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Judge Rejects 29 Would-Be Prince Heirs | (Jul 30, 2016 7:28 AM CDT) There will be no payday for 29 people who claimed to be Prince's heirs, including a woman who said the CIA covered up her marriage to the superstar, a Minnesota judge ruled in an order disclosed Friday. Reuters reports that Carver County Judge Kevin Eide ordered genetic testing for six other claimants: Prince's sister, Tyka Nelson, three half-siblings by his father, and a possible niece and grandniece. Two half-brothers from Prince's mother will not be tested under the judge's ruling, which will determine the future of an estate thought to be worth up to $500 million. Other rejected claimants include at least five people who claimed Prince was their father, and several who claimed that their father had an affair with Prince's mother, making their father Prince's real father and the late star their half-brother, the AP reports. Under Minnesota law, the estate of Prince—who left no known will or surviving offspring—will be split between siblings, half-siblings, and the offspring of any deceased siblings. Despite the order for genetic testing, Eide's ruling says he is not aware of any objection or dispute to the six siblings or half-siblings being legitimate heirs. (A DNA test ruled out an inmate in Colorado who claimed he was Prince's son.) |
Mastermind of 9/11 to Face Trial in NYC | (Nov 13, 2009 5:54 AM) Self-proclaimed 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four other Guantanamo Bay detainees will be sent to New York to face trial in a civilian federal court. An official announcement is expected later today. The actual transfer of the detainees isn't expected to happen for weeks because formal charges have not been filed, but the move is in line with the increasingly difficult goal of shutting Gitmo early next year, the AP notes. Mohammed, who authorities say was waterboarded 183 times, told interrogators that he was the mastermind of the attacks, He claims to have proposed the concept to Osama bin Laden as early as 1996, obtained funding for the attacks from bin Laden, oversaw the operation, and trained the hijackers in Afghanistan and Pakistan. |
Man Killed as 1.5K Try to Storm Channel Tunnel | (Jul 29, 2015 4:18 AM CDT) Some 1,500 migrants tried to storm the tunnel that links Britain and France last night, and French police say one of them, a Sudanese man, was killed by a truck, the BBC reports. The latest attempt follows a Monday night attempt by 2,000 people to storm the area around the tunnel before they were repelled by police. A Eurotunnel rep tells CNN that some of the migrants were injured in the Monday night incident, and mass attempts to storm the area in Calais, northern France, are becoming an almost nightly occurrence. Calais is a key port for sea and land crossings to Britain. In recent months, thousands of migrants from Eritrea, Sudan, and beyond have camped out around the city. Some try to sneak across the English Channel by getting on trucks and freight trains. The encampments have soured relations between Britain and France, which blame each other for failing to cope with the crisis. The BBC reports that the man killed last night was the ninth person killed trying to enter the tunnel area since June. |
Eurozone Unemployment Hits Record 11.6% | (Oct 31, 2012 6:46 AM CDT) Unemployment in the 17-country eurozone hit a record high of 11.6% in September, official figures showed today, a sign the economy is deteriorating as governments struggle to get a grip on their three-year debt crisis. The rate reported by Eurostat, the EU's statistics office, was up from an upwardly-revised 11.5% in August. Spain has the highest unemployment rate in the eurozone at 25.8%. Greece is not far behind at 25.1%, though its figure is from July. Both countries, which are at the epicenter of Europe's three-year debt crisis, have youth unemployment above 50%. While the eurozone's unemployment rate has been rising steadily for the past year, the US has seen its equivalent rate fall to 7.8%. The latest US figures are due Friday. The lowest unemployment rate in the eurozone was Austria's 4.4%, while Germany has a jobless rate of only 5.4%. |
January Take: Obama $36M, Clinton $13.5M, Mac $11.6M | (Feb 20, 2008 2:51 PM) Barack Obama vastly outpaced his rivals in January fundraising, scoring $36 million to Hillary Clinton’s $13.5 million and John McCain’s $11.6 million. The Democratic front-runner drew $28 million online, with 90% of donations at or below $100. Obama is now on the spot over a 2007 pledge to accept public financing; the fundraising-averse McCain campaign has lambasted Obama’s backpedaling and waffling. Mac spent $10.4 million in January, the AP reports; on Feb. 1, he had $5.2 million on hand and $5.5 million in debt. Obama’s web strength means he’s been largely able to avoid traditional fundraisers this year. Clinton’s Internet pull has increased substantially, the New York Times adds, as the New Yorker has already pulled down $15 million on her site this month. |
Franklin Graham: Twitter Will Alert You to 2nd Coming | (Apr 25, 2011 1:43 PM CDT) If you want to make sure you know about Christ's second coming the moment it happens, better get on Twitter and Facebook. The Rev. Franklin Graham says social media could play a big part in Christ's return, because the Bible says that every eye will see it, he told Christiane Amanpour on ABC's This Week yesterday. How is the whole world going to see [Jesus Christ] all at one time? I don't know, unless all of a sudden everybody's taking pictures and it's on the media worldwide, he said. Graham, son of well-known evangelist Billy Graham, pointed out that social media has played a large role in the uprisings going on around the Arab world. Everybody's got their phone out and everybody's taking recordings and posting it on YouTube or whatever and sending it to you, and it gets shown around the world, he said. He added that he does believe we're in the latter days of this age and the second coming is near, notes Aol News. Click for more, including Graham's thoughts on the 2012 presidential contenders. |
Apps Used Just Once 26% of Time | (Feb 1, 2011 11:30 AM) When a developer brags about how many times his mobile app has been downloaded, take it with a grain of salt. Smartphone apps were used once, and only once, roughly 26% of the time last year, according to a new study from Localytics. What’s more, that number has been trending steadily upward, from 22% at the start of the year, to 28% by the end. Venture Beat chalks it up to how easy it is to install these apps, and suggests developers focus intensely on making a good first impression. |
Man Sends 5K Messages in Bottles —Gets 3K Replies | (Oct 1, 2011 9:05 AM CDT) Sting should be so proud. Since 1996, Harold Hackett has tossed about 5,000 messages in bottles into the ocean from his home in Prince Edward Island, Canada, and has received more than 3,000 responses from all over the world, reports the BBC. Hackett throws his brightly colored notes, sealed in clear juice bottles, into the ocean only when the wind is right, blowing west or southwest. Even with the right winds, it can take a long time for the bottles to get found—as long as 13 years—but Hackett has gotten letters from Africa, Russia, South America, Iceland, the UK, and North America. I just love doing it the old way, said Hackett, who doesn't include his phone number in his letters—if people could call him, they wouldn't write, and phone calls don't create a showcase. I wouldn't have nothing, he said. Many of his pen-pals continue writing, and Hackett gets around 150 Christmas cards each year, as well as gifts and souvenirs. I'm going to go as long as I can, he said. I'll keep doing it. Click here to see the BBC's video tale. |
20 Dead in Pakistan Mosque Blast | (Apr 5, 2009 6:38 AM CDT) At least 20 people were killed in a suicide bombing early this morning at a Pakistani mosque, reports CNN. The blast tore through a crowd at the mosque's front gate as worshipers gathered for an annual event in the Punjab province. Sectarian violence has been mounting in the Punjab in past months, with both NATO supply lines and a police training academy in Lahore falling prey to attacks. |
Zuck Down $3 Billion in Tough Week for Tech | (Mar 29, 2014 3:10 PM CDT) It's been a rough week for tech stocks, and some of Silicon Valley's top figures have paid the price. Mark Zuckerberg has lost $3.1 billion, Bloomberg reports, as Facebook dropped 11%. Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin, meanwhile, saw their joint fortunes dip $3 billion, while Amazon boss Jeff Bezos was down $1.9 billion. The market is seeing a healthy cautiousness tied to concerns about Russia and the Ukraine, Federal Reserve moves, and quarterly earnings reports, portfolio manager John Carey tells Bloomberg. Facebook's plunge followed the announcement that the social network had scooped up a virtual-reality company. Google's drop came amid plans to issue 330 million nonvoting shares next week; both Google and Amazon said this week they would cut prices for services in the cloud. With regard to frothy, speculative stocks, some people are saying maybe it’s time to take a few chips off the table, Carey says. |
Better Than a Bailout: Boost FDIC Coverage to $1M | (Oct 1, 2008 10:17 AM CDT) Congress should stop fighting over the Paulson bailout, writes BusinessWeek economist Michael Mandel, and approve an expansion of FDIC deposit insurance to $1 million. It should also triple deposit insurance reserves to $145 billion. It would solve the immediate problem, calming the hysteria in the market, and attract funds to banks, he argues, and give Congress time to decide whether banks, and the housing market, still need federal support. It’s an augmentation of an existing program likely to be greeted with open arms by both parties—and even by Wall Street, which once fought it as unfair to investment banks, Mandel says. Now, those investment banks are all but extinct. The expansion would calm Americans' nerves and avert a run on commercial banks. |
Cuomo Subpoenas Merrill's $10M Execs | (Mar 4, 2009 8:45 PM) New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo has subpoenaed top executives of Merrill Lynch who got at least $10 million each last year as the bank floundered, the Wall Street Journal reports. Cuomo is investigating whether the payouts violated securities law and wants to know why executives at Merrill and Bank of America—which acquired Merrill in January—didn't disclose billions in bonuses. BofA filed a petition today to keep the pay information private. |
Earth Has 3T Trees —and That's Not Good | (Sep 3, 2015 8:05 AM CDT) Congratulations, environmentalists, tree-huggers, and people who enjoy breathing oxygen: the Earth has seven times more trees—approximately 3 trillion—than previously estimated, according to a new study in Nature. Scientists from around the world created the first data-driven global tree census by combining satellite images with tree counts from around the world, coming up with an estimate that amounts to about 422 trees per person, Gizmodo reports. The most tree-dense forests (nearly 25% of all trees) were in North America, Scandinavia, and Russia, while the most trees (more than 40%) were found in tropical and subtropical forests, notes Nature. Now here's why the grand total, though bigger than expected, isn't necessarily a cause for celebration. The study shows that approximately 15 billion trees are lost every year, and there are only about half as many trees as there were when humans first started farming 12,000 years ago. The scale of human impact is astonishing, Thomas Crowther, one of the researchers behind the count, says in Nature. We're not saying, 'Oh, everything's fine.' Gizmodo points out that trees are integral to providing the Earth with clean water and good soil while lessening the impact of carbon emissions. Simply put, a future with fewer trees is a future less secure for humans. (A famous California redwood isn't as old as thought.) |
In 9/11 Museum: a Life-Saving Squeegee | (May 25, 2014 12:00 PM CDT) On 9/11, six lives were saved by a squeegee handle. Six men, including a window washer, were trapped in an elevator at One World Trade Center during the attacks. When their car began falling downward, they were saved by the emergency stop button. But at that point, the men smelled smoke. We didn’t know what was going on (in the building), but we knew time was running out, window washer Jan Demczur told the Smithsonian magazine in 2002. They got the elevator doors open, but their escape was blocked by several layers of drywall—and their only tool, it seemed, was a pocketknife. After they began digging away at the wall, the unthinkable happened: The knife fell into the elevator shaft. But someone thought to use Demczur's squeegee handle as a replacement. The handle, along with some well-placed kicks, allowed them to break through the wall, eventually reaching a men's room on the other side. They escaped with just minutes to spare, the Smithsonian reports. That squeegee handle ended up in the National Museum of American History—and now, it's on display at the newly-opened National September 11 Memorial and Museum. You can also see it here. (Click to read the compelling story of why a red bandana is also on display at the 9/11 museum.) |
