Green Bay News

MENASHA – The Menasha Senior Center re-opened Monday after a four-month renovation and expansion project.

The $350,000 project to the city-owned building added private areas for health screenings and consultations.

State taxpayers paid for about half the cost and the city matched $87,000 in donations.

Jean Wollerman, the Active Older Adult Director, says the renovations were needed, “We needed a new entrance to help provide a safe entrance for our older adults. And also a welcome area with upgraded technology and added program space to make a more comfortable upgrade to the facility.”

The center, for anyone 55 or older, is operated by the Neenah-Menasha YMCA.

 

 

MILWAUKEE (AP) – Milwaukee police say an officer has shot an armed robbery suspect at a Dollar General store.

The Milwaukee Police Department reported the shooting on its Twitter account.

WTMJ-TV reports the shooting happened shortly after 3 p.m. Monday. The suspect was taken to a hospital but there was no word on the suspect’s condition.

The shooting comes days after Milwaukee police shot and killed a suspect on the city’s south side last week. Police say Tyrone Lawrence was threatening his wife with a knife and refused to drop it when officers arrived. The 45-year-old officer who shot Lawrence is on administrative duty while the case is under investigation.

People gathered in Madison Mar. 9, 2015 to demonstrate against a police officer who killed an unarmed man Mar. 6.

FOX 11 got a look at the renovation progress at the Lambeau Field Atrium Mar. 9, 2015.

SALEM, N.H. (AP) — Taking a page from successful fast-food restaurants, a New Hampshire Girl Scout troop is seeking to boost its cookie sales by offering a drive-thru option.

Troop 12115 in Salem was selling cookies Sunday at a vacant warehouse property on heavily trafficked Main Street.

The troop has sold 1,200 boxes so far and hopes the drive-thru will help Scouts reach their goal of 5,000 boxes sold.

Troop leaders tell WMUR-TV the annual cookie sale program not only satisfies customers’ love of the distinctive cookies, but teaches Scouts valuable business and people skills.

 

Sam Simon, a co-creator of “The Simpsons” and animal-rights advocate who made a midlife career shift into philanthropy and channeled much of his personal fortune into social causes, has died.

Simon died Sunday at his home in Pacific Palisades, Calif., his agent, Andy Patman said. He was 59.

He was diagnosed with advanced colon cancer in 2011.

After stints writing for “Taxi,” ”Cheers” and “The Tracey Ullman Show,” Simon helped launch “The Simpsons” in 1989.

He left the series after its fourth season under a deal that rewarded him with ongoing royalties from the show, which remains in production.

He established the Sam Simon Foundation, which rescues dogs from animal shelters and trains them to assist the disabled. He also donated to Mercy for Animals, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals and the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, among other organizations, and funded a Los Angeles food bank.

In an interview in 2013, he voiced a desire to spend all of his money on charitable causes.

“I’m not sad,” he declared as he battled an illness that his doctors said might claim him within months. “I’m happy. I don’t feel angry and bitter. I want to do whatever I can to survive.”

MADISON (AP) – Wisconsin Department of Justice officials say agents around the state are probing how and why a white Madison police officer killed an unarmed black man.

Attorney General Brad Schimel issued a lengthy statement Monday saying the agency is working as fast as it can to complete the investigation. He says teams of agents from around the state are working the case. He also says the agency is providing the family with as much information as possible but hasn’t released details publicly out of concerns it could taint witness accounts.

Officer Matt Kenny shot 19-year-old Tony Robinson on Friday during a confrontation in an apartment house. DOJ is leading the investigation as per a state law that requires outside agencies to probe officer-involved shootings.

WAUPACA – After the search of a Waupaca High School student’s vehicle, police found a .22 caliber handgun Monday morning.

The Waupaca Police Department said they received reports that a 17-year-old student at the high school may have brought a gun onto school grounds.

