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Thousands of 2008 Donors Abandon Obama | (Oct 28, 2011 12:45 PM CDT) Tens of thousands of donors to Barack Obama’s 2008 campaign are sitting this one out—or giving money to the other side—and it’s costing the president millions of dollars, the AP finds. With the help of the Democratic Party, Obama’s campaign has plenty of cash on hand, and the president even has some new donors this cycle. But the departure of many supporters who gave $200 or more last time around suggests he’ll have to step up his game. The AP compared the list of donors who handed the campaign between $200 and $2,500 from April to Sept. 2008 with the list of such donors over the same period in 2011. Ex-donors can be found across the country, particularly in the Northeast and West Coast. But the Obama campaign has cited a wealth of smaller donations this year, and a recent NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll finds 4 out of 5 who voted for Obama in 2008 will likely do so in 2012. Meanwhile, Obama's raking in cash from bundlers. |
$400M Ponzi Lawyer Gets 20 Years | (Jul 14, 2009 1:42 AM CDT) A high-flying New York lawyer who orchestrated a Ponzi scheme to fund his lavish lifestyle has been sentenced to 20 years in jail, the New York Times reports. Marc Dreier pleaded guilty to charges including conspiracy and securities fraud relating to the scam, which bilked hedge funds and other investors of some $400 million. Prosecutors had asked for a sentence of 145 years, just 5 years short of the 150 years Bernard Madoff was slapped with. Mr. Dreier is not going to get much sympathy from this court, the judge said. But he is not Mr. Madoff from any analysis, and that’s why I can’t understand why the government is asking for 145 years. |
7.4 Earthquake Rattles Mexico | (Mar 20, 2012 1:40 PM CDT) A 7.4-magnitude earthquake hit central and southern Mexico today, collapsing at least 60 homes near the epicenter and a pedestrian bridge in the capital where people fled shaking office buildings in fear. One of the strongest to shake Mexico since the deadly 1985 temblor that killed thousands in Mexico City, today's earthquake sent fear and panic across the region, especially after a less powerful, magnitude-5.1 aftershock was felt in the capital and several other aftershocks around the borders of Oaxaca and Guerrero near the epicenter. But hours after the shaking at noon local time, there were still no reports of death or serious injury Police radio operator Marcos Marroquin said there were preliminary reports of 60 houses damaged in the municipality but only a report of a broken arm. In Mexico City, frightened workers and residents poured into the streets of the capital. Telephone service was down in the city, and some neighborhoods were without power, according to Mexico City Mayor Marcelo Ebrard. President Obama's oldest daughter, Malia, was reported and safe while on vacation with a school group in Oaxaca. |
2 Girls Threatened Steubenville Victim: Cops | (Mar 18, 2013 7:00 PM CDT) Police have arrested two 16-year-old girls for allegedly posting social media death threats against the victim of the Steubenville rape case, WTOC reports. The threats were made on Facebook and Twitter, the AP reports; CBS News quotes one of them as reading, you ripped my family apart, you made my cousin cry, so when I see you xxxxx, it’s gone be a homicide. Police say they've linked one of the girls to one of the convicted rapists, Ma'Lik Richmond. The girls are being held in a juvenile facility and face charges of aggravated menacing. (A grand jury probe may lead to other arrests in the rape case. |
Adventists Pretty Sad About Their 150th Anniversary | (Apr 13, 2013 7:45 AM CDT) How does a church celebrate a 150th anniversary when it didn't even expect to be around for a decade? Such is the conundrum Seventh-day Adventists are facing, reports Religion News Service in a fascinating look at the coming May milestone. As it explains, the church was founded in the 1860s, and one of its major tenets is and was that Jesus will return to Earth—in the very near future (hence the name Adventists ). If you took a time machine and visited our founders in May 1863, they'd be disconcerted, to say the least, that we’re still here, the church's archives director tells RNS. In one kind of way it really is a sad event, says a VP with the church's governing body (the director of education calls it almost an embarrassment ). We have been hopeful that long ago Christ would have come and taken the righteous to heaven and this world would have ended. So the 17-million-member church will mark the event quietly, with a May 18 day of prayer and a smaller ceremony at its Maryland HQ three days later. And until the apocalypse comes, they'll continue doing what they've done for a century and a half: make the most of the time they have left in the pursuit of social good. Upcoming plans include the opening of a Hong Kong hospital and health centers in disadvantaged areas, notes RNS. |
GDP Drop Worst in 26 Years | (Feb 27, 2009 8:09 AM) The US economy contracted at a staggering 6.2% pace at the end of 2008, the worst showing in more than a quarter-century, as consumers and businesses ratcheted back spending, plunging the country deeper into recession. That's drastically worse than the 3.8% the government originally estimated, and the 5.4% economists predicted. Looking ahead, economists predict consumers and businesses will keep cutting back spending, making the first six months of this year especially rocky. The new report offered grim proof that the economy's tailspin accelerated in the fourth quarter under a slew of negative forces feeding on each other. The economy started off 2008 on feeble footing, picked up a bit of speed in the spring, and then contracted at an annualized rate of 0.5 percent in the third quarter. Before today's report was released, many were projecting an annualized drop of 5% this quarter. But given the dismal state of the jobs market, an even sharper decline now looks possible. |
Record Find in Everglades: 17-Foot Python, 87 Eggs | (Aug 14, 2012 12:28 AM CDT) It's going to take more than a brutal cold snap like the one in 2010 to wipe out the tens of thousands of Burmese pythons in the Florida Everglades, say scientists dissecting the largest one ever found in the area. The 17-foot, 7-inch snake was carrying 87 eggs, also a Florida record, reports the Miami Herald. This thing is monstrous—it’s about a foot wide, says a snake expert at the Florida Museum of Natural History. It means these snakes are surviving a long time in the wild. There's nothing stopping them, and the native wildlife are in trouble. A study released earlier this year blamed the huge snakes—the descendants of released pets and pet-store escapees—for the near-disappearance of much of the Everglades' native wildlife, including foxes, bobcats, and opossums. They have been known to eat animals as large as deer and alligators. Scientists plan to analyze feathers found in the huge snake's stomach to learn what creatures it has been squeezing the life out of. A 17.5-foot snake could eat anything it wants, the museum's expert notes. By learning what this animal has been eating and its reproductive status, it will hopefully give us insight into how to potentially manage other wild Burmese pythons in the future. (Click to read about Florida's Python Challenge ... which isn't going so well.) |
Dow Off 100 as Rate Rally Dies | (Dec 17, 2008 3:27 PM) Stocks turned lower as jubilation over the Fed’s rate cut yesterday died down and concerns about the slumping economy returned today, the Wall Street Journal reports. Losses by Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs dragged financials lower. The Dow closed down 99.80 at 8,824.34. The Nasdaq fell 10.58 to close at 1,579.31, and the S&P 500 lost 8.76 to settle at 904.42. Some investors also worried that ultra-low US interest rates will lead to an ugly slide for the dollar in 2009. The greenback fell against the euro today, and the US Dollar Index, which measures the currency against six others, dropped 1.7%. They’ve made no bones about the fact that they’re devaluing the dollar to shore up everything else, one analyst said of the Fed. |
Aftershocks Hamper Rescue Efforts as Italy Toll Hits 281 | (Apr 9, 2009 12:41 PM CDT) Aftershocks in the Abruzzo region of Italy this morning, including one with a magnitude of 5.2, hampered ongoing rescue efforts and spooked refugees still in the area, Reuters reports. Officials closed off the center of L’Aquila, where the latest tremors continued to damage the hard-hit town. Though rescuers fear there are no more survivors from Monday’s quake, efforts will continue through Sunday. The death toll rose to 281 today as more bodies were discovered. The last survivor was rescued late Tuesday. As long as we know that there are people under the rubble, we will keep searching even if we're sure they’re dead, a firefighter said. President Giorgio Napolitano toured the destruction and cast a wide net of blame. Many people were involved in the construction of the buildings that collapsed, he said. People need to search their consciences. |
Watergate's 'Deep Throat' Dead at 95 | (Dec 19, 2008 3:18 AM) The FBI agent who helped bring down Richard Nixon has died at his California home at the age of 95, the New York Times reports. W. Mark Felt was Deep Throat —the anonymous source who supplied crucial leads to Washington Post reporter Bob Woodward about White House abuses of power, setting in motion the Watergate scandal that led to Nixon's resignation. Felt, who was the second-in-command at the FBI at the time, was infuriated by what he saw as efforts by Nixon to use the bureau for political purposes, and rejected orders not to investigate the White House-ordered 1972 break-in at Democratic National Committee headquarters. He set up covert meetings with Woodward using tactics he had learned rooting out Nazi spies in the US during WWII. Felt decided to unmask himself in 2005 after over 30 years of secrecy. |
Amy Winehouse Dead at 27 | (Jul 23, 2011 11:59 AM CDT) Amy Winehouse has been found dead in her London apartment, reports Sky News. On arrival, officers found the body of a 27-year-old female who was pronounced dead at the scene, said a police statement. It didn't name Winehouse, but authorities later confirmed she was the victim. An autopsy is scheduled for tomorrow, and Scotland Yard tells TMZ there's no sign of foul play. Winehouse had battled addiction for years and recently pulled out of a European tour. The AP has a quick obituary posted, recapping Winehouse's rise to worldwide fame with the 2006 release of her Back to Black album. She won five Grammys for it, including song and record of the year for Rehab, in which she sings about her refusal to go there. Click for more, including a link to the song's video. |
Iran-Linked Firm Paid Top Obama Aide $100K | (Aug 6, 2012 3:58 AM CDT) A potential embarrassment for Obama 2012: The guy who ran Obama 2008 was paid $100,000 for two speeches he made to a subsidiary of a telecom firm that does business with the Iranian regime, reports the Washington Post. David Plouffe, Obama's 2008 campaign manager and now a senior White House adviser, was a private citizen when he gave the speeches to an MTN Group affiliate in late 2010. But the issue is likely to trouble the White House as it seeks to clamp down further on Iran with fresh sanctions, which may affect companies like MTN. Critics accuse MTN of providing technology used by Iran to clamp down on dissidents, a charge the South African company firmly denies. A White House spokesman says it is unfair to attack Plouffe now because MTN's role in Iran was not an issue when he gave the speeches. At the time, not even the most zealous watchdog group on this issue had targeted the Iranian business interests of the host’s holding company, the spokesman adds. |
Dow Up 96 Despite CIT Woes | (Jul 16, 2009 3:16 PM CDT) Stocks gained today as the tech sector continued to inspire and economist Nouriel Roubini predicted a recovery in late 2009, the Wall Street Journal reports. Though the looming bankruptcy of CIT Group depressed stocks most of the day, financials were able to trim losses before the close. The Dow rose 95.61, closing at 8,711.82. The Nasdaq gained 22.13, settling at 1,885.03, and the S&P 500 added 8.06, to 940.74 |
