DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) -- Warmer and mostly drier weather is helping Iowa farmers near completion of corn and soybean planting and improving crop condition.

The Department of Agriculture says 99 percent of the corn crop is in the ground as of Sunday and 96 percent of the crop has emerged, which is three weeks behind normal.

Warm humid days helped corn improve. The good to excellent rating increased 3 percentage points with 57 percent of the crop now rated in those two categories and 29 percent is fair. Fourteen percent is poor or very poor.

Ninety-six percent of the soybean crop has been planted, about two weeks later than normal. Eighty-nine percent of the soybean crop has emerged, eight percentage points behind the five-year average.

The condition of soybeans also improved slightly.

They've both been No. 1 picks in the NHL draft.

The Colorado Avalanche made the 17-year-old MacKinnon the first pick of the draft on Sunday at the Prudential Center.

The Avalanche won the draft lottery for the first time in team history and Joe Sakic, the man put in charge of Colorado's rebuilding project, had made it clear that MacKinnon was going to be the top pick. He was the first player drafted No. 1 overall out of the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League since the Pittsburgh Penguins selected Crosby in 2005.

MacKinnon and Crosby are both from Cole Harbour, Nova Scotia.

"I love Sid. He's my favorite player," MacKinnon said. "I guess he's still my favorite player. I don't really know what to say now since I'm going to be in the same league as him. I don't know if I should dislike him or not."

MacKinnon, a 6-foot, 182-pound center, said it all with a laugh. But he's serious about making the big club this season with Colorado.

"Hopefully, I can make the team and stick there," MacKinnon said. "I feel like I can be a contributor next year."

MacKinnon is a solid two-way presence with strong hands and stick-handling and skating skills. He is considered a natural scorer and an excellent distributor. Sakic, a former Avalanche captain who is now the executive vice president of hockey operations, ended the guessing game in the final week when he said MacKinnon would be their pick.

"They said it in the media but I didn't really get my hopes up," MacKinnon said. "I was definitely more nervous than I expected to be a couple of minutes before the draft."

He played for the Halifax Mooseheads and led them to the Memorial Cup championship. MacKinnon, who turns 18 on Sept. 1, was named tournament MVP after scoring 13 points.

Next stop, Colorado?

"So proud to be part of the @Avalanche organization!!!" he tweeted to more than 45,000 followers.

That was just the start of a busy day at the home of the New Jersey Devils, who gave a jam-packed crowd a reason to cheer when the announced they acquired goaltender Cory Schneider from Vancouver. Schneider seems in line to be the eventual successor to Martin Brodeur in net.

The rest of the teams were busy planning their future through the draft.

The Florida Panthers made center Aleksander Barkov, the top-ranked European skater, the second overall pick.

Tampa Bay took forward Jonathan Drouin, also out of Halifax, with the third overall pick.

The Nashville Predators pounced on defenseman Seth Jones with the fourth overall pick. Jones, a 6-foot-4, 205-pound defenseman, was widely considered the top prospect in the draft. He was the top-ranked player on the NHL Central Scouting's final list of North American skaters.

He is the son of former NBA forward Popeye Jones. Popeye Jones paced the floor of the Prudential Center and said Seth slept great and was calm in the final hours leading up to the draft.

But that had to change just a bit when Jones, who played for Portland of the Western Hockey League last season, slipped to fourth.

Carolina selected Elias Lindholm, who played in Sweden, fifth and the Calgary Flames followed with center Sean Monahan from Ottawa of the Ontario Hockey League.

After picking first the last three years, the Edmonton Oilers took defenseman Darnell Nurse, of Saulte Ste. Marie in the OHL, with the seventh choice. Nurse is the nephew of former Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Donovan McNabb. McNabb posted a picture on Twitter of the two of them smiling together a couple of hours before the draft.

The NHL had two black players picked in the top seven with Jones and Nurse.

McNabb was famously booed by Eagles fans in the 1999 draft and was hurt for years by the reaction. Nurse heard polite applause in Newark.

