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SALT LAKE CITY (AP) – The mother of an American hostage released by Shiite Houthi rebels in Yemen says her son suffered a back injury and is still in shock, but that he’s doing well considering the ordeal.

Freelance journalist Casey Coombs, 33, is stable in a hospital in Oman and is expected to return to Seattle in the coming days, said his mother, Jill Hammill. She found out Sunday that her son was freed after being taken by rebels on May 17.

She’s shocked and overjoyed, Hammill said.

“It was a miracle,” she said by phone from her home in Seattle. “We didn’t know if we would see him again.”

Coombs is one of several Americans being held by Shiite Houthi (HOO’-thee) rebels in Yemen who has been freed following mediation by Omani authorities, State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf said.

The State Department is working to win the release of several Americans detained in Yemen, Harf said.

The Washington Post reported on Friday that the Houthis had cleared one of four American prisoners for release. It said three of the four held private-sector jobs, and the fourth holds dual U.S.-Yemeni citizenship.

In a brief telephone conversation with his mother after his release, Coombs said that he wasn’t badly tortured but that it was still a difficult experience, Hammill said. She said she hasn’t heard the whole story but that he planned to reveal details of what happened when he returns to the U.S.

“He sounds extremely relieved,” Hammill said. “He said he’s still trying to process the whole thing. Sounds like he’s still in shock.”

Coombs is a freelance reporter who was working for The Intercept online news site and other publications. Emails to the Intercept seeking comment were not immediately returned.

His mother said he had been in Yemen for three years doing stories about humanitarian issues. He and his sister grew up in Utah, and Coombs has several degrees from the University of Utah: bachelor’s degrees in English and anthropology and a master’s in international affairs. The family recently moved to Seattle.

Coombs reported in the Intercept in early May that he was having trouble leaving Yemen. He was trying to get evacuated when he was taken by the rebels, Hammill said.

Despite being held hostage, she expects her son to continue being a freelance journalist.

“That’s who he is. It’s in his blood,” Hammill said. “But he won’t be doing it in Yemen.”

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AP Diplomatic Writer Matthew Lee reported from Washington. Associated Press News researcher Monika Mathur contributed to this report.

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) – Google isn’t making much headway diversifying its workforce beyond white and Asian men, even though the Internet company hired women to fill one out of every five of its openings for computer programmers and other high-paying technology jobs last year.

The imbalanced picture emerged in a demographic breakdown that Google released Monday. The report underscored the challenges that Google and most other major technology companies face as they try to add more women, blacks and Hispanics to their payrolls after many years of primarily relying on the technical skills of white and Asian men.

“Early indications show promise, but we know that with an organization our size, year-on-year growth and meaningful change is going to take time,” said Nancy Lee, Google’s vice president of people operations.

Just 18 percent of Google’s worldwide technology jobs were held by women entering 2015, up a percentage point from the previous year. Whites held 59 percent of Google’s tech jobs in the U.S., while Asians filled 35 percent of the positions, according to the report.

The slight uptick in women stemmed from a concerted effort to bring the numbers up. Google said 21 percent of the workers that it hired for technology jobs last year were women. The Mountain View, California, company added 9,700 jobs last year, although it declined to specify how many were for programming and other openings requiring technical knowledge.

Overall, Google employed 53,600 people at the end of 2014. In the U.S., just 2 percent of Google’s workers were black and 3 percent were Hispanic. Cutting across all industries in the U.S., 12 percent of the workforce is black and 14 percent is Hispanic.

The latest snapshot of Google’s workforce comes roughly a year after the company publicly disclosed the gender and racial makeup of its payroll for the first time, casting a spotlight on a diversity problem vexing the entire technology industry. Other well-known technology trendsetters, including Apple and Facebook, subsequently released data revealing similar diversity problems.

Mortified by the disclosures, Google and most of its other technology peers have been pouring more money into programs steering more women, blacks and Hispanics to focus on science and math in schools and have stepped up their recruiting of minority students as they prepare to graduate from college.

Civil rights leader Jesse Jackson, who has been spearheading the drive to diversify the tech industry, applauded Google for releasing its workforce data again to help keep the pressure on the technology industry to change the composition of its payroll.

“Tech companies must move from the aspiration of ‘doing better’ to concrete actionable hiring to move the needle,” Jackson said in a statement.  “We aim to change the flow of the river.”

GREEN BAY – As another round of students get ready to head to college, how to pay for it is one of the top questions families face.