Canada Town Bans 'Unlucky' 4 From Addresses | (Jun 3, 2013 2:57 AM CDT) A Toronto suburb that has long catered to the superstitious by skipping 13 when giving out new addresses has decided to do away with the number four as well. Four is considered unlucky by speakers of Cantonese and Mandarin because it sounds like the word death, and while Richmond Hill has a large Chinese population, residents say it's not only Asians who are turned off by the number, the Toronto Star reports. It's funny, I had young Italian couple and they were worried about the number four on their property, a property broker says. They heard four is no good. It’s really not a big deal, but some people know a bit, and all of a sudden it becomes stigmatized. Numbers like 14 and 24 will still be used for new addresses, and people who currently have a four in their address can petition to have a suffix added to make it into the somewhat less unlucky 4A or 4B. |
Almost 20% of US Underemployed | (Feb 23, 2010 9:40 AM) Roughly 30 million Americans, almost 20% of the workforce, are either unemployed or able to find only part-time work, according to a new poll. The Gallup survey, which tallied 20,000 respondents and has a 1% margin of error, paints a far darker picture of the economic landscape than official US statistics, which peg unemployment at just under 10% and underemployment at 16.5%, Reuters reports. Among those underemployed, 60% said they were not hopeful that they’d find an adequate job within the next month. But they remain optimistic about the government, with 55% approving of President Obama, compared to 49% of the general public. The glut of underemployment could spell trouble for the economy; the underemployed spent 36% less than their employed counterparts in January. |
John F. Kennedy Assassination Tapes from Air Force On Sale for $500,000 | (Nov 15, 2011 5:13 PM) Got $500,000 to spare? You could be the proud owner of a newly discovered piece of American history. A Philadelphia dealer in historic documents has purchased a reel-to-reel recording from Air Force One following the death of John F. Kennedy, and it’s got 30 minutes of never-before-heard conversations from the trip between Dallas and Washington, the AP reports. Top Kennedy aide Gen. Chester Clifton collected material from the JFK administration, and Philadelphia’s Raab Collection bought his archive after his widow died and is now putting the recording up for sale. It contains in-flight radio calls between the aircraft, the White House Situation Room, Andrews Air Force Base, and a plane that was carrying Kennedy's press secretary and six Cabinet members. A shortened version of the recording is in the National Archives, and the Raab Collection will donate a copy of the long version to the archives and to the JFK Library. It took decades to analyze the shorter, newer version and it will take years to do the same here, said Nathan Raab. Among other things, he said the tape will end speculation as to the whereabouts of Kennedy adversary Gen. Curtis LeMay right after the murder; he has long been a key figure among assassination researchers. An aide is heard trying to raise him: He is in a C140. Last three numbers are 497. His code name is Grandson. And I want to talk to him. |
2 Pussy Rioters Briefly Detained Over Sochi Theft | (Feb 18, 2014 6:03 AM) Not long after their release from prison, two members of the Russian band Pussy Riot have again been detained, NBC News reports. This time, Nadezhda Tolokonnikova and Maria Alyokhina were accused of theft, tweeted Tolokonnikova: On the 16th we were detained for 7 hours, on 17th we spent 10 hours at the (Russian security service) FSB, and today we are riding in the police van, being accused of THEFT. Tolokonnikova's husband tells CNN the two were walking down a street with reporters when they were taken by police. An activist tells the AP he witnessed the scene, and says other activists were also detained. Police told Russian media that the women were questioned regarding a theft at the hotel they're staying at (per Interfax, a purse was taken), that all the hotel's guests were taken in for questioning, and that Tolokonnikova and Alyokhina were released three hours later. Police said they had no claims against anyone questioned. Tolokonnikova tweeted today that she's in Sochi to carry out Pussy Riot action. The song is called 'Putin will teach you to love your motherland.' But the pair's status in the band is currently unclear after a letter from other Pussy Rioters said the two were no longer members of the group, per RT. |
Arthur C. Clarke Is Dead at 90 | (Mar 18, 2008 8:55 PM CDT) Arthur C. Clarke, the sci-fi author who helped shape 20th-century scientific imagination, is dead at 90, the New York Times reports. The co-creator of 2001: A Space Odyssey faced post-polio syndrome in recent decades and died at his home in Sri Lanka due to breathing trouble. No one can predict the future, Clarke maintained, but he couldn’t resist trying—and often succeeded. Clarke was an early believer in space travel and wrote in 1945 that satellite networks could aid communication on Earth. Most technological achievements were preceded by people writing and imagining them, Clarke said. I know several astronauts who became astronauts through reading my books. The optimistic author saw technology as a road to a better world. Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic, he noted. |
Cops: Family of 5 Dead in Horrific Murder-Suicide | (Sep 10, 2015 6:31 PM CDT) Officers were horrified to find the bodies of a family scattered around an upscale home outside Minneapolis today in what appears to be a grisly murder-suicide, the Minneapolis Star Tribune reports. There’re no words to describe it, police chief Mike Siitari says. This is a tough one to handle. The bodies of two adults and three teenage children, all suffering from traumatic injuries, were found in various rooms throughout the house in the small town of Greenwood on Lake Minnetonka. Officers were checking on the family after they had not been seen at work or school in two days. Police are not currently releasing names, causes of death, or who they believe is responsible. But the Star Tribune identifies the family as Brian and Karen Short and their three children—a 17-year-old son and daughters ages 14 and 15. Records show the Shorts bought the house for $2 million in 2011, and a friend tells the paper the youngest Short daughter hadn't been seen at school or a soccer game. The AP reports Brian Short founded AllNurses.com. His bio on the site states he lives outside Minneapolis with his wife and three children. According to the Star Tribune, officers found a small dog alive at the home before stumbling across the five bodies one at a time. Siitari calls the scene unspeakable and says he's never seen anything like it in 30 years of policing. According to the AP, he does not believe the community is in any danger. |
Jury: NFL Union Owes Retirees $28.1M | (Nov 11, 2008 6:49 AM) The NFL Players’ Association must pay $28.1 million to retired players after failing to properly market their images, a federal jury ruled yesterday. The union owes players $7.1 million in damages for leaving them out of video games, trading cards, and other sponsorship deals. Hall of Famer Herb Adderly, 69, filed the lawsuit last year on behalf of 2,056 retirees, the AP reports. Adderley showed up every day in court, weeping when the verdict was read. I won three Super Bowls and this feels better than all of them combined, he said. I always felt I had one big play left. But the union’s acting director says he’ll ask the trial judge to toss the verdict; failing that, he’ll appeal the decision. |
Guinness Tweaks 256-Year-Old Recipe —to Appease Vegans | (Nov 3, 2015 7:10 AM) After pressure from beer-chugging vegans who were behind a long-running campaign and several online petitions, Guinness has elected to change its 256-year-old recipe and remove isinglass—a gelatinous byproduct of fish bladders that helps filter yeast particles—from its brewing process, reports CNN Money. Guinness now says it will use a new filtration plant to be installed at its flagship brewery in Ireland at some point in 2016, reports the Independent, while it doesn't yet plan to change its other breweries scattered across 49 countries. The company had previously responded to requests to remove isinglass by saying it provides a very effective means of clarification, and as recently as January said in a company email to Barnivore, which tracks animal ingredients in adult beverages, that it had yet to find a replacement as effective and as environmentally friendly. No word yet on what it's come up with. Parent company Diageo has said that competition from microbreweries flattened its sales in 2015. Meanwhile, many popular beers, including Anheuser-Busch, Heineken, and Miller, are deemed vegan-friendly by Barnivore. (Guinness lovers may want to check out one of Starbucks' latest latte flavors.) |
Strip Mall Fire Kills 30 Puppies | (Feb 21, 2013 5:38 PM) Downer of the day: A fire last night at a strip mall in Miami killed 30 puppies, reports the Miami Herald. The pups died of smoke inhalation—all were French and English bulldogs, breeds known for having respiratory trouble. Firefighters were able to rescue a handful, but the owner of Beverly Hills Puppies says most of those in the store died, reports WSVN-TV. The bulldogs sell for $2,000 apiece. No word yet on what caused the fire. |
Oklahoma Tornadoes Kill 6 | (May 11, 2010 1:20 AM CDT) At least 6 people were killed as tornadoes ripped through Oklahoma yesterday. Dozens more were injured when winds flipped mobile homes and cars, and hailstones the size of baseballs crashed through windshields, AP reports. The dead include a child killed by flying debris and a man crushed by an RV, the Oklahoman reports. Oklahoma City emergency workers are going door to door to make sure everyone is accounted for. |
Misidentified 'Google Mistress' Sues People for $4M | (May 14, 2014 12:08 PM CDT) When Sergey Brin and his wife split last year, People was among various media outlets reporting on the alleged cause behind the breakup: Brin's affair with 27-year-old Google Glass employee Amanda Rosenberg. Problem? The gossip mag ran a photo of one Nathalie De Clercq, a New York City entrepreneur whose only connection to Rosenberg appears to be that, as per a $4 million lawsuit De Clercq filed against People, both Rosenberg and De Clercq are Eurasian and have long dark hair. Both also appear to have a certain affinity for Google Glass, notes the New York Post. For that matter, the suit continues, as per Courthouse News, De Clercq does not even know Brin, let alone did she ever have any kind of relationship with him, nor does she know Rosenberg. It blasts People, one of the most widely circulated and read periodicals in the world, for acting in a grossly irresponsible manner without due consideration for the standards of information gathering. She’s been having trouble getting financing ... because she has to deal with this question mark, says her lawyer. Either she’s a laughingstock or they think she’s a mistress. |
Texas Runaway, 14, Mistakenly Deported | (Jan 4, 2012 12:30 AM) A 14-year-old American runaway was mistakenly deported to Colombia by authorities in Texas months ago, and was only recently tracked down by a relative. The screw-up occurred when the girl gave a fake name that happened to match a 22-year-old illegal alien, and officials never bothered to confirm her identity, reports CBS News. Jakadrien Turner is African-American, didn't speak Spanish when she was shipped abroad and had no connections to Colombia. She has been working long hours as a maid in Bogata, and is now pregnant, according to the Dallas Morning News. How do you deport a teenager and send her to Colombia without a passport, without anything? asked her furious grandmother, who recently located her via Facebook. The teen is currently being held in a detention facility in Colombia, where officials are refusing to release her despite the family's request to send her home. Officials from Immigration and Customs Enforcement are investigating the case. ICE takes these allegations very seriously, said a spokesman. Her grandmother said: I need help and I need a prayer. |
37 Dead in Plane Crashes in Alaska, Mozambique | (Nov 30, 2013 7:15 AM) A Mozambique Airlines plane carrying 33 people crashed in a remote border area, killing all on board, Namibian media reported today. Flight TM470 from Maputo, the Mozambican capital, did not land as scheduled in Luanda, the Angolan capital, yesterday afternoon. The Namibia Press Agency quoted Bollen Sankwasa, a deputy police commissioner, as saying the plane crashed in a national park near the border with Angola. Four people, including an infant boy, also died in a plane crash near the remote western Alaska village of Saint Marys last night. Six of the 10 people aboard survived. The single-engine, turboprop Cessna 208 was a Hageland Aviation flight from Bethel to Mountain Village and Saint Marys, said Kathy Roser, a spokeswoman for Era Alaska airline. Hageland is part of Era Alaska, Roser said. There was no immediate word on what might have caused the crash. |