"We're even, because he went higher than me," Nurse said, "but I didn't get booed at my draft."

The Buffalo Sabres took Finnish defenseman Rasmus Ristolainen with the eighth overall pick.

The New Jersey Devils and the Prudential Center are hosting the draft for the first time. NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman was drowned out by boos each time he took the podium. But he finally heard cheers when he announced the Devils were on the clock. It became louder when Bettman announced the Devils traded the ninth pick to Vancouver for Schneider.

"I think you guys are gonna want to hear this," Bettman told the crowd.

Schneider was on the market once the Canucks were unable to dump high-priced goalie Roberto Luongo. Vancouver then selected center Bo Horvat, of London (OHL), with the ninth pick. The Dallas Stars selected forward Valeri Nichushkin, of Russia, with the 10th pick.

The Flyers bucked tradition with the 11th pick and drafted a defenseman, 6-foot-6, 203-pound Samuel Morin. He played for Rimouski of the QMJHL.

The Stanley Cup-champion Chicago Blackhawks ended the first round by picking forward Ryan Hartman, of Plymouth (OHL), with the 30th pick.

Jones, who lived in Colorado as a youth and seemed a perfect fit for the Avalanche, has ties to Tennessee, as well. Popeye Jones owns a house there, and there is still family throughout the state.

"It's a perfect spot for him," Popeye Jones said, proudly. "He'll be motivated there, and ready to go."

Sakic gave Jones some advice on getting Seth more interested in hockey when they both played in Denver more than a decade ago. Popeye Jones later developed a friendship with Colorado goalie, and now coach, Patrick Roy.

The draft storyline that had Jones joining the franchise that encouraged his push into hockey went bust on the very first pick.

"It definitely sounded too good to be true. It turned out that way," Seth Jones said. "But not really. I mean, I'm not unhappy that they didn't choose me. It was their decision, and that's what they thought would be best for their organization.

"You've got to respect that."

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Actor-director Adrian Grenier is best known as the charismatic lead star of HBO's film industry satire "Entourage," but behind the camera, the actor has found an edgier way to explore real-life issues, including producing a mock tutorial-style documentary on the war on drugs.

"How to Make Money Selling Drugs," out in theaters this week, is billed as a 10-step guide to entering the drug trade from the ground up to the level of the cartels.

Grenier, 36, teamed up with director Matthew Cooke to executive-produce the documentary, which he said was intentionally a tongue-in-cheek analysis of the drug trade, intended to resonate with a younger audience.

"Documentaries don't have the visibility that 'Entourage' has, which is why I thought we'd employ a little bit of the 'Entourage' language, a little bit of fun, tongue-in-cheek, the ironic aspirations. It is a fun movie and I hope we're going to reach a new audience with how fun it is," Grenier told Reuters.

Grenier has found a home on documentaries outside of his acting career, beginning with his own journey to reunite with his estranged father in 2002's "Shot in the Dark."

In 2010, he released "Teenage Paparazzo," a look into the relationship of celebrity and paparazzi through the eyes of 14-year-old celebrity photographer Austin Visschedyk.

"I've always been a big fan of documentaries, they're a fantastic way to explore ideas and learn about things in a narrative and curious kind of way," Grenier said.

THE WAR ON DRUGS

The mock ten-step tutorial in "How to Make Money Selling Drugs" starts at the bottom of the drug chain with street dealers, featuring interviews with those who deal illegal substances, often addicts themselves, who have served jail sentences after getting caught.

Many of the dealers interviewed in the film said the drug trade was their salvation from poverty and despair, detailing the money and luxuries they were able to afford with money earned from selling drugs.

The film also features celebrities including actors Susan Sarandon and Woody Harrelson, rappers 50 Cent and Eminem, and Huffington Post founder Arianna Huffington, weighing in on the policies ruling the drug trade.

When asked if he was worried the film might glamorize the trade, Grenier said the film aimed to "shake people out of their expectations."

