The plane, called , took off this morning (June 3) from Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport. It is scheduled to land at Lambert-St. Louis International Airport early Tuesday (June 4), at around 2:00 a.m. EDT (1:00 a.m. local time in Missouri), after roughly 21 hours in the air.

Today's flight is the third leg of Solar Impulse's unprecedented coast-to-coast expedition, which began at Moffett Airfield near San Francisco, Calif., on May 3. The plane landed in Phoenix the next day, and successfully completed its second leg, from Phoenix to Dallas, late last month. []

Solar Impulse is the first aircraft capable of flying day and night without using a single drop of fuel. Instead, the plane relies solely on its solar panels and onboard batteries for power. During today's flight, the aircraft is expected to reach a cruising altitude of 27,000 feet (8,230 meters).

Each leg of , and features commentary and information on the aircraft's position, altitude and speed. The live feed also provides camera views inside the cockpit and from Solar Impulse's mission control center in Switzerland.

En route to St. Louis

Solar Impulse founders Bertrand Piccard and Andr Borschberg will continue to alternate piloting the single-seater plane over the five legs of the cross-country journey, company officials said. Piccard was at the controls for today's takeoff from Dallas.

The multiplethat struck the St. Louis area Friday night (May 31), however, threatened to spoil the third leg of Solar Impulse's journey. The severe weekend storms damaged the airplane's reserved hangar at its destination in Lambert-St. Louis International Airport, company officials confirmed today.

Still, Piccard was able to take off as planned this morning, though fight controllers are paying close attention to weather conditions, and have said they will alter the plane's route if necessary.

"Postponing the flight is not an option, as the particularly difficult weather conditions in the region leave only very few flight possibilities between Dallas-Fort Worth and St. Louis, and it might be the only one this week," company officials said in a statement. "If Solar Impulse doesn't seize this opportunity, the chances of reaching [its] final destination of the Across America Mission as scheduled could be compromised."

Cross-country trip

Once Solar Impulse lands in St. Louis, an inflatable structure will be used to protect the aircraft from the elements.

"The Logistics and Mission teams are working hand-in-hand around the clock to face the challenge of bringing the airplane safely to St. Louis and ensuring its protection upon arrival," Solar Impulse officials said.

The stopover in St. Louis was chosen to honor the city's long and storied aviation history. Among the city's other contributions, St. Louis was home to Charles Lindbergh when he became the first to fly non-stop from New York to Paris in his single-seater plane, The Spirit of St. Louis.

Solar Impulse's wings span roughly the same length as a 747 jetliner, and the aircraft generates roughly the same amount of power as a small scooter, company officials have said. Theis designed to highlight the potential for "clean technologies" and the benefits of renewable energy.

Later this month, Solar Impulse will fly from St. Louis to Washington, D.C. The fifth and last leg of the trip will end in New York City in late June or early July, company officials said.

Follow Denise Chow on Twitter . Follow LiveScience , & . Original article on.

RELATED:

Unlike the people over at OMGPOP, former_zyngite didn't expect this at all:

I had no idea this was coming. Totally out of the blue. I knew things weren't great at the company but I wasn't expecting layoffs at this point and I wasn't expecting to be part of it if it did happen. I did get a nice severance package and benefits. So I'm pretty well set for a while and I have a lot of friends and former co-workers in other parts of the industry. So I've got a lot of leads already.

Exactly how awesome was that severance package?

I got four months salary plus an additional week for each partial year. I worked almost two years, so I got 4.5 months paid. Plus insurance is paid on top of that.

In general, Zynga was actually pretty generous with employees:

They really try hard to keep morale high. They give so many perks that you really get accustomed to it. I ate two out of three meals for free at work every day. It was awesome. And they provided healthy options! They promoted volunteering. Going green. They really tried hard to be a good place to work and a socially conscious company. In that way, they're really great.

Though, some employees got better perks than others:

There were things that were available to everyone in the company, like the gym and free food. But if you were on a top grossing team then you got additional perks, like trips to Vegas and other off-site excursions.

Despite all those trappings of a successful Silicon Valley tech company, "their business strategy is terrible:"

Their major issues are the inability to adjust to the changing market. They did great when Facebook gaming was on the rise, but now it's declining and Mobile is on the rise. They're trying to change over, but employ too many of the same game development "best practices" that were developed for Facebook games. These just don't translate to the mobile market, which is why they're suffering in that market.

That's partly because of management issues:

A lot of micro-management from the top down that stifles the creativity and hinders the production of many games.

An over reliance on every game being a blockbuster hit which makes the fun aspect of games suffer while making the money grabbing tactics all too transparent to the users.