Police and school administrators talked to the student and searched his vehicle. They found the handgun under the driver side seat and a magazine containing 10 rounds was engaged in the gun but no rounds were in the chamber. Police also searched the student’s locker and no additional weapons were found.

The student said he had used the gun for target practice in the past and just forgot he had the gun inside his vehicle.

The student was placed on a 72-hour protective custody hold due to the comments he made of possibly harming himself.

 

SEATTLE (KOMO-TV) – The selfie stick makes it easier for people to take selfies with a smart phone.

But not everybody is a fan of the stick – especially museums.

The Seattle Museum of Art has now banned selfie sticks to protect the art.

And the ban is spreading.

The Smithsonian just announced it’s banning self sticks too – and many other notable museums across the country are doing the same thing.

The Seattle art museum says the ban on selfie sticks is just an extension of its existing ban on tripods and umbrellas.

[SBG-NATIONAL] President Barack Obama said he learned about Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email account from news reports.

Mrs. Clinton served as U.S. Secretary of State under President Obama from 2009 to 2013.

Now, her highly anticipated run for the White House in 2016 may be jeopardized, before it begins.

The New York Times broke the story last week that Secretary of State Hillary Clinton used a private email account for all official government business. The U.S. government is supposed to preserve those emails.

In addition to using a private email account, Mrs. Clinton used a computer server in her home in Chappaqua, New York to process the documents. What’s more, according to a memo obtained by Fox News, Clinton ordered all state employees to use government controlled email accounts.

Why the deviation from protocol?

“I guess the word hypocrisy can be one reason,” says Fred Guy from the Hoffberger Center for Professional Ethics. “I think what happens is they’re supposed to be public servants. But they forget they’re public servants and see themselves as public royalty.”

Meantime, Republicans smell political blood in the water. The House Select Committee on Benghazi last week issued a subpoena for some of Clinton’s emails. GOP Congressman and Committee Chair Trey Gowdy claims many of Clinton’s email messages dealing with the attack in Benghazi have not been turned over to his committee.

Clinton requested the State Department release roughly 55,000 emails. She then tweeted, “I want the public to see my email.”

Senator Dianne Feinstein says Mrs. Clinton has a lot of explaining to do.  “I think that she needs to step up and come out and state exactly what the situation is.”

There are several questions; however, regarding not only Mrs. Clinton’s ethics but how safe it was to use a personal home computer server for, presumably, highly sensitive documents. Was it secure? Who set up the account? Has the Nation’s security been breached? Why the double standard?

So far, Clinton has not addressed any of these questions; thus recalling the days of her husband’s scandal plagued White House.

What can this mean for a potential Clinton run for the presidency? Politico’s senior writer Glenn Thrush says this latest tawdry episode may have far reaching implications. “I think what it does just really reminds voters of this past that’s she’s had,” says Thrush. “She’s been partially forthcoming and she has often been the guardian of the family secrets.”

It also bypasses a promise of “transparency” as first articulated by President Barack Obama in 2008.

“We talk about transparency,” said Fred Guy. “But I think the more a politician likes to talk about transparency, the more he or she has to hide.”

WASHINGTON (AP) – Republican lawmakers warned the leaders of Iran on Monday that any nuclear deal they cut with President Barack Obama could expire the day he leaves office. The White House denounced the GOP’s latest effort to undercut the international negotiations as a “rush to war.”

Monday’s open letter from 47 GOP senators marked an unusually public and aggressive attempt to undermine Obama and five world powers as negotiators try to strike an initial deal by the end of March to limit Iran’s nuclear programs.

Republicans say a deal would be insufficient and unenforceable, and they have made a series of proposals to undercut or block it – from requiring Senate say-so on any agreement to ordering new penalty sanctions against Iran or even making a pre-emptive declaration of war.

Obama, noting that some in Iran also want no part of any deal, said “I think it’s somewhat ironic that some members of Congress want to make common cause with the hardliners in Iran. It’s an unusual coalition.”