"We expect documentaries to be boring and preachy and not fun, and then we go see movies that glamorize drugs ... We're just speaking the language that people are used to," he said.

"This is probably the most innocuous and ineffective tutorial on getting into the drug trade," he added.

Grenier said he hoped the film would shed light on the "charming personalities" of the people in the trade, and not just portray them as "evil."

"Those who think people who deal drugs are evil and should be locked away for as much time as possible, it's not subtle enough for the reality of life. These are human beings with diverse reasons behind getting into the drug trade," he said.

(Editing by Eric Walsh)

It may help explain why black women have higher rates of breast cancer at young ages, a more aggressive form of the disease, and worse survival. It doesn't mean that all black women are at risk or even that all blacks with cancer need genetic counseling or testing, said the study's leader, Dr. Jane Churpek of the University of Chicago.

Experts offer some advice about what to make of this information:

Q. What are the genes?

A. Mostly BRCA1 and BRCA2. Everyone has two copies of these genes, and a mutation in one can give a woman up to an 87 percent risk of developing breast cancer and up to a 54 percent risk for ovarian cancer. Sixteen other genes also can raise risk but are thought to be less common.

Q. Why might blacks have high risk?

A. African-Americans' genes are more diverse than those of many other racial and ethnic groups. Most of the mutations identified in this study were novel, or unique to each woman, Churpek said. It's possible that more detailed tests in whites and other groups might find a higher prevalence of mutations than previous studies have found in them, too.

Q. Should more black women be tested?

A. National guidelines do not specify any groups that should be tested except Eastern European (Ashkenazi) Jewish women with breast or ovarian cancer or a close relative who has had one of those diseases. Genetic counseling should be offered to black women who develop breast cancer before age 50, who have a close relative with the disease, or who have "triple-negative" breast cancer. Triple negative means tumors that are not fueled by estrogen, progesterone or the gene that the drug Herceptin targets.

Q. What can be done if a gene mutation is found?

A. Women who find the mutation after they have breast cancer may want to consider removing both breasts or their ovaries. Those who are screened before cancer develops can consider more frequent screening and prevention measures ranging from hormone-blocking drugs to removal of breasts and ovaries. They also can let relatives know about potential family risk.

Q. Why did this study find so many more gene flaws?

A. Standard tests look for just a few common mutations in BRCA1 and BRCA2. The tests cost around $3,000, and insurance will often cover them if a woman has a family history suggesting high risk. A second $750 test is needed to look for a different type of genetic flaw. That test often is not done or covered by insurance.

In the Chicago study, researchers decoded, or sequenced, all 18 genes tied to breast cancer risk, so it could pick up all types of mutations in any of them.

___

Online:

Breast cancer: http://www.cancer.net/cancer-types/breast-cancer

and http://www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/factsheet/risk/brca

___

Marilynn Marchione can be followed at http://twitter.com/MMarchioneAP

The Rolls-Royce engine exploded on the Qantas A380 shortly after takeoff from Singapore, forcing an emergency landing and becoming the most significant safety issue the superjumbo had faced since starting passenger flights in 2007. Rolls-Royce faced intense scrutiny of its engines, and A380s around the world were temporarily grounded.

The Australian Transport Safety Bureau's report confirmed the agency's earlier findings that an oil leak from a pipe inside one of the plane's massive Trent 900 engines sparked a fire. The fire caused a disintegration of one of the engine's giant turbine discs, sending pieces of it blasting through the plane's wing.

The agency, which led an international investigation into the Qantas engine breakup, concluded that the walls of several pipes were too thin and didn't conform to design specifications. The error prompted a disastrous domino effect, with the weak wall of the pipe breaking down, then cracking and finally releasing oil into the superheated engine, sparking the fire.

The transport agency said Rolls-Royce has identified all the affected pipes, overhauled its quality management system and implemented a safety feature that should shut an engine down before it can blow apart if the same scenario ever happened again.