For the past 14 years, Bobbie Lison has been paying off her student loans.

“I’m still repaying,” said Bobbie Lison.

She says she originally borrowed about $30,000.

“Life went badly. I ended up being a single parent, ended up working in the non-profit sector. The non-profit industry doesn’t pay a lot of money. I spent a lot of time putting them in forbearance or deferment and when that happened the interest grew,” she said.

Lison says now she owes around $56,000 and she’s not alone.

The Federal Reserve Bank of New York says student loan debt totals around $1.2 trillion.

A 2012 analysis found about 17 percent of borrowers were past due on their student debt by more than 90 days.

Sandy Duckett says student debt is tied to the economy.

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Duckett is the CEO of a local non-profit and employment services group.

“Student debt is a root cause and why our economy isn’t working as well as it should. We talked about $30,000 in student loans, well, that’s a new car. You’re buying a purchasing power is different,” Duckett said.

The Institute for College Access and Success says the average amount of debt for students graduating from a four-year college, in Wisconsin, is a little over $28,000.

Back at the Meyer, Duckett says students need more direction and advice before they head to college.

“There’s so many programs, how do you select? Sometimes, what sounds good my not have employability so we’re here to help with those kind of questions,” Duckett said.

Duckett says her organization will start reaching out to legislators and schools to better inform future college students and work to find new ways to reduce college loan debt.

NEENAH- The Menasha Corporation says they acquired Portable Packaging Systems, Inc. of Mississauga, Ontario.

Portable Packaging will operate as part of Menasha Packaging Canada L.P., a subsidiary of Menasha Corporation.

Like Menasha Packaging, Portable Packaging designs promotional packaging and displays for retailers and consumer packaged goods.

Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

OSHKOSH – There’s a dispute in Oshkosh.

“We’ve had some near confrontations, physical confrontations this year already,” said Ray Maurer, Oshkosh City Parks Director.

It has fishermen and boaters at odds.

“I do think it will make it a lot easier for people getting on and off the water,” said Ryan Mereness, Boater.

What it now means for those wanting to cast their lines from public boat docks.

Some anglers in Oshkosh will soon have to find another favorite fishing spot.

Thanks to a vote by the common council, fisherman will no longer be able to cast a line from piers at boat launch sites.

When it comes to catching white bass, fisherman, Andy Reyes says there is one pier along the Fox River in Oshkosh is tough to beat, “A lot more fish here than other places.”

But the pier is also part of the boat launch at Steiger Park, meaning Reyes will have to find a new spot. The Oshkosh Common Council passed an ordinance last week to prohibit fishing from city boat launch docks.

City leaders say several near confrontations have occurred here this season already.

“Where they were actually either hooked, or somebody was in their boats was getting hooked by fishermen. Or their lines were getting sucked up into their props,” said Maurer.

Mereness says he fishes the waters in the area about 100 times a year.

“I think it will help out a lot of the boaters quite a bit. In the fact that there won’t be lines I guess in your way crossing as you’re trying to put the boat on the trailer,” he said.

City leaders say the new rules don’t ban fishing. Anglers can still use public piers like the one at Steiger Park, just downstream from the boat launch.

“We have a handful of fishing docks throughout the city. Both the council, and parks board felt that there was adequate shoreline availability to fish throughout the city,” said Maurer.

Maurer says the signs on the city’s six boat launches should be installed this week.

“I do think it will make it a lot easier for people getting on and off the water,” said Mereness.

Reyes says he will fish from shore.

“The fish will be here still, but I think a lot of people will be upset about it. But they really can’t do nothing about it. They got to obey the rules,” he said.

The citation for fishing from a boat launch pier is $75, but court costs will put the fine in the range of $200.

WASHINGTON – Inaction by the U.S. Senate in dealing with the Patriot Act has Wisconsin’s lawmakers disappointed.

Republican Senator Ron Johnson tells FOX 11, quote: “I am concerned that…valuable capabilities designed to protect America from terror attacks expired.”

Democratic Senator Tammy Baldwin says she opposes the government overreach of the patriot act but now, “will work to help Congress pass legislation that respects freedoms guaranteed by our Constitution and strengthens our counter-terrorism efforts.”

While the Senate continues its debate over the Patriot Act, House members have already spoken.

“I was pleased to vote with the bill that passed the House, disappointed things didn’t pass the Senate,” said Congressman Glenn Grothman, (R) 6th District.