The letter was written by freshman Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas, who opposes negotiations with Iran. It’s addressed to the “Leaders of the Islamic Republic of Iran” and presents itself as a constitutional primer to the government of an American adversary. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky’s signature is on it, as are those of several prospective presidential candidates.

Explaining the difference between a Senate-ratified treaty and a mere agreement between Obama and Iran’s Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the senators warned: “The next president could revoke such an executive agreement with the stroke of a pen, and future Congresses could modify the terms of the agreement at any time.”

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammed Javad Zarif responded via state media, dismissing the letter as a “propaganda ploy” and noting that many international deals are “mere executive agreements.” He suggested the senators were undermining not only the prospective deal with Iran but other international agreements as well.

With Cotton presiding over the Senate on Monday, Democratic leader Harry Reid spoke out, saying Republicans were driven by animosity toward Obama and unwilling to recognize that American voters had twice elected him president.

“The Republican senators sent a letter to the Iranian leadership aimed at sabotaging these negotiations,” Reid said. “Let’s be very clear, Republicans are undermining our commander in chief.”

“Republicans don’t know how to do anything other than juvenile political attacks against the president,” the 75-year-old Reid said with the 37-year-old Cotton listening.

The Republicans’ move to stop a nuclear deal with Iran comes just days after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke to a joint meeting of Congress at Republican House Speaker John Boehner’s invitation. In his address, Netanyahu bluntly warned the United States that a deal would pave Iran’s path to a nuclear bomb.

The White House denounced Cotton’s letter, saying it was part of an ongoing partisan strategy to undermine the president’s ability to conduct foreign policy.

Press secretary Josh Earnest said that “the rush to war, or at least the rush to the military option, that many Republicans are advocating is not at all in the best interest of the United States.”

Not all Republican senators are united. One significant signature missing from Monday’s letter was Bob Corker of Tennessee, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee chairman. Action on any new legislation challenging the administration’s strategy would be likely to begin with him.

Still, even if all parties to the international talks reject the letter as a stunt, the mounting opposition to an accord could have repercussions. Negotiating alongside the U.S. are Britain, China, France, Germany and Russia.

The Obama administration believes it has the authority to ease many – but not all – of the trade, oil and financial sanctions on Iran in exchange for an Iranian promise to limit its nuclear programs. For the rest, it needs Congress’ approval. And lawmakers could approve new Iran sanctions to complicate matters.

Nuclear negotiations resume next week in Switzerland. Officials say the parties have been speaking about a multi-step agreement that would freeze Iran’s uranium enrichment program for at least a decade before gradually lifting restrictions. Sanctions relief would similarly be phased in.

Iran says its program is solely for peaceful energy and medical research purposes. The deadline for the whole agreement is July.

In the letter, Cotton and his colleagues stressed that presidents may serve only eight years while senators can remain in office for decades. The implication was that without Congress’ blessing, the deal could fall apart when Obama’s successor is sworn in in January 2017.

The deal taking shape is not a treaty. Under international law, the provisions of treaties are far more binding than other agreements.

But by themselves, congressional Republicans won’t be able to block an international agreement.

McConnell has spoken of action later this month authorizing Congress to take a yes-or-no vote on a deal. But that vote would be symbolic.

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Associated Press writers Alan Fram, Steve Peoples and Jim Kuhnhenn in Washington and Cara Anna at the United Nations contributed to this report.

INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. – The Green Bay Phoenix women’s basketball team, regular season champions for the 17th straight year, had three players honored on the all-conference team, though none of them on the first team.

Tesha Buck, Megan Lukan, and Mehryn Kraker were all named to the Horizon League Second-Team All-League list, with Megan Lukan also getting a nod on the all-defensive team.

Even though the Phoenix ARE 15-1 in conference, they have prided themselves on having a “no superstars” team that works hard and works together.