Rolls-Royce said it supported the agency's findings and had improved its manufacturing and design processes.

"This was a serious and rare event which we very much regret," Colin Smith, director of engineering and technology for Rolls-Royce said in a statement. "At Rolls-Royce we continually strive to meet the high standards of safety, quality and reliability that our customers and their passengers are entitled to expect. On this occasion we clearly fell short."

The Nov. 4, 2010, engine blowout sent debris raining down onto Indonesia's Batam Island. The plane landed safely and no one was hurt, but the emergency forced the temporary grounding of 20 A380s with Trent 900 engines, operated by Qantas, Singapore Airlines and Germany's Lufthansa. Qantas later reached a 95 million Australian dollar ($86 million) settlement with Rolls-Royce.

"This was an unprecedented event and, as the report confirms, all possible steps have been taken to ensure that it can never happen again," Qantas said in a statement.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Film director Roland Emmerich has made obliterating the White House a trademark in his apocalyptic blockbusters and true to form, he ravages it in spectacular fashion with a terrorist attack in "White House Down," opening in theaters on Friday.

"White House Down," starring Channing Tatum, Jamie Foxx and Maggie Gyllenhaal, is Emmerich's first foray into terrorism.

"It's about the division in America, it's about lobbyism and about how some people feel entitled to do certain things and totally believe in them patriotically," Emmerich told Reuters.

Emmerich, 57, has actually made his career destroying the White House.

In his 1996 film, "Independence Day," the building was annihilated by an alien laser beam, then buried in snow in 2004's "The Day After Tomorrow," and swept away by an aircraft carrier riding a tidal wave in last year's "2012."

"Whenever something big happens in America, the White House is involved. Because of that there is a lot of White House in my movies because I always try to do a relatively international plot. I'm not the only one. The White House gets attacked a lot! But I probably hold the record," the director said.

In "White House Down," Emmerich dedicated the best part of two hours to destroying the presidential building as an aspiring Secret Service agent, played by Tatum, finds himself protecting the president, played by Foxx, during a terrorist attack.

Emmerich teamed up with screenwriter James Vanderbilt, who wrote 2012's box-office reboot "The Amazing Spider-Man," to develop a script exploring the threat of terrorism.

"Any point of view when taken to an extreme can turn into a bad thing, no matter how rational it is to begin with," Vanderbilt told Reuters.

Asked if being a European gave him a slightly different perspective as a filmmaker, the German-born director said: "I'm maybe a little bit more courageous than an American. I realized that when 'Independence Day' writer Dean Devlin asked me 'So what do we blow up in Washington? The Capitol?' And I said 'No, No. The White House.' And he said 'Oh!'."

SPOTLIGHT ON TATUM

"White House Down," produced by Sony Corp's Columbia Pictures for an estimated $150 million according to IMDB.com, shines a spotlight on Tatum, who is rising fast into the Hollywood's upper echelons.

Tatum, 33, voted 'Sexiest Man Alive' by People magazine last year after starring as a stripper in "Magic Mike," performed most of his many stunts himself in the action-packed movie.

Emmerich said he was so eager to have Tatum in his movie, that he brought filming forward by 10 weeks to accommodate the actor's busy schedule.

"When I met him, I couldn't believe how smart and intelligent he is, and grounded in reality, humble and how cool and everything," Emmerich said. "And I realized: I have a real problem if he says 'no'."

Foxx, 45, who plays fictional President James Sawyer, said the role was a welcome change from his last one in Quentin Tarantino's spaghetti Western about slave revenge "Django Unchained."

"I was doing 'Django' a year ago. I was a slave, so playing the president is much better," Foxx joked with reporters at a premiere screening in Washington, attended by an audience of journalists, politicians and former White House staff members.

"Remember, this is fiction. I'm here to make sure this doesn't happen," Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano quipped on the red carpet in Georgetown.

(Reporting by Sandra Maler; Editing by Piya Sinha-Roy and Christopher Wilson)