And a serious lack of foresight over all. Too many major decisions are quick reactions to sudden changes in the market. If some games jumps to the top of the Top Grossing charts then everyone need to drop everything and change to follow it. Which wastes time, makes for bad design and ultimately puts projects behind schedule. It just means they're always late to the party, and whatever game they're trying to compete with has already faded away by the time their own version hits the market.

And all of that comes out in the quality of the games:

There always seemed to be a lot of games like that. They were 70 percent awesome. They just needed a little push to make them great. But the teams weren't left alone to make the final adjustments. Someone up top would always feel like they knew what had to be done. So some major (and often uninformed) changes were pushed on the team and they would be forced to change features that would ultimately disrupt the rest of the game and cause the entire project to fail.

Getting into gambling probably won't save them, either:

They are pushing the legislation to make it legal in the US. But if it passes, there are other companies who have been doing it longer and better than zynga who will jump on the US market first. Zynga might jump on at the same time, but who are you going to trust your real money with? The company that has been managing online casinos for a decade or the company that is trying to jump into it now?

I don't blame Zynga for going after this market, and I honestly believed this could be the saving grace for Zynga. But they are Johnny-come-lately to this market.

But for now, they do make money off games:

The big games deal in Millions of DAU (Daily Average Users). If 3 million users pay an average of $0.20 you're getting $600k a day!

That's huge numbers!!

The company is also weirdly obsessed with dogs:

The culture was...weird. At least for me. I've never been a corporate kind of person. So it was hard to adjust. One of the weirder things was the obsession with dogs.

I like dogs. They're great. I grew up with them. Never really wanted to take one to work. But it's highly encouraged there. And kind of obsessed over. Some of the dogs were cool. Some were barking assholes I wanted to punch in the face. It's kind of like a crying baby on an airplane. It sucks, and there's nothing you can do about it.

And, no, he doesn't think Zynga is that evil: 

I hated Zynga going into the company. I wasn't hired. I was acquired through a studio that was bought by Zynga. I had no love for the company. But over time I learned that the company itself isn't evil. It's the perception of hardcore vocal gamers that think it's evil.

Why do people think Zynga is evil? Because they copy the games of smaller developers and do it blatantly and obviously. They've made way more money than those companies did on the same games. Hence: evil.

The microblogging service said in a short post that it had rolled back the changes, fixing the issues though some users experienced delays in getting updated tweets.

Earlier on Monday, users trying to click on trending topics and other posts received an error message that began with "something is technically wrong."

"Due to an error in a routine change, Twitter was not available from 1:08pm PDT to 1:33pm PDT. We rolled back the erroneous change as soon as we identified the issue," the company said.

Twitter's phenomenal growth since its 2006 birth means it has struggled to handle an ever-rising volume of tweets. It currently claims more than 200 million users, generating about 400 million tweets - or 140-character messages - daily.

Since enduring repeated criticism about its infamous "fail whale" outage icon in its early years, the microblogging service has devoted considerable resources to improving reliability, in a move to project itself as a mature, polished brand.

(Editing by Dan Grebler)

Asked about any drugs or weapons by officers who went to the Perez home on Tuesday with a search warrant, "Perez responded that he had 'personal use' marijuana in the basement and volunteered to direct the officers to the location of it," an investigative report said.

"He pointed out a number of items of paraphernalia along with two separate 'mason' jars containing a green vegetable matter suspected of being marijuana," it said.

Police, tipped off to suspicious packages by postal inspectors, arranged a delivery Tuesday under surveillance, and Perez's wife, Melanie, accepted two packages, the reports said.

Melanie Perez, whose maiden name is Baum, told the undercover officer delivering the packages that they were intended for her dog, named Brody. The package was addressed to Brody Baum, according to postal inspectors.

A later house search under warrant began while Perez and his wife were out for lunch and a movie, the reports said. A baby sitter was caring for two children.

Police say Perez returned home and mentioned personal marijuana use to the search team of officers.

Perez, 27, and his 29-year-old wife were charged in a complaint filed Friday with misdemeanor drug possession involving just over one-third of a pound of marijuana, suburban Rocky River police said. The two haven't commented, but their attorney said they would plead not guilty.

"We ask that people not rush to judgment. We are confident of a favorable outcome," attorney Terry Gilbert said in a statement on their behalf.

Perez and his wife were released on personal bond.

"Clearly we take these matters seriously and are disappointed whenever there is any negative attention brought to the Indians organization or one of our players," team general manager Chris Antonetti said in a statement. "We understand and respect that there is an ongoing legal process that we will allow to evolve."

