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(Oct 4, 2016 3:18 PM CDT) One year after 4Chan founder Christopher moot Poole sold the website he had run since he was a teen, the new management is realizing it may not be so easy to run one of the Internet's most infamous communities. New owner Hiroyuki Nishimura posted a note on 4chan itself Sunday, saying Thank you for thinking about 4chan. We had tried to keep 4chan as is. But I failed. I am sincerely sorry. Nishimura said the increasing incidence of ad blockers has made it impossible to cover the costs of running the site with the current business model. He suggested three possible fixes: limiting upload sizes and removing boards to thin traffic, adding malicious advertising such as pop-under ads, or increasing the sales of 4Chan premium subscriptions. In the past, 4Chan has been linked to various online hate movements, due to the site's loose moderation and anonymous nature. However, nefarious users have largely migrated off 4Chan to other hidden imageboards, subreddits, and chans, meaning a potential closure of the site isn't as big of a story as it once might have been. Nonetheless, 4Chan still has its fans. Gizmodo reports that both Minecraft creator Markus Notch Persson and hated pharmaceutical executive Martin Shkreli tweeted about providing financial support to the site. Notch deleted his tweet, but in typical Shkreli style, Martin has been unapologetic.

(Jan 15, 2012 6:03 AM) Three days ago, it looked like Mitt Romney's lead had collapsed in South Carolina, with Newt Gingrich just 2% behind. Now, not so much: A Reuters/Ipsos poll shows Romney back on top with 37%, a 21-point lead over nearest rivals Ron Paul and Rick Santorum. Gingrich trails in fourth with just 12%. Romney does well on the electability question, too, beating President Obama 46% to 40% among both Republicans and Democrats. In primary races things can change quickly, but it does look like Romney is in position to win South Carolina, says an Ipsos poller. Gingrich's harsh attacks on Romney's time at Bain Capital may have backfired, say some analysts, and the former House speaker was booed last night at a forum hosted by Mike Huckabee when he brought up Bain, reports ABC News. I think those attacks are misguided. The process of any economy has long been one of creative destruction, said one Romney supporter.

(Oct 2, 2015 12:11 PM CDT) Adrian Franklin recalls not being particularly excited about walking down the aisle with a 5-year-old girl named Brooke as ring bearer and flower girl in the wedding of a family friend 17 years ago. I was like, 'Tell me I don't have to!' he tells Fox 8. Their second time down the aisle was a more pleasurable experience: The pair from North Carolina were married in the same church on Sept. 19. I had a crush on him from the start, Brooke Franklin tells ABC News. He absolutely could not stand me, though he came around in high school when the pair started dating. Among their wedding guests: the bride who put them in her ceremony way back when.

(Jun 19, 2020 10:00 AM CDT) Today is Juneteenth, and this year marks 155 years to the day since 2,000 Union soldiers arrived in Galveston, Texas, bringing news that slavery had been abolished some two years earlier. There hadn't been enough Union troops in Texas to enforce the Emancipation Proclamation before that point, according to Juneteenth.com.

(May 5, 2010 4:00 AM CDT) Ernie Harwell, the only baseball broadcaster ever traded for a player, has died aged 92 after a long fight with cancer. The beloved sportscaster spent 55 years broadcasting major league games, 42 of them with the Detroit Tigers. The transplanted Southerner, rated as one of the best baseball broadcasters of all time, became known as the voice of Detroit during his decades of doing play-by-play for the Tigers, the Detroit Free Press notes in a glowing tribute. Harwell started out as a sportswriter aged 16 in 1934 and moved to sportscasting with the Atlanta Crackers. After a stint in the Marines during World War II, he ended up in the big leagues when the Brooklyn Dodgers acquired him from the Crackers for catcher Cliff Dapper. He moved to Detroit in 1960 and was still broadcasting the full 162-game schedule into his eighties. After learning he had just months to live, Harwell said death was just the next big adventure. I've had so many great ones, he said. It's been a terrific life.

(Jun 3, 2009 4:44 AM CDT) A frontrunner has yet to emerge among Republican candidates for the 2012 presidential election, according to a new CNN poll. Sarah Palin, Mike Huckabee, and Mitt Romney are currently tied as the most popular potential candidate, each winning roughly 21% of support among those surveyed. They're trailed by Newt Gingrich with 13% and Jeb Bush at 6%. Romney said last week he wouldn't close the door on a 2012 run.

(Apr 25, 2015 10:00 AM CDT) When an 87-year-old Illinois grandmother bet a quarter in an Iowa slot machine in 2011, she thought she'd hit it big. The screen said: The reels have rolled your way! Bonus Award - $41797550.16. Pauline McKee and her daughter summoned casino employees to collect what they thought was a $41.8 million jackpot. But state officials later concluded that the award was a computer glitch and that the Isle Hotel Casino in Waterloo, Iowa, didn't have to pay. And the Iowa Supreme Court ruled yesterday that McKee didn't hit any jackpot--no matter what the screen told her. Her good fortune was actually worth only $1.85 based on how the symbols aligned on the Miss Kitty game, the court said. Game rules said the maximum award was $10,000 and allowed for no bonus awards, Justice Edward Mansfield wrote for the unanimous seven-member court. The rules and pay table, which were available on a touch screen, amount to a contract between the casino and the player, and it doesn't matter that McKee didn't read them, he added. Any message appearing on the screen indicating the patron would receive a $41 million bonus was a gratuitous promise and the casino's failure to pay it could not be challenged as a breach of contract, Mansfield wrote in a ruling that dismissed a lawsuit filed by McKee.

(Nov 9, 2010 6:17 PM) Seventeen people were charged today in Manhattan with defrauding a fund for Holocaust victims out of $42 million, AOL News reports. Employees of a not-for-profit group called the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany approved 5,500 false applications for reparations from the German government to supposed victims of the Third Reich, say authorities. They reportedly split the money with non-employees who posed as the victims. The fraudsters apparently didn't do a great job of hiding their crimes: claims were filed for individuals who were born after World War II, or weren't Jewish. The red flags formed the basis of an investigation in December 2009, culminating in today's indictments. If ever there was a cause that you would hope and expect would be immune from base greed and criminal fraud, it would be the Claims Conference, which every day assists thousands of poor and elderly victims of Nazi persecution, said a federal attorney in the case. Click here for more.