Unemployment Drops to 7.2% | (Oct 22, 2013 7:39 AM CDT) The September jobs report is out today, delayed thanks to the government shutdown, and it reveals that the unemployment rate ticked down to 7.2% last month, while 148,000 jobs were added. Economists had expected the rate to hold steady at 7.3%, the Wall Street Journal notes, but they also expected more new jobs: 180,000, to be exact. The unemployment rate is a 5-year low, and Michael J. Casey at the Journal says it seems genuine, rather than a result of people dropping out of the labor force. August's number was revised upward, from 169,000 new jobs to 193,000. But July's was revised downward, from 104,000 new jobs to 89,000—the fewest in more than a year. If you're looking for any effects the shutdown may have had on the economy, you'll likely have to wait for the October report, the Journal notes. And that one will also be delayed, by one week; it arrives on Nov. 8. But the AP notes that the number of jobs created in September suggests the market was already weakening in advance of the shutdown. |
Bandits Kidnap 75 From Philippine School | (Dec 10, 2009 2:39 AM) Gunmen seized 75 people, mostly children, during a raid on a remote elementary school in the southern Philippines this morning. The hostages were taken to a forested area, and officials are attempting to negotiate with the armed tribesmen for their release, the BBC reports. The incident is believed to be unrelated to the unrest on the other side of Mindanao in the increasingly troubled nation. We've sent troops to help rescue the hostages, a local official told Reuters. We are not aware of any political demands, but negotiations are ongoing to free the hostages that include two forest rangers and some of the parents who were in the school at that time. |
Small-Business Confidence at 28-Year Low | (Apr 9, 2008 10:37 AM CDT) Slowing sales, rising inflation, and skyrocketing energy costs have small-business owners cutting back on hiring and tightening their spending as they brace for a continuing economic slowdown, USA Today reports. A National Federation of Independent Business survey puts small-business confidence last month at its lowest quarterly point since 1980. The survey said 33% more business owners reported declines in sales growth. We’re seeing recession readings, said an NFIB economist. But, he added, few firms reported being affected by the credit crisis, and many are poised to spend if the economy reignites late this year. There is, he said, a fundamental trust in the economy. |
Spies Could've Halted 'India's 9/11,' Failed to Connect Dots | (Dec 22, 2014 11:40 AM) British, American, and Indian intelligence operatives all separately picked out elements of a possible major terror plot by autumn of 2008, but their inability to connect the dots led to what the New York Times calls one of the most devastating near-misses in the history of spycraft —the mass killings in Mumbai that November. In hindsight, spy agencies had significant clues leading up to when Lashkar-e-Taiba militants stormed high-end hotels, a theater, and other hotspots in the city and murdered 166 people, but inadequate communication appears to have allowed what has been called India's 9/11 to take place. No one put together the whole picture, Shivshankar Menon, the Indian foreign minister at the time, tells the Times. Only once the shooting started did everyone share … [and] the picture instantly came into focus. An investigation by the Times, ProPublica, and PBS' Frontline examined the espionage that took place before the attacks, including monitoring the laptop of Lashkar-e-Taiba's IT guru and extremist-leaning emails by Pakistani-American David Coleman Headley. The analysis found it wasn't the sophisticated surveillance technology that was lacking, but rather a comprehensive way to filter through the findings and assemble them into a cohesive picture. Computer traffic only tells you so much. It's only a thin slice, Menon tells the Times, adding that it's pointed analysis of that traffic that's really needed. There were also other world events distracting intelligence officials. We were focused on many other things—al-Qaeda, the Taliban, Pakistan's nuclear weapons, the Iranians, an ex-US intelligence official tells the Times. (Headley was sentenced to 35 years for his role in the attacks.) |
Solar-Powered Plane Starts 2nd Leg of Epic Journey | (Mar 10, 2015 6:24 AM CDT) A Swiss-made solar-powered aircraft took off just after dawn today from Muscat, Oman, bound for India for the second leg—and its first sea crossing—in a historic round-the-world trip. Pilot Bertrand Piccard was at the controls of the single-seater Solar Impulse 2, which is making the 910-mile journey from Muscat to Ahmedabad without a drop of fuel. It will take an estimated 16 hours of flying as it crosses over the Arabian Sea to India. The aircraft's wings are covered by more than 17,000 solar cells that recharge the plane's batteries; its wingspan is 236 feet, spanning larger than a Boeing 747 jumbo jet, but it weighs just 5,070 pounds, or about as much as a minivan. It flies ideally at around 25 knots, or 28mph. Yesterday, André Borschberg, who co-founded the Solar Impulse company that built the plane, flew the Si2 from Abu Dhabi, the capital of United Arab Emirates, to nearby Oman in the first leg of the epic journey. Si2 is slated to make 12 stops during its 21,700-mile journey, including in China and Myanmar, before it crosses over the Pacific Ocean. It will then land in Hawaii and the US Midwest and East Coast before flying over the Atlantic Ocean. It may also stop in southern Europe or North Africa, depending on weather conditions. 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. |
Omar Sharif, Lawrence of Arabia Actor, Dead at 83 | (Jul 10, 2015 10:44 AM CDT) Omar Sharif, the dashing Egyptian actor who rose to fame in America in 1962's Lawrence of Arabia and 1965's Doctor Zhivago—both directed by David Lean—has died at the age of 83, the AP reports. His longtime agent tells the news agency that Sharif died of a heart attack in a Cairo hospital. His grandson Omar Sharif Jr., who had just last week posted a photo of himself and his grandfather on Facebook with the message I love you, simply tweeted this morning, Al-Baqa Lillah, an Arab expression used to convey condolences. The Telegraph reports that Sharif had suffered from Alzheimer's, and in May his only child, Tarek El-Sharif told the Spanish newspaper El Mundo his dad couldn't remember certain details about his films. He remembers, for example, that it was Doctor Zhivago but he's forgotten when it was filmed, El-Sharif said. Sharif garnered an Oscar nomination for his turn as Sherif Ali in Arabia, even though he wasn't Lean's first choice—the actor Lean had picked was rejected for having the wrong eye color, per NBC News. Sharif was brought back by Lean for Zhivago then went on to rack up more than 100 acting credits, including roles as Mongol chief Genghis Khan in the 1965 eponymous movie, Che Guevara in 1969's Che!, and as a gambler in Funny Girl with Barbra Streisand, a movie that was banned in Egypt because Sharif played a Jew, NBC reports. The Telegraph notes he was also known as one of the world's greatest bridge players. |
$20 Gone With the Wind Dress Sells for $137K | (Apr 20, 2015 6:39 AM CDT) James Tumblin's 300,000-piece collection of Gone With the Wind memorabilia started with a single gray dress with black appliques that lay crumpled on the floor of the Western Costume Company in Los Angeles in the 1960s. A docent told me not to bother to pick it up, because they were throwing it away, Tumblin, who once ran the hair and makeup department at Universal Studios, told the Telegraph last month. But I had noticed there was a printed label saying Selznick International Pictures, and 'Scarlett production dress' was written in ink, he said. I asked if he would sell it to me. He ended up paying just $20 for the costume, worn by Vivien Leigh as Scarlett O'Hara in four scenes of the 1939 film—an incredible bargain considering the dress sold at auction on Saturday for $137,000. The outfit—really a jacket and skirt ensemble—was actually pale blue during filming. But some of the 150 Gone With the Wind pieces sold by Heritage Auctions this weekend remain in pristine condition, including a gray wool suit Clark Gable wore when he kicked down Scarlett O'Hara's boudoir door as Rhett Butler, CNN reports; it sold for $55,000. A straw hat worn by Leigh fetched $52,500, while a black bonnet donned by Leigh and Olivia de Havilland's character Melanie Wilkes sold for $30,000, Reuters reports. Tumblin seems happy to have been able to offer up his pieces, many of which have toured the country. I am really looking forward to walking through a museum and seeing something that I once owned, he said. He still maintains the largest private collection of Gone With the Wind memorabilia, which includes Leigh's Oscar. (The film almost didn't make it to the screen.) |
Georgia to Execute First Woman Since 1945 | (Mar 2, 2015 11:06 AM) Georgia is preparing to execute a woman for the first time since 1945. Kelly Renee Gissendaner, 46, is scheduled to be put to death tonight, an event that would make her the 16th woman to be executed since 1976, the AP reports; that's when the Supreme Court ended a halt on the practice. During the same period, according to the NAACP, 1,368 men have been executed, writes Steven Thrasher in the Guardian. He notes that Gissendaner, convicted in the 1997 murder of her husband, saw her final Supreme Court petition denied in October and lost a clemency appeal last week—even testimony from a man the New York Times calls one of the world's most prominent theologians couldn't save her. During her time in prison, Gissendaner developed a strong interest in theology, studying in a prisoner program conducted by divinity schools around Atlanta. Her work drew her to German theologian Jürgen Moltmann. She wrote to him, and a friendship developed, says one of her teachers. He ended up testifying in the clemency effort last week, alongside her professors and other inmates whom Gissendaner herself has helped with spiritual matters. I have found her very sensitive, and not a monster, as the newspapers depicted her, Moltmann tells the Times. She has changed her mind, and her life. Winter weather delayed her scheduled execution on Wednesday; she requested as her last meal two Burger King Whoppers, salad, fries, and cornbread, WXIA adds. |
China Passes Japan as No. 2 (or Will Soon) | (Jul 3, 2010 11:55 AM CDT) The US is the world's No. 1 economy, but who's No. 2? It depends who you ask. In the English-language version of the People's Daily Online, China declares that its newly revised GDP puts it in second place over Japan. But a slew of other observers, including the Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, and MoneyControl say Beijing remains in third (barely) based on IMF exchange rates. Though even if they're right, it's just a matter of time. Close, but no cigar, writes Andrew Batson at the Journal. China is still likely to have to wait until the end of 2010 to pass this symbolic milestone. |
Economy Shrinks for 1st Time Since 2009 | (Jan 30, 2013 7:52 AM) As firsts go, this is an unfortunate one: The US economy contracted in Q4, marking the first time it has done so since the recession ended. The AP reports that the biggest cut in defense spending in four decades, reduced exports, and sluggish growth in company stockpiles contributed to the unexpected decline in GDP, which dropped at a 0.1% annual rate between October and December. Just how big of a surprise was it? Of the 83 economists survey by Bloomberg, not one expected the decline, with projections ranging from a 0.3% to 2.1% gain. Whether it's a harbinger of doom (raising fears the economy won't be able to handle new tax increases now in effect) or a one-off remains to be seen, notes the AP. The Wall Street Journal reports that the 15% decrease in federal government spending marked the biggest drop since 1973—a slump that strong consumer spending just couldn't overcome. Still, the GDP grew 2.2% for all of 2012, besting 2011's 1.8%. Meanwhile, payroll processor ADP today reported a gain of 192,000 jobs in January; that tops a revised December, which was lowered from 215,000 jobs to 185,000, reports the AP. |