Manager Terry Francona had little to say about the matter before Cleveland's game at Detroit on Friday night.

"He's got some friends that care about him, which makes sense, and I've spoken to him a couple times," Francona said. "But out of respect to the situation and the process, we're really not allowed to talk about it."

Under the drug agreement between Major League Baseball and its players' association, marijuana offenses generally result with the player undergoing a treatment program rather than discipline.

Questioned when investigators returned to the house hours after the delivery, Melanie Perez told them that she doesn't smoke marijuana but that her husband "had drug paraphernalia" in the house.

Asked whether the marijuana shipment was intended for her husband, Melanie Perez responded, "What did Chris say?" according to the investigative report.

The packages smelled of marijuana and had a Los Angeles return address with a name that that wasn't associated with that location, postal inspectors said.

Dan Chaplin, a Cleveland defense attorney not connected with the case, compared the charge to a traffic ticket and said a conviction likely would be punished with a fine.

Perez has six saves this season but is on the disabled list with an injured right shoulder. Francona was asked how his recovery is going.

"You know what? He was at the ballpark actually, through all this, I forgot to even ask," Francona said. "Through all of this, I didn't even ask, and I need to."

Perez, an often-polarizing figure, and Cleveland fans have gotten on each other's nerves over the past couple of years. He recently deactivated his Twitter account after criticism from fans following a couple of bad outings.

In previous seasons, Perez has lashed out at fans for not coming to games, and at owners for not spending money on free agents.

___

AP Baseball Writer Noah Trister in Detroit contributed to this report.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The new chief of the Internal Revenue Service told Congress on Monday the tax-collecting agency would fully investigate and repair the problems that led to the inappropriate targeting of conservative groups for extra scrutiny.

Acting IRS Commissioner Danny Werfel, appearing before Congress for the first time since moving into the top job two weeks ago, promised to restore the agency's tattered image with a public accounting of the practices that have led to multiple investigations and a political firestorm.

Werfel pledged to "uncover every fact" about who was involved in the targeting and said an ongoing review of the agency would evaluate whether "additional personnel actions" were needed.

"I am prepared to follow the facts wherever they take us. It is the only way to restore trust," Werfel told a sub-panel of the House of Representatives Appropriations Committee.

The IRS has been at the center of a political scandal over the practice after the head of the tax-exempt unit, Lois Lerner, apologized publicly on May 10 for the extra scrutiny given to applications for tax-exempt status by conservative political groups.

A report four days later by Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration J. Russell George found ineffective management and bureaucratic confusion contributed to the inappropriate scrutiny.

Irate Republicans have accused President Barack Obama's administration of covering up responsibility for the practice but so far have not been able to identify who was responsible.

Three congressional committees and the Justice Department are looking into the practice, which led to the ouster of the agency's top executive Steven Miller and sparked a political backlash that has endangered Obama's second-term legislative agenda.

Werfel took a conciliatory approach with Republicans throughout Monday's hearing - a sharp contrast to Miller's recent appearances at other hearings - and said the agency had betrayed the trust of the American people.

Another inspector general's report by George will be released on Tuesday that will provide details of extravagant IRS spending on conferences. The House Government and Oversight Committee said on Sunday the IRS spent nearly $50 million on 220 conferences from 2010 to 2012, further putting the agency's practices in an unflattering light.

'MUSIC TO MY EARS'

Several House Republicans said on Monday that the IRS's future funding could depend on whether lawmakers get answers about the agency's controversial practices. Committee Chairman Hal Rogers of Kentucky said conditions could be placed on the agency's budget.

"We cannot in good conscience provide taxpayer dollars that are used to abuse the rights of American citizens," Republican Ander Crenshaw of Florida said, calling the IRS's targeting of conservative groups "an arrogant and absolute abuse of power."

Werfel did not argue, telling members of the panel that "the solution here is not more money" for the IRS. Rogers replied that was "music to my ears."

Werfel said a new team of leaders who have moved into top posts at the agency would focus on clearing the backlog of applications for tax-exempt status from political groups, concentrating on those that are more than 120 days old.

"We owe it to the American public to use this moment as an opportunity to take a hard look internally at the IRS and see where other deficiencies or risks may exist, and take action to address them," he said.

The House hearing on Monday, the fourth by a congressional panel, is the first of three scheduled for this week.

On Tuesday, the House Ways and Means Committee will hear from Tea Party groups targeted in the program, and on Thursday the House Government and Oversight Committee will examine the IRS spending on conferences.