(Jul 31, 2014 7:51 PM CDT) The Dow tanked more than 300 points today, and the market in general has been sputtering of late, writes Henry Blodget at Business Insider. So are we on the brink of that correction everyone seems to be talking about? Blodget says that he, like everyone else who writes about the market, doesn't know. But what he does know is that stocks are currently overvalued by every valid historical measure. And that doesn't bode well, because it can signal not just a minor correction on the horizon but a market crash. I would not be surprised to see stocks fall ~50% from this level in the next few years, he writes. And, if that happens, you shouldn't be surprised either. Naysayers argue that the market has hit a permanently high plateau, but Blodget doubts it. Expensive stocks, unusually high corporate profit margins, and Fed tightening could combine to do nasty things to portfolios soon. Still, Blodget isn't selling his stocks or suggesting that others do so. But at the very least, investors should be mentally prepared for the possibility of a major pullback and lousy long-term returns. Click for the full analysis.

(Oct 8, 2008 1:26 PM CDT) A US military inquiry puts the number of Afghan civilians killed in an August 22 raid at more than 30, the New York Times reports, down from the 90 the Afghan government had claimed. The airstrike on Azizabad, a suspected Taliban stronghold, was condemned by the Afghan government. The US had initially said that only 5 to 7 innocents were killed, and continues to consider the operation legitimate. The inquiry, led by an Air Force general, was requested by the top US commander in Afghanistan in early September after news of the civilian deaths broke. An official familiar with the report said the original number was low because the Special Forces troops who called in the airstrike could not make a thorough assessment at the time. They were definitely not welcome there, he said.

(Mar 9, 2018 1:29 PM) Among the newly released recordings of 911 calls from the Parkland school shooting, the parents of a 17-year-old girl can be heard telling a dispatcher that their daughter is texting from a classroom where the door's glass was shot out. Three shot in her room. Oh, my God. Oh, my God, the mother says, raising her voice, per the AP. The 12 minutes of radio transmissions released by the Broward County Sheriff's Office highlight the chaos at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. (CNN has samples.) The material includes 10 of the 81 recordings of calls by students and parents. The excerpts show a deputy on school grounds first thought the loud bangs were firecrackers, then realized they were gunshots--yet he never ran toward them. Other responding officers desperately tried to sort through a chaotic scene, treat the injured, lock down the school, and locate the shooter.

(Apr 15, 2008 5:48 AM CDT) Britain's Ministry of Defense has agreed to pay $4 million in compensation to an Iraqi boy accidentally shot by a British soldier, the Guardian reports. The boy, now 17, is paralyzed from severe spinal injuries inflicted when the soldier dropped his rifle at a Basra base in 2003. He is receiving round-the-clock care in Britain and will never be able to return to Iraq. The payment is much higher than any awarded to any injured British soldier. The large amount is due to the level of negligence involved, said a government spokesman, who stressed that it was unlikely to set a precedent. This is an isolated claim for negligence from a young boy who will require specialist care for the rest of his life, he said.

(Nov 6, 2008 6:53 AM) A series of bomb blasts across Baghdad killed six people and injured more than 20 others today, the fourth consecutive day of heightened violence in the Iraqi capital. The deadliest attack came near a checkpoint in central Baghdad, while another targeting a government convoy killed six city workers. A string of daily bombings since Monday has now killed more than 30 people, reports the AP. The twin blasts in the capital's Sunni enclave of Sheik Omar happened at a checkpoint manned by members of an Awakening Council, the mostly Sunni groups that have joined forces with the Americans against al-Qaeda in Iraq. Insurgent attacks in Baghdad have dropped more than 90% in the Iraqi capital since the Sunni revolt, but this week has seen a substantial uptick in violence.

(Aug 12, 2014 11:22 AM CDT) The Detroit area has been pounded with rain, with more than 6 inches hitting some parts of the region--and the onslaught has now been linked to a death. A woman is thought to have suffered cardiac arrest as her car battled 3 feet of water, the AP reports. Another driver was hurt in 5 feet of water; elsewhere, the water was up to 14 feet deep, the Detroit News notes. No one has been reported missing, but dive teams are searching for any stranded people. The suburb of Warren has seen particularly bad conditions; its mayor says some 1,000 vehicles have been left behind in the water. Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder says his team is taking a dramatic series of actions to address the flooding, as state troopers help grapple with the mess. About a quarter of an inch more rain is expected today.

(Aug 21, 2011 1:14 PM CDT) What is it about celebrities and airplanes? In honor of Gerard Depardieu's recent peeing mishap, the Frisky rounds up 13 more celebs who have behaved quite badly while flying the friendly skies.

(Feb 10, 2017 4:07 PM) After their mobile home burned last year, the best Michael Reeves and Chassity Carter could do was to park a camper trailer on the same lot in coastal Georgia and make it their new home. Now hardship has become sheer tragedy for Reeves and Carter. Less than a year after their mobile home burned, another fire Wednesday ravaged the camper the family had been living in, killing two of their children--3-year-old Blayden Wade Reeves and his 4-month-old sister, Tallie Ann Carter, the AP reports. Chassity Carter and 2-year-old Brighton Michael Reeves were hospitalized in critical condition. After searching the camper's charred remains Thursday, investigators determined the deadly blaze likely stated as an accidental cooking fire. There was a pot of noodles left on a hot plate on a countertop that was the cause of the fire, Glynn County Police Chief Matt Doering told reporters at a news conference. Police were initially suspicious because of last year's mobile home fire, but he said there was no evidence of criminal wrongdoing in the fire at the camper. It was a travel trailer, which is unusual for a family to be living in, Doering said. It's not designed for that, especially for a family of five. Neighbors knew the young couple had a hard time making ends meet, said Danny O'Neal, who lives around the corner. They have been struggling and struggling, O'Neal said Thursday from his front porch just outside the port city of Brunswick, about 70 miles south of Savannah. He could hardly talk about the day before, when he ran outside to the sound of his neighbors screaming for their children.

(Nov 10, 2016 7:01 PM) Two couples who met at a Texas church are now involved in possibly the furthest thing from a post-sermon potluck: a sex tape blackmail case. As the Houston Chronicle reports, Leslie Amanda Hippensteel, 31, and John Ousley, 32, met Saul Eisenberg, 28, and his then-fiancee, 24, at a church in Katy; Ousley and Eisenberg's fiancee ended up having an affair. They made sex videos, which were ultimately found by Hippensteel. She allegedly blackmailed Ousley with them and emailed them to Eisenberg, who in turn allegedly forwarded them to his mother and stepfather. A big mess ensued: Hippensteel and Ousley divorced in March; Eisenberg and his former fiancee are in the midst of custody proceedings over their 6-year-old child; and both Hippensteel and Eisenberg face misdemeanor charges of unlawful disclosure of intimate visual material. Hippensteel was arrested earlier this month for allegedly blackmailing her ex-husband with the sex videos during their divorce proceedings, threatening to send them to the Christian high school where he worked if he didn't give her money. Ousley showed police records appearing to prove he gave Hippensteel $7,812.21. She then allegedly sent the videos to Eisenberg, who says he received them on Feb. 2, and also allegedly sent them to Ousley's employer. Ousley resigned after administrators confronted him about the videos. The videos also somehow ended up on pornhub.com. On Thursday, a judge barred Eisenberg from contacting Ousley or his former fiancee. The Dallas Morning News, which notes that Hippensteel is an actress, reports both she and Eisenberg face up to a year in jail. (Read how a criminal found America's first big sex tape.)