The Phoenix will begin their trip towards the NCAA tournament by hosting a quarterfinal game at the Kress Events center on Wednesday night at 7:00 pm. They will take on the winner of the Valparaiso/Milwaukee game. If they keep winning, the Phoenix will host a semi-final on Friday night, and the finals on Sunday at 3:00 pm.

WASHINGTON – A five-day nationwide operation targeting convicted illegal immigrants subject to removal from the U.S. ended with the arrest of 2,059 convicted criminals.

40 of those arrests were in Wisconsin.

15 of the 40 individuals were arrested in Green Bay. Officials also arrested four people in Appleton, two in De Pere, two in Menasha, two in Neenah, one in Freedom, one in Seymour and one in Sheboygan.

The operation was led by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO)

The arrests began Sunday, Mar. 1 and ended Thursday, Mar. 5.

Of the 2,059 arrested, 1,000 of those individuals had multiple criminal convictions including felony convictions, voluntary manslaughter, child pornography, robbery, kidnapping, and rape.

Of the more than two thousand arrested, 58 are known gang members or affiliates and 89 are convicted sex offenders.

In 2014, ERO removed 315,943 individuals from the United States.

 

 

 

 

 

APPLETON – A city-owned golf course is under new management.

Jeff Plasschaert has been named the course superintendent and Kelvin Johnson the clubhouse manager at Reid Golf Course.

Plasschaert last worked at Bryn Mawr Country Club in Lincolnwood, Illinois. In nine years there, he oversaw several course renovation projects.

Johnson comes to Appleton from Applied Golf, a hospitality and golf management company in New Jersey. During his time there, he worked in marketing and played a management role in golf operations at several facilities on the East Coast.

City leaders have scheduled a meet-and-greet with Plasschaert and Johnson for 4:30-6:30 p.m. March 19.

When NFL free agency begins Tuesday, lots of players will get lots of money. Some will even earn it throughout those massive contracts.

An early rush to haul in those big bucks will be followed by weeks of secondary signings that often are more critical to a team’s success than the headline-grabbing deal.

Five questions to be answered over the next few days and weeks:

WHERE DO THE ALL-PROS LAND?

Two dominant players who made the 2014 All-Pro squad are on the market and a third still could wind up there.

Lions defensive tackle Ndamukong Suh and Cowboys running back DeMarco Murray, the AP Offensive Player of the Year and league’s leading rusher, will be available. So might be Patriots star cornerback Darrelle Revis.

Suh appears ticketed for Miami. He is that rare star just entering his prime and became available to any team willing to commit nine figures over a lengthy period for his services. Yes, he has had some anger-management problems, but that didn’t seem make him any less attractive for the Dolphins and owner Stephen Ross, who wants to make a big splash.

Suh is an every-down player and a force in all situations, and Miami has the financial room and the need.

Murray’s one drawback is the same for all running backs – longevity. At 27, though, he’s not particularly worn, and he’s versatile. His best option would be returning to Dallas to run behind that superb line, but the Cowboys are cap-strapped. The next-best choice would be a team with a solid passing game to balance Murray’s running.

San Diego and Indianapolis could make sense.

Revis is a strange case. His contract history is to take the money and then shut down the opponent’s best receiver. But now that he’s won a Super Bowl, perhaps he’ll find that championship rings are just as valuable as huge bank accounts.

He easily could wind up back in New England, but pretty much any team except Tampa Bay, Dallas and Arizona figure to contact him.

WHO ARE THE BIG SPENDERS?

Some really bad teams: the Jaguars, Raiders, Titans and Jets, all with tons of salary cap room.

And some mediocre clubs: the Browns, Dolphins and Panthers.

And even some pretty good ones: the Eagles, Bengals and Colts.

HOW MUCH INTEREST IN RUNNING BACKS?

Usually, not much. But this is a highly intriguing crop, led by Murray, and with Frank Gore headed to Philadelphia. Mark Ingram added to the group before agreeing to return to New Orleans, which let Pierre Thomas go.