Republican Darrell Issa, chairman of the Government and Oversight panel, released partial transcripts on Sunday from interviews with two Cincinnati, Ohio-based IRS employees who suggested that supervisors in Washington played a role in the program to target conservative groups.

One employee answered, "I believe so" when asked whether the additional scrutiny of conservative groups came from Washington. A more senior IRS worker said, "I was taking all my direction" from Washington on the practice.

"This is a problem that was coordinated in all likelihood right out of Washington headquarters and we're getting to proving it," Issa said on CNN on Sunday. He called White House spokesman Jay Carney a "paid liar."

The committee, however, did not release the full transcripts from the employee interviews and did not identify anyone in Washington involved in the process, drawing the ire of Democrats who said Issa was overstating his findings.

During his briefing on Monday, Carney refused to be drawn into a crossfire with Issa.

(Editing by David Lindsey, Doina Chiacu and Cynthia Osterman)

Perhaps the most extended research, however, comes from the Gallup poll. Since 1957, Gallup has asked Americans this simple question: Is religion increasing its influence? The poll is not a measure of religious or spiritual beliefs but rather a perception of religions role in society. The latest poll, released Wednesday, shows the most negative public opinion toward the impact of religion since 1970.

The last time a majority of Americans saw religion as increasing in influence was just after the 9/11 attacks. Today, in sharp contrast, 77 percent believe it is losing influence. Thats about the same percentage as during the late 1960s.

In 1969 and 1970, with the Vietnam War raging in controversial fashion and with the cultural and sexual revolutions underway, and to a lesser degree at times in the 1990s, Americans held negative views similar to those they hold today, wrote Gallup editor in chief Frank Newport in an analysis of the poll. The degree to which these views changed during the Reagan years, and after 9/11, suggest that they could change again in the years ahead.

This years poll also asked if society would be better if more Americans were religious. More than three-quarters said yes. Even a majority of those with little or no religious affiliation agreed. This suggests most people look to religion as a necessity during times of social change. Religion, in other words, may appear to gain respect to the more people because it offers a comforting role or makes a case for personal sacrifice. Many people, either the faithful or those who are not, see it as both defining goodness and demonstrating it.

Another poll, done for the Christian group LifeWay Research, also finds Americans more open to religion during time of tragedy. Nearly 6 in 10 agree with the polls statement, When a natural disaster occurs, my interest in God increases.

It is difficult to reconcile these polls with a rising disinterest in institutional religion. A Pew poll last year found 15 percent of American adults say they have no religious affiliation (the nones, as they are dubbed). That is about double from four decades ago.

These numbers, however, probably reflect a growing distrust in almost all institutions, not just established denominations, as well as a rising interest in individual spirituality more than group worship or faith-impelled social action.

When we put it all together, says Mr. Newport, we get the image of a basically religious American population whose underlying religiousness has not changed a lot in recent decades.

As more researchers are finding out, when people search for an understanding of God, they are more honest, generous, and loving. They try to be less controlled by appetites. And society benefits.

Related stories

Become a part of the Monitor community

Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., and Rob Portman, R-Ohio, both senior members of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, wrote to Shinseki a day after the White House said President Barack Obama is about wiping out a huge backlog in veterans disability benefits claims.

It is essential that every VA employee is dedicated 100 percent to our nations mission of providing the best healthcare to our veterans in a timely manner, the lawmakers said in a letter obtained by Yahoo News.

Federal employees not serving veterans during official time could lead to the failure of VAs top goals and the well-being of those who have sacrificed in the service of our nation could be compromised, Coburn and Portman wrote.

The senators said documents from the agency show 188 employees in 100 percent official time capacity from Jan. 1, 2012, to February 2013. They include, Coburn and Portman wrote, a wide variety of health care providers, including nurses, addiction specialists, pharmacists, psychologists and others.

Have any personnel assigned to processing disability claims been on 100% official time over the past 10 years? If so, how many? they ask.

The practice is legal under the 1978 Civil Service Reform Act. It allows federal workers to perform union functionscollective bargaining or arbitration, for exampleduring official hours.

Labor and management are equally accountable to the taxpayer and have a shared responsibility to ensure that official time is authorized and used appropriately, , which tracks official time use.

In fiscal year 2011, federal employees used 3.395 million hours of official time, at a rate of 2.82 hours per bargaining unit employee. Total payroll costs, salary and benefits for fiscal year 2011 ran to $155,573,739.25, .

The letter from Coburn, who is the top committees top Republican, and Portman, who is the top Republican on the panels Subcommittee on Efficiency and Effectiveness of Federal Programs and the Federal Workforce, comes as GOP lawmakers in theandare pushing legislation to abolish official time.