Gas Tops $4 per Gallon After Stable Week | (Jun 8, 2008 7:15 PM CDT) Americans are paying more than $4 a gallon for gas for the first time, Reuters reports. The national average reached $4.005 per gallon today, up from $3.67 last month and $3.10 last year. Prices had stabilized last week, until crude oil futures jumped to record levels. In a recent survey, 74% of Americans vowed to change their driving habits in response to $4-a-gallon gas. |
C'mon, Mr Prez, Nobody Will Run Bank for $500K | (Feb 4, 2009 12:34 PM) Sure, bankers make too much money, but President Obama’s ceiling is just a misguided attempt to quiet the peanut gallery, writes Megan Barnett in Portfolio. The $500,000-per-year executive cap will discourage banks from taking needed government cash, and drive away top talent. Money is what motivates people to come to Wall Street, she writes. It’s not a public-service job, nor should it pay like one. As one analyst tactfully put it, You’re going to get a different variety of folks who are going to come in. Translation: Only a lousy executive is going to work for $500,000. Obama is swept up in the public-relations tantrum over bonuses. It’s just noise—as when auto executives were called out for their plane rides—but it seems it’s all he can hear. |
Teen Arrested After 4 Found Dead in Ohio Home | (Jun 15, 2015 12:43 AM CDT) Police investigating the fatal shootings of four people at an Ohio home say they've arrested a teenager on murder and kidnapping charges. Columbus police, who have not provided a motive for the slayings, say the suspect is a 16-year-old boy. Authorities responded to a report Saturday of a female with blood on her, and officers found a teenage girl injured outside the home, then discovered the four dead inside the residence. The girl was treated at a hospital and released. The victims have been identified as 41-year-old Michael Ballour; 36-year-old Daniel Sharp; 35-year-old Angela D. Harrison; and 18-year-old Tyajah Nelson. |
Here's Where 2016's Delegate Counts Stand | (Mar 23, 2016 12:57 PM CDT) Tuesday was another big day in the Election 2016 slog, with both the remaining Republican and Democratic candidates amassing more of the coveted delegates they need to secure a nomination for their respective parties. On the GOP side, Donald Trump won 59% of the delegates that were up for grabs in Tuesday's contests in Arizona and Utah, boosting his total number of delegates to 739, the AP reports. If he keeps up that pace, he'll be able to clinch the Republican nomination for president before the party's national convention this summer—he needs to win 54% of the remaining delegates to reach the magic number of 1,237, which is how many it takes to secure the GOP nomination. Trump's closest rival, Sen. Ted Cruz, who currently has a total of 465 delegates, would need to win 83% of the remaining delegates, a nearly impossible task. John Kasich brings up the rear with 143 delegates. The next GOP primary is April 5 in Wisconsin, with 42 delegates at stake. Meanwhile, Hillary Clinton is closing in on collecting three-quarters of the delegates needed to clinch the Democratic nomination. Bernie Sanders netted more than a dozen delegates after splitting the latest contests with Clinton, but still trails significantly. A total of 131 delegates were at stake Tuesday for the two Dems, and Sanders picked up at least 67, having won big in Idaho and Utah. Clinton will gain at least 51 in Arizona. Thirteen delegates remain to be allocated from Tuesday, pending final tallies. Still, Clinton leads Sanders 1,214 to 911. Clinton's lead is even bigger when including superdelegates, or party officials who can back any candidate they wish. She now has 1,681, or 71% of what she needs to clinch the nomination. Sanders has 937. (Some Democrats want Sanders to wrap things up.) |
NRA's New Shooting App Perfect for Ages 4 and Up | (Jan 15, 2013 9:51 AM) The NRA is catching more than a little flak over the marketing of its new free app, NRA: Practice Range. The virtual shooting-range experience isn't appropriate for 3-year-olds—but those ages four and up can fire away, per its 4+ age-rating in Apple's App Store. The game is described as the NRA's new mobile nerve center and features links to different areas of the NRA website, TheNextWeb reports. Between rounds of shooting—users can upgrade from an M9 handgun by way of 99-cent in-app purchases—players get tips on gun safety, like store guns so that they are not accessible to unauthorized persons. In the post-Newtown gun debate, NRA CEO Wayne LaPierre has pointed the finger at violent video games. He didn't mention this one, notes Geekosystem in an article titled, NRA Blames Violent Video Games for Shootings, Releases Violent Video Game in Response. Quips TheAppSide, Is now the best time for a National Rifle Association 3D shooting game? We’d suggest not. |
$8.25M Bonus Was Too Small: Ex-Goldman Trader | (Jun 20, 2014 11:14 AM CDT) That sound you hear is the world's tiniest adding machine crunching out a sad song for Deeb Salem. The former Goldman Sachs trader is taking the firm to court, arguing that it didn't give him a big enough bonus in 2010, when it awarded him a mere $8.25 million instead of the $13 million he told his mom he expected to make, Bloomberg reports. Salem had gotten a $15 million bonus in 2009, which was more than Goldman CEO Lloyd Blankfein got. Goldman told Salem he was getting a smaller bonus—despite making the firm more than $7 billion—because he'd shown extremely poor judgment in discussing a short squeeze in a self-evaluation. But Salem thinks he was worth more, and notes that one exec at a cocktail party told him he was a steal at $15 million. Arbitrators ruled against him after a Feb. 25 hearing, but he's arguing in a petition filed in New York State Supreme Court last week that the arbitration panel was biased—one member allegedly dubbed the case BS during the hearing. |
Ahmadinejad Calls 9/11 Attacks a 'Big Fabrication' | (Mar 6, 2010 1:12 PM) Mahmoud Ahmadinejad maintains the Holocaust is fictional, and he apparently feels the same way about the official version of the 9/11 attacks. The September 11 incident was a big fabrication as a pretext for the campaign against terrorism and a prelude for staging an invasion against Afghanistan, the Iranian president said today during a meeting with his intelligence ministry. Without elaborating, he also called the destruction of the World Trade Center a complicated intelligence scenario and act, reports Reuters. Ahmadinejad has made statements of this nature in the past, but today's seem to go the furthest in buying into conspiracy theories. Fringe elements in the Middle East say American and Israeli intelligence operatives carried out the attacks, notes the New York Times. |
Shell Settles Nigeria Case for $15.5M | (Jun 9, 2009 5:40 AM CDT) Royal Dutch Shell agreed to settle a lawsuit over the 1995 deaths of Ken Saro-Wiwa and other Nigerians for $15.5 million, reports the Financial Times. Saro-Wiwa and eight other activists against petroleum exploitation were executed by the Nigerian military government, allegedly at the behest of the oil giant. In a statement Shell continued to deny it had any role in their deaths, but said it would focus on the process of reconciliation. Shell was being sued in New York under the Alien Tort Claims Act, an 18th-century statute that allows foreigners to bring human rights cases before US courts. The law was largely neglected until recent years, when lawyers began using it to seek redress for international law violations. This settlement provides another building block in the efforts to forge a legal system that holds violators accountable wherever they may be, said the plaintiff's trial counsel. |
Robert Byrd Hospitalized; Senator, 92, 'Seriously Ill' | (Jun 27, 2010 2:11 PM CDT) Robert Byrd, the Democratic senator from West Virginia who last fall became the longest-serving member of Congress, is hospitalized and in serious condition, his office tells MSNBC. The 92-year-old was admitted last week with what was believed to be a heat-related illness, but other conditions have developed which has resulted in his condition being described as 'serious,' says a rep. If Byrd can't finish his ninth 6-year term, the Democratic governor, Joe Manchin, would appoint his successor, the Washington Post notes. |
Toyota to Regain Title of No. 1 Automaker | (Nov 24, 2012 11:22 AM) GM replaced Toyota last year as the world's No. 1 automaker, thanks in part to the earthquake and tsunami in Japan, along with a spate of embarrassing recalls for the Japanese company. It will be a short-lived reign. Toyota is on track to sell 9.7 million vehicles and easily reclaim the top spot in what the Los Angeles Times calls a remarkable turnaround. A big part of that is because of the US, where Toyota has sold 1.7 million cars and trucks, up an impressive 30%. That's 14.4% of the market, making Toyota the No. 1 brand here in retail sales. It's still having trouble with recalls, but a well-received lineup of 11 new or redesigned vehicles, including the Prius, seems to have overcome the negative headlines. |
Woman Lives on Cruise Ship, for $164K a Year | (Jan 20, 2015 11:48 AM) As far as repeat cruisegoers go, you'd be hard-pressed to beat the record of Lee Wachtstetter. The 86-year-old Florida woman logged 89 cruises with her husband of 50 years, and that's just the tip of the iceberg. After he died of cancer in 1997 (making her promise to keep cruising the day before he passed), Mama Lee traded her Fort Lauderdale home for one on the open seas. She tells the Asbury Park Press she spent three years aboard a Holland America ship but the day they announced they were stopping the dance host program was the day I decided to leave. She has since spent almost seven years living on the Crystal Serenity (which, yes, has dance hosts to take the floor with the partner-less). Her estimated 2015 cost: $164,000. That covers her seventh-deck stateroom, meals, gratuities, and, of course, all that sailing. She says she stopped counting countries after hitting 100 (she said she had completed 200 cruises in her first four years on the Crystal Serenity), but she typically no longer goes ashore when the liner docks—though she can't resist Istanbul and its Grand Bazaar. As she told the News-Herald in 2012, Now I have arthritis and don't want to deal with cobblestones. I also don't use the stairs. I'm glad I can still dance and don't want to do anything to risk an injury that would keep me from it. The Press notes that three other women call a Crystal vessel home, but Mama Lee holds the longevity record. (In other cruise news, some diners may be tossing lobster overboard.) |
Poodle Runway Runaway Delays Flights 17 Hours | (Oct 28, 2008 2:41 AM CDT) A toy poodle got loose on the tarmac of Boston's Logan Airport and eluded state police and airport officials for 17 hours as planes were delayed, reports the Boston Globe. Eight flights were held about 20 minutes each, an official said, as passengers watched the poodle, named Choochy, cavorting on various runways. She was finally enticed into custody with dog food. Choochy is believed to have escaped her transport kennel after a flight from Detroit. The pooch seemed to be having a good time, said one witness, who remarked that his fellow passengers were incredulous that it would take so many men so many hours to catch this little dog. |
Miss America Later Caught in Scandals Dead at 90 | (Jan 5, 2015 4:35 PM) Bess Myerson, the first Jewish Miss America and a New York political force until a series of scandals dubbed the Bess Mess forced her into obscurity, has died. She was 90. Myerson died Dec. 14 at her home in Santa Monica, Calif, officials say. The Bronx-born Myerson was hailed as a Jewish, feminist Jackie Robinson—a groundbreaker for her religion and sex—after parlaying her stunning 1945 Miss America victory into national celebrity. The 5-foot-10 dark-haired beauty, unlike her predecessors, accentuated her intelligence. Myerson landed a series of television jobs, from game show hostess to on-air reporter, before her appointment as New York City's chief consumer watchdog in 1969. The popular Myerson then helped Ed Koch win the 1977 mayoral race, deflecting rumors that he was gay. Koch later appointed her Cultural Affairs commissioner, but Myerson's carefully cultivated image crumbled in the mid-1980s when a city background check exposed her as an insanely jealous woman who harassed an ex-boyfriend and his new lover. She repeatedly invoked her right against self-incrimination in a 1986 corruption probe of a subsequent boyfriend, Carl Capasso, with purported mob ties. Myerson was later acquitted on charges of trying to fix Capasso's divorce case, but add a couple of shoplifting convictions, and the damage was done. Yet the Miss America Organization says Myerson will be remembered for her unwavering commitment to equality: Bess used her Miss America title to fight anti-Semitism and racial bigotry as she traveled around the country, the organization says. |
'80s Can't Buy Me Love Star Dies at 43 | (Jul 7, 2015 10:16 AM CDT) Amanda Peterson, who starred as cheerleader Cindy Mancini in the 1987 rom-com Can't Buy Me Love, has been found dead in her apartment in Greeley, Colo. She was 43. While the official cause of death isn't known, Peterson's dad tells TMZ she had some illness and a sleep apnea problem that may have contributed. Her mom says she had some medical problems with her heart, per CNN. Peterson had suffered from pneumonia and sinusitis in recent years; she reportedly lived in a home with mold problems last year. Family members grew worried when they hadn’t heard from her on Friday. Her body was found by police on Sunday. An autopsy is scheduled for today, reports the Greeley Tribune. Though best known for her movie role opposite Patrick Dempsey, Peterson also starred alongside Ethan Hawke in Explorers in 1986 and appeared in NBC’s TV drama A Year in the Life beginning in 1987, reports the Hollywood Reporter. The latter role earned her a Young Artist Award, known as a Young Oscar, notes the Tribune. Peterson left the entertainment industry in 1994 and made Colorado her home. She'd most recently been trying to work as a writer, according to TMZ. With the news of her death, celebrities including Lance Bass, Scott Foley, Mario Lopez, and Sarah Michelle Gellar took to Twitter to remember the actress, who leaves behind a husband and two children, reports Us Weekly. (We've lost these stars recently, too.) |
Clinton Collected $500K From Japanese Firm for...Nothing? | (Jan 13, 2009 5:38 AM) The Senate panel considering Hillary Clinton's secretary of state nomination today may ask why her husband's most expensive speech was one he never gave, the Los Angeles Times reports. Clinton received $500,000—double what he received for other speeches on the same tour—for the canceled speech he was due to give to Sakura, a short-lived Japanese company. The little-known firm's name does not appear on the disclosed Clinton Foundation donor list. A foundation spokesman said this was because Clinton gave the money straight to the foundation without taking a tax deduction. Hillary is under no legal obligation to provide details about Sakura or any of her husband's other donors, according to a former House general counsel—but failure to do so could raise conflict of interest questions and hamper her foreign policy work. |
Pistorius Granted Bail of $692 | (Dec 8, 2015 3:29 AM) A South African judge has granted bail to Oscar Pistorius, pending sentencing for his murder conviction. The country's Supreme Court of Appeal convicted him on Thursday of murdering girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp in 2013, overturning a lower court's conviction of the lesser crime of manslaughter. Judge Aubrey Ledwaba of the trial court granted Pistorius bail of $692 and extended his house arrest until his sentencing hearing, which he set for April 18. The judge said Pistorius, who will face a minimum sentence of 15 years for murder, will be placed under electronic monitoring and may only leave his uncle's home between 7am and 12pm. The BBC reports that Pistorius' chief defense lawyer says he plans to appeal the conviction to the country's Constitutional Court. |
Support for Death Penalty Hits 39-Year Low | (Oct 13, 2011 12:25 PM CDT) A full 61% of Americans back the death penalty, but even so, support is at a 39-year low. A new Gallup poll finds that support is down from 64% last year, and is at its lowest level since a brief moratorium on capital punishment began in 1972 with the Supreme Court ruling on Furman v. Georgia. The news comes on the heels of an exoneration last night, when DNA evidence freed a Texas man. The poll also found that 52% think the death penalty is applied fairly, down from last year’s 58%. One-quarter of those polled said the death penalty is imposed too often, while 27% believe it is used about the right amount and 40% said it should be imposed more often. That 40% also represents the lowest level since Gallup began asking the question in 2001. Men, Republicans, and right-leaning independents were all more likely to support the death penalty. Support for capital punishment hit an all-time high of 80% in 1994, Politico notes. In other death penalty news, find out which state wants to bring back firing squads. |
8 Dead, 5 Missing in Utah Flash Flood | (Sep 15, 2015 12:35 AM CDT) A wall of water swept away two vehicles carrying women and children in a Utah-Arizona border town yesterday, killing at least eight people and leaving five others missing in a community that served as a home base for polygamous sect leader Warren Jeffs, authorities say. Three people survived as the flash flooding washed the vehicles several hundred yards downstream about 5pm, says Kevin Barlow, the assistant fire chief in Hildale, Utah. The flood obviously caught these people off guard, he says. Witnesses say they were backing out of it trying to get away from it and it still swept them in. The fire chief says the rescue effort was ongoing through the night but scaled back because of treacherous conditions in the sister towns of Hildale and Colorado City, Ariz. The floods came after heavy rains fell in the canyons just north of the towns, sending waves of water barreling through the streets. The National Weather Service had issued a flash flood warning earlier in the day, leading nearby Zion National Park to close all slot canyons as a precaution. Members of the polygamous sect are believed to be discouraged from watching TV, using the Internet, or having much contact with the outside world, and Barlow says he doesn't know if residents were aware of the flood warning. A Hildale resident tells the Salt Lake Tribune that the community is devastated. It leaves your heart hurting, he says. I'm just trying to soak it all in. |
JPMorgan Profit Jumps 36%, Defying Expectations | (Jul 16, 2009 7:00 AM CDT) JPMorgan Chase, the largest bank to repay TARP money, posted second-quarter earnings of $2.7 billion—smashing analysts' predictions with a 36% increase in profit. The bank became America's second-largest after hoovering up Bear Stearns and Washington Mutual, and like Goldman Sachs it has used a boom in investment banking to offset lagging recovery in mortgage and credit markets. This is a real tribute to Jamie Dimon, who's done a spectacular job in managing the firm through this difficult time, said one investor. Like Goldman, JPMorgan took advantage of the financial crisis, the New York Times notes, to pass rivals and capture market share; its quick turnaround is likely to raise eyebrows in Washington about the taxpayer role in its increasing dominance. |
Astronomers Searching 86 Planets for Aliens | (May 14, 2011 10:08 AM CDT) American astronomers are searching for signs of alien life on 86 possible Earth-like planets deemed the likeliest to harbor life. The massive Green Bank radio telescope in rural West Virginia will home in on each of the 86—chosen from 1,235 possible planets located by NASA's Kepler telescope—and collect 24 hours of data from each one, reports the AFP. The mission is part of the SETI project, which was forced to close down a major part of its efforts last month because of budget cuts. We've picked out the planets with nice temperatures—between zero and 100 degrees Celsius—because they are a lot more likely to harbor life, a veteran SETI researcher says. The project, expected to take up to a year, will be aided by a million volunteers who will help process the data on their home computers. (And in other planetary news...) |
Housing Data Put Dow Off 29 | (May 19, 2009 3:12 PM CDT) Yesterday’s housing-fueled rally didn’t carry over into today’s session, the Wall Street Journal reports, in part because of poor indicators from that same industry. April saw a 12.8% reduction in buildings starting construction; Home Depot dropped 5%. Still, a metric of investor anxiety today fell to its lowest point since September. The Dow was off 29.23 to 8,474.85; the S&P lost 1.58, ending at 908.13. The Nasdaq crept up 2.18 to 1,734.54. |
GOP Fired Up Over 2012 VP Candidates | (Feb 8, 2011 8:53 AM) The field of GOP presidential candidates for 2012 may not be so great, but the VP field is getting the right energized. A wealth of new Congress members and governors has Republicans buzzing over potential veeps like Marco Rubio, Bobby Jindal and Kelly Ayotte, Politico reports. Where the potential presidential candidates are mostly white, male, and not from battleground states, the would-be veeps boast an impressive diversity when it comes to race, gender, geographical location, and political experience—and they’re young, with many under 50 and one under 40. Anytime that you have a hugely successful year, like we had in 2010, we put a lot of dynamic candidates on the board, says Mike Huckabee’s 2008 campaign manager. That’s quite a difference from 2008, when the GOP was struggling with the aftermath of disappointing elections in 2006 and John McCain had few choices for a running mate. Republicans elected just three new senators and five new governors between 2006 and 2008—compared to 15 new governors and 14 new senators in 2010 alone. Other potential candidates include governors Chris Christie, Nikki Haley, Susana Martinez, and Rick Perry, among many others. |
Story of How US Soldier Saved 200 Jews Finally Told | (Dec 3, 2015 8:25 AM) Roddie Edmonds is the first US soldier to receive Israel's Righteous Among the Nations honor, 70 years after he risked his life to save 200 Jews. The native of Knoxville, Tenn., was captured in the Battle of the Bulge in late 1944 and held at German POW camp Staleg IXA, according to Yad Vashem Holocaust Museum. When the Nazis ordered all Jewish-American POWs to step forward on Jan. 27, 1945, Edmonds—the highest-ranking noncommissioned officer at the camp—ordered 1,000 US soldiers to do so, regardless of their religion, per the AP. They cannot all be Jews! a German commander said, per Yad Vashem. We are all Jews here, Edmonds replied, adding soldiers didn't need to divulge their religion under the Geneva Conventions. The commander then put a gun to Edmonds' head. He said, 'I'll give you one more chance. Have the Jewish men step forward or I will shoot you on the spot,' Edmonds' son, the Rev. Chris Edmonds, tells NPR. They said my dad paused, and said, 'If you shoot, you'll have to shoot us all.' The commander yielded. Chris Edmonds believes his dad's move saved 200 lives. Edmonds died in 1985 and his untold story nearly died with him. How it surfaced is fascinating: Some time after his father's death, Chris Edmonds read an article about Richard Nixon's purchase of a tony Manhattan townhouse from a man named Lester Tanner—who mentioned that Edmonds saved his life. The son then embarked on a quest to find Tanner. Edmonds was honored on Wednesday as only the fifth American to receive the Israeli honor, the country's highest for non-Jews who undertook heroic acts in WWII. He is now being considered for a Medal of Honor. (Read about another WWII hero.) |
Boy's Dying 911 Call May Have Saved at Least 2 Lives | (Jul 25, 2015 9:25 AM CDT) A 13-year-old girl who survived a stabbing attack that killed her parents and three of her siblings identified two brothers as the assailants, say police. Robert Bever, 18, and his unnamed 16-year-old brother are in custody, but authorities say they still have no idea what prompted the murder spree in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma, reports NBC News. They do know this, however: One of the boys who was killed—they're not sure whether it was the 12-year-old or the 7-year-old—managed to call 911 during the attack, and they say that call saved the 13-year-old sister and another 2-year-old sister who was found unharmed. The call may have saved others as well: Fox23 reports that a shipment of ammunition was on its way to the family home, for reasons that remain unclear. He did save the life of his 13-year-old sister and his 2-year-old sister and possibly many others after that, says Cpl. Leon Calhoun of the Broken Arrow police department. He actually stated, 'Please help,’ and (said) their brother was attacking the family, says Calhoun. Another male which we believe is one of the two suspects said hello and then hung up. When police arrived at the home, the suspects fled out the back door and were soon arrested. At the home, officers could hear a faint voice from inside asking for help, according to a court affidavit, and found the 13-year-old, reports AP. Neighbors and co-workers haven't been able to shed much light: The Bevers largely kept to themselves, and the kids were home-schooled. |
9-Year-Old Bus Thief Hits Another Bus | (Sep 9, 2014 12:14 PM CDT) A Canadian who made off with an empty bus and smashed into another bus and a parked vehicle won't be facing any criminal charges—because nobody was injured in the joyride, and because he's just 9 years old. A witness in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, tells the Canadian Press that he saw the boy ride by on a bike before making off with the city bus, which had been left unlocked outside a garage with the engine running. I looked in my mirror and I saw a little head in the driver’s seat of the bus, says the man, who chased the bus for two blocks until it got stuck on a curb, and kept the boy there until authorities arrived. Police say the boy was taken home to his family. A city transit official tells the CBC that the bus was being repaired and should never have been left unsecured. This is a case where policy and procedures were very clearly violated, he says. Buses are not to be left in that condition. The brakes were on, so it's not clear how the boy was able to drive the bus, he says. The damage to the two buses and the car is estimated at less than $10,000 Canadian, according to the official, who says the city isn't currently planning punitive action. (A 9-year-old in Florida who stole his mom's car because he wanted to skip school managed to drive around for 45 minutes without an accident.) |
17 High School Teens Pregnant After Secret Pact | (Jun 20, 2008 3:21 AM CDT) A pact among teenage girls to get pregnant has resulted in 17 pregnancies at a single Massachusetts high school—and sparked a debate in the conservative Catholic fishing town about birth control and available career options, reports Time magazine. Officials began to get wise to the secret pact when girls flooded the high school clinic for pregnancy tests last fall—and high-fived each other after positive results. One father is a homeless man. The discovery of the pact has triggered a battle between school health staff seeking to provide contraceptives without parental permission and town officials still pushing to limit birth control access. Gloucester high school students have on-site daycare for their babies—but must travel 20 miles to a women’s health clinic which provides contraceptives. |
Brown, GOP Moderates Help $15B Jobs Bill Advance | (Feb 22, 2010 6:16 PM) A bipartisan jobs bill cleared a GOP filibuster today with crucial momentum provided by the Senate's newest Republican, Scott Brown of Massachusetts. The 62-30 vote to advance the measure to a final vote Wednesday gives both President Obama and Capitol Hill Democrats a much-needed victory—even though the $15 billion bill is likely to have only a modest boost on hiring. The bill featured four provisions that enjoyed sweeping bipartisan support, including a measure exempting businesses hiring the unemployed from Social Security payroll taxes through December and giving them another $1,000 credit if new workers stay on the job a full year. One economist estimates 250,000 private-sector jobs could be created—less than 4% of the 8.4 million jobs lost in the recession. |
Massa Faces Sex Harassment Suit From Aide He Paid $40K | (Apr 17, 2010 8:48 AM CDT) It's not a good time to be Eric Massa. The former New York congressman is facing a sex harassment complaint from his male former chief of staff—who took a sketchy $40,000 payout from Massa the day after his resignation, reports the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle. Massa cut the check March 4 for campaign management; sources tell the Washington Post that they weren't aware Joseph Racalto was working Massa's campaign. Racalto's attorney acknowledged yesterday that he filed the complaint March 23; it is at least the second Massa faces. |
71-Year-Old New Mom Wants to Go for No. 2 | (Mar 6, 2009 10:50 AM) At 70, after 4 decades of trying, Indian Rajo Devi Lohan had her first child last year, making her the world’s oldest known mother. Now, she tells the Guardian she’s strong —and wants a brother for daughter Naveen. But she and her husband sold 2 buffaloes and mortgaged their crops for the first round of in-vitro fertilization; finding a doctor who wouldn’t balk at her age was the easy part. Unlike their counterparts in Britain, the BBC adds, Indian doctors do not need to consider a mother’s age, only her physique, in approving treatment. There are no restrictions on the number of eggs that can be implanted; in fact, 30 years after IVF arrived in India, not a single law governs it. |
Lieberman: I'll Back Republicans in 2010 | (Oct 30, 2009 11:28 AM CDT) Joe Lieberman says he probably will support some Republicans in 2010 and may not seek the Democratic nomination in his own 2012 reelection campaign. I’m going to call them as I see them, he tells ABC News, saying he’s weary of partisan, passionate, hardcore legislators on both sides of the aisle. Sometimes, the better choice is somebody who's not a Democrat. He says it’s an open question whether he’ll run as a Democrat, because he finds being an independent liberating. You're not tied to a particular inner group and feel that extra pressure to march in lockstep. I think that the public generally is fed up with all the partisanship, and us against them. He says he will, however, support Chris Dodd in his home state. |
Obama Opens 11-Point Ohio Lead | (Jun 17, 2008 12:44 PM CDT) Barack Obama now holds an 11-point margin over his rival in the state that decided the 2004 election. As recently as March, John McCain led in Ohio 49% to 41%; three months later, a significant shift finds Obama winning 50% to 39%. Talking Points Memo notes that polling organization PPP was almost exactly right in its pre-vote survey of the Democratic primary. A separate poll shows Obama up nationally by 4 points among registered voters and 6 points among all adults. In some bad news for McCain, only 34% say the Iraq war was worth the fight, while 63% feel it was not. Indeed, 55% want troops withdrawn instead of staying to maintain civil order. |
Daring Dachshund Becomes First K-9 Diver | (Jul 6, 2010 12:16 PM CDT) A Russian diving enthusiast has developed a scuba-diving dry suit complete with helmet, breathing mask, and oxygen source for his K-9 companion Boniface, the daring diving dachshund. The first experimental dive was declared a success by his owner who gave demonstrations over the weekend, though Boniface whined while underwater. See the video in the gallery, and read the full story here. |
Vase Found in Attic Sells for $69M | (Nov 12, 2010 4:48 PM) A Chinese vase found by an English family in the attic has sold for $69 million at auction, the Telegraph reports. A brother and sister from Middlesex found it while cleaning out their deceased parents' house. It is a masterpiece, says one expert, a perfect example of a rare design dating from the Qianlong period of about 1740. The auctioneer Bainbridges figured the vase would sell for about $1.6 million, but a frenzied bidding war between what were assumed to be prominent Chinese businessmen pushed the value into the stratosphere over the last half hour. While the vase is certainly valuable, experts say the auction yielded a freak price —reflecting the growing disposable income of the Chinese business elite. The sellers have gone into hiding while they figure out what to do with the money. Click here for more. |
Colorado Gun Laws Still Lax 13 Years After Columbine | (Jul 21, 2012 9:26 AM CDT) Thirteen years after the Columbine High School shootings, gun laws remain little-different in Colorado, reports the New York Times, as James Holmes over the past two months was able to legally buy an assault rifle, a shotgun, and two handguns. Colorado has enacted a few minor restrictions on guns since 1999—it's harder to carry concealed weapons, there are regulations on selling firearms at gun shows, and it's illegal to make straw man purchases for people who could not legally buy guns otherwise—but the state mostly prohibits local governments from restricting gun rights. Experts are, unsurprisingly, divided whether this latest example of gun violence will change anything. The Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence and New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg have called for tighter gun controls. But just as Columbine and the shooting of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords caused few major changes, many think this latest tragedy will also do little to shake up the status quo. I think very little will happen because our political leaders are so afraid of the gun lobby, one advocate, whose son died in the Columbine shooting, told the Wall Street Journal. |
Ex-AIG Honcho Settles New SEC Case for $15M | (Aug 6, 2009 3:14 PM CDT) The SEC today simultaneously announced a complaint against former AIG chief Hank Greenberg and the resolution of the matter—a $15 million payment to settle the suit, the New York Times reports. Greenberg and a former AIG CFO were accused of numerous improper accounting transactions between 2000 and 2005 that artificially inflated the firm’s value. Greenberg was ousted from AIG in 2005 for similar trespasses. Greenberg and Smith oversaw various improper transactions that presented a false financial picture and allowed AIG to claim success in meeting its performance goals, an SEC official says. Greenberg has a more rosy take on the matter. Mr. Greenberg appreciates the SEC’s recognition that he personally should not be charged with any fraud, his current firm says, and the settlement is recognition of his lack of responsibility. |
Publix Heiress Gives $800K to Fight Medical Pot | (Jul 27, 2016 1:54 AM CDT) One of Florida's richest women is donating big time to keep medical marijuana out of the state. The trust of Carol Jenkins Barnett, daughter of the founder of the Publix supermarket chain, has donated $800,000 to the Drug Free Florida group, which is fighting a legalization measure on the ballot this November, the Miami New Times reports. Amendment 2 would allow doctors to prescribe marijuana for what it calls debilitating medical conditions, including cancer, HIV, epilepsy, and PTSD, reports the SaintPetersBlog. A similar amendment failed in 2014—with Barnett's trust donating $540,000 to defeat it—and the only Floridians who now have access to medical marijuana are children with severe epilepsy, who are prescribed a low-THC version, and terminal cancer patients allowed to use marijuana under an experimental drugs program, reports the Miami Herald. Barnett, 59, has early onset Alzheimer's and resigned from the company's board last month. Publix says her donation to the anti-pot group is personal and does not reflect company policy. She feels that Amendment 2 would usher in an unprecedented era of legalized marijuana in Florida as opposed to only helping those who suffer from debilitating illnesses, the company said in a statement to Time. The campaign manager for United for Care, which is leading the legalization campaign, says he thinks she's wasting her money, but it isn't time for potheads to get up in arms and boycott Publix just yet. I'm still shopping at Publix, let's put it that way, he tells the New Times. The amendment needs 60% support to pass, and a poll released Monday shows 77% of Floridians in favor. (Scientists have determined how much pot is in a joint.) |
Fewer Than 20% of US Adults Smoke, a First | (Nov 13, 2008 2:10 PM) Smoking in the US is at its lowest since cigarettes became widespread after World War I, Reuters reports, with fewer than 20% of adults in the country lighting up—the lowest figure on record. Observers credit the gradual decline to awareness, bans on smoking in public places, and prohibitive taxation. Still, smoking is estimated to kill 443,000 people a year. The recent availability of proven stop-smoking aids has also led to the decline. When a pioneering report about the ills of tobacco appeared in the mid-1960s, 42% of Americans smoked. The decline in recent years has been more gradual, but the 2007 statistics were a full point below 2006. We've begun to come full circle, an American Cancer Society official said. |
A Sore Throat Led to $4.2M Settlement | (Sep 15, 2016 10:02 AM CDT) The widow and children of a man who went to a rural Hawaii health center with a sore throat in 2013 and ended up dead will receive a $4.2 million settlement from the federal government, the widow's lawyer said Wednesday, per the AP. Antonio Marrero, 32, went to the emergency room of Waianae Coast Comprehensive Health Center, where a doctor determined he had an abscess in his tonsils and arranged for him to see an ear, nose, and throat specialist, lawyer Richard Fried said. The doctor then decided to further evaluate him under sedation, but Marrero lost consciousness and died, Fried said. Before sedating him, the doctor should have known Marrero weighed nearly 300 pounds, which would make it difficult to protect his airway, the lawsuit filed by Fried notes. There was no anesthesiologist there, and the doctor gave Marrero too much of the sedative, Fried said. At a news conference to announce the settlement, Marrero's wife, Rachel, recalled her shock when she was told the father of her three young sons had died. She told health center workers, He just had a sore throat—what do you mean he passed? After the presser, the health center's execs hugged her and offered condolences; they declined to disclose the ER doctor's name, but the suit named Dr. Robert Bonham. The health center implemented changes after the death, including a new ER director overseeing operations and a full-time compliance officer; a new ER facility is also set to be completed within a year. I don't hate or judge, Rachel Marrero said. I just hope ... the [center] does make everything better for other families. The feds will pay the settlement because the center is a federally qualified health center insured by the Federal Tort Claims Act, the center's CEO says. |
Guy Wrongly Sent to Death Row Loses $14M Award | (Mar 30, 2011 8:37 AM CDT) John Thompson spent 14 years on death row after New Orleans prosecutors hid evidence that would have cleared him—but yesterday, a divided Supreme Court tossed out the $14 million in damages Thompson won in a civil suit against the DA. Clarence Thomas read the 5-4 decision, which found that then-DA Harry Connick Sr. should not be held liable for the prosecutors’ mistakes. Ruth Bader Ginsburg voiced her dissent, saying the court was protecting New Orleans and its prosecutors, who committed flagrant misconduct, the Los Angeles Times reports. Thompson’s murder conviction was overturned in 1999—just weeks before his scheduled execution—when a hidden blood test was uncovered by a private investigator. In his retrial, his lawyers also discovered eyewitness reports that didn't match Thompson's description; he was acquitted and subsequently won the $14 million in damages. His lawyers showed that at least four prosecutors knew about the blood test, and that evidence had been hidden in other cases as well. But Justice Thomas said Thompson’s case was a single incident and that no pattern of misconduct was proved. |
Man Flies Off 45-Story Hotel—With Jetpack | (Jun 6, 2014 11:33 AM CDT) Nick Macomber climbed 45 stories to the roof of Denver's Four Seasons Hotel at sunrise yesterday and jumped—with a jetpack. The jetpack pilot, who carried the Olympic torch in flight for London's 2012 Olympic Games, flew around for almost 30 seconds before touching back down on the top of the hotel, KUSA and FOX 13 report. The flight was performed for the Smithsonian Channel, which is filming a documentary that explores the past, present, and future of jetpacks on land, in space, and over water, KUSA notes. |
HSM 3 Is Cheesy, Charming | (Oct 24, 2008 10:40 AM CDT) High School Musical 3 takes the megapopular Disney Channel franchise to the big screen, and its director has made the most of the move to the multiplex, writes Elizabeth Weitzman in the New York Daily News. While the storyline is instantly forgettable, it’s still the HSM we all know and (sometimes secretly) love, she notes. The cheese factor remains, and happily so. The film continues the playful and high-spirited HSM formula, maintaining a refreshing emphasis on collective action and the importance of group effort over the individual, observes Mark Olsen in the Los Angeles Times. Watching the unrealistically wholesome characters cavort their way through the film, you want to leave the world behind and be one of them now and forever, says Stephen Holden in the New York Times. |
GOP Likely to Control 30 Governors' Seats | (Sep 4, 2010 9:08 AM CDT) Republicans are smelling blood in the November elections, and part of the bleeding is likely to come from governors' mansions across the country, writes Nate Silver over at what used to be FiveThirtyEight.com. The GOP could well end up in control of 30 governors seats—up from its current 23—with Midwestern states looking particularly vulnerable. With 37 races going on, Republicans stand an 80% chance of victory in 11 of the 24 states with no incumbent in the running. Though noting that gubernatorial elections are usually predominately local affairs that can produce counterintuitive results, Silver says that when one party has a sufficiently strong political wind at its back, gubernatorial elections sometimes get caught up in the wave. The GOP swiped 12 seats from Democrats in its 1994 uprising, while Dems grabbed six in 2006. The fat lady hasn't yet sung, Silver writes, but both the math and the clock are working against the Democrats. |
Iron Man 3 Grabs $195M Global Win | (Apr 28, 2013 2:16 PM CDT) Iron Man 3 hasn't even opened in the United States yet, but its global premiere got off to a thunderous $195.3 million start this weekend—even trouncing the $185.1 million mark set by last year's The Avengers, reports the Hollywood Reporter. That bodes well ahead of its American premiere on Friday, underscoring its chances of unseating The Avengers' record $207.4 million domestic opening. To say we are beyond encouraged is an understatement, says a studio exec. This weekend's domestic numbers were much more modest, adds the AP: Mark Wahlberg's Pain & Gain posted a $20 million debut for the No. 1 spot, while Tom Cruise's Oblivion dropped to No. 2 with $17.4 million. |
UVa Lacrosse Player Gets 23 Years for Murder | (Aug 30, 2012 4:45 PM CDT) A former college lacrosse player was sentenced today to 23 years in prison for the alcohol-fueled beating death of his ex-girlfriend. George W. Huguely V was sentenced for the slaying of 22-year-old Yeardley Love, who was found face down in her blood-soaked pillow on May 3, 2010. Authorities said the 24-year-old defendant left his on-again, off-again girlfriend to die after he kicked a hole in her bedroom door and physically confronted her about their sputtering two-year relationship. Police said he had been drinking heavily that day. Circuit Judge Edward Hogshire reduced the jury's recommended sentence by three years. Unlike Miss Love, Mr. Huguely still has the majority of his life ahead of him, he said. Before the sentence was read, Huguely addressed the court. He rose from the defense table and looked across the courtroom to Love's mother, Sharon Love, and tearfully said, I'm so sorry for your loss. He also thanked family members for their support. |
'Lost' Since 1885, Tomb Found Near Cairo | (May 30, 2010 9:14 AM CDT) Archaeologists have discovered the 3,300-year-old tomb of the ancient Egyptian capital's mayor, whose resting place had been lost under the desert sand since 1885, when treasure hunters first carted off some of its trove—only to forget its location. Some of the stolen artifacts ended up in museums, providing the only clues about the missing tomb until now. In the side sanctuaries and other chambers they uncovered, archaeologists found a vivid wall engraving of people fishing from boats made of bundles of papyrus reeds. There were also amulets and fragments of statues. Ptahmes, the mayor of Memphis, also served as army chief, overseer of the treasury and royal scribe under Seti I and his son and successor, Ramses II, in the 13th century BC. A Cairo University team found the tomb during new excavations that started in 2005. The inner chambers of the large, temple-style tomb and Ptahmes' mummy remain undiscovered. |
At Least 60 Dead in 7.2 Turkey Quake | (Oct 23, 2011 11:02 AM CDT) A powerful 7.2-magnitude earthquake struck eastern Turkey today, killing at least 60 people as it collapsed buildings into piles of twisted steel and chunks of concrete. Desperate survivors dug into the rubble with their bare hands, trying to rescue the trapped and injured. State-run TRT television reported that 45 people were killed and 150 injured in the eastern town of Ercis, and 15 others died in the provincial center of Van. Turkish scientists estimated that up to 1,000 people could already be dead, due to low housing standards in the area and the size of the quake. Ercis, a city of 75,000 in the mountainous province of Van close to the Iranian border, was the hardest hit. It lies on the Ercis Fault in one of Turkey's most earthquake-prone zones. As many as 80 buildings collapsed in Ercis, including a dormitory, and 10 buildings collapsed in Van, the Turkish Red Crescent said. Some highways also caved in, CNN-Turk television reported. There are so many dead. Several buildings have collapsed. There is too much destruction, Ercis mayor Zulfikar Arapoglu told NTV television. We need urgent aid. We need medics. |
Miami Police: Father Kills 2 Daughters, Wife, Self | (Feb 25, 2009 4:16 PM) A well-respected music teacher and former tenor with the Greater Miami Opera Chorus shot to death two daughters, ages 13 and 14, and his wife before killing himself this morning, police say. His 16-year-old son escaped the house during the rampage by Pablo Josue Amador, 54, the Herald reports. Police have not speculated about a motive. Crying/hurting inside. Don't know how to deal. Not even gonna try attempting anymore, wrote Amadour's 20-year-old daughter on her Facebook page today. Whatever. Life sucks. |
This Guy Has Driven 3M Miles in 1966 Volvo | (Sep 23, 2013 6:00 AM CDT) When Irv Gordon, 74, had driven his 1966 Volvo P1800 1.69 million miles, he set a record; now, he's made a new mark in the Guinness Book. The Long Island man has as of Sept. 17 driven the car 3 million miles, the highest mileage in history by a single driver in one vehicle, Discovery reports. He hit the milestone on the Seward Highway in Alaska—leaving Hawaii as the only state he has never visited in the car—to celebrate. Gordon says in a press release: I never had a goal to get to 1 million, to 2 million. I just enjoyed driving and experiencing life through my Volvo, whether he was making his 125-mile round-trip commute or exploring Europe. To put the feat in perspective: That's like driving from New York to LA, and back, 537 times. That's not the only neat number attached to the car. AOL Autos reports that it's also been to nine countries, stopped at 800 Waffle Houses, driven in 105-degree heat in Kansas City, and been in 11 accidents in its 47 years. The former middle-school science teacher, who makes sure to keep his vehicle in top condition, tells MyFoxPhilly.com that his car has started to develop celebrity status. If I stop for gas some place or I stop for a cup of coffee, people will pull up next to me and ask about the car. Before you know it, you've got new friends all over the country. Not to mention your own website at Volvo, which also gave him a new vehicle for each of his 1 million and 2 million milestones. Those cars currently have 460,000 and 116,000 on the odometer, respectively. (Click for the story of another wild Guinness record.) |
6 Bodies Found in French Alps | (Jun 26, 2011 1:32 PM CDT) A hiker discovered the bodies of six mountain climbers in France's Hautes-Alpes region today, the apparent victims of an accident yesterday. Mountain police based in Briancon said the bodies were discovered in a steep corridor at 8,858 feet, a day after the climbers left an overnight Alpine refuge. Police said the group apparently was headed, on two ropes, for a point at 11,857 feet in the Massif des Ecrins. The bodies were brought to a nearby village by helicopter for identification. It is assumed that there was an avalanche of snow and stones, the mayor of that village tells CNN, while French police cite a broken snow bridge, a fall, or an avalanche as possibilities. |
1K Make First Cut for One-Way Trip to Mars | (Jan 2, 2014 11:47 AM) In the end, more than 200,000 people applied, but just 1,058 candidates got an email Monday letting them know they're still in the running for a one-way ticket to Mars. The Mars One project to send average Joes to colonize the red planet has narrowed down its list of applicants significantly, but more cuts are needed to get that number down to the final 40 who will blast off beginning in 2024. Who made the cut this round? Some 297 Americans, plus an 81-year-old who would be in his or her 90s at the time of launch. He or she beat out anyone not taking the mission seriously, including a number of candidates who filmed their video applications in the nude, the Telegraph reports. That may make for tamer reality TV: CEO Bas Lansdorp is still hoping to turn the selection process into a reality show, and viewers might get a chance to vote on who should make the trip. We fully anticipate our remaining candidates to become celebrities in their towns, cities, and in many cases, countries, Lansdorp told Space.com. It's about to get very interesting. Negotiations are under way with a major studio for an overall deal for film and television properties, he added. As for what comes next, several selection phases in 2014 and 2015 will include rigorous simulations, many in team settings, with [a] focus on testing the physical and emotional capabilities of our remaining candidates, Mars One's chief medical officer explains. |
Target Hopes $20M Will Solve Transgender Bathroom Problem | (Aug 19, 2016 12:45 PM CDT) Target will spend $20 million trying to make sure everyone who needs to go to the bathroom at one of its stores feels comfortable, CNN reports. According to USA Today, Target suffered some backlash last spring when it announced it would allow transgender customers to use the restroom ... that corresponds with their gender identity. In the wake of that backlash, the company announced this week it will install a third, single-person restroom to the few hundred US stores that don't already have one by March 2017. The single-occupancy restrooms can be used by anyone. At the end of the day, Target is all about inclusion, a Target spokesperson tells CNN. We want everyone to feel comfortable in our stores. However, Target will still maintain its restroom policy for transgender customers. And that's a problem for groups like the American Family Association, whose spokesperson tells the Wall Street Journal it will continue to be a bathroom free-for-all at Target. The AFA claims more than 1.3 million people have signed an online petition to boycott Target. While Target has seen a 7% drop in sales this year, CFO Cathy Smith says that's not due to the boycott. She also says the addition of third restrooms to all Target stores was not a response to the boycott but something Target CEO Brian Cornell had already planned. Regardless, Target's announcement Wednesday was hailed by the National Center for Transgender Equality. |
Denmark Cops Kill Suspect in 2 Shootings | (Feb 15, 2015 5:46 AM) Danish police shot and killed a man early today suspected of carrying out shooting attacks at a free speech event and then at a Copenhagen synagogue, killing two men, including a member of Denmark's Jewish community. Police say the gunman was 22, born in Denmark, and was known to law enforcement as having been involved in gangs. Officials say it is possible he was imitating the terror attacks last month in Paris. Denmark has been hit by terror, Danish PM Helle Thorning-Schmidt said today. We do not know the motive for the alleged perpetrator's actions, but we know that there are forces that want to hurt Denmark. They want to rebuke our freedom of speech. Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu decried the attack and said his government plans to encourage a massive immigration of Jews from Europe. Again, Jews were murdered on European soil just because they were Jews, he said today. Denmark's Chief Rabbi, Jair Melchior, identified the Jewish victim as Dan Uzan, 37, a longtime security guard for the Danish Jewish community. He was guarding a building behind the synagogue during a bat mitzvah when he was shot in the head. Two police officers there were slightly wounded. Later, the shooter was confronted by police as he returned to an address they were keeping under surveillance. Investigators described him as 25 to 30 years old with an athletic build and carrying a black automatic weapon. Lars Vilks, the 68-year-old artist who has faced numerous death threats for depicting Muhammad as a dog in 2007, said he believed he was the intended target of the first shooting, at a panel discussion titled Art, blasphemy and freedom of expression. What other motive could there be? It's possible it was inspired by Charlie Hebdo, he said. |
911 Dispatcher Hangs Up on Caller as Teen Is Dying | (Jul 28, 2015 3:25 PM CDT) OK, you know what ma'am, you could deal with it yourself. I’m not gonna deal with this, OK? That's what a firefighter in Albuquerque, New Mexico, was recorded telling a 911 caller after a 17-year-old was shot at a party. The exchange involved Albuquerque Fire Department driver Matthew Sanchez, who was working dispatch on the night of June 26. In a roughly 30-second portion of the recorded call, posted by KRQE, he's heard twice asking if Jaydon Chavez-Silver was breathing. The caller responds, He’s barely breathing. How many times do I have to f---ing tell you? to which Sanchez replies that he isn't going to deal with this and then hangs up. Jaydon later died from the gunshot, per KRQE. The fire chief on Monday said Sanchez was immediately removed from the dispatch center and placed on administrative assignment. An internal investigation has been initiated. Chief Administrative Officer Rob Perry subsequently announced that Sanchez had resigned from the Albuquerque Fire Department, where he had worked for 10 years, reports KOAT. KOB6 reports that police believe the shooter either walked or drove by the home where about 10 people were gathered and fired as many as six shots; no arrests have been made. KRQE notes Jaydon had only been at the home for about five minutes before the shooting began. A rep for Jaydon's family says they're beyond belief about what happened, but want to keep their focus on catching the killer. (Last month, a Detroit EMT allegedly refused to help a dying baby.) |
New Orleans Population Shrinks 29% | (Feb 4, 2011 4:05 AM) New Orleans' population has far from rebounded from Hurricane Katrina and it's now a much smaller city that it was a decade ago, according to newly released data from the 2010 census. The city's population now stands at 343,829, down 29% from 2000. The black population has shrunk at a faster rate than the white population, and there are 56,193 fewer children—a drop of almost 44% from 10 years ago. The fall is greater than had been estimated, although the census numbers are likely to be challenged by those who argue that many people were overlooked by the official count. At the next state legislative session, the city will face losing its exemption from large numbers of state laws that only apply to cities with populations above 400,000. There will be weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth, a former state lawmaker tells the New York Times. |
Dow Drops 300 to Lowest Close Since '97 | (Mar 2, 2009 3:18 PM) Investors sold stock in droves today amid continued financial-sector woes and a poor report on manufacturing, the Wall Street Journal reports. Financials sank, and the manufacturing woes sent General Electric, Boeing, Caterpillar and 3M into downward spirals. The Dow fell 299.64 to close at 6,763.29. The Nasdaq lost 54.99, closing at 1,322.85, and the S&P 500 shed 34.27 to settle at 700.82. |
12 Years a Slave Writer: Killed as Union Spy? | (Mar 16, 2014 2:48 PM CDT) Solomon Northup led an incredible life that inspired an Oscar-winning film, 12 Years a Slave—that much we know. But how Northup died remains a mystery that historians are still trying to solve, the AP reports. To recap, Northup was living with his family in upstate New York when two white men lured him to Washington, DC, in 1841, kidnapped him, and sold him into slavery in New Orleans. He survived 12 years on a Louisiana cotton plantation before friends sprung him, and he went on to publish a memoir and help escaped slaves attain freedom via the Underground Railroad. But around 1863, he vanished. Was he killed as a Union Army spy? Did he hit the bottle and get kidnapped again? Or did he just die someplace where a black man wouldn't get a proper burial during the Civil War? Historians have heard or surmised such versions of Northup's death, and one author, David Fiske, checked cemeteries and death records but came up empty. He may have just wandered around from place to place and died somewhere nobody knew who he was, and he was buried in a potter's field, said Fiske. But Northup's descendents tell USA Today that they're more focused on his accomplishments: Every challenge and obstacle that I do have, is somewhat nothing compared to his, so there is no reason that I can't accomplish or get past it, says Northup's great-great-great-great-grandson. |
Merrill: $9.8B Loss on $11.5B Writedown | (Jan 17, 2008 6:31 AM) Merrill Lynch reported a fourth-quarter loss of $9.8 billion, or $12.01 a share, nearly triple the per-share loss most analysts predicted, reports Bloomberg. It was the second straight losing quarter for the nation’s largest broker, and capped the company’s first full-year loss since 1989. Merrill said it took $11.5 billion in writedowns on subprime mortgage-related securities. The disastrous fourth quarter resulted in a $7.78-billion loss for the year for Merrill, one of three of the Big Five Wall Street securities firms hit hard by bad bets on the subprime mortgage market. Morgan Stanley and Bear Stearns also reported huge fourth-quarter losses. CEO John Thain, who took over in December, has shored up the company’s balance sheet with $12 billion from outside investors. |
Dave's Latest Top 10 Target: Oval Office Speeches | (Sep 1, 2010 6:28 AM CDT) You might have heard about a certain speech given by our president last night. So did David Letterman, who offered up a Top 10 list on last night’s Late Show of Things Never Before Said in an Oval Office Address. No. 10: Gotta keep this short because I'm going on another vacation. Watch the video for the rest, which include shout-outs to Justin Bieber and Glee. |
Mexico Police Accused of Executing 22, Faking Shootout | (Aug 19, 2016 4:25 AM CDT) Federal police executed at least 22 people on a ranch last year, then moved bodies and planted guns to corroborate the official account that the deaths happened in a gunbattle, Mexico's human rights commission says, per the AP. A total of 43 people, including one police officer, were killed in the confrontation in the western state of Michoacan on May 22, 2015. The National Human Rights Commission says five people were killed when a police Black Hawk helicopter fired 4,000 rounds at the ranch house after the officer was shot, the BBC reports. Another 22 were arbitrarily executed, while the circumstances of the other 15 deaths are still unclear, according to the commission. The lopsided death toll had led to suspicions that officers might have arbitrarily killed people during the operation against suspected members of the Jalisco New Generation cartel. Eighteen of the victims were found barefoot and one just in his underpants, leading the commission to conclude most were asleep when police arrived. Thirteen of the 22 people the commission says were executed had been shot in the back. Mexico's national security commissioner denies the accusations of what the commission called grave human rights violations, saying federal police ordered the suspects to drop their weapons and surrender, but were answered with gunfire. |
Instagram Hits 40M Users | (Apr 13, 2012 3:33 PM CDT) Instagram signed up 10 million more users—bringing its total to 40 million—in just the past 10 days. The retro-styling, photo-sharing app was the talk of tech after releasing a version for Android and then getting scooped up by Facebook for $1 billion, reports SlashGear. Instagram launched for the iPhone in October 2010, and picked up its first 1 million users in a mere two months. |
University of California Imposes 32% Tuition Hike | (Nov 19, 2009 5:04 PM) Student protesters chanted Shame on you! Shame on you! on the UCLA campus today as the University of California board of regents approved a whopping 32% tuition hike. A year at a UC school—not including room and board—will now cost $10,300, three times the price in 1999. The moves comes as the university system struggles with draconian cuts in funding from the state's strapped government. After the demonstrators learned of the decision, many told the LA Times they worried about having to drop out. I’m on my own, said one student. I can’t ask my family. In this economy, no one is stable. The state cut its funding for the 10-campus system by 20%, or $813 million, this year, notes the New York Times. |
This Man's Plan: Swim Around the World in 450 Days | (Sep 11, 2015 9:07 AM CDT) Martin Strel swims with a knife strapped to his right leg—in case he encounters sharks, vampire fish, and other deadly marine life in the world's wildest waters. Yesterday, the 60-year-old marathon swimmer from Phoenix announced the toughest feat of his life: a 10,000-mile around-the-world voyage on water to draw public attention to increasing aquatic pollution. And for peace and love, Strel added in his native Slovenian. He aims to circle the globe in about 450 days, starting in Long Beach, Calif., on March 22 and passing through oceans, rivers, canals, and other bodies of water in more than 100 countries. He'll swim about five to 12 hours each day, depending on the weather and changing currents; an escort boat will offer emergency support and space for small breaks. Since 2000, Strel has swum the entire length of five rivers—the piranha-infested Amazon, the Danube in Eastern Europe, China's Yangtze, the Parana in South America, and the Mississippi, earning him the nickname Big River Man. On his South American swims, he watches out for the candiru, the most dangerous fish on the planet (it bores into every human cavity and grows by feeding on human flesh and blood); says piranhas are OK ; and isn't freaked out by sharks, which he says leave him alone if he swims in the same direction as them and doesn't confront them. He's still finalizing details of his adventure, a multimillion-dollar jaunt that will once more include the Panama and Suez canals, the English Channel, and the Amazon, as well as the Atlantic and Pacific oceans and the Red Sea. Strel says he welcomes anyone who's interested to join him for stretches of the route. |
Bush: $770M Needed For Food Aid | (May 1, 2008 3:40 PM CDT) Amid rising food prices and overtaxed international reserves, President Bush proposed a new $770 million aid package today, Reuters reports. The money is part of a supplemental $70 billion measure that also includes Iraq war funding and would require a vote in Congress. Bush pushed through a $200 million emergency measure two weeks ago without congressional oversight, AP reports. I think more needs to be done, he said today. I'm asking Congress to provide an additional $770 million to support food aid and development programs. |
747 Manages to Get Unstuck, Take Off | (Nov 21, 2013 11:52 AM) A big plane got into a bigger snag last night when it mistakenly landed at a tiny Kansas airport, only to find the space too tight to turn around in. The Atlas Air Dreamlifter was scheduled to land at McConnell Air Force Base but instead touched down at Jabara Airport—which boasts a runway just 100 feet wide—eight miles away. Though given clearance from McConnell, the apparently confused, two-person crew was heard saying, Ahh, yes sir, we just landed at the other airport, KWCH reports, while NBC News took away this quote: Let me ask you this, how many airports...are there? Though there were reports that a tug sent to tow the 747 into place had broken down (its max speed was just 13mph), KAKE reports that 10 hours later, the cargo plane was successfully turned; it did indeed manage to take off around 1pm, and landed at McConnell a few minutes later. KAKE earlier reported a new crew would be aboard, and noted the original crew would likely face some questions. AP has this tidbit to that end: At one point, a controller reads to the pilot the coordinates where he sees the plane on radar. When the pilot reads the coordinates back, he mixes up east and west. Sorry about that, couldn't read my handwriting, the pilot says. A few minutes later, he mixed up north and south. |
Ohio State Gives Up 2010 Wins, Sugar Bowl Title | (Jul 8, 2011 4:41 PM CDT) Ohio State is vacating its wins from the 2010 football season, including its share of the Big Ten championship and the Buckeyes' victory over Arkansas in the 2011 Sugar Bowl. (Sorry, Arkansas, you don't get the trophy, either.) Responding to the NCAA's investigation of a memorabilia-for-cash scandal that cost former coach Jim Tressel his job and led to star quarterback Terrelle Pryor leaving school, the university also said today it is waiving a $250,000 fine imposed on Tressel and changing his resignation to a retirement. Through the school, the ex-Buckeyes coach said that he is taking responsibility for the NCAA inquiry, which developed after it was learned Tressel failed to report players receiving improper benefits. The university also is putting the football program on probation for two years, which means there would be harsher penalties if any further wrongdoing is discovered. The response to the NCAA doesn't mean Ohio State's woes are over. The governing body for college sports could still impose tougher sanctions, such as a ban on post-season play and a reduction in scholarships, in the wake of an August hearing. |
Ashley Madison's 5.5M Women Are About 0% Active | (Aug 26, 2015 8:21 PM CDT) Gizmodo writer Annalee Newitz had seen hackers' claims that thousands of female user profiles on infidelity site Ashley Madison were fake, with some news stories claiming as few as 5% of the site's 5.5 million registered female users were real. So she decided to comb through the leaked data herself to find out. What she discovered wasn't pretty. It's like a science fictional future where every woman on Earth is dead and some Dilbert-like engineer has replaced them with badly designed robots, Newitz writes. As near as she could figure, as few as 10,000 of the female user profiles belonged to real women who had ever done anything with their account. The overwhelming majority of men using Ashley Madison weren't having affairs, she writes. They were paying for a fantasy. While hunting for fake profiles within the leaked data, Newitz looked at things like email and IP addresses and last names. These turned up a potential 80,000 likely fake female user accounts. She then looked at what the women were doing on the site—or weren't. Of the 5.5 million female users, fewer then 10,000 had ever responded to a message and fewer than 1,500 had ever checked their inbox. That's an activity rate of near 0%. Perhaps the truest sign of human female activity Newitz could find was the 12,108 female user accounts that someone had paid to delete. All in all, Newitz writes the numbers suggest Ashley Madison is a site where tens of millions of men write mail, chat, and spend money for women who aren't there. For much more on her findings, read the full story here. |
Infant Missing From Home Where Mom, 2 Men Shot | (Jan 4, 2015 7:22 AM) Police are searching for a man suspected of shooting three people who were found inside a Southern California home and taking a 3-week-old baby. The Long Beach Police Department says officers responding to a call of a shooting just before 6pm yesterday found two men and one woman, the baby's mother, with gunshot wounds. A police spokeswoman says the victims were hospitalized in critical but stable condition. Police say a 10-pound baby girl named Eliza Delacrus was missing from the same home. Detectives believe a man suspected of shooting the three may have taken the newborn and run away. They did not release his name. |
1.2K Missing as Colo. Deluge Continues | (Sep 16, 2013 7:02 AM CDT) Officials are pulling out all the stops to help Coloradans escape continuing floods, but Mother Nature is not cooperating, says an emergency commander. An air rescue is planned for today, and those stranded in Boulder County have been instructed to flag down the choppers in any way they can, whether by sending up flares, shining mirrors, or waving white sheets, the Boulder Daily Camera reports. With helicopters grounded in Larimer County, meanwhile, officials there have turned to horses for help. A horse pack train may today carry supplies to some 1,000 people who need evacuation, the Denver Post reports. The paper says six people have now died. Of roads out of Boulder and Loveland, the emergency commander says, it's going to take months to restore those roads to their original condition. A lot of the road bed is gone and it's a stream bed now. The state has seen 1,500 homes destroyed and 17,500 damaged; 11,700 people have been ordered evacuated, while 1,253 are still unaccounted for, say officials, per the AP. Fortunately, More people are reporting in and saying 'Here I am' than are reporting someone missing, says the Larimer sheriff's office. Some towns are beginning the cleanup and reopening process, with shopkeepers trying to save what they can, the AP notes. But more rain is expected today. |
Spears Hospital Stay Extended 14 Days | (Feb 3, 2008 9:55 PM) Britney Spears’s involuntary stay at an LA hospital has been extended to 14 days, People reports. The order came from the pop star’s psychiatrist, but Spears, who’s being held in a padded room in the psychiatric unit, could be released earlier on orders from a judge or her doctor. It is a terrible situation, said a well-placed source. Her family is so worried about her. Spears, plagued by rumors of drug abuse and involved in a nasty child custody suit, was admitted to the hospital last week for her second visit in less than a month. Tomorrow, Spears’s legal team will try to remove her father as her co-conservator because she feels hatred toward him, TMZ says. |
Plunging Hiker Is 15th Yosemite Death | (Aug 24, 2011 2:03 AM CDT) Yet another hiker has fallen from a Yosemite peak, making him the 15th death in the national park this year. The unidentified climber plunged from Half Dome peak in the park, as did a woman last month. The body of the man, wearing hiking gear, was recovered yesterday. Witnesses reported hearing a scream and seeing someone fall from the sheer face of the 9,000-foot peak the previous day. One official speculated the man ascended the mountain using cables on the sloping back side then fell from the sheer face either accidentally or by suicide, reports the Sacramento Bee. The death toll is double the usual number by this time of year. Several park visitors have drowned in raging waters created by record snows. |
Pirate Bay Founder Busted After 2 Years on the Run | (Jun 2, 2014 3:28 AM CDT) After almost two years, Swedish police have caught up with one of the founders of the Pirate Bay file-sharing site and he has been sent to serve an eight-month sentence for copyright infringement. Peter Sunde, who was sentenced and fined nearly $7 million in 2010, was captured in southern Sweden but is believed to have spent most of the last few years hiding out in Germany, reports Reuters. Another co-founder was arrested in Cambodia, a third is still on the run, and a fourth, the site's main financier, has already served his sentence and is now living in Switzerland. Sunde's lawyer says he still believes the sentence was wrong. Sunde fought for file-sharing and in 10 years I think it goes without saying that file-sharing for one's own needs will be allowed, he says. Ironically, Sunde also co-founded a start-up called Flattr, which gives consumers a way to pay for online content, TechCrunch notes. One of Flattr's board members says she is deeply saddened by Sunde's arrest. I believe that history will look back on peer-to-peer and file sharing networks and highlight what a farce it was for the recording industry to litigate against developers and technology providers who wrote software—which enabled both legal and illegal activities alike as agnostic platforms, she says. |
April 15 Comes on April 18 This Year | (Jan 15, 2016 4:02 PM) Taxpayers nationwide will get a few days' grace this year to file their returns thanks to a little-known holiday in the nation's capital. And the head of the IRS promises 1,000 more customer services representatives will be available to ease waiting times on information lines. IRS Commissioner John Koskinen said Thursday that taxpayers will have until Monday, April 18 to file their returns. That's because Friday, April 15, is Emancipation Day, a public holiday in Washington DC. Taxpayers in Maine and Massachusetts will have an additional day because of Patriot's Day. Koskinen said $290 million approved by Congress last month to improve taxpayer services will ease some—but by no means all—of the problems with hang-ups when calling IRS information lines. Last year, fewer than half of all calls were connected to a staff person. Information is also available online. Using our website, IRS.gov, remains the best and quickest way for people to get information, Koskinen said. Filing season opens Jan. 19. |