Few teams find value in long-term deals with guys who play the most physically punishing skill position. Murray figures to be an exception, and for strong passing clubs needing a boost on the ground, he’ll be a prime target.

What about Justin Forsett, C.J. Spiller, Reggie Bush and Shane Vereen? The money might not be what they project, but they should find jobs relatively quickly.

WHERE ARE THE BARGAINS?

How much teams dish out for the following players will determine if they fall into the bargain category. Someone might get nice value for grabbing linebacker Pernell McPhee, receiver Brian Hartline, defensive tackle Jared Odrick and center Rodney Hudson.

ANYONE INTERESTED?

Is there a market for players whose off-field issues short-circuited their careers? There’s talent available with the likes of defensive end Greg Hardy, defensive tackle Ray McDonald and running back Ray Rice. But will anyone bite considering the public relations problem that would accompany such signings?

“Perhaps most importantly, there are clubs that ownership will simply say I am not interested in a player who has these issues,” says 2015 Pro Football Hall of Famer Bill Polian, who built Super Bowl teams in Buffalo, Carolina and Indianapolis. “The owner will say our sponsors and season ticket holders and our market won’t like it. And so there will be owners who are not interested no matter what the football people think.”

But, as Polian also notes, it only takes one buyer.

ROME (AP) — Two American tourists face charges for carving their names into the Colosseum, the latest act of vandalism sustained by the ancient monument at the hands of tourists, police said Monday.

The tourists from California, aged 21 and 25, were cited Saturday for carving their first names eight centimeters (three inches) high into an upper level of the Colosseum, said Carabinieri Capt. Lorenzo Iacobone.

The two were freed on their own recognizance but will face charges for aggravated damage to a monument. Their names or hometowns were not released by police.

Iacobone said the young women apologized for the vandalism, but he said such acts “are extremely serious. No one considers the damage they are creating.”

“They have carved their names into ancient stone. It is not like writing with a pen, and then afterward it can be cleaned up,” he said.

A Russian tourist who carved his initials into the Colosseum in November was handed a four-month suspended sentence and a fine of 20,000 euros ($21,270) after opting for a speedy trial. It was the fifth such act of vandalism by tourists last year, including a Canadian tourist who tried to steal a piece of stone from the Colosseum hidden in his backpack.

Union leaders have complained about the lack of personnel to properly monitor Rome’s archaeological treasures — with increasing numbers of visitors seeking to leave their trace on antiquity, causing irreparable damage.

With thousands of tourists visiting the monument each day and many hidden corners, Iacobone said it was impossible to monitor everyone’s actions.

 

MADISON (AP) – Madison Mayor Paul Soglin says he is supporting protesters who are grieving the shooting of an unarmed black man, but has no advice on how they should conduct themselves.

Soglin says he trusts the people of Madison to do the right thing.

Tony Robinson, 19, was fatally shot Friday night by a police officer who forced his way into an apartment after hearing a disturbance while responding to a call. Police say Robinson had attacked the officer.

Soglin acknowledged some similarities with the shooting of an unarmed black teen in Ferguson, Missouri. But he said Madison’s problems won’t be solved by comparing the two situations. And he made a point of not naming Ferguson in his responses, instead referring to it as the city that starts with an “F.”

NORMAN, Okla. (AP) — The president of the University of Oklahoma lambasted members of a fraternity on Monday who participated in a racist chant caught on video, calling them disgraceful and their behavior reprehensible, and ordered that their house be vacated by Tuesday night.

President David Boren joined students at a pre-dawn rally on the Norman campus, just hours after Sigma Alpha Epsilon said an investigation confirmed the contents of the online video and announced it was closing the local chapter.

The video shows several people chanting a racial slur and indicating blacks would never be admitted to the fraternity. The chant also references lynching.