Grothman is among the Wisconsin House delegation that voted overwhelming in favor of the amended USA Freedom Act Legislation earlier this month. Only Democrat Rep. Mark Pocan, 2nd District, voted against.

The 338 to 88 vote in the House would keep in tact anti-terrorist provisions in the Patriot Act. But it changes the domestic surveillance program, scaling back the bulk collection of phone records.

“I don’t think we want to have the government in possession of everybody’s phone records. I mean that’s just way out of line,” said Grothman.

Grothman’s fellow Northeast Wisconsin Congressman Reid Ribble, (R) 8th District, shared concern about the Senate not getting to a vote, telling FOX 11: “National security is the first priority of our federal government, and allowing vital programs to lapse is regrettable.”

Both Wisconsin Senators Baldwin and Johnson are among those looking to get something passed this week.

Johnson told FOX 11, “Though not perfect, the USA Freedom Act preserves important tools to combat espionage and terrorism while sincerely trying to protect our freedoms.  I look forward to Senate consideration of amendments designed to improve the bill, and I hope to vote for final passage soon.”

ASHWAUBENON – The Ashwaubenon School District says today it will begin capping its remaining contaminated playing field later this summer.

Some athletic fields at the high school – built on top of a one-time landfill – were closed more than a year ago after testing found potentially dangerous PCBs in the ground.

The DNR says the PCBs possibly came from carbonless paper sludge or electrical transformers.

Fenced off from public use, the green, grassy field between Parkview Elementary and Ashwaubenon High lays dormant.

“We’re doing everything we can to ensure the safety and well-being of everyone, and that’s why we took extreme safety precautions by secluding this area until it’s properly capped and meets all the DNR and EPA regulations,” said Ashwaubenon School District superintendent Brian Hanes.

Hanes says the PCBs were first identified when plans were put in place for the new football stadium. Those contaminants have since been capped off and work will begin this summer to begin capping the PCBs found on the adjacent playing fields.

“This was actually identified when we were working on the football field project, that’s when it was identified and that’s when the requirements landed on our plate,” said Hanes.

“How’s that being taken care of?” I asked.

“Well, that’s a good question, and there are a lot of answers to that question.”

The question that will cost at least $800,000.

Hanes says the district will likely pay for the work through various state & private grants, as well as possibly borrowing money.

“It’s a lot for a school district,” he said. “In spite of the economic times and the freeze, so to speak, that’s been placed on public funding for schools.”

Hanes says the planning process over the last year has kept the capping project from getting off the ground. However, once complete, he says the field will be slightly larger and have better drainage.

“At the end of the day, it will be used for multiple use and it should be a better field than what we have today.”

Work is expected to start in August, finishing up by November.

The school district isn’t alone in having to clean up the PCBs. The Village of Ashwaubenon is also finalizing its plan for cleaning up its property adjacent to the school district’s land. Village President Mike Aubinger says its cleanup bill could cost at least $500,000.

WAUKESHA, Wis. (AP) – Authorities say a 53-year-old woman has died while she was being held in the Waukesha County Jail.

Waukesha County sheriff’s deputies and members of the Waukesha Fire Department were called to the jail about 4 a.m. Monday on a report of a female inmate who was not breathing and did not have a pulse.

First responders tried to revive the woman but she was pronounced dead at Waukesha Memorial Hospital. Her name has not been released.

Waukesha police say the New Berlin woman had been arrested by a deputy on a warrant and drug charge during a traffic stop Saturday.

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports an autopsy was planned. Waukesha police are investigating the woman’s death at the request of Waukesha County Sheriff Eric Severson.

ST. LOUIS (AP) – The Milwaukee Brewers have activated Jonathan Lucroy from the 15-day disabled list after the All-Star catcher missed about five weeks with a broken left big toe.

Catcher Juan Centeno was optioned to Triple-A Colorado Springs on Monday.

The Brewers also purchased the contract of right-hander Tyler Cravy from Colorado Springs. Right-hander Tyler Wagner was optioned to Double-A Biloxi after Sunday’s 17-inning win against Arizona.

Lucroy missed 38 games and had a four-game rehab assignment at Class A Brevard County. He was batting .133 in 12 games with one RBI.

Lucroy was fourth in MVP balloting last year after batting .301 with 13 homers and 69 RBIs. He led the majors with 53 doubles.