(Mar 31, 2017 1:40 PM CDT) A judge on Friday approved an agreement for President Donald Trump to pay $25 million to settle lawsuits over his now-defunct Trump University, ending nearly seven years of legal battles with customers who claimed they were misled by failed promises to teach success in real estate. US District Judge Gonzalo Curiel's ruling settles two class-action lawsuits and a civil lawsuit by New York AG Eric Schneiderman, the AP reports. Trump had vowed never to settle but said after the election he didn't have time for a trial, even though he believed he would've prevailed. Under terms of the settlement, he admits no wrongdoing. The lawsuits alleged that Trump University gave nationwide seminars that were like infomercials, constantly pressuring people to spend more and, in the end, failing to deliver. Attorneys for ex-customers have said their clients will get at least 90% of their money back, based on the roughly 3,730 claims submitted. The Trump U case dogged the GOP businessman throughout the campaign as rivals used it to portray him as dishonest and deceitful. Trump brought more attention by repeatedly assailing Curiel, insinuating the Indiana-born judge's Mexican heritage exposed a bias. The judge rejected requests by two ex-students who objected to the settlement. Court docs unsealed last year revealed strategies for enticing people to enroll even if they couldn't afford it, outlining how employees should guide people through the roller coaster of emotions and telling employees to be very aggressive. Trump acknowledged in depositions that he played on people's fantasies and couldn't recall names of employees, despite saying he'd hand-picked them. The White House didn't immediately respond to a request for comment on the ruling.

(May 12, 2011 2:33 PM CDT) Bello Masaba demands absolute obedience from his wives--all 86 of them. The 87-year-old Nigerian faith healer has been marrying a woman every few weeks for decades, assembling an extended family of around 5,000 people, many of whom live in the sprawling compound around his house. That huge harem has gotten him in trouble with the law--Nigeria is run by Sharia law, and the Koran says a man should have at most four wives. But he got off after his wives protested on his behalf. Robyn Dixon of the LA Times talked to Masaba at his compound, where he typically sits in front of a microphone, his voice broadcast on loudspeakers. I get a revelation from God telling me any woman I'm going to marry, he says. Otherwise I wouldn't have gone beyond two. He refuses to use medicine, and won't let his wives or children use it, either. Coincidentally, around 50 of his 185 children are dead. I didn't feel annoyed or upset when they died, he said, because it's God who gave them to me, and it's God who takes them away.

(Jul 29, 2019 4:30 AM CDT) One of the youngest people convicted of murder in American history has been killed in a car crash, 21 years after he and another student killed four students and a teacher at a middle school in Arkansas. Police say 33-year-old Drew Grant was killed in a crash Saturday evening in Independence County, Missouri, after a Chevrolet Tahoe crossed into his lane on a highway and hit his Honda CRV head-on, KAIT8 reports. Grant--who legally changed his name from Andrew Golden--was just 11 years old when he and 13-year-old Mitchell Johnson carried out the shooting at Jonesboro Westside Middle School on March 24, 1998. He pulled a fire alarm after lunch then ran to a nearby field, where he and Johnson opened fire on teachers and students with weapons they had stolen from their parents' homes. Two 11-year-old girls, two 12-year-old girls, and a teacher were killed. After what was at the time the second-deadliest school shooting in US history, the boys were given the maximum sentence possible under state law and were incarcerated until their 21st birthdays. In 2008, less than a year after his release, Grant was caught applying for a concealed carry handgun permit under his new name, the Huffington Post reports. The permit was denied. Two other adults and a child were injured in Saturday's crash. The news of Andrew Golden's death today fills our family with mixed emotions as I'm sure it does with the other families and students of the Westside shooting, said Mitch and Zane Wright, husband and son of slain teacher Shannon Wright. Mostly sadness. Sadness for his wife and son, sadness that that they too will feel the loss that we have felt.

(Sep 1, 2012 4:42 PM CDT) Hal David, who along with partner Burt Bacharach penned dozens of timeless songs for movies, television, and a variety of recording artists in the 1960s and beyond, has died. He was 91. David reportedly died of complications from a stroke this morning in Los Angeles. Bacharach and David wrote many top 40 hits including Raindrops Keep Fallin' On My Head, Close to You, and That's What Friends Are For. As a lyric writer, Hal was simple, concise and poetic--conveying volumes of meaning in fewest possible words and always in service to the music, says songwriter Paul Williams. David and Bacharach met when both worked in the Brill Building, New York's legendary Tin Pan Alley song factory, and In 1962 they began writing for a young singer named Dionne Warwick. Bacharach and David also wrote hit songs for numerous others, including The Beatles, Barbra Streisand, Frank Sinatra, and Neil Diamond. The hit-making team broke up after the 1973, sued each other, and settled their lawsuits out of court. Try and tell a narrative, David once said to explain his success as a lyricist. Try to say things as simply as possible, which is probably the most difficult thing to do.

(May 4, 2017 7:49 AM CDT) Stephen Hawking is giving humanity a tall order: Colonize Mars in the next century or watch as life on Earth fizzles out. After last year claiming that humans have 1,000 years left on Earth, Hawking says in a new documentary that we instead have about 100 years until we'll need to jump ship as Earth is overwhelmed by overpopulation, climate change, disease, and artificial intelligence. It might be a bit premature to start packing, but the BBC's Expedition New Earth will explore technological and scientific advances that will enable life in space or a colony on another planet, reports the Telegraph. It will show Hawking's ambition isn't as fantastical as it sounds--that science fact is closer to science fiction than we ever thought, the BBC says, per Newsweek. Elon Musk of SpaceX is already planning to send humans to Mars in the next decade. But while a Mars colony is a good idea, bringing new scientific discoveries, columnist Eric Mack says Hawking needs to give his head a shake if he honestly believes Mars, the moon, or anywhere else in our solar system will be more hospitable than Earth even after a host of disasters. Just cleaning up our own mess and starting over by rising from the rubble seems more practical and more affordable than figuring out how to grow food or survive radiation poisoning on Mars, he writes at Forbes. The solution to all of our problems is here on Earth, he adds. Yet somehow, the grass is always greener for some people, even when it's on a dead Red Planet. (For some much funnier Hawking news, check out this skit.)