Conn. City Lost 8K Gallons of Water Per Minute | (Aug 14, 2014 11:18 AM CDT) A broken water main in New London, Conn., caused the city to lose more water than it uses in a day—about 8,000 gallons a minute, at least when it first started this morning, the Hartford Courant reports. A state of emergency was declared and residents were told to limit water use, as the city lost water at a rate of 10 million gallons per day—it uses 7 million each day. The leak is now 75% contained, NBC reports, though some residents could be without water for one to two days. (Maybe they can borrow some rainwater from Long Island, which saw 13 inches of rain yesterday. |
Pope Changes Annulments in Biggest Way Since 1700s | (Sep 8, 2015 7:04 AM CDT) Pope Francis majorly reformed annulments today, in a move that Reuters describes as the most substantial changes to the process since the mid-1700s, changes that radically simplify it. CNN reports that the reforms, contained in two motu proprio ( by his own initiative ) documents, are threefold: There's no longer a second review required by a cleric; bishops can fast-track and even grant the annulments themselves (for instance, in a situation of domestic abuse); and there's no longer any cost beyond a modest administrative charge. The changes are set to be part of Catholic canon law effective Dec. 8—the start of the Year of Mercy. Church teaching holds that Catholics can remarry only if their first marriage is declared invalid by a church tribunal. Catholics have long complained that it can take years to get an annulment—at a cost of as much as thousands of dollars—if they can get one at all, and CNN notes that the pope echoed that sentiment in 2014: Some procedures are so long and so burdensome, and people give up. Reuters notes that a Vatican official today explained that the last time annulments were so drastically altered was under Benedict XIV, who was pope from 1740 to 1758. |
Twitter's Big New Thing: 6-Second Videos | (Jan 24, 2013 3:56 PM) Twitter rolled out an interesting new iOS app today that's sort of like a cross between Instagram, YouTube, and, well, Twitter. Dubbed Vine, the new app allows you to create and watch 6-second looping videos, in a Twitter-esque feed. While the resultant videos will instantly remind you of GIFs, they're actually MP4 files, meaning they can include sound—the app will instantly switch sound feeds to the next video as you scroll through your feed. While you can cross-post your Vine videos to Twitter (and other social media for that matter), Vine is currently a separate app that isn't fully integrated into the site—though Gizmodo predicts that it will be eventually. It's also not available on Android or any other platform yet, but Twitter's official blog announcement promises that they're working on that. |
Morgan Stanley Beats Estimates With 42% Q1 Drop | (Mar 19, 2008 7:53 AM CDT) A day after posting its biggest gain on Wall Street in more than a decade—shares rose 18% to $42.86—securities firm Morgan Stanley today reported a second straight quarterly loss, as first quarter earnings fell 42% to $1.55 billion, from $2.67 billion a year ago, reports Bloomberg. But Morgan joined Goldman Sachs and Lehman Brothers in beating analyst expectations, prompting a runup in early trading. Analysts had projected Morgan to earn $1.01 per share, down from $2.51 a year earlier; earnings of $1.45 per share prompted CEO John Mack—who said the company's fourth quarter earnings were embarrassing —to declare himself satisfied with how Morgan Stanley navigated the ongoing market turbulence. Revenue was down 17% to $48.3 billion, and the bank said it took $2.3 billion in writedowns. |
15K Federal Firefighters Not Offered Insurance | (Jun 27, 2012 11:57 AM CDT) As if fighting an epic and apocalyptic wildfire doesn't sound bad enough, try doing it without health insurance. That's actually what an estimated 15,000 to 20,000 federal firefighters do, writes Sarah Kliff for the Washington Post. Of all the jobs where you might want health insurance, firefighting near certainly ranks near the top of the list, she asserts, backing that up by explaining that firefighters work two-week shifts comprised of 18-hour days. With days that long, they can pack in a full year's worth of work in just six months—which is what many federal firefighters tend to work. And that makes them temporary employees, which causes a health-insurance catch-22. Per federal regulations, temporary employees of the Forest Service don't get health insurance. And they typically earn between $25,000 and $35,000 a year, the president of the National Federal of Federal Employees explains, meaning that for many, the only way they can afford insurance is if they have a spouse that might be able to get coverage under an employer. The Post talks to the 27-year-old member of a hotshot crew (a sort of elite team) who started a Change.org petition clamoring for insurance. He notes that one co-worker's son was born premature, leading to $70,000 in medical bills. It just feels really unfair. I've seen all the stuff his father does. We're dispatched from 6am until 10:30pm. Then we’re sleeping in the dirt. |
Study: Sex Is 385M Years Old | (Oct 20, 2014 6:00 AM CDT) Let's face it: Spawning in the water isn't terribly efficient or much fun at all. An extinct vertebrate named Microbrachius dicki sorted this out when it apparently became the first to master internal fertilization some 385 million years ago—far earlier than previously thought, reports Phys.org. And if the scientists reporting on their findings in the journal Nature are right, the primitive placoderms that ruled the world's waters for 70 million years sported hefty claspers that are the precursor to the modern penis. Fundamentally, they could not have done it in the missionary position, one scientist tells the Guardian. The very first act of copulation was done sideways, square-dance style. Fossils show the antiarch male fish had bony, ever-rigid L-shaped organs that they steered between small, paired bones of the females, which the scientists liken to cheese graters—very rough—so they act like Velcro, locking the male organ into position to transfer sperm. Paleontologists have long wondered about the purpose of the creature's small arms and now believe that linking arms helped the duos assume the proper position—giving an even stronger impression of square-dancing placoderm sex. (Ever wonder what sex has to do with dinosaur wings?) |
Plane Hits Car on California Freeway, Killing 1, Injuring 5 | (Apr 2, 2016 4:40 PM CDT) A small plane crashed on a Southern California freeway Saturday and struck a car, killing one person and injuring five others, the AP reports. Witnesses told dispatchers that the plane landed on a vehicle on Interstate 15, about 50 miles north of San Diego. Photos on Twitter showed the nose of the white and blue plane crumpled into the rear of a small black sedan on the shoulder of the freeway. One person in the car was killed, and three others from the vehicle were taken to a hospital, California Highway Patrol Officer Tony Polizzi said. Two occupants in the plane also were transported for treatment. The conditions of the injured were not immediately known. The plane was a single-engine Lancair IV, according to Ian Gregor at the FAA, which will investigate the crash. The crash blocked two lanes and caused backups on the freeway that runs to Las Vegas. |
Nicaragua Volcano Blows, 1.5K Evacuated | (Sep 10, 2012 12:14 AM CDT) At least 1,500 Nicaraguans have been evacuated after a volcano suddenly erupted Saturday in the western part of the country, shooting gas and ash more than two miles into the air. I have seen it bring ashes, but not like now, says a nearby resident. It surprised us because it is a powerful volcano, and to see it like this would make anyone panic. As many as 20,000 people may ultimately be affected if the San Cristobal Volcano, located in the department of Chinandega, continues to rumble, reports CNN. Authorities are concerned about the health danger from ash and released gases. |
Welfare Rolls Rising for First Time Since '90s | (Dec 17, 2008 7:57 AM) Welfare numbers are rising in many states for the first time since public assistance was redefined more than a decade ago, the Washington Post reports. The numbers are still small compared to the days before welfare was retooled to steer people into jobs, but at least a dozen states say welfare rolls have begun climbing, and applications are surging in several others. Many of those seeking benefits for the first time are middle class Americans who have suddenly lost jobs and savings, fueling fears that the program, focused on getting people into jobs, won't work if there are no jobs to be gotten. If there is no employment out there to get, then what? asks one employment manager. Says a Maryland benefits official, the problem is, what we are seeing here is something that looks more like 1936 than 1996. |
Ancient Humans May Have Made Giant Telescopes 6,000 Years Ago | (Jul 2, 2016 4:28 PM CDT) Telescopes as we think of them date back 400 years to the Enlightenment. But astronomers studying huge tombs in Portugal believe ancient humans were making their own stargazing instruments 6,000 years ago, the Atlantic reports. Researchers, who presented their findings Wednesday at the National Astronomy Meeting in Britain, believe the tombs themselves were a type of massive lensless telescope, according to Live Science. The Guardian reports the long, narrow entrances to the tombs—which were the only source of light—would focus the eye on a single piece of sky, block out the sun's rays at dawn, and make the eye more sensitive to low light. This would allow enhanced observing, especially in the twilight hours of dusk and dawn, astronomer Daniel Brown tells Live Science. The tombs may have been the first astronomical tools to support the watching of the skies, millennia before telescopes were invented, the Royal Astronomical Society says in a statement. Ancient humans admitted inside the tombs may have been seen as having secret knowledge or foresight due to being able to see the rise of seasonal stars days before those outside the tombs could see them. They might use that information to declare when it was time to move herds to new grazing areas, for example. Researchers are now experimenting to see what stars might align with the entrances to the tombs. (Astronomers say this is the farthest galaxy ever spotted.) |
PBR in China: $44 a Bottle | (Jul 21, 2010 10:04 AM CDT) Pabst Blue Ribbon is known as a cheap beer beloved by hipsters…in America. In China, it goes by Blue Ribbon 1844, gets compared to Scotch, and will run you $44 a bottle. Gawker points to the beer’s official website—where you can see the fancypants bottle it’s packaged in, a far cry from the familiar PBR cans found in the US. (1844, by the way, is the year the Pabst Brewing Company was founded. Chinese media blog Danwei points to an ad for the beer from a business magazine, reading, It's not just Scotch that's put into wooden casks. There's also Pabst Blue Ribbon Beer 1844, and going on to call Pabst truly a treasure among beers. Need more evidence of PBR world domination? A tech startup is offering a free year's supply to successful job applicants. Click for that story. |
Farhad Manjoo: Twitter Should Allow Tweets to Reach 280 Characters | (Jul 21, 2011 1:07 PM CDT) Call him a rebel, but Farhad Manjoo wants Twitter to double the number of characters allowed in a tweet. To many users, that’s sacrilege. But on Twitter’s fifth anniversary, the 140-character limit feels less like a feature than a big, obvious bug, Manjoo writes on Slate. Forcing people to shrink their updates to 140 characters prevents meaningful interaction between users, short-circuits conversations, and turns otherwise straightforward thoughts into a bewildering jumble of txtese. Although I expect blistering attacks from Twitter fans, I suspect that if Twitter did expand the character limit, people would quickly become acolytes, Manjoo notes. People are already using all kinds of tricks to get around the 140-character limit. The classic defense of the 140-character perimeter is that, as with a haiku or sonnet, a rigid form inspires creativity. But we aren’t all poets, and we shouldn’t have to be to use a mainstream social network. |