“These people have acted in a way that’s absolutely reprehensible and disgraceful,” Boren said. “Real Sooners are not bigots, racists.”

The national fraternity released a statement Sunday night saying it was “embarrassed” by the “unacceptable and racist” behavior. Boren later released a statement saying members had until midnight Tuesday to remove their personal belongings from the fraternity house.

A link to the video was posted by OU Unheard, a black student group on campus, after someone anonymously called it to the group’s attention, communications director Alexis Hall said Monday.

“We immediately needed to share that with the OU student body,” said Hall, a junior. “For students to say they’re going to lynch an entire group of people. … It’s disgusting.”

It’s unclear who recorded the video, when it was recorded and who initially posted it online. Hill said a link to the video was sent Sunday afternoon to the student group, which formed in the fall in response to a fatal police shooting in Ferguson, Missouri.

The video appears to have been taken on a charter bus, with at least one of the chanting students wearing a tuxedo.

“I was shocked they were just doing it openly on the bus, like they were proud of it,” said Jared Scarborough, a junior in construction science. “From the chant you could tell they had done it before. It wasn’t a first-time thing. And it was everybody. And the fist-pumping.”

A university police cruiser was parked Monday outside the fraternity house, a sprawling two-story, sand-colored brick building on a street lined with Greek houses just west of the center of campus.

The University of Oklahoma, located in the southern Oklahoma City suburb of Norman, has about 27,000 students, about 5 percent of whom are black. The Greek system is largely segregated.

Ahead of a late-morning news conference, Boren said fraternity members had “violated all that we stand for.”

“Effective immediately, all ties and affiliations between this University and the local SAE chapter are hereby severed. I direct that the house be closed and that members will remove their personal belongings from the house by midnight tomorrow,” he said.

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Associated Press writer Allen Reed contributed to this report from Little Rock, Arkansas.

 

NEW YORK (AP) — Hillary Rodham Clinton steered clear Monday of a controversy involving her use of a private email account at the State Department, bringing attention instead to a new report on the progress of women and girls around the globe.

The potential 2016 Democratic presidential candidate did not speak about questions over her use of a private email account as secretary of state during a two-hour event involving her No Ceilings project at the Clinton Foundation. The event highlighted a report released by Clinton and others on the economic and educational opportunities for women and girls.

“There has never been a better time in history to be born female,” Clinton said, but noted that many opportunity gaps remain around the world.

Clinton has faced scrutiny over whether she fully complied with federal laws requiring government officials to preserve written communications involving official business. Democrats have defended her but Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., urged Clinton on Sunday to offer a more detailed explanation. “From this point on, the silence is going to hurt her,” Feinstein said.

Last week, Clinton said in a Twitter message that she wanted her emails released but she has not spoken publicly about the issue. The State Department is reviewing 55,000 pages of emails that she has already turned over and Republicans in Congress have said they plan to review her email practices.

Clinton, with her daughter, Chelsea, and philanthropist Melinda Gates, joined several panelists at a media event about the report compiled by Clinton’s project on the progress of women and girls around the globe.

It came nearly 20 years since her 1995 United Nations speech in Beijing, when she declared that “human rights are women’s rights and women’s rights are human rights.”

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Thomas reported from Washington.

ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — With its wings stretched wide to catch the sun’s energy, a Swiss-made solar-powered aircraft took off from Abu Dhabi just after daybreak Monday in a historic first attempt to fly around the world without a drop of fossil fuel.

Solar Impulse founder André Borschberg was at the controls of the single-seat aircraft when it lumbered into the air at the Al Bateen Executive Airport. Borschberg will trade off piloting with Solar Impulse co-founder Bertrand Piccard during layovers on a 35,000-kilometer (21,700-mile) journey.

Some legs of the trip, such as over the Pacific and Atlantic oceans, will mean five days and five nights of flying solo. Both pilots have been training hard for this journey, which will span 25 flight days over five months before this Spruce Goose of renewable energy returns to Abu Dhabi in late July or August.