(Dec 20, 2017 6:57 PM) Sen. Al Franken plans to officially leave the US Senate on Jan. 2, the AP reports. The announcement Wednesday from a Franken spokesperson should put to rest questions surrounding the timing of the Minnesota Democrat's departure and concern that he might reverse his planned resignation. Franken announced earlier this month that he would leave in the coming weeks amid several sexual misconduct allegations. His office later indicated it would come sometime in early January. Gov. Mark Dayton's choice to replace Franken, Lt. Gov. Tina Smith, is set to be sworn in Jan. 3. Smith will keep some of Franken's top staff when she takes office. She plans to run for the seat in 2018.

(Mar 29, 2013 11:13 AM CDT) NPR mainstay Talk of the Nation is going off the air in June after 21 years. The nation's bigger NPR stations thought the afternoon call-in format had grown stale and agitated for something newsier, reports the New York Times. They'll get an expanded version of the show Here & Now starting July 1, reports Boston's WBUR, where the latter show is produced. Talk of the Nation host Neal Conan will step away from the rigors of daily journalism, says NPR, but he and all the show's staffers will be offered different jobs at the network. The show runs from 2pm to 4pm Eastern Monday through Thursday. The program in that time slot on Fridays, Science Friday, will remain.

(Dec 13, 2018 7:56 AM) It took more than two hours to extract him from his vehicle, and he'd been trapped inside it for more than two hours before that. Michael Finn is lucky to be alive after being pulled out of California's Klamath River early Wednesday after an accident that sent his Ford Fusion flying into the water, overturned for almost five hours, the California Highway Patrol tells KDRV. CHP says that around 5:30am that day, a call came in that an upside-down car had been spotted in the river, and when rescuers rushed to the scene, they found the car on its roof, almost fully submerged, with its emergency flashers blinking. When the car was pulled up, Finn was discovered inside, alive and breathing thanks to a small air pocket, and he was taken out of the car at almost 8am. He tells police he thinks he crashed around 3am. KVAL cites the multiple agencies that were involved in getting the 28-year-old and his car out of the river, with firefighters, CHP officers, divers, EMTs, and a towing company all playing a part. One Siskiyou County Sheriff's Office diver in particular was extremely instrumental in the rescue, jumping into the water to hook Finn's car up to a towline, per KDRV and KOBI-TV. As of Wednesday night, hospital officials said Finn was in guarded condition from exposure, with his vitals still all over the map. It's unclear what caused his car to crash. (A Mississippi woman walked away relatively unscathed after her car went airborne and crashed into a gas pump.)

(Mar 24, 2016 9:54 AM CDT) Seven hackers tied to the Iranian government were charged Thursday in a series of punishing cyberattacks on a small dam outside New York City and on dozens of banks--intrusions that reached into American infrastructure and disrupted the financial system, federal law enforcement officials said. The hackers were charged in indictments unsealed and announced at a Justice Department news conference in Washington, reports the AP. The case stems in part from a 2013 cyber intrusion in which hackers targeted the Bowman Avenue Dam, a small flood-control structure in Rye Brook, about 20 miles north of New York City. The indictment calls those charged experienced computer hackers who performed work on behalf of the Iranian Government, including the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, reports the New York Times. Though the individuals are not in American custody, officials said the goal is to put cybercriminals on notice that they cannot act with impunity. The message of this case is that we will work together to shrink the world and impose costs on these people, so that no matter where they are, we will reach them, FBI Director James Comey said. It's the latest instance of the Obama administration publicly blaming foreign nations for damaging cyberbreaches, though the Times notes it is the first time the White House has taken action against Iran for a string of cyberattacks that date back to 2011. The Justice Department in May 2014 indicted five Chinese military officials suspected of hacking into several major American companies and stealing trade secrets.

(Aug 23, 2018 10:00 AM CDT) Tourists love to break Italy's law against jumping into its many fountains, but two men who stripped down to their underwear for a photo-worthy dip have particularly irked locals with their fountain of choice. After all, the fountain sits at Rome's Altar of the Fatherland, which holds the tomb of an unknown soldier and represents Italy's 500,000 dead during World War I, reports the New York Times. Police are now on the hunt for the culprits, one of whom dropped his drawers for a photo obtained by the Guardian, and both of whom have been described as English speakers. Or, as Interior Minister Matteo Salvini calls them, idiots. I would know how to 'educate' these idiots if they get caught, Italy is not their bathroom! Salvini tweeted Tuesday, per the Guardian. Police added that the scene at the monument, known in Italy as Altare Della Patria, seriously offended the national feeling and the memory of the fallen to whom the monument is dedicated. Authorities have asked witnesses and consulates in Rome for help in identifying the pair, who could face fines of $460. (Meanwhile, Florence is combating tourists with water hoses.)

(Apr 16, 2018 4:14 PM CDT) An 8-year-old student took a kitchen knife to a central Minnesota elementary school and randomly attacked three other children Monday, authorities said. Police Chief Perry Beise said the victims--aged 8, 9 and 13--suffered superficial wounds requiring stitches in the attack at Pleasantview Elementary in Sauk Rapids. No one else was hurt. Beise told the AP he didn't know why the boy did it. If I could answer that question I would, the police chief said. He randomly cut three students then walked into the office and set the knife down. School Superintendent Bruce Watkins said the boy lashed out at the other students until an adult intervened. The incident lasted about 5 minutes and took place in a school hallway. It happened about 7:15am as students were arriving for class, Watkins told the Star Tribune of Minneapolis.

(Jul 25, 2017 12:26 PM CDT) What does it take to get blocked on Twitter by the president of the United States of America? If you're Chrissy Teigen, half a dozen years or so of dedicated trolling and one five-word phrase. Time reports the model has been hassling Donald Trump on Twitter since at least 2011 and was finally blocked this week after tweeting lol no one likes you at the president. Teigen was responding to Trump's complaint that Republicans, even some that were carried over the line on my back, do very little to protect their President, according to People. Teigen appears proud of her new inability to follow Trump's tweets, sharing the blocking notification Tuesday. In a February interview with USA Today, Teigen called the president the most vile person on this planet.

(Jul 13, 2014 9:00 AM CDT) Authorities say a Greyhound bus and car collided on a highway near Indiana's border with Ohio, killing one person and injuring at least 18 others. A Wayne County spokesman says the accident happened this morning on interstate 70 near Richmond, which is about 70 miles east of Indianapolis. The spokesman says one person was reportedly killed and 18 people were taken to hospitals. An Indianapolis woman who drove past the accident scene says the bus ended up off the shoulder of the highway's eastbound lane and the other vehicle lay crushed in the inbound lane. She says the vehicle was crushed so badly that she couldn't make out its wheels.