(Copyright 2015 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)

MILWAUKEE (AP) – Milwaukee police say a 48-year-old man shot and wounded a man who broke into his garage.

The shooting happened about 5:40 a.m. Monday. Police say the wounded man, who’s 45, was taken to a hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports police say the district attorney’s office will review the case.

Police continue to investigate the shooting, including whether the man who broke into the garage was armed.

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) – An analysis found that the tallest redwood tree in Muir Woods in California is 777 years old – not the 1,500 years once assumed.

The study out of Humboldt State University is the first determination of the age of trees in Muir Woods, north of San Francisco, the San Francisco Chronicle reported Sunday.

The findings mean the 249-foot-tall coast redwood named Tree 76 was born seven centuries later than initially believed and dates back to the start of the Inquisition in the early 13th century.

It also means the oldest and biggest tree found in Muir Woods is just a baby compared with the huge old-growth trees farther north.

San Francisco’s Save the Redwoods League is documenting the age, size and tree-ring history of California’s old-growth redwood groves as part a statewide project. The plan is to identify tree-ring patterns and figure out how trees react to climate change.

Tree rings are larger during wet years and smaller during dry years.

Tree-ring science was used to document a coast redwood near Crescent City that is 2,520 years old. The oldest giant sequoia, a redwood species that grows in the Sierra Nevada, is 3,240 years old.

Scientists have suggested that the tallest trees in Muir Woods were between 1,200 and 1,500 years old, but the Humboldt study compared the ring size of Tree 76 to a state database and concluded it is 777 years old.

Emily Burns, science director for Save the Redwoods League, told the newspaper the relative youth of the tree and the newly documented ages of two other tall trees mean the grove is probably younger than was believed.

She suggested a fire, flood or some other catastrophe may have struck the area, forcing the forest to regenerate.

LAS CRUCES, N.M. (AP) – It’s been decades since Ofelia Kirker lost her wedding rings, but she’ll be wearing the treasured jewelry for her 64th wedding anniversary.

“It feels like we’re getting married again,” said her 83-year-old husband Robert Kirker.

It’s “unbelievable to be wearing them again,” said Ofelia Kirker, 82. “They had been gone for so long. It’s wonderful to have them back.”

She believes the rings tumbled out of her pocket in the 1960s while she was living in the Grant County village of Santa Clara, reports the Las Cruces Sun-News.

They were unearthed in a yard there years ago and have finally made their way back to her thanks to an observant yard worker, one woman’s sharp memory and her daughter’s persistence.

Kirker had a habit of taking the matching white gold and diamond rings off and wrapping them in tissues while she cooked, placing the tissues in her pocket.  “I said be more careful with your rings or you’ll lose them,” said her husband, Robert Kirker.

And then she lost them. She remembered having them in her pocket at church and suspected they had fallen near the home of Romana Gutierrez, where the couple always parked before celebrating Sunday Mass.

In a panic, Kirker went to Gutierrez’s house and began searching in the dirt.

“Mrs. Gutierrez came up to her and said, ‘What are you doing, Mrs. Kirker?'” Robert Kirker. “Ofelia told her that she lost her wedding rings, and Mrs. Gutierrez said, ‘Well, good luck. I hope you find them.’ ”

She never did, and she never replaced the rings.

Gutierrez’s daughter, Edna Salas, said the rings were unearthed years later when Gutierrez hired someone to clean her yard.

By that time, the Kirkers had left Santa Clara. Gutierrez didn’t know how to reach them, said Salas, so she put the jewelry in a small blue box.

Salas found that box in April.

“It puzzled me because I knew they weren’t my mom’s rings,” she said. “So I got on the phone, and I called my mom and asked her about the rings. She said those wedding rings belong to Ofelia Kirker.”

She passed the box on to the Kirkers’ daughter-in-law, who worked at a local grocery store. The bewildered daughter-in-law knew nothing about the rings and called the older couple.

“We were all surprised when we got the call,” Robert Kirker said. But he was skeptical that the rings were actually be theirs until the daughter-in-law described them.

So the Kirkers travelled to Santa Clara to reclaim the rings and meet Edna.

“It’s miracle,” Robert Kirker said. “We’ve had share of our ups and down, but this is uplifting.”

The couple lost an infant daughter in a house fire and, later, a granddaughter and great-grandson in a 2012 car crash.

Salas said her mother, who is now 90, was happy for the Kirkers.