Simpson's Baby Could Make Her $14M—or More | (May 3, 2012 9:05 AM CDT) Now that Jessica Simpson has finally given birth, the real work begins: namely, the work of cashing in on baby Maxwell Drew Johnson to the tune of $14 million. That’s how much Fox News estimates Simpson can make by, first of all, adding diaper bags, maternity clothes, and other related products to her brand—an empire that already makes as much as $1 billion per year. Those mom and baby products could add $5 million to her annual take-home pay, and she could easily score another $5 million—or more—per year by signing on for a reality show about her life as a new mom. She’ll probably earn an additional $3 million from her Weight Watchers endorsement deal (depressing statistic: Celebrities can earn up to $33,000 per pound they lose), plus another million simply by tweeting endorsements of other mom and baby brands. She can also, of course, score some cash by selling the first pictures of Maxwell, but the Huffington Post estimates she’d make just $100,000 to $500,000 doing so. For more on Simpson, click to see how her family is reacting or check out photos of her $3,784-a-night birthing suite. |
Paywall Drives Off 98.8% of Times Readers | (Jul 19, 2010 12:34 PM CDT) What has putting up a paywall done for the folks at the Times? Driven away most of their readers, predictably. Only 150,000 signed up for Times+ accounts, and only 15,000 of them actually agreed to pay when their free trial ran out, according to an unconfirmed report on Beehive City, written by former Times media correspondent Dan Sabbagh. This figure, apparently, is considered disappointing, he writes. And with good reason. Based on those figures only 12% of the Times pre-paywall readership was even willing to sign up for the free trial, according to PaidContent, and only 10% of that group actually decided to pay, meaning a slim 1.2% of original readers have agreed to pony up. Even during the free month, visits fell 58%; they were down by 67% once the paywall went up—which might actually be better-than-expected. It also has 12,500 iPad customers, which is a pretty nice number given the relatively low number of iPad owners. |
'Twister' Inventor Dead at 82 | (Jul 11, 2013 6:10 PM CDT) Twister called itself the game that ties you up in knots. Its detractors called it sex in a box. Charles Chuck Foley, the father of nine who invented the game that became a naughty sensation in living rooms across America in the 1960s and 1970s, has died. He was 82 and had been suffering from Alzheimer's disease. Foley and a collaborator, Neil Rabens, were hired in the mid-1960s by a St. Paul manufacturing firm that wanted to expand into games and toys. They came up with a game to be played on a mat on the floor, using a spinner to direct players to place their hands and feet on different colored circles. Dad wanted to make a game that could light up a party, said son Mark. They originally called it `Pretzel.' But they sold it to Milton Bradley, which came up with the `Twister' name. The game became a sensation after Johnny Carson and Eva Gabor played it on the Tonight Show in 1966. To be sure, the game got plenty of innocent play, too, becoming popular in grade schools and at children's parties. But its popularity among teens and young adults was owed to an undeniable sex appeal, with players getting tangled up with each other and usually collapsing in a heap. Hasbro Inc., which now manufacturers the game, said it continues to be a top seller. |
Art Prices Tumble 35% | (Apr 7, 2009 10:22 AM CDT) Art prices went into freefall in the first quarter, as cash-strapped collectors unloaded their masterpieces, the Financial Times reports. Prices dropped 35%, after falling just 4.8% for all of 2008. Postwar and contemporary artists, favorites of the Wall Street elite, have been hit especially hard, with even the best performing postwar artist, Andy Warhol, seeing a decline. At its current pace, 2009 could pass 1991 as the worst on record for art; prices fell 41% that year. Postwar and contemporary prices fell more than 30% since January, after rising an average of 20% a year for the past decade. The Old Masters fared better, with one investor making a tidy $12.9 million on a JMW Turner purchased for $1.1 million in 1982. |
7 Missing in Japan Tunnel Collapse | (Dec 2, 2012 8:50 AM) A 330-foot section of a major road tunnel in central Japan collapsed this morning, leaving seven people missing and an unknown number dead as billowing smoke from burning vehicles and fear of a further collapse thwarted rescuers. A number of charred bodies were confirmed inside, a police spokesman says; rescuers are already being criticized over reports they took three hours to arrive on the scene. About 150 concrete ceiling panels caved at about 8am local time, reports the BBC, and the scene was hellish: A concrete part of the ceiling fell off all of a sudden when I was driving inside, says one man who escaped. I saw a fire coming from a crushed car. Says a woman: I could hear voices of people calling for help, but the fire was just too strong. The tunnel is one of the longest in Japan. |
2nd LA Teacher Accused of Widespread Sex Abuse | (Jan 24, 2013 8:10 AM) A fourth-grade teacher who worked for nearly 40 years in the Los Angeles Unified School District has been arrested on suspicion of sexually abusing 20 students, a year after another veteran teacher accused of molesting nearly two dozen students brought national attention to the district and the problem of classroom sex abuse. After a 10-month investigation, eight felony counts of continual sexual abuse and seven counts of lewd acts upon a child were filed yesterday against Robert Pimentel of Newport Beach for abuse that allegedly took place at George De La Torre Jr. Elementary. Pimentel, 57, left his fourth-grade teaching position last March when allegations arose from several girls who told their parents he inappropriately touched them and police opened an investigation. District officials immediately removed him from campus, but before the official dismissal process could begin, Pimentel, who had worked for the district since 1974, retired. Pimentel is suspected of inappropriately touching the children over and under their clothing; the allegations cover a period between September 2011 and March 2012. He is also suspected of the sexual abuse of one adult. |
Dow Up 3; Financials Climb | (Mar 10, 2010 3:17 PM) Gains in financial stocks kept the markets afloat today. Both AIG and Citigroup closed up, in part because of a successful offering of $2 billion in trust preferred securities, the Wall Street Journal reports. |
Bush is Botching $4.11, Just Like He Did 9/11 | (Jul 20, 2008 1:05 PM CDT) If a crisis is a terrible thing to waste, then George Bush's reactions to 9/11 and the $4.11 average gas cost make him a doubly terrible leader, writes Tom Friedman in the New York Times. Instead of using rising gas costs to spur the nation to energy independence, Our Decider decided to lift the executive orders banning (offshore) drilling—even though he knew this was a meaningless gesture, because of a Congressional moratorium. Though he himself once kicked an alcohol addiction, Bush isn't leading the country in a direction that will cure what he has termed America's oil addiction. As Friedman writes, When a person is addicted to crack cocaine, his problem is not that the price of crack is going up. America's problem is that it doesn't want to break its dangerous habit. |
16.8M People Have Seen Nude Videos of Erin Andrews | (Feb 26, 2016 11:20 AM) A civil trial is underway against the Nashville Marriott where the man who stalked Erin Andrews took nude peephole videos of her, and on Thursday, a computer scientist testified that those videos—or still pictures taken from them—have been viewed by more than 16.8 million people. Bernard Jim Jansen said his research found that after the videos, taken in 2008, went online, Andrews—an ESPN reporter at the time—became a top search term. He noted that even within the past six months, nearly 400,000 people watched the videos, the Tennessean reports: There’s a saying that once it’s on the Internet, it’s on the Internet, he said. Right now, someone’s watching that video. The jurors in the civil trial also watched the videos Thursday afternoon, with a teary-eyed Andrews leaving the courtroom before they were put on. On Wednesday, Andrews' father had testified that his daughter vomited before agreeing to watch the videos with the FBI in order to help identify her stalker, the AP reports. Lawyers for the hotel attempted to put the number of peephole video viewers into perspective, pointing out in court that 80 million people look at ESPN's website each month and that there are 3.5 trillion Google searches each day. Andrews, who now works for Fox Sports and on ABC's Dancing With the Stars, filed a $75 million lawsuit that targets not just the hotel and its management but the man convicted of stalking her as well. |
NYC Van Crash Kills 2 Kids | (Jan 22, 2009 1:57 PM) Two preschoolers were killed and 11 other people were injured when a van jumped a curb and ran into a crowd in Manhattan’s Chinatown today, Newsday reports. The gray van went out of control after making a U-turn, witnesses said. The dead children were identified as a 4-year-old girl and a 3- or 4-year-old, the New York Times reported. One of the injured is hospitalized in serious but stable condition, police said. |
43 Years After Girls' Slayings, 2 Arrests | (Sep 14, 2016 8:24 AM CDT) Authorities have finally made arrests in the death of two girls in California more than 40 years later. Police say 65-year-old cousins Larry Patterson and William Harbour murdered Doris Derryberry, 13, and Valerie Lane, 12, after they vanished from a shopping mall in 1973. The girls were found dead, each shot by a shotgun, beside a dirt road in Marysville hours after they were reported missing, per the AP. Doris had been sexually assaulted and semen was collected from her body. However, it was only sent for testing in March 2014 by an investigator who had a bit of free time and really looked very closely at this case, Sheriff Steve Durfor tells the AP. The semen matched DNA samples taken from Patterson and Harbour during previous arrests, police say. Patterson—convicted of rape in 1976 and wanted for failing to register as a sex offender, per Reuters—was arrested Tuesday in Oklahoma. Harbour, who has felony drug convictions, was also arrested Tuesday in the girls' hometown of Olivehurst, Calif. The men were 22 at the time of the murders. After decades of suffering and grief, Durfor says the girls' families can finally have some closure. They have waited ... for 43 years for an answer as to what happened to their kids, adds a Yuba County DA. (This missing woman could be buried on the Cal Poly campus.) |
McQueen’s Label Had $50M Debt at Suicide | (Feb 17, 2010 9:50 PM) Designer Alexander McQueen’s fashion business was $50 million in debt at the time of his suicide last week, an analysis of the firm’s recent statements shows. The Times of London reports that the brand, founded in 2001, didn’t break even until 2007—then made a profit in 2008 only to be dragged under by the world financial crisis. The French parent company that, through its Gucci holdings, controls McQueen’s label is due to report its financial results tomorrow, and could give details on what the future holds for the 180 employees scattered from London to Milan to New York, the newspaper adds. |
Fisher Nets Game 4 for Lakers | (Jun 11, 2009 11:47 PM CDT) Kobe Bryant is one win from an NBA title to call his own, and Derek Fisher got him there. Fisher forced overtime with a 3-pointer with 4.6 seconds left in regulation and then drilled another one with 31.3 seconds to go in overtime as the Los Angeles Lakers outlasted the Orlando Magic 99-91 in Game 4 to open a 3-1 lead in the NBA finals. It was the first time since 1984, when Magic Johnson's Lakers and Larry Bird's Celtics hooked up, that two games in a finals have gone to overtime. When the clock expired, Bryant looked at Tiger Woods and wiped sweat from his brow in relief. Fisher, who has bailed out the Lakers in plenty of big games before, thrust both arms in the air in triumph. |
Blago Asked Burris for $10K in Cash | (Feb 14, 2009 2:20 PM) Rod Blagojevich's camp asked Roland Burris for money before nominating him to take Barack Obama's vacated Senate seat, the Chicago Sun-Times reports. Burris revealed the request, for up to $10,000 in campaign contributions, in an affidavit dated Feb. 5—3 weeks after he was sworn in. Burris didn't mention the request during Blagojevich's impeachment hearing because he was not given the opportunity, he said. Burris says he talked to Blagojevich’s brother Robert and other top aides but refused to give any money. One source says Burris discussed getting others to raise money for him—an accusation he denies. Illinois pols are scratching their heads over Burris' apparent memory loss at the hearing, which probed an allegation that Blagojevich tried to sell the Senate seat. I think the whole thing stinks to high heaven, one said. |
Springsteen Writes Awesome Tardy Note for 9-Year-Old | (Mar 18, 2016 1:40 PM CDT) Scott Glovsky has been singing Bruce Springsteen songs to his son Xabi since the boy's birth, so of course, he took the 9-year-old to the Boss's concert in LA Tuesday night, despite the fact that it was a school night. During the show, Xabi held up a sign reading, Bruce, I will be late to school tomorrow. Please sign my note —and Springsteen saw it. He arranged for the father and son to be escorted backstage, and Xabi ended up with quite possibly the coolest school excuse note of all time, the Claremont Courier reports. Springsteen did more than just sign the note: He asked him for the name of his teacher, and how he spelled his name. He then pulled out a piece of paper and a pen. As Xabi sat next to him on the couch, Bruce thoughtfully created this beautiful note, Glovsky, who has been to more than 100 Springsteen concerts, tells the Courier. The note, a picture of which the proud dad posted on Facebook, read: Dear Ms. Jackson, Xabi has been out very late rocking & rolling. Please excuse him if he is tardy. |
In Italy, 18 Die While Mushroom Hunting | (Aug 30, 2010 5:45 AM CDT) There may not be guns involved, but mushroom hunting can be deadly: Eighteen Italians have died while searching for mushrooms in a little more than a week. Eager to cash in on an abundant harvest, a growing number of people have been heading for the hills. Unfortunately, many lack proper training and equipment, and have died not from accidentally eating poisonous ones, but in accidents. In the most recent case, a 65-year-old wild mushroom hunter plunged 40 meters to her death. Others get lost in remote locales: There are always a few people who want to search out remote bits of woodland which no one else knows, one mountain rescuer tells the Telegraph. (Click here to read about the health benefits of 'magic' mushrooms.) |
300 Mormons March in Utah Gay Pride Parade | (Jun 4, 2012 1:01 AM CDT) A group of Mormons made history yesterday when the largest number ever marched in Salt Lake City's Gay Pride Parade. The 300-strong group, dressed in their conservative Sunday best, are members of Mormons Building Bridges, and participated to extend a message of love and support to our brothers and sisters in Utah's LGBT community, states their Facebook page. I cried as the crowds cheered us and thanked us, said one participant. It was a spiritual experience to stand with so many. Love is all we need. Parade Grand Marshal Dustin Lance Black tweeted: In tears. Over 300 straight, active Mormons showed up to march with me. The Mormon group, whose members stood in sharp contrast to some of the more flamboyant marchers, was begun just weeks ago by a mom of five, to show her support for the community and encourage others in her church to do the same. The Mormon church does not consider same-sex attraction a sin, but sexual relations are only acceptable between a married man and woman, and members who admit to same-sex relations can be excommunicated, reports the Salt Lake Tribune. |
Apple Promises Fix for iPhone 4S Batteries | (Nov 2, 2011 6:20 PM CDT) Apple today acknowledged that some iPhone 4S users are getting lousy battery life but promised that a fix is on the way, reports AllThingsD. The glitch appears to be with the iOS 5 software, not the phone itself. Apple's statement: A small number of customers have reported lower than expected battery life on iOS 5 devices. We have found a few bugs that are affecting battery life and we will release a software update to address those in a few weeks. Complaints have been rising on online boards of late. For those suffering in the meantime, a host of tips are out there, including this roundup from TechCrunch. Two examples: Head into settings and turn off the calendar app in the Notifications Center; and turn off a time-zone feature under Location Services. The site provides a how-to for those ideas and others. (For a look at how much data Siri uses, click here.) |
Cat's Fish Feast Costs Deli $1K | (Dec 12, 2014 11:58 AM) This stray cat strutted up to a deli in Russia's Vladivostok International Airport and got right to work—chowing down on dried octopus, squid, and whatever other fine fare the shop's owner had set out for his human customers, the BBC reports. The cat, apparently an airport regular, didn't actually consume $1,000 worth of fish, but that's what the cost to the entire fish display was after the owner (who has no clue how the cat got in there) had to throw the entire inventory out. The well-fed kitty's now a local celebrity and in high demand to be adopted, but it's apparently sleeping off its meal somewhere: It hasn't been seen since. |
2 Uteri, 2 Babies: Woman Has 1-in-5M Birth | (Mar 3, 2009 11:35 AM) What’s more impressive, having eight babies, or having two—one from each womb? Sarah Reinfelder, whom the New York Post has tastefully dubbed Womber Woman, did the latter, thanks to a condition called uterus didelphys, or double uterus. One in every 2,000 women has didelphys, it turns out, but most aren’t aware of it until they get pregnant, and sometimes not even then, ob-gyn Robert Zurawin tells Scientific American. Most women with two wombs only get pregnant in one—Reinfelder’s case is one of only three recorded in the last 40 years—and if they don’t get an ultrasound early enough in the pregnancy, the womb with the child will block the other from view. Others, however, will know they have the condition from birth, because they’ll have a second cervix and vagina. |
Obama Pulled In $32M in January | (Jan 31, 2008 11:34 AM) Barack Obama has raised $32 million this month, the Washington Post reports—a massive number in such a short span. The Democrat's campaign manager reported 170,000 new donors in January, raising the total number of contributors to 650,000. The best fundraising day was immediately following Hillary Clinton’s Jan. 8 victory in New Hampshire—which the Obama camp interprets as showing the resolve of supporters. The spokesman said the financial success has enabled an aggressive ad campaign, putting Obama commercials in every Feb. 5 state at pretty high levels. Meanwhile, a new report shows John McCain's campaign was $1.5 million in debt when 2008 began, NPR adds. But his organization says stellar fundraising in January outstripped the $7 million raised in all of 2007’s fourth quarter. |
2 Teens Die in Pope Stampede | (Mar 22, 2009 7:29 AM CDT) Two teenage girls were killed in a wild stampede as people rushed to view Pope Benedict in Angola yesterday, reports the Times of London. Some 30,000 people raced into a stadium where the pope spoke at a youth rally. The teenagers died at the scene and dozens were injured. There were too many people and the temperatures were too high, said an injured woman. The pope said today he deeply regrets the deaths and intends to visit the injured, reports AP. |
Romney Racks Up 3 More Primary Wins | (Jun 5, 2012 8:43 PM CDT) Mitt Romney has won the New Mexico Republican presidential primary, adding to a delegate total that already exceeds the number needed to win the nomination. Romney also won primaries today in New Jersey and South Dakota. Two more states, Montana and California, also are having primaries. A total of 264 delegates are at stake in Tuesday's contests, and Romney has a chance to win them all. Not that it matters much: Romney has 1,266 delegates. He needs 1,144 to win the nomination. After today, only one Republican presidential primary remains, in Utah on June 26. |
Twins Born to 70-Year-Old | (Jul 7, 2008 9:16 AM CDT) A 70-year-old Indian grandmother of five has become the world’s oldest mom after giving birth to twins, the Sun reports. Omkari Panwar and her husband, a retired farmer, mortgaged their land, sold off their buffaloes, and took out loans to finance IVF treatment so they could produce a male heir. Panwar, who has no birth certificate but bases her age on how old she was during India’s 1947 independence, delivered the 2-pound preemies—a boy and a girl—by C-section. We kept no stone unturned and God has rewarded us, the 77-year-old father said. The treatment cost me a fortune but the birth of a son makes it all worthwhile. |
NFL's 'Air Coryell' Dead at 85 | (Jul 2, 2010 6:35 AM CDT) Don Coryell, one of the founding fathers of the modern passing game, has died. He was 85. The San Diego Chargers confirmed Coryell died yesterday at Sharp Grossmont Hospital in suburban La Mesa.The team did not release the cause of death, but Coryell has been in poor health for some time. We've lost a man who has contributed to the game of pro football in a very lasting way with his innovations and with his style, Hall of Famer, and Coryell protege, Dan Fouts said from Oregon. The coach's Air Coryell offense produced some of the most dynamic passing attacks in NFL history — and affected how defenses play even to this day. He walked in and met our team for the time and he was just this little bundle of energy, says running back Hank Bauer. He said, 'You know what? We're going to have fun.' From 1978-86, Coryell's Chargers set records, and led the NFL in passing almost every season. They say that imitation is the highest form of flattery, says Flouts, Look around, it's there. |
Harry Reid's No. 1 Priority Is Harry Reid | (Dec 12, 2009 9:53 AM) The Senate may be dealing with weighty issues like health care reform, but its majority leader's biggest concern is his own political skin, writes Dana Milbank. Harry Reid's selfish focus on re-election is getting in the way of his larger duties, and it's time Democrats woke up to this reality. Yes, the good citizens of Nevada deserve attention, but in a nation of 300 million, the Senate majority leader needs to think bigger. Exhibit A: Reid forced a vote on a public option knowing it would fail, simply to energize his Democratic base back home. He didn't care that the move forced moderates like Blanche Lincoln to cast a procedural vote in favor of the public option that could prove ruinous to their own careers—and to the party's majority, writes Milbank in the Washington Post. Democrats need a leader who isn't in constant danger of being voted out. Chuck Schumer and Dick Durbin top the list. |
Starbucks 'Pay It Forward' Chain Lasts for 378 Cars | (Aug 21, 2014 12:40 PM CDT) Customers at a Starbucks drive-thru in St. Petersburg, Fla., kept a pay it forward chain going for 11 hours and 378 cars yesterday, reports the Tampa Bay Times. It began about 7am, when a woman paid for the order of the car behind her, and that driver did the same, and on, and on, and on. The spirit got so infectious that Bay News 9 talks to drivers who paid for two cars in the rear or ponied up for gift cards if nobody was behind them. It ended about 6pm, when a woman said thanks, but no thanks, when informed what was happening. (A Starbucks in Connecticut has the Florida mark beat. |
Mortgage Rates Surge to 5-Year High | (Jul 23, 2008 7:40 AM CDT) Mortgage rates rose yesterday to a 5-year high of 6.71% as investors worried that—even with government intervention—Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac wouldn’t play as big a role in the $12 trillion US mortgage market as in the past, reports the New York Times. The rising rates threaten to further depress the struggling housing market. When we get to rate levels like this, the market just shuts down, one expert said. On Friday, a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage stood at 6.44%, while jumbo loan rates hit their highest level since 2000 at 7.8%. Lawmakers are expected to vote this week to authorize the Treasury Department to pump money into Fannie and Freddie or buy up shares. |
More Cops Dead From 9/11 Illness Than 9/11 Attacks | (May 8, 2014 11:59 AM CDT) It's a dismal milestone: The number of police officers who have lost their lives to 9/11-related illnesses has passed the number who died in the attacks themselves. The AP reports that 71 officers have now died from the former, compared to 60 in the latter group. The news comes as the 13 officers (named here) who died from cancers attributed to their work at Ground Zero had their names added Tuesday to the New York State Police Officers' Memorial in Albany. The Journal News recounted the heroics of one of them: Charles Wassil, a Marine, NYPD officer, and Peekskill detective who spent a week searching for survivors among the rubble. He died in 2013 from sarcoidosis, an inflammatory disease that surfaced just three months after the attacks. (Meanwhile, in a somewhat controversial move, unidentified remains of 9/11 victims will be moved on Saturday.) |