(Oct 13, 2008 10:58 AM CDT) A judge has denied Internet access to five suspects being held at Guantanamo Bay for their involvement in the Sept. 11 attacks, reports the Miami Herald. Three of the five are their own attorneys and requested access to help prepare their defense. The government was ordered to provide enough battery power to allow the suspects to operate their prison laptops 12 hours a day. The judge denied additional requests for PowerPoint software, printers and scanners. ''Reasonable access does not equate to a right or an entitlement to be placed on the same footing as a technologically state-of-the-art law office,'' the judge wrote. Suspects using legal counsel will be allowed access to attorneys' downloaded files of Internet reports and information, provided it passes government censors.

(Oct 2, 2015 8:10 AM CDT) Robert Samuel is a professional time-killer. As the founder and CEO of Same Ole Line Dudes (or SOLD) in New York, he'll keep your place in line to ensure you get your hands on iPhones, the latest Air Jordans, or the hottest Broadway tix in town. SOLD has even helped New Yorkers with brunch waitlists, sample sales, and passports. And because he's paid for his time--$25 for the first hour, and $10 for every half-hour thereafter--long lines are likely a lot more welcome to him than they are to the rest of us. In fact, Samuel recently made nearly $1,000 when he spent 48 hours at the very head of the line for the iPhone 6, reports Salon, which calls the business part of the Uber-ization of everything. Since starting SOLD after getting laid off in 2012, Samuel now has 15 employees. He says he makes up to $1,000 a week, though the New York Times notes that because his business is cyclical, he currently also has a full-time job as a security guard. The line-waiting doesn't always sound pleasant. SOLD employee Adonis Porch tells Salon he's had to wait in hot weather, freezing weather, rain, sleet, and snow. Samuel says that while his customers can be superwealthy, most are just everyday people for whom time is a real commodity, reports CNBC. Moms hire me because they can't wait in lines in the mornings. They have to take the kids off to school. Though in that wealthy vein, the Times recounts the time a group from the Middle East had nine SOLD workers wait in line for Cronuts. Whatever he's doing, his advice: The rule is always respect the order of things. First come first served. (This line stretched more than a mile last November.)

(Jan 28, 2019 8:47 AM) Haotong Li was in a tie for third place heading into the 18th hole at the Omega Dubai Desert Classic in the UAE on Sunday. Then the Chinese pro golfer's caddie stood in the wrong place, at the wrong time. USA Today notes Mike Burrow apparently broke a new golfing rule that went into effect Jan. 1, stating that a caddie can't deliberately stand on or close to an extension of the line of play behind the player's ball when the player begins taking a stance for the stroke and until the stroke is made. Officials decided Burrow had been within Li's line of play, costing Li two strokes and sending him to 12th place--which, in effect, also cost him nearly $100,000 in prize money. The video replay isn't helping stem the controversy: Per ESPN, footage shows Burrow strolling away before Li got into position, but it was ruled Li had already been in his stance ; the clip circulating online shows Burrow stepping away at the exact same moment Li starts to assume his position. SB Nation calls it an irrelevant ticky-tack interpretation, while fellow pro golfer Paul McGinley tweets, This is so ridiculously marginal. The player should be given the benefit of the doubt. The rule changes are largely about the spirit of the game & player integrity not this pedanticness. Li himself seemed to be slowly but surely getting over the sting of his big loss: Early Monday, he posted a photo of himself hugging an unidentified child, tweeting, Such a tough day until i saw this lovely picture.

(Sep 11, 2015 5:24 PM CDT) The US will accept at least 10,000 Syrian refugees over the next year, and that's great--but it's a drop in the bucket compared to the 800,000 Southeast Asian refugees we accepted after the Vietnam War. That's the argument in Mother Jones today, as writer Max J. Rosenthal quotes experts and activists who want to see the US do more. Even if the US doesn't accept a large number of refugees--the 10,000 that will now be allowed into the US is about half the number of refugees who arrived in Munich from Hungary last weekend--merely taking action could help convince other nations to pitch in, Rosenthal writes. Click for his full piece.

(Aug 13, 2012 1:02 PM CDT) Tomorrow, a hypersonic aircraft will zip above the Pacific Ocean at Mach 6 for 300 seconds--twice as long as any previous flight at that speed. Just how fast is Mach 6? A blazing 3,600mph--meaning it could get you from Los Angeles to New York in 46 minutes, the Los Angeles Times reports. Scientists have long aimed to sustain hypersonic flight for more than just a few minutes, and tomorrow's flight is a key test for an experimental aircraft called the X-51A WaveRider, housed at the Mojave Desert's Edwards Air Force Base. Attaining sustained hypersonic flight is like going from propeller-driven aircraft to jet aircraft, says one expert, and it's important for the future of everything from spacecraft and military aircraft to missiles and passenger planes. But, though NASA and the Pentagon are both financing research into hypersonic flight, results so far have been less than promising. One 2011 test flight ended with the aircraft's skin peeling away. And, though a 2010 WaveRider flight was successful, a subsequent flight last year ended prematurely.

(Feb 27, 2009 8:09 AM) The US economy contracted at a staggering 6.2% pace at the end of 2008, the worst showing in more than a quarter-century, as consumers and businesses ratcheted back spending, plunging the country deeper into recession. That's drastically worse than the 3.8% the government originally estimated, and the 5.4% economists predicted. Looking ahead, economists predict consumers and businesses will keep cutting back spending, making the first six months of this year especially rocky. The new report offered grim proof that the economy's tailspin accelerated in the fourth quarter under a slew of negative forces feeding on each other. The economy started off 2008 on feeble footing, picked up a bit of speed in the spring, and then contracted at an annualized rate of 0.5 percent in the third quarter. Before today's report was released, many were projecting an annualized drop of 5% this quarter. But given the dismal state of the jobs market, an even sharper decline now looks possible.

(Aug 12, 2009 5:57 AM CDT) Robert Benmosche has been at the head of AIG for 48 hours now, so naturally it's time for a vacation. The new CEO of the four-times-bailed-out insurer is leaving for his 8,000-square foot villa on the Adriatic for the next two weeks. It's probably not a propitious time for an incoming CEO to begin with a vacation, one HR manager tells Bloomberg. Benmosche is the fifth CEO since 2005 for AIG, which gobbled up $182.5 billion in public money as the financial crisis wore on. His Croatian pad, once home to the treasurer of the king of Yugoslavia, comprises four buildings and has 150 feet of waterfront. An AIG spokesman refused to comment on the new chief's plans, but AIG reported a profitable second quarter last week, after six quarters under water.