Iraq is facing its most relentless wave of bloodshed since the 2011 U.S. military withdrawal, deepening fears that the country is heading back toward the widespread sectarian fighting that pushed it to the brink of civil war in the years after the invasion.

More than 500 people have been killed in May. April was Iraq's deadliest month since June 2008, according to a United Nations tally that put last month's death toll at more than 700.

Most of Thursday's blasts went off in Baghdad. Car bombs killed four in the northeastern Shiite neighborhood of Binouq, and three died in a bombing at a market selling spare car parts in central Baghdad, according to police.

Police officials also said that a roadside bomb exploded on a police patrol in the largely Shiite central commercial district of Karradah, killing three people there.

The Karradah blast shattered glass and twisted metal signs on several storefronts, and left the stricken police unit's modified Ford pickup truck charred and mangled.

"What have these innocent people done to deserve this?" asked witness Sinan Ali. "So many people were hurt. Who is responsible?"

In the largely Sunni neighborhood of Azamiyah in the capital's north, a car bomb struck near a military convoy, killing three people, including two soldiers, according to police. Another 14 people were wounded in that attack.

Hospital officials confirmed the casualties.

In the northern city of Mosul, two police officers said a suicide bomber killed three when he blew himself up on a federal police checkpoint. Mosul is a former insurgent stronghold, located about 360 kilometers (225 miles) northwest of Baghdad.

All officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren't authorized to talk to the media.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attacks but blame is likely to fall on al-Qaida's Iraq arm, which frequently carries out bombing attacks against civilians and security forces in an effort to undermine faith in the Shiite-led government.

Other militant groups have also grown more active in recent months, including the Army of the Men of the Naqshabandi Order, which has ties to members of Saddam Hussein's now-outlawed Baath party.

The attacks came hours after bomb blasts tore through two Baghdad neighborhoods Wednesday evening. At least 30 people were killed, including several members of a wedding party in the mixed Sunni-Shiite Jihad neighborhood.

The southwestern neighborhood was one of the earliest flashpoints in Baghdad's descent into sectarian bloodshed in the years following the 2003 U.S. led invasion. It housed mainly Sunni civil servants and security officials under Saddam Hussein's regime, though many Shiites now live there too.

Many of Jihad's Sunni residents earlier this year received threatening leaflets from a Shiite militant group, the Mukhtar Army, warning them to leave.

___

Associated Press writer Adam Schreck contributed to this story.

El Salvador's Health Minister on Thursday approved the C-section for the 22-year-old woman suffering from kidney failure and lupus, a day after the Supreme Court ruled that she could not have an abortion despite her lawyers' appeal that the pregnancy was life-threatening.

Ultrasound images indicate that her fetus is developing with only a brain stem and is given no chance of surviving.

The case of the mother known only as Beatriz drew widespread attention and criticism as she sought to end the pregnancy in a country with some of the strictest abortion laws in Latin America. Salvadoran laws prohibit all abortions, even when a woman's health is at risk, and the woman and any doctor who terminated her pregnancy would face arrest and criminal charges.

"She is in the hands of top-notch doctors," Health Minister Maria Isabel Rodriguez said Thursday. "The medical team at the Maternity Hospital is ready to act immediately at the slightest sign of danger."

"For me what matters is to protect Beatriz's life," she added.

Because the pregnancy is 26 weeks along, abortion laws are no longer at play, according to women's groups who have supported her petition. Rather, the health ministry can determine what's most medically sound for the mother versus the unborn baby.

Just as the government was resolving the case, the Inter-American Court on Humans Rights ruled that El Salvador needs to protect Beatriz's life and integrity and help her end her pregnancy. The ruling does not impact the resolution of the case because the Salvadoran government had already decided to safeguard her life.

The Health Department hasn't given a day or time for when Beatriz will deliver the baby by Cesarean section, said Morena Herrera, a member of the Feminist Collective for Local Development, an organization that has been supporting Beatriz.

"She is going through all the medical exams to be ready for surgery," Herrera said.

The Supreme Court said physical and psychological exams done on the woman by the government-run Institute of Legal Medicine found that her diseases are under control and she could continue the pregnancy. The judges voted 4-to-1 to reject the appeal by the woman's lawyers, who argued that continuing with the pregnancy put her life at risk.

Amnesty International called the court decision "cruel and callous" and "a potential death sentence for Beatriz."

Abortion opponents said the case was being used to press for legalized abortion in El Salvador, which has some of the toughest abortion laws in Latin America, along with Chile, Dominican Republic, Haiti, Honduras, Nicaragua and Suriname.

[More from BGR: ]

This article was