Solar Impulse co-founder Bertrand Piccard speaks to reporters at an airport in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates before scheduled takeoff Monday, March 9, 2015. Piccard is one of two Swiss pilots who will be flying the aircraft in its first round-the-world journey propelled solely by the sun’s energy. (AP Photo/Aya Batrawy)

“It is also exciting because you know, you simulate, you calculate, you imagine, but there is nothing like testing and doing it in real,” Borschberg said just hours before takeoff. “I am sure we are all confident and hopefully we will be able to see each other here in five months.”

The Solar Impulse 2 aircraft, a larger version of a single-seat prototype that first flew five years ago, has a wingspan of 72 meters (236 feet), larger than that of the Boeing 747. Built into the wings are 17,248 ultra-efficient solar cells that transfer solar energy to four electrical motors that power the plane’s propellers. The solar cells also recharge four lithium polymer batteries.

At around 2,300 kilograms (5,070 pounds), the Si2 weighs about as much as a minivan or mid-sized truck. An empty Boeing 747, in comparison, weighs some 180,000 kilograms (400,000 pounds).

The Si2 is heading first to nearby Muscat, Oman, where it will land after about 10 hours of flight. A typical passenger jet takes just one hour to make the same journey. Piccard says the best speed for the lightweight Si2 — made of carbon fiber — is at about 25 knots, or 45 kph (28 mph).

Borschberg has been practicing yoga and Piccard self-hypnosis in order to calm their minds and manage fatigue during the long solo flights. They aim to rest a maximum of 20 minutes straight, repeating the naps 12 times over a 24-hour period. Goggles worn over the pilot’s eyes will flash lights to wake him up.

Neither pilot will be able to stand in the cockpit while flying, but the seat reclines for stretching and its cushion can be removed for access to a toilet.

Armbands placed underneath their suits will buzz if the plane isn’t flying level. The plane also does not have a pressurized cockpit so Borschberg and Piccard will be able to feel the changes in temperature. The pilot’s blood oxygen levels constantly will be monitored and sent back to ground control.

The plane will reach an altitude of around 28,000 feet (8,500 meters) during the day to catch the sun’s rays and at night dip to around 5,000 feet (1,500 meters) when flying over the ocean.

“You have to make the cockpit like your own house for a week in the air,” Piccard said, telling The Associated Press he will keep a few small mementos from friends with him on the flight, though he declined to say what.

Piccard is no stranger to aviation feats. In 1999, he and another man succeeded in the first non-stop balloon circumnavigation of the world.

After two stops in India, the Si2 will head to China, where it will stay for a month until the days are longer to catch more of the sun’s energy. It will also make stops in Myanmar, Hawaii, Phoenix, Arizona and New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport. The path across the Atlantic will depend on the weather and may include stops in southern Europe or Morocco.

Those curious can follow the aircraft on Solar Impulse’s website and track its battery status, energy consumption, location and flight path, as well as how much the pilot has slept and how much food and water he has left. There is also a live feed of the plane’s Monaco-based control room with occasional footage from the cockpit.

Borschberg and Piccard say the flight is to make the world “confront the Conference on Climate Change of the United Nations, which will define the new Kyoto protocol in December 2015 in Paris.” All countries are supposed to present targets for a new global climate agreement at the meeting.

Solar Impulse supporter Prince Albert of Monaco was present at the plane’s control center during Monday’s takeoff. The UAE-based Masdar, the Abu Dhabi government’s clean-energy company, is a key sponsor of the flight. Additional sponsors include Omega, Google and Moet Hennessey, among others.

As the plane waited on the runway, a brief electrical alarm threatened to delay takeoff, but it was quickly resolved, allowing the large plane to slowly lift off into the rising sun.

“Everybody was just hoping the airplane will go,” Piccard said. “Now the adventure has started.”