(Mar 9, 2016 6:47 AM) A Kansas woman has died from a blood clot just 10 days after the premature birth of her triplets, leaving behind a husband and two older children. Cassia Rott died the day she came home from the hospital to see her two older daughters, Chloe, 7, and Tenley, 2, for the first time since her naturally conceived triplets, Levi, Piper, and Asher, were born, and it was the happiest I'd ever seen her, husband and father Joey Rott tells the Kansas City Star. At least she had that--a few minutes to enjoy the squeals of her adoring daughters and, after months of living close to a hospital in Wichita to play it safe, getting to see the century-old white farmhouse her family had worked so hard to make home. It was a good few minutes, Rott tells ABC News. Five minutes later, after complaining of chest pain, Casi was being raced down the gravel road by Joey, who knew he'd already lost her. It had happened once already: Casi suffered a pulmonary embolism (a blood clot in her lungs) just days after the triplets were delivered by C-section, but the doctors and family thought that with medications everything was under control. A family friend who also has triplets set up a GoFundMe page that asked for $10,000 and has already surpassed $110,000. Family members are also helping, and donations have been set up to help pay for a night service so that Joey, an IT worker, can sleep. Chloe, the 7-year-old, is helping care for her toddler sister and hopes her mom's tombstone can be heart-shaped but flat on the bottom, so it can stand forever. (See this heartwarming story about a mother of triplets.)

(Sep 24, 2015 8:23 AM CDT) It's been more than 20 years since whales were spotted in the Long Island Sound--and even longer since the last humpback was spied--but that streak was broken this summer in what one maritime expert is calling the year of the whale, the Hour reports. Boaters off Long Island and Connecticut have been capturing images of belugas, humpbacks, and at least one minke starting in May, when three belugas were seen near Fairfield, Conn. But while the creatures provide perfect photo ops (especially breaching humpbacks), NOAA warns people to keep their distance, the AP notes. Under the Marine Mammal Protection Act, only one boat can come within 300 feet of a whale, and even then only for 15 minutes, NBC Connecticut reports; it also must reduce speed and tell other boats about the sighting. (An Ocean Etiquette guide by NOAA Fisheries offers more tips. The biggest question, though, has yet to be definitively answered: Why did the whales return to the Sound after such a long break? Experts believe baitfish-harvesting restrictions and less rainfall (which reduces polluted runoff from entering the waters) may have drawn the whales back, per the AP. The whale expert cited in the Hour adds that a whale who's hurt or sick may also sometimes enter strange waters. Whatever the reasons, local boaters are thrilled. I was having heart palpitations I was so excited, one tells the AP, while another says he was double-teamed off Stamford, Conn.: I know for certain that there was more than one whale because the breaching one started to scare me and breached behind the boat while the other whale was in front. I got really scared that it could hit or crush my 27-foot boat. It was about the size of the boat.

(May 22, 2015 2:10 AM CDT) Pop goes the bubble: An energy company chief's brief time as the richest person in China ended in a spectacular collapse this week. In a brutal 30 minutes or so of trading on Wednesday, Li Hejun's fortune went down by as much as $500 million a minute as shares in Hanergy Thin Film Power Group nosedived, NBC News reports. Li, who owns 80% of the company, lost about half of his $30 billion fortune before trading in the solar panel firm was halted. The company's shares had soared 664% in the year before this week's crash, causing Li to briefly overtake property tycoon Wang Jianlin and Alibaba chairman Jack Ma as China's richest man, reports the South China Morning Post. Sources tell Reuters that regulators in Hong Kong have been probing alleged market manipulation involving Hanergy for weeks. Li was absent from the company's annual shareholder meeting, which began just as shares started to fall, reports CNNMoney, which notes that another mysterious stock crash in Hong Kong yesterday wiped out 40% of the share price of two companies controlled by billionaire Pan Sutong. Pan lost $12.7 billion of the $22 billion he made this year, but he tells Bloomberg he's not disturbed by his fall from No. 4 to No. 20 on its Asia wealth list. A genuinely wealthy person would not count his wealth every day, the property magnate says. (Another Chinese tycoon spent millions treating 6,400 employees to a vacation in France.)

(May 30, 2018 1:03 AM CDT) A knife-wielding prison inmate on a 48-hour leave stabbed two police officers Tuesday in the Belgian city of Liege, seized their service weapons, and shot them and a bystander to death before being mowed down by a group of officers, setting off a major terror investigation into the country's most savage assault since the March 2016 attacks that left 32 people dead at the Brussels airport and subway system. Prime Minister Charles Michel acknowledged the assailant, who had a lengthy criminal record that included theft, assault, and drug offenses, had appeared in three reports on radicalism but was still allowed to take a leave from prison, the AP reports. Is our system working when we see that these kind of people are running free? asked Deputy Prime Minister Alexander De Croo. The suspect is also believed to have killed an acquaintance the day before the Liege attack.

(Sep 10, 2013 9:27 AM CDT) India rape cases may be making headlines, but they're only the tip of the iceberg, according to an unprecedented and ground-breaking UN study. The anonymous survey of 10,000 men and 3,000 women in Bangladesh, China, Cambodia, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, and Sri Lanka--home to more than half the global population--found 25% of men had raped their partner, while 10% raped another woman at least once, the Guardian reports. (CNN has a breakdown of figures per country.) Some 75% said they felt entitled to do so, while more than half cited entertainment value; 70% said they went unpunished. This is really the first time we've had data on rape perpetration on this scale, not just in the region but in the world, and I think it probably suggests rape is more widespread than we had thought, said one author, who points to paid sex, physical and sexual abuse as a child, and having many sexual partners, as factors that increase the likelihood a man will rape. And since more than half committed rape as a teenager, it highlights the need to start working with younger boys and girls to stop the violence, she said. Options include changing social norms, cutting down on childhood violence, and prosecuting rapists. The fact that there is such variation by country, she says, highlights that it isn't inevitable and that there are things we can do to prevent it.

(Nov 20, 2010 5:23 PM) Hitwise has some new stats that qualify as impressive even by Facebook standards. Mark Zuckerberg's baby accounts for 25% of page views and 10% of Internet visits, notes the Tech Talk blog of CBS. Trailing is Google, with 7% of Internet visits and YouTube with 3%. Those two also combine for 11.7% of page views. All of which means that Facebook is gobbling up a lot of what ... Zuckerberg called the vast 'uncharted' territory of the Internet, writes Dan Farber. It's the transition from the web as a constellation of billions of web pages navigated via search to a human-centered habitat with people filtering the massive expanse of the Internet for each other.

(Feb 12, 2011 8:05 AM) You have syphilis. OK, maybe not. That's the experience hundreds of people may have suffered thanks to inconsistencies in the dominant syphilis test, USA Today reports. Some 20% of people who tested positive since the 1980s were actually free of the disease, according to a study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The CDC recommends a second testing method--but doesn't have nationwide figures for how prevalent the faulty method is.