Sandy Relief Concert Hauls in $23M | (Nov 4, 2012 7:47 AM) NBC says its star-studded benefit concert for Hurricane Sandy victims raised a hefty $23 million for Red Cross relief efforts, in an explosion of website and phone traffic that the Red Cross says topped telethon activity from the previous five years combined. The one-hour broadcast featured New Jersey sons Jon Bon Jovi, who rocked an acoustic Livin' on a Prayer, and Bruce Springsteen, who closed out with Land of Hope and Dreams. Joining the effort were Billy Joel, Jimmy Fallon, Steven Tyler, Mary J. Blige, Tina Fey, Jon Stewart, Whoopi Goldberg, Danny DeVito, Brian Williams, and host Matt Lauer. We are incredibly grateful and humbled by this outpouring of support for those who are suffering as a result of Superstorm Sandy, says a Red Cross official. To add your two cents to the effort, head over to: RedCross.org. |
Dow Rises 400 at Open | (Oct 13, 2008 8:44 AM CDT) Stocks took a big jump in the right direction this morning, reassured by worldwide efforts to prop up the banking system, the Wall Street Journal reports. The Dow rose more than 400 points at the bell, with the S&P and Nasdaq rising 4.4% and 4.7% respectively. The moves followed big rallies abroad, with most European indexes up around 6%, and Hong Kong’s benchmark up 10.2%. This weekend, leaders of 15 eurozone countries pledged to guarantee inter-bank loans through 2009, and will allow governments to buy stock in distressed financials. This is what the market was hoping to see, said one strategist. Morgan Stanley jumped 39% in premarket trading, after closing a deal with Mitsubishi for $9 billion in funding. Crude oil futures jumped $3.60 to $81.30 a barrel. |
100 Years Later, Mark Twain Finally Tells All | (May 29, 2010 7:00 PM CDT) A century after his death, Mark Twain remains a master at stirring up interest in his books: It was the author's dying wish that his lengthy and revealing autobiography not be published until 100 years after his death—which happens to be this year. The 5,000 pages he left behind detail Twain's ill-fated affair with his secretary, his doubts about God, and his criticism of US imperialism in Cuba, Puerto Rico, and the Philippines, the Independent reports. Many think the reason for the hundred-year delay in publication is that Twain's privately held views would have hurt his public image—and his friends. He spent six months of the last year of his life writing a manuscript full of vitriol, saying things that he'd never said about anyone in print before. It really is 400 pages of bile, a historian said of the last section of the manuscript. The first volume of the eventual trilogy will be published in November by the University of California, Berkeley. |
Everest to Climbers: Bring Back 18 Lbs. of Trash | (Mar 4, 2014 12:03 PM) On your next trip to Mount Everest, you'll have to bring back a not-so-scenic souvenir: at least 18 pounds of trash. That's according to new rules from the Nepalese government, which is getting sick of junk—to the tune of some 50 tons over six decades—getting left by climbers as they seek to lighten their loads. From now on, a climber is required to bring down eight kilograms of waste, and that excludes their own empty oxygen bottles and human dung, says a tourism official, per the New York Times. Tents and food containers are also left on what's been called the world's highest garbage dump —and the Times includes climbers' bodies under the garbage heading. What's more, cold temperatures keep the stuff from decaying. Eighteen pounds is the amount of trash officials figure climbers generate, the AP reports: We are not asking climbers to search and pick up trash left by someone else, the tourism official notes. The plan, which involves checks at base camp, aims to remove almost eight tons of waste this year. Breaking the rule could mean a ban on climbing the mountain again, the official says. We will not compromise on it. |
Auto Sales Off Again: GM 49%, Ford 40%, Toyota 32% | (Feb 3, 2009 12:48 PM) Three automakers said today their US light-vehicle sales plummeted again in January: General Motors fell 49%, Ford 40% and Toyota 32%. It’s an abysmal start to 2009 for the industry as sales to fleet buyers like rental car companies weighed down the results. Chrysler and other automakers also are expected to report lower sales when they release their figures later today. |
Potato Salad Project on Kickstarter Raises $17K | (Jul 7, 2014 5:10 PM CDT) Zack Brown's Kickstarter project started with the modest goal of $10—and blossomed into an Internet darling that's already worth over $17,000. The project? A potato salad, of course. I'm making potato salad, wrote Brown on Kickstarter. Basically I'm just making potato salad. I haven't decided what kind yet. With donations flowing in, he quickly added stretch goals, like hosting a pizza party at $75, live-streaming the salad-making at $1,000, and renting a venue for the project's backers to party at $3,000, The Verge reports. He offers rewards, too, like a salad bite for $3 donors—which is seemingly simple but geographically complex, as he realized in a Reddit Q&A. Yea, it's going to be a challenge, he wrote. I thought I'd just go to people's houses and hand it off. Brown's project is benefiting from looser rules at Kickstarter, which used to restrict certain things ( fund my life campaigns, charities, sunglasses) in favor of creative projects that can be shared. But starting this summer, the crowd-funding platform will approve pretty much anything that isn't dangerous, regulated, or against the law, The Verge notes. Which brings up the question: Why are Brown and his donors doing this? |
80 Killed in Afghan Bombing | (Feb 17, 2008 5:40 AM) A suicide blast today killed at least 80 in a crowd of spectators watching a dog fight in the Afghan city of Kandahar. Nobody claimed responsibility for the attack, but local authorities believe it was the work of the Taliban, which has a large presence in the area, BBC reports. Militia leaders watching the dog fight were the likely target of the attack. Fighting had just started between two dogs. Suddenly, I heard a huge explosion next to a police vehicle, a witness said. The attack is Afghanistan's deadliest since 2001, and points to the growing regional and national strength of the Taliban. Dog-fighting, a popular spectator sport in Afghanistan, was banned under Taliban rule. |
Holder Is 'Sept. 10' Pick for AG | (Nov 19, 2008 4:03 PM) Eric Holder is a conventional, check-the-boxes creature of the Left, the editors of the National Review write of Barack Obama’s reported choice for Attorney General, and his selection reveals a September 10 mentality and a lack of seriousness about the terrorist threat. They add, for these times, it is difficult to imagine a worse choice for AG than Eric Holder. The Review is most steamed about Holder’s role in the final corrupt act of the Clinton administration: the pardons issued in the departing President’s final hours, including that of financier Marc Rich. To be blunt, they conclude, Holder is a terrible selection. If there’s any Obama cabinet nomination that Republicans feel moved to oppose, this should be it. |
US Adventurer Who May Have Found Part of MH370 Would Be 'Lucky' | (Mar 5, 2016 10:30 AM) An American adventurer says it would be a very lucky discovery if the piece of aircraft he found on a sandbank off the coast of Mozambique is confirmed to be from the Malaysia Airlines jet that vanished two years ago. Blaine Gibson, who says he's been searching for Flight 370 over the last year, tells the AP that he had wanted no publicity about his Feb. 27 discovery until after the piece was assessed by investigators, but that news of the finding leaked. He says he is cautious about the possibility that the part is from the missing Boeing 777 because three large jets had crashed in the area before. Regardless, Gibson says he hopes his finding will encourage more people in the area to comb beaches for clues and to hand over any items they think could be passenger belongings or plane debris. The new piece of debris is now in the hands of Mozambique civil aviation authorities and is expected to be sent to Australia this coming week to be examined. The Malaysian transport minister says there is a high probability that the part found off Mozambique is from a Boeing 777. Flight 370 is the only missing 777. And Australia's transport minister says the location of the debris matches investigators' drift modeling. Gibson says he decided to look for plane debris after a week of sightseeing in Mozambique. A tour guide told him the sandbank was where fishermen went to look for rope that washed up from the open ocean. He says the tour guide spotted the piece of debris after about half an hour of searching. |
Ed Sheeran Hit With $20M Copyright Suit | (Jun 9, 2016 6:03 AM CDT) A $20 million lawsuit accuses superstar singer-songwriter Ed Sheeran of verbatim, note-for-note copying. The lawsuit from songwriters Martin Harrington and Thomas Leonard alleges Sheeran's Photograph is too similar to their 2009 song Amazing, released by X Factor winner Matt Cardle in 2012. They're represented by the same heavyweight lawyer who, for the family of Marvin Gaye, nabbed $5.3 million plus 50% of publishing and songwriting rights from Robin Thicke's monster hit, Blurred Lines. In addition to similar chords, the plaintiffs say 70% of Sheeran's chorus is identical to Amazing in pitch, rhythmic duration, and note placement—and plenty on social media seem to agree, reports Billboard. The similarity of words, vocal style, vocal melody, melody, and rhythm are clear indicators and are instantly recognizable to the ordinary observer, the complaint reads, per the BBC, adding the alleged infringement is breathtaking in its deliberateness, magnitude, and hubris. The plaintiffs say they tried to settle the dispute privately before filing the suit, which also names co-writer Johnny McDaid of band Snow Patrol, Warner Music, and others, per the Guardian. They're seeking $20 million plus royalties. After Photograph was released in 2014, Sheeran rightly predicted it would change his career. The song has sold 3.5 million copies, and Sheeran was named the top Billboard artist in the US last summer. |
Hoops Star Wayman Tisdale Dead at 44 | (May 15, 2009 11:54 AM CDT) College basketball Hall of Famer Wayman Tisdale died today at 44, ESPN reports. Tisdale was diagnosed with bone cancer last year, and his right leg was amputated. The 6-foot-9 forward was an All-American all 3 years at Oklahoma, and went on to spend 12 years in the NBA. He was also a talented jazz bassist who toured with notable musicians and released eight albums. |
CIA Has Covert 3,000-Man Army in Pakistan | (Sep 22, 2010 11:44 AM CDT) Most of the reporting on Bob Woodward’s new book has focused on the internal strife in the Obama administration (see our item on that here.) But JJ Sutherland of NPR noticed another revelation in the recap by the Washington Post: The CIA has a clandestine 3,000-man paramilitary force made up of Afghans that operates in Pakistan. These highly trained Counterterrorism pursuit teams conduct sensitive missions against al-Qaeda and Taliban havens. Sutherland got two US officials to confirm the existence of the force, on the condition of anonymity. One of them also went out of his way to praise the program, saying, This is one of the best Afghan fighting forces, and it’s made major contributions to stability and security. |
Travolta's Son Dead at 16 | (Jan 2, 2009 3:13 PM) John Travolta's 16-year-old son, Jett, died today in the Bahamas, the actor's lawyer tells the TMZ website. Jett Travolta suffered a seizure while on vacation with his parents, Travolta and his wife, actress Kelly Preston, and could not be revived. Travolta and Preston also have an 8-year-old daughter, Ella. |
32 Nightclub Deaths Bring Down Romanian Government | (Nov 4, 2015 6:33 AM) Romanians who took to the streets in the wake of a nightclub fire that killed 32 people didn't just vent their anger, they brought down the government. Prime Minister Victor Ponta resigned Wednesday, as did the mayor of the district in Bucharest where the fire took place, reports the AP. I am obliged to take note of the legitimate grievances which exist in society, said Ponta. I hope handing in my and my government's mandate will satisfy the demands of protesters. About 20,000 rallied in Bucharest Tuesday night, charging that widespread corruption led to weak safety inspections and permits for those with the right connections, reports the New York Times. One popular sign: Corruption Kills. Ponta's government seemed doomed when President Klaus Iohannis voiced his support for the protests as they were unfolding. I am impressed by this evening’s demonstrations, he wrote on Facebook. The next step is for politicians, who cannot ignore this sentiment of revolt. Ponta already faced pressure to quit because he was on trial for corruption charges stemming from his work as a lawyer before entering government, reports AFP. Iohannis will now name a prime minister to form a new government. About 200 people also were injured in the fire, which started when a fireworks display went awry in a converted shoe factory. |