“She closed her eyes and just smiled. So was so pleased they were finally turned over to their rightful owner,” Salas said.

“I’ve got to be real careful with them now,” said Kirker, who will be celebrating her 64th wedding anniversary in December.

MENASHA – An initiative to help get people in the Fox Valley more active kicked off Monday.

Passport to Active Living is a 12 week event that kicked off in Menasha. The first challenge for participants was to cross the Trestle Trail and return.

At the end of the challenge they got their passport stamped.

Organizer, Emily Dieringer, says this is a great way to get people out and enjoy the many trails within the Fox Valley, “We’ve got a lot of great parks and trails in the Fox Valley, and we felt like people should know that they are out there and use them as often as possible so it’s encouraging people to be physically active and get some exercise and use some trails we’ve got.”

Participants can earn stamps by either walking, hiking or jogging an area trail or walking path, once a week.

APPLETON – No one was hurt in a generator fire at Miller Electric in Appleton.

Fire crews were dispatched to the business, located at 1635 W. Spencer Street, around 11:30 a.m. Monday.

The Appleton Fire Department said a generator was on fire in a detached testing area on the exterior part of the building. Diesel fuel and other flammable/combustible liquids were reported to be stored nearby.

Crews say they saw heavy smoke and flames upon arrival. The fire was extinguished quickly.

Miller Electric employees were evacuated for a short time and the fire did not extend to the main plant. Fire damage was confined to the exterior testing area.

There is no damage estimated at this time.

When you want political news, which screen do you turn on: your TV or a device connected to the Internet? The answer probably depends on how old you are.

According to a new Pew Research Center study, about three in five Millennials get political news from Facebook, while about the same proportion of Baby Boomers see the latest political news on local TV stations. Generation X – in between the Boomers and Millennials – splits the difference, with about half getting political news on Facebook and a little less than half getting political updates on local TV.

The Millennial generation is defined as those born between 1981 and 1996; Generation X covers those born between 1965 and 1980; and Baby Boomers were born between 1946 and 1964.

According to the survey, CNN was the second-most-common way for Millennials to get political news and the third-most-common among members of Generation X.

For Baby Boomers, NBC News and FOX News Channel were common sources of political news for about 47%.

Although many younger adults see political updates on Facebook, they don’t say it’s their main source of information. That honor belongs to CNN for both Millennials and Generation X, while Baby Boomers cite FOX News Channel as their main source.

Across the three age groups, far fewer respondent said they got political news on Twitter than Facebook. About 14% of Millennials reported getting political information on Twitter in the past week, with the number at 9% for Generation X and 5% for Baby Boomers.

The report is based on an online survey of 2,901 people done between March 19 and April 29, 2014.

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GREEN BAY – A former Green Bay Correctional Institution employee accused having sexual relationships with inmates, and trying to deliver another inmate drugs, pleaded not guilty Monday.

Gayle Saldaris, 51, will stand trial Sept. 23.

Saldaris was a food service worker at the prison for three months last year. She was fired in July.

According to a criminal complaint, an inmate told investigators he had sexual contact with Saldaris ten times a week, for about a month. The convicted bank robber said he worked with Saldaris in the food line, and would get physical with her in the freezer and vegetable cooler. He told investigators he’d been an inmate for 16 years and ‘has never seen someone so reckless and blatant’ as Saldaris.

Saldaris is also accused of trying to get drugs to a third inmate, four months after she was fired from the prison. According to the criminal complaint, Saldaris tried having a different food worker at the prison bring Ethylone to the inmate. That worker called police, but was allegedly fired for previously delivering sexual messages to the inmate from Saldaris.

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APPLETON – Prosecutors added charges Monday against a Little Chute man accused of driving over his wife for incidents prior to that one.

Zohn Yang pleaded not guilty to all of the counts, and filed a speedy trial demand. No trial date was immediately set, according to the Outagamie Co. District Attorney’s office.

Yang had faced two counts, including attempted first-degree intentional homicide, for the April 27 incident. He allegedly was behind the wheel, driving the family minivan into his wife, Pachia Lor. Part of one her legs was amputated as a result of the injuries she suffered.

According to the amended complaint, Yang now also faces four counts for an April 21 incident when he allegedly threatened to kill Lor. And, he faces another three counts for threats made during an April 24 argument. Last August, Yang allegedly choked Lor during an argument, the complaint states.