(Sep 5, 2016 2:49 PM CDT) For almost a quarter-century, Shawnee Chasser has returned home in the evenings to a house in the trees, the latest one a wooden two-story structure built high above the ground on the Florida property where her late son used to live. But Miami-Dade County officials are now ordering the 65-year-old grandmother with purple hair, who says she can't deal with closed doors and windows, out of her open-air abode, saying the Biscayne Gardens cottage wasn't built to code and is unsafe--and she's got to destroy it within the next four months, the Miami Herald reports. This has got to be my first time ever of somebody living in a treehouse, the county's code enforcement director says, adding that hurricanes in the state means they have to keep to the code, which includes getting permits for running water and electricity. The property Chasser is on is a land trust owned by her daughter, and Chasser often charges fees to let people camp in the yard and rent out rooms in the legal home once occupied by her son, who died in 2009. Chasser was busted for her treehouse, which comes complete with a Home Depot ceiling fan and a resident raccoon named Coonie, about a year ago when someone called the local 311 to complain about all the people coming in and out of the property. Chasser--who hawks organic popcorn at Whole Foods and says living in her DIY home is spiritual --says she can't afford to bring the treehouse up to code (she's already paid $3,000 in fines) and doesn't want to be accused of being a fraud, as her Shawnee's Greenthumb Popcorn brags right on the bag about her unusual living conditions. I'm not taking down anything. I'll chain myself to that treehouse, she tells the Herald, adding she may appeal the county's mandate.

(Jan 21, 2019 11:32 AM) The most expensive Lincoln model sold thus far is on display at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit this week--and if you're not one of the dozens of people who've already nabbed one of the $110,000 luxury cars, you're out of luck. Per CNBC, the limited-edition 80th Anniversary Lincoln Continental Coach Door Edition, making headlines for its suicide doors, was sold out within 48 hours of its debut, with only 80 buyers. (The center-opening doors have that nickname because critics see the design as dangerous.) The Detroit Free Press reports on the clamor after the car was announced, with hundreds of potential purchasers flooding Lincoln dealerships with phone calls when the news broke in mid-December. One customer was one of these people who could have whatever they wanted, and he wanted to match the Lincoln with his aircraft, Robert Parker, Lincoln's marketing director, says. Parker says December was the brand's best month in two years, and that response for this vehicle came even from outside the US, including from Dubai and Shanghai. A limited-edition 2020 version is in the works, though there will be variations. Recipients of the 2019 model will start getting delivery of their sedans over the summer. (More than a dozen cars that are getting the ax.)

(Dec 10, 2015 12:22 AM) The Jeb Bush backers who poured more than $100 million into pro-Bush super PAC Right to Rise haven't exactly been getting a lot of bang for their buck. The group has already spent more than $49 million, not including salaries and other operating expenses, only to have its candidate's poll numbers drop to the low single figures, the Washington Post reports. The spending blitz included $18.5 million on Bush ads in New Hampshire, where Politico reports he's still stuck in sixth place. The super PAC still has more than $67 million, according to finance filings, but that may not be enough to save the Bush campaign. You'd always rather be the one with the money, a GOP strategist tells the Post. But clearly, this cycle we're learning that money doesn't buy you love. Right to Rise rolled out its first attack ad this week, which shows the Oval Office desk and warns that the person behind this desk will have to protect your family when the attacks come here, CNN reports. Will he be impulsive and reckless, like Donald Trump? the narrator asks. Will he have voted to dramatically weaken counterterrorism surveillance, like Ted Cruz? Will he have skipped crucial national security hearings and votes just to campaign, like Marco Rubio? Bush, meanwhile, spent Wednesday campaigning in New Hampshire, where he told guests at a campaign event that Trump is Barack Obama--the other version of it because of the way both men have divided the country, NBC News reports. (Bush and other candidates have revealed their favorite TV shows.)

(Jun 17, 2015 11:15 AM CDT) The community store on the tiny island of Canna, located in the Inner Scottish Hebrides, goes by the honor system on weekends, leaving its doors open all night so fishermen can tap the WiFi and make purchases; they simply log what they've taken in a ledger and leave money in an honesty box, per the Guardian. But now the shop's manager says the honesty-box tradition may need to end and the store will be locked at night after it was burglarized over the weekend--what many believe to be the first theft in nearly half a century. Stolen were candy, chocolate bars, coffee, batteries, toiletries, and tea-time biscuits, per the store's Facebook page, as well as six hand-knit wool caps made by manager Julie McCabe. We are all pretty gutted, she tells the Aberdeen Press and Journal. I am absolutely floored that someone has been in and did that to our community. And what the Mirror is calling the island's crime wave doesn't stop there: Someone also ripped off the island's beauty shop, apparently on the same night, lifting body butter, bath oils, and shower gels, and money from that store's honesty box. The island, which boasts a population of less than 30, by various counts, prides itself on its nonexistent crime rate and doesn't even have a police station, the Guardian notes. The last reported incident was a 2008 sex-assault case, and before that, the theft of a wooden plate from one of the local churches in the 1960s. We are thinking about putting CCTV in, but we don't want to do that because it goes against the whole honesty idea, McCabe tells the paper.

(Mar 4, 2009 10:17 AM) More than 20% of Americans with home mortgages owe more to their lenders than their homes are worth, a 2% rise since September, the Washington Post reports. The hardest-hit state was Nevada, where 55% of homeowners with mortgages have negative equity. These 8.3 million homeowners nationwide are much more likely to enter foreclosure; another 2.2 million are at risk of being underwater, in industry parlance.

(Nov 6, 2008 6:30 AM) The Bank of England--under massive pressure to stem the red ink drowning the continent's economy--slashed its key lending rate by an unprecedented 150 basis points today, reports Reuters. The move, which set the rate at 3%, dwarfed the 75-point cut market watchers had anticipated. Moments later the European Central Bank announced its own cut of 50 points, bringing rates in the eurozone to 3.25%. Grim job news from the US, a broad housing-market and manufacturing-sector decline in Britain, and weak earning reports combined today to foil a brief rally by Asian and European markets after Barack Obama's election. Europeans, faced with the first recession to encompass the euro zone since its inception, are now carefully watching for Obama to assemble his economic team, including Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson's successor.

(Dec 22, 2012 1:00 PM) More apparent fallout from the Connecticut shooting: Sales of AR-15 magazines are so through the roof that the world's biggest firearm supplier apologized this week for delays, Raw Story reports. It really has been unprecedented in the last 5 days, wrote a spokesman from Brownells on the AR15.com forum. In fact, 3.5 years' worth of magazines have sold over 72 hours for the AR-15, which is similar to the weapon used to murder 20 elementary school children in Newtown, Connecticut. We're working like crazy to get these orders to you as quickly as possible, the spokesman added. (Meanwhile Dick's Sporting Goods has stopped selling some semiautomatic rifles, which are selling fast at Walmart.

