuttle landing, Atlantis instead touched down at Edwards Air Force Base in California this morning. This was the 53rd west-coast landing for a space shuttle, a $2 million decision made easy by the balmy conditions in the Mojave Desert. Atlantis will make it back to Kennedy Space Center on the back of a modified 747. More»