After the April 27 incident, Lor told FOX 11 that she wanted domestic abuse victims to get help instead of suffering in silence.

LA CROSSE (AP) – A 44-year-old steamboat that once roamed the Mississippi River is in the midst of a painstaking restoration to save the historic vessel.

The Julia Belle Swain has been getting work done for the past six months at a facility in Dubuque, Iowa, the La Crosse Tribune reported. Much of the historic paddlewheel has been gutted.

The 108-by-26-foot vessel will get a new paint job and interior expansion when it returns to its home port of La Crosse for the next renovation phase. It also will be equipped with a new boiler and generators, as well as modern amenities, such as LED lighting and air conditioning, and aluminum windows to give it an antique appearance.

The boat is scheduled to be towed to La Crosse in July and expected to return to service next year, according to future boat captain Eric Dykman, who’s a board member of the nonprofit Save the Julia Belle Swain organization. The group purchased the boat for $250,000 in 2013 and has since been working to fund the $2 million restoration project.

“The renovation is kind of a long process,” Dykman said, “but we’re doing everything right. We’re not just slapping up a barn.”

The Julia Belle Swain was built in 1971 in Dubuque. It was designed by Capt. Dennis Trone, a highly respect marine architect, to replicate a 1880s-era packet boat.

The steamboat was so authentic that it appeared in two movies about the heyday of steamboats on the Mississippi River, “Tom Sawyer” in 1973 and “Huckleberry Finn” the following year.

The boat operated out of Peoria, Illinois, for several years and later in Chattanooga, Tennessee, until it accumulated too much debt and was sold in 1994 to Bob Kalhagen of Madison for $500,000. The Julia Bell Swain then operated as an excursion business out of La Crosse, taking tourists out on the river, from 1995 to 2008.

“A lot of people are very passionate about steamboats,” Dykman said. “Some are just passionate about riverboats, but this one is so special.”

TOKYO (AP) — A solar-powered plane attempting to circle the globe without a drop of fuel made an unscheduled landing late Monday in Japan to wait out bad weather.

Swiss pilot André Borschberg took off from Nanjing, China, on Sunday on what was to be the longest leg of the journey, a six-day, 8,175-kilometer (5,079-mile) flight to Hawaii.

Instead, the Solar Impulse 2 made an unscheduled visit in central Japan, and landed safely at the Nagoya Airport.

Japanese Transport Ministry and Nagoya airport officials said earlier that they were arranging for the landing to occur after the airport’s usual closing hours to accommodate the plane with a wide wingspan.

Live Internet feed on the organizers’ website showed crewmembers in the control room applauding and cheering at the landing. Borschberg, who emerged from the cockpit with a full smile, was mobbed by the project’s ground staff welcoming his safe arrival.

Bertrand Piccard, Initiator, Chairman and Co-Pilot of Solar Impulse 2, told the organizer’s live feed, Solar Impulse TV that it was unfortunate the weather turned bad when the flight was going very well. He said the plane will continue its journey to Hawaii when the weather improves.

“You know, it’s one of these strange moments of life between elation and disappointment,” he said. The team has achieved the longest flight ever of a solar plane going through the night, but the front is too dangerous to cross …”

“It’s just the weather doesn’t fit. Everything we could do has been done and was successful. What we cannot control is the weather. So we land in Nagoya, we wait for better conditions, and we continue,” he said.

Elke Neumann, a spokeswoman for the Solar Impulse project, said from Nanjing that the team had noticed the weather more than a day ago.

“We thought we might go through it,” she said. “But between Japan and Hawaii there’s no place to stop.”

The safety of the pilot and the plane are a priority, and they will likely wait a few days in Japan until the weather changes, she said.

Solar Impulse 2 needs room to land, so it generally avoids times when commercial flights are operating, Neuman said. The plane also usually lands at night, because the winds tend to be lower. It needs wind to be no more than 10 knots, she said.

“We are a little bit sad, because everything’s functioning perfectly: The batteries are charging, there’s enough sun, the pilot is in good health, he’s in good condition — it’s all working well,” Neumann said.

At the time of landing, the plane’s batteries were still 74 percent charged, according to the organizer website.

The journey started in March in Abu Dhabi, and the plane has stopped in Oman, India, Myanmar and China. The flight from Nanjing to Hawaii is the seventh of 12 flights and the riskiest.

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Associated Press writers Jamey Keaton in Paris and Ken Moritsugu in Tokyo contributed to this story.