(Oct 20, 2015 10:19 AM CDT) Not since Hershey added almonds to its Kisses a quarter-century ago has the brand undergone a bigger change than this, say officials: Introducing Hershey's Kisses Deluxe--a chocolate twice the size of the original Kisses with a hazelnut center and rice crisps, per USA Today. The new gold-wrapped product was actually tested in China in 2013, though with wheat crisps rather than rice, but it will hit US stores for the first time on Nov. 5. Available until at least Valentine's Day, they'll sell in packages of three for $1 to 75 for $32. (Hershey is also experimenting with 3D chocolate.

(Apr 29, 2016 12:49 PM CDT) It's a potentially lethal prank that could soon be attached to some pretty serious legal consequences. The Washington Post reports a bill that would make the penalty for swatting--calling in false threats to prompt an armed law enforcement response on unsuspecting victims--up to 20 years in prison and heavy fines just survived a crucial vote by the House Energy and Commerce Committee. The next stop for HR 2031 (the Anti-Swatting Act of 2015) is a floor vote in the House. One of the bill's sponsors, Massachusetts Rep. Katherine Clark has, herself, been a victim of swatting--a frightening experience, she tells Esquire, that was likely prompted by her support for anti-swatting legislation. In that case, someone called police saying there was an active shooter in her house. Though Esquire says the FBI doesn't maintain swatting stats, a press release from Clark cites an estimated 400 such incidents annually. While falsely phoning in bomb threats and terrorist attacks is currently a federal crime, making false reports of other emergency situations is not, and she wants to close that loophole. Online gamers, who often broadcast their gameplay in real time on the Internet, are often the target of swatting, and at the Post, Brian Fung observes that the swatting trend underscores how easy it is, in the Internet age, for a harasser to dig up personal information belonging to their targets. It further puts a spotlight on the growing militarization of police forces ... [which] makes it easier for more police departments to meet situations with guns and tactical gear.

(Sep 4, 2015 5:40 PM CDT) A major Detroit-area drug trafficker known as White Boy Rick who has spent nearly 30 years in prison could soon be released after a judge ordered a resentencing today. Richard Wershe Jr., 46, deserves a new sentence because he was sentenced at the age of 18 under old law and the justice system now treats juveniles constitutionally different than adults, Wayne County Circuit Judge Dana Hathaway ruled. She scheduled the resentencing for Sept. 18 over the objections of Wayne County prosecutors, who say they plan to appeal because they believe his sentence is lawful and his rights-violations claims were rejected on a previous appeal. Defense attorney Ralph Musilli said his client conceivably could be released immediately after that hearing, given the time he has served. He has done his time, his mother, Darlene McCormick, said after the hearing. He's been very good and he needs to get out, spend time with his family, which includes a 27-year-old son born shortly after his father was imprisoned. At the time Wershe was arrested in 1987, authorities described him as being at the top echelons of trafficking. One judge said at a 1987 hearing that he's worse than a mass murderer. Hathaway said she's not ruling that Wershe's sentence (a life sentence with parole) is unconstitutional. Rather, Wershe is entitled to be resentenced with consideration given to his youth and the circumstances surrounding the crime. Wershe, who is being held in a state prison in northern Michigan, has helped the FBI investigate drugs and police corruption.

(Feb 12, 2009 12:55 PM) The backlash against Miley Cyrus and her goofy face photo continues: An Asian-American woman in Los Angeles has filed a class-action lawsuit on behalf of all the city's Asian Pacific Islanders, E! reports. Lucie Kim wants $4,000 in damages for each of LA's approximately 1 million Asian Americans, claiming Cyrus should have known that her image would be publicly disseminated via the media. News of the lawsuit came on the same day comedian Margaret Cho penned a song about Miley, saying among other things, Why is there nothing that Asians can do/To make fun of other races as easily as you/Why isn't racism against Asians taboo?/Why are we always so racially screwed!

(Dec 17, 2015 7:58 AM) Despite a recent study claiming the opposite, scientists say getting cancer isn't just bad luck in most cases. A study out of Stony Brook University shows as much as 90% of cancers are caused by external factors, like smoking, drinking, sun exposure, and air pollution, and are thus more preventable than previously thought. There are changes that we can all make to our lifestyles to significantly reduce our risk of cancer, a rep for the World Cancer Research Fund tells the Telegraph, adding some of the most common cancers could be prevented by adopting a more healthy diet, exercising more, and maintaining a healthy weight. Scientists note cancer is too common to be explained by mutations in cell division, as a January study suggested, though external factors can cause high rates of mutations, per the Los Angeles Times. Intrinsic risk factors contribute only modestly to cancer development, a study author says. Researchers reviewed several studies--including some showing those who move from countries with low cancer rates to those with high cancer rates soon develop cancer at rates consistent with their new environment--to conclude that most risk factors are environmental or linked to lifestyle. Almost 75% of the risk of colorectal cancer is related to diet, 86% of the risk of skin cancer is linked to sun exposure, and 75% of the risk of developing head and neck cancers is due to tobacco and alcohol, the study finds. It concludes 70% to 90% of cancers would not occur if we could magic away all the risk factors and shows we have to look well beyond pure chance and luck to understand and protect against cancers, says a statistician. Researchers also found mutations during cell division rarely build up to the point of producing cancer, according to Nature. (Soon, hardly anyone under 80 will die of cancer.)

(Mar 4, 2014 9:55 AM) Radioshack released an absolutely grisly quarterly report today, and on its heels came plans to close as many as 1,100 stores--or about 20% of its total, the Wall Street Journal reports. The company said it had lost $191.4 million over the holiday quarter, a huge jump from its $63.3 million loss a year earlier, on a 20% dip in revenue. Overall, it lost $400 million on the year. While some store closings had been expected, the actual number is more than twice the 500 indicated in previous reports. Radioshack blamed the results on lower shopper traffic, lower phone and tablet sales, aggressive sales at its competitors, and a few operational issues. Its stock plunged 28% in early trading. The company's results were much worse than we anticipated, and cast serious doubt on RadioShack's long-term viability in our opinion, one analyst tells Reuters.

(Feb 23, 2011 5:50 AM) Almost a quarter of America's 3,142 counties are slowly dying, according to the US Census Bureau. Some 760 counties are now recording more deaths than births, census figures show, and what demographers call natural decrease is accelerating as the downturn pushes birth rates down and forces young people to move to where the jobs are. Dying counