Ohio Gov. John Kasich (center)

[naviga:h3]Ohio’s governor seeks GOP nod[/naviga:h3]

COLUMBUS, Ohio — Ohio’s John Kasich, a blunt governor who embraces conservative ideals but disdains the political sport of bashing Hillary Rodham Clinton, is to become the 16th notable Republican to enter the 2016 presidential race.

The second-term governor and former congressman declares his candidacy today at Ohio State University, where as a freshman political science major in 1970, he audaciously wrote a letter that landed him a 20-minute audience with President Richard Nixon.

His entry nearly rounds out an unusually diverse Republican lineup with two Hispanics, an African-American, one woman and several younger candidates alongside older white men such as Kasich, 63, and Jeb Bush, 62.

Kasich ran for president once before, briefly seeking the 2000 nomination after he helped seal a federal balanced budget deal as House Budget chairman in 1997.

[naviga:h3]Cheating spouse website hacked[/naviga:h3]

NEW YORK — The parent company of Ashley Madison, a matchmaking website for cheating spouses, says it was hacked and that the personal information of some of its users was posted online.

In addition, the person or persons behind the attack are threatening to release all of the site’s personal information — including its members’ sexual fantasies and financial information — if the company doesn’t take Ashley Madison offline, according to a prominent security blog.

Toronto-based Avid Life Media says it has had the hackers’ posts — which included snippets of personal information — taken down and has hired a technology security firm. The company and law enforcement agencies are investigating.

Ashley Madison, whose slogan is “Life is short. Have an affair,” purports to have 37 million members.

[naviga:h3]Rocket may have failed due to strut[/naviga:h3]

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — SpaceX suspects a 2-foot steel strut snapped inside its rocket and led to last month’s launch accident at Cape Canaveral, Fla.

The company’s founder and chief executive, Elon Musk, said Monday that these struts had flown many times before without any problem. But two minutes into the June 28 launch, one of the struts in the second stage of the unmanned Falcon 9 rocket likely broke loose. The strut was holding down a helium bottle in the liquid oxygen tank.

Musk says if the strut snapped as engineers believe, the helium bottle would have shot to the top of the tank at high speed, dooming the rocket and its Dragon supply ship for the International Space Station.