Girl, 9, Drives Dad to Hospital | (Aug 29, 2013 9:07 AM CDT) When John Smith went to pick his daughter, Esteria, up from karate class on Monday, he started to feel a little strange. I started thinking to myself, 'well, what's wrong with him?' Esteria, 9, tells WJHG. Realizing that something was wrong, John told his daughter they were going to the hospital, and started driving them there. But he was driving crazy! Esteria recalls. He told me he couldn't see, and started panicking, saying, 'I don't know what to eat, I don't know what to eat. Realizing she needed to do something, Esteria, who was in the back seat, reached forward and grabbed the wheel with one hand, while her barely-conscious father held the accelerator. She drove in this way for eight blocks to the ER. He was fighting me, and I couldn't make the turns that I needed to do, she says. I hit a curve, and we almost ran into the front of an ambulance! At the hospital, doctors discovered a golf ball-sized tumor on Smith's brain. He's now getting treatment. |
Storms Kill 19 in Mo., Okla. | (May 10, 2008 9:39 PM CDT) Tornadoes ripped through nation's heartland today, killing at least 19 people in Oklahoma and Missouri and leaving a wide swath of destruction, AP reports. Seven people were killed in the small mining town of Picher, Okla., and another 12 were killed in southwest Missouri, officials said. Oklahoma rescuers were working to free people trapped in their wrecked homes. Tornadoes also struck Arkansas, but no deaths have been reported. |
2 Rare Albino Lobsters Caught in Maine | (Sep 6, 2014 8:04 AM CDT) More strange finds from the sea: Two lobstermen in Maine caught a pair of rare albino lobsters within a week, reports the Portland Press Herald. Bret Philbrick caught his off of Owls Head on Thursday and Joe Bates caught one off the Rockland breakwater days earlier. Albino lobsters are believed to be about one in 100 million. One will go to the Maine State Aquarium in Boothbay Harbor and the other to Brooks Trap Mill in Thomaston. Bates also caught a one-in-30 million yellow lobster on Monday. In Florida, meanwhile, a fisherman caught an enormous shrimp about 18 inches long. See an image via USA Today here. (Or click to read about a deep-sea mushroom that defies classification in the animal kingdom. |
'Mad Man of Rock and Roll' Dead at 76 | (Oct 6, 2014 2:49 AM CDT) Paul Revere, the organist and leader of the Raiders rock band, has died. He was 76. The manager for Paul Revere and the Raiders says Revere died from cancer at his home in Garden Valley, Idaho, over the weekend. He'd been quiet about it for some time, the manager says. Treated at the Mayo Clinic, Paul stayed on the road as long as he could, then retired recently back to Idaho. Revere, born Paul Revere Dick, became known as the madman of rock and roll for his theatrical Colonial wardrobe and infectious onstage persona with the band, which served as the house band for the Dick Clark TV show Where the Action Is. The group became popular in 1963 with its rendition of Richard Berry's Louie, Louie before releasing its own hits, such as Kicks, ''Hungry, and Good Thing. The band's biggest smash came in 1971 with Indian Reservation. While the band's lineup changed over the past 50 years, Revere remained a constant presence with the group and continued touring until earlier this year. I don't want to get into the details, but let's just say, it ain't fun, he said last year of his battle with cancer. It's been rough getting through the last few shows, but I would do whatever it takes to avoid missing a show. I'm giving it my all, and then some, and the band tells me I've been even more awesome than usual. |
Doctors Remove 9-Pound Hairball From Teen's Stomach | (Sep 30, 2014 3:26 PM CDT) Ayperi Alekseeva, 18, had been struggling with bad stomach pains. When it got to the point that she couldn't eat or drink without getting sick and she started losing weight, the Kyrgyzstan teen went to a hospital in the capital, Bishkek—where doctors determined she had a ball of hair weighing nearly 9 pounds blocking her digestive system. They removed the hairball in an emergency surgery, Yahoo News reports. As for how it got there, it seems Alekseeva liked to chew the ends of her hair and also eat hair she picked up from the floor; she promised doctors she would break those habits. Her stomach was so badly swollen from hair and bits of wool from the carpet that it literally just oozed out soon as the wall of the stomach was cut, says one of her doctors, who adds that the hairball may be the largest one ever removed from a person. Her doctors say she would have died of dehydration or malnourishment without the surgery, Metro reports. (This 62-year-old woman had a 38-year-old skeleton removed from her abdomen.) |
Lack of Sleep Can Fry 25% of Brain Cells | (Mar 19, 2014 10:46 AM CDT) A lack of shut-eye may not just leave you feeling groggy—it could seriously injure your brain. A new study of mice has found 25% of brain cells died off after prolonged sleep loss, meant to duplicate night shifts or long hours at the office—the first evidence of its kind and a scary find if it applies to humans. We now have evidence that sleep loss can lead to irreversible injury, a researcher told the BBC, noting that when the mice lost a little sleep, they were protected by an energizing protein, but brain cells began to die off when sleep loss became a habit. This suggests to us that we are going to have to look very carefully in humans. If you don't get the recommended six to eight hours of sleep per night but substitute extra hours of snores later to catch up—like on weekends—that may not make up the difference either, researchers say, as the damage may already be done, CNN notes. While more research is needed—the group plans to study the brains of shift workers after death to look for nerve damage—there may also be a silver lining to look forward to: The team notes its research may eventually lead to medicines that help people deal with irregular sleep patterns caused by odd work hours. |
Jenny McCarthy Does 7th Naked Playboy Spread | (Jun 25, 2012 12:16 PM CDT) Jenny McCarthy has taken it all off for Playboy once again, appearing naked on the cover of the July/August issue just months before turning 40. I'm really proud of it, she tells People. The pictures are really gorgeous and classy. They could be out of W magazine. They're really elegant. The New York Daily News notes that the 8-page spread comes almost 20 years after her first appearance in the magazine in 1993; she was named Playmate of the Year soon after and has appeared in six pictorials and on five covers before this issue. Click to see the cover. |
Dems May Split Health Plan Into 2 Bills to Skirt GOP | (Aug 19, 2009 8:55 PM CDT) Here's the latest health care strategy gaining traction among Democrats: Pass two bills instead of one. The idea, as laid out by the Wall Street Journal, goes like this: Democrats would tuck most of the legislation's more controversial spending measures—maybe even a public insurance option—into a first bill they can jam through the Senate in a filibuster-proof tactic known as a budget reconciliation measure. Other parts of the legislation, such as extending insurance to all Americans, would go into the second bill. This one should be able to get through the Senate in a normal vote because some Republicans are already on board with its contents. The split-bill scenario is in the mix because the chances of a bipartisan bill are dwindling, and insiders tell the Journal the chances of it happening are 60%. Harry Reid will have the final say, and a spokesman warned that patience is not unlimited with Republicans. |
$1M Rockwell Painting Missing | (Oct 9, 2013 2:03 PM CDT) The New York Police Department is investigating after a Norman Rockwell painting was discovered missing from a Queens storage facility. The 1939 painting had just changed hands; an Alabama man bought it for $1 million during an auction in New York in May. Police say it disappeared last month from Welpak Art Moving and Storage in Ridgewood, Queens. The work, titled Sport, depicts a fisherman wearing a yellow rain jacket and smoking a pipe. |
Nigeria: Boko Haram Kills 50 Students Asleep in Dorms | (Sep 29, 2013 5:31 AM CDT) Islamic extremists attacked an agricultural college in the dead of night, gunning down dozens of students as they slept in dormitories and torching classrooms in an ongoing Islamic uprising in northeast Nigeria, the school's provost said. Molima Idi Mato, provost of the Yobe State College of Agriculture told the AP that as many as 50 students may have been killed in the attack that began at about 1am today in rural Gujba. He said he could not give an exact toll as security forces are still recovering bodies. The other 1,000 students enrolled have fled the college that is about 25 miles north of the scene of similar school attacks around Damaturu town, he said. There were no security forces stationed at the college despite government assurances, said Mato. The state commissioner for education, Mohammmed Lamin, called a news conference two weeks ago urging all schools to reopen and promising protection from soldiers and police. Most schools in the area closed after militants on July 6 killed 29 pupils and a teacher, burning some alive in their hostels outside Damaturu. Northeastern Nigeria is in a military state of emergency, as Boko Haram militants have killed more than 1,700 since 2010. |
13K Felons in Virginia Now Have Voting Rights | (Aug 23, 2016 12:45 AM CDT) Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe's autopen has had a busy month. The Democrat announced Monday that he has signed papers restoring voting rights to 13,000 former felons, and he's working on restoring rights to up to 193,000 more, reports the Virginian-Pilot. McAuliffe signed an order in April restoring voting rights to 206,000 nonviolent and violent felons. After the Virginia Supreme Court struck the order down last month, McAuliffe vowed to restore rights case by case—starting with the 13,000 who had already registered to vote. The process uses the clear authority the governor possesses to use his own discretion to restore rights of people who have served their time, he said Monday. The move was denounced by Republicans who saw it as an effort to get more Democratic voters on the rolls in time for November. Donald Trump told a rally in Virginia Monday that the governor is getting thousands of violent felons to the voting booth in an effort to cancel out the votes of both law enforcement and crime victims, reports the New York Times, which notes that Virginia is one of just four states to permanently strip felons of voting rights. A McAuliffe aide tells NBC News that the governor hopes to restore as many Virginians' rights as expeditiously as possible, though he can't say how many more cases will have been dealt with by the Oct. 17 deadline for registering to vote. |
100 CEOs Have $4.9B in Retirement Savings | (Oct 28, 2015 3:00 PM CDT) When you add them together, the 100 biggest CEO retirement accounts are equal to the retirement savings of 50 million American families, CNBC reports. According to a new report from the Center for Effective Government and Institute for Policy Studies, each of those 100 CEOs has an average of $49.3 million saved for retirement at a time when the median 401(k) account for a US worker held, as of 2013, less than $20,000. This CEO-to-worker retirement gap is a lot bigger than the pay gap and one more indicator of the extreme level of inequality that is really tearing the country apart, the report’s co-author tells Bloomberg. CNBC reports employer-sponsored retirement plans are disappearing. And according to Bloomberg, a number of the 100 CEOs with the largest retirement accounts head companies that have cut retirement benefits for employees. CNBC reports those 100 CEOs will average a monthly check of $277,686 in retirement. Meanwhile only 18% of private-sector employees even have access to a pension plan. According to Bloomberg, the CEO of Yum! Brands has the cushiest nest egg with $234.2 million in retirement savings. That's 3,300 times larger than the 401(k) of one of his employees—if they even have one (just a fraction do, per regulatory filings). Many of these CEO retirement accounts are so large because they're allowed to defer an unlimited amount of their salary tax-free. But regular employees are capped at around $20,000 per year into their 401(k)s. These benefits weren’t originally intended to be huge wealth generators, but they’ve become that as CEO compensation has grown to 200 to 300 times what average workers make, one expert tells Bloomberg. They’re harder to justify as companies have abandoned worker pensions. |
3 Million Crowd Copacabana to Hear Pope | (Jul 28, 2013 12:33 PM CDT) Take note, Mick Jagger: For the final Mass of his historic return to Latin America, Pope Francis basically sold out not a stadium, but an entire 2.5 mile beach. As the AP reports, Francis this morning headed to Rio's Copacobana Beach, where some 3 million cheering faithful crammed onto the sand to hear the pontiff close out World Youth Day. The church needs you, your enthusiasm, your creativity and the joy that is so characteristic of you! Francis told the masses, urging the youth to embrace the fringes of society, even to those who seem farthest away, most indifferent. The crowd showered Francis with T-shirts, soccer jerseys, and flags as he made his way through, and the AP notes that his normally dour bodyguards cracked smiles in the face of the jubilation. But Rio was clearly unprepared for the sheer number of people: Garbage and human waste overwhelmed existing services as trash collectors struggled to keep up. Francis' Mass in Rio clocked in at the No. 2 papal address; only Pope John Paul II's 1995 Mass in the Philippines attracted more people, with an estimated 5 million. World Youth Day heads next to Krakow, Poland, in 2016. |
Man Loses 37 Pounds Eating Only McDonald's | (Jan 6, 2014 5:03 AM) Want to lose some weight? Try eating nothing but McDonald's for 90 days. That's what science teacher John Cisna did, and he not only lost 37 pounds but also saw dramatic improvements in health markers like cholesterol. The Iowa man was inspired to try his experiment after watching Supersize Me, the documentary in which eating McDonald's for a month led Morgan Spurlock to weight gain and worse health. But in Cisna's case, he kept to strict limitations: 2,000 calories per day, while sticking close to the recommended dietary allowances for fat, cholesterol, and nutrients. Cisna's students constructed their teacher's menu based on those guidelines, and the teacher didn't stick to just salads, oatmeal, and egg whites, although those were included: He typically ate traditional value meals for dinner, and tells KCCI, I had the Big Macs, the quarter pounders with cheese. I had sundaes, I had ice cream cones. The lesson? I can eat any food at McDonald's [that] I want as long as it's balanced out with healthier options the rest of the day. (It probably also helps that Cisna started walking 45 minutes per day during his experiment.) Says Cisna, who made a mini-documentary about the experience, It's [a] choice. We all have choices. It's our choices that make us fat, not McDonald's. (Amusingly, McDonald's itself recently warned workers that fast-food meals are often unhealthy.) |
Dave Matthews' Album Debuts at No. 1 | (Jun 11, 2009 1:22 AM CDT) The Dave Matthews Band's Big Whiskey and the GrooGrux King has become its fifth straight album to shoot straight to the top of the Billboard 200 chart. The first-week sales of 424,000 albums have knocked Eminem's Relapse into second place in its third week. The new Matthews' album is the third most successful of any this year so far, behind Relapse and U2's No Line On the Horizon. |
Columbine Marks 10-Year Milestone | (Apr 20, 2009 6:31 AM CDT) Survivors of the Columbine High School massacre will gather today to mark 10 years since two seniors killed 12 classmates and a teacher in a bullet-fueled rampage that shook the country, USA Today reports. The anniversary is an opportunity for the community to come together for the survivors, Principal Frank DeAngelis said. There are students out there still dealing with it, he said at a service yesterday. We lost 13 of our family members. Ten years, it feels like a milestone, said one woman, a junior at the time of the killings, who escaped unharmed. I feel almost pulled there to see how everyone is doing and where everyone is. A lot of people have made their peace with it, but it doesn't mean they're forgetting it. |
A Rout for the Ages: Germany 7, Brazil 1 | (Jul 8, 2014 5:08 PM CDT) Germany handed Brazil its heaviest World Cup loss ever today with an astounding 7-1 rout in the semifinals that stunned the host nation. Miroslav Klose scored a record-setting 16th career World Cup goal in a five-goal spurt in the first half as Brazil's defense was torn apart. Just how bad was it? Slate has a GIF showing that the on-screen scoreboard had to scroll to accommodate the number of scorers. Brazil's previous biggest World Cup loss was 3-0 to France in the 1998 final. The Germans will face either Argentina or the Netherlands in Sunday's final at the Maracana Stadium in Rio de Janeiro. Brazil was playing without the injured Neymar and suspended captain Thiago Silva. Toni Kroos and Andre Schuerrle scored two goals each for Germany, while Thomas Mueller and Sami Khedira added the others. Oscar got a late goal for Brazil. |
Woman Has Baby Using Embryo Frozen 18 Years | (Aug 21, 2013 7:43 AM CDT) Kelly Burke, now 45, struggled with infertility before deciding to adopt an embryo in order to have a child—and not just any embryo, but one frozen 18 years ago. A couple in Oregon who went through IVF to have twins in 1994 (themselves using donated eggs) had decided to donate their four remaining embryos. Burke, a NASA research scientist living in Virginia Beach, adopted the embryos in a rigorous process last year; son Liam James was born in November 2012. Her doctor believes it's the second-oldest cryopreserved human embryo to result in a live birth. (The oldest, reported in 2010, is believed to be 19 years and 7 months. Embryos are not easy to come by and the opportunity came unexpectedly. I was excited by the idea of carrying my child, says Burke in a press release from the Reproductive Science Center of the Bay Area, which housed the embryos and performed the implantation. The San Francisco Chronicle reports that it was an open embryo adoption, so her son will have a relationship with his siblings—who will be of voting age as Liam turns one. |
Zuck's 2016 Challenge: Build AI Butler for His Home | (Jan 4, 2016 2:03 AM) Mark Zuckerberg has set himself a tough challenge for 2016: Create an electronic butler to make Mark Zuckerberg's life easier. The Facebook founder says he plans to build a simple AI to run my home and help me with my work, which he likens to Jarvis in Iron Man. I'm going to start by exploring what technology is already out there, he writes in a Facebook post. Then I'll start teaching it to understand my voice to control everything in our home—music, lights, temperature and so on. I'll teach it to let friends in by looking at their faces when they ring the doorbell. I'll teach it to let me know if anything is going on in Max's room that I need to check on when I'm not with her, he writes, referring to his weeks-old daughter. Zuckerberg explains that he sets himself a new challenge every year, which has led him to read two books every month, learn Mandarin and meet a new person every day. Even for somebody with Zuckerberg's resources, the AI assistant is hardly a small side project by any means, notes Jon Russell at TechCrunch. It'll be interesting to see how much time and what resources ... Zuckerberg dedicates to this project, and how it turns out, he writes, suggesting that Zuckerberg try building Iron Man's actual metal suit next year. (The Facebook founder has promised that the site will fight for the rights of Muslims.) |
In Lake Ontario, 2 Wrecks That 'Aren't Supposed to Be There' | (Jan 23, 2015 8:40 AM) A team of shipwreck-hunting enthusiasts who've spent years trolling the unpredictable waters of Lake Ontario say they've stumbled upon wrecks whose appearance completely stumps them. Two canal boats on the bottom of the lake—more than 200 feet deep—lie within a few miles of each other about halfway between Oswego and Sackets Harbor, NY, reports the Syracuse Post-Standard. One boat is 65 feet long, the other 78. They aren't [supposed] to be there, says Jim Kennard, one of the divers. What is a canal boat doing out there? Canal boats weren't built to withstand the environmental pressures of a big lake, which may help explain how these two ended up wrecked. Divers used a remote-operated vehicle to confirm that they were in fact canal boats, but New York's historic shipwrecks belong to the people of the state and are thus protected from any unauthorized disturbance. Neither vessel has been ID'd, but the explorers date them to the mid-1800s, coinciding with the widening of the Erie Canal to allow for bigger boats, reports the AP. The boats' owners likely took a chance trying to have the boats haul cargo on the lake, Kennard says: It didn't work. (Check out the extra-tragic story behind another recently found shipwreck.) |
Residents Flee 20,000-Acre Colorado Wildfire | (Jun 11, 2012 2:32 AM CDT) Some 2,000 families are fleeing the 20,000-acre High Park wildfire in northern Colorado. The burning pattern could potentially cut off exit routes for residents in this area and they should leave now, authorities reiterated on a website. Some 18 buildings have already been damaged or destroyed by the fast-moving, hard-to-control fire that authorities believe was sparked by lightning. The fire smell drifted into Denver, and smoke has spread as far as central Nebraska and into Kansas and Texas, reports the Los Angeles Times. A wolf sanctuary evacuated 11 wolves, with another 19 left behind, though underground bunkers provide some safety in the event of fire. Resources are being stretched as firefighters also battle a 8,500-acre blaze in Wyoming, and a 40-square-mile fire in southern New Mexico near the mountain community of Ruidoso, reports AP. |
Potato-Only Dieter Drops 70 Pounds | (Apr 13, 2016 10:56 AM CDT) Andrew Taylor has spent the last 100 days consuming nothing but potatoes—plus a beer now and then—and he's really happy about it. Quite a bit lighter, too. A quarter of the way into his challenge to eat a potato-only diet for one year, the 36-year-old Melbourne man says he's lost 70 pounds and is experiencing fewer episodes of clinical depression, per 9 News. I feel amazing, he tells Vice. I've got a lot of energy. I'm sleeping better. He's also lowered his blood cholesterol and is doing better than other patients on cholesterol-lowering drugs, his doctor says in a video, per UPI. The uric acid level is slightly elevated but that's commonly observed in people who are rapidly losing weight, the doctor adds. Generally speaking there's nothing I'd be concerned about. But one health expert isn't so confident in Taylor's plan. Dr. Joanna McMillan says he could be losing calcium in his bones or suffering from an iron deficiency. It takes a long time for something like an iron deficiency to show up but that certainly will happen eventually, she says, adding blood tests alone won't give us a window into what's happening in his body. But Taylor, who is exercising six days a week and taking a B-12 supplement, questions whether McMillan has really done her research like he has. He adds he's not trying to push his diet on anyone else but believes the diet meets his body's nutritional requirements and helps him battle his food addiction. McMillan fears it doesn't do either. (This guy's potato venture earns him $10,000 a month.) |
Autism in Kids Jumps 30% | (Mar 27, 2014 2:00 PM CDT) Autism Spectrum Disorder may be on the rise in the US, with 1 in 68 children now having the condition, according to CDC figures released today. That's a 30% increase from the 1 in 88 number recorded just two years ago, CNN reports. It also means that, according to USA Today, virtually every grade in every elementary school has at least one child with autism. The study doesn't seek to explain the increase, though bolstered awareness is likely leading to more diagnoses. We don't know the extent those factors explain in terms of the increase, but we clearly know they do play a role, says one CDC official. Parents are also having children later in life, which has been shown to increase the risk of autism. New Jersey's rates were particularly high, while in Alabama just 1 in 175 children is diagnosed. The study also showed that the disorder is still being diagnosed late, with the average coming at age 4, even though the disorder is detectable by age 2—or perhaps even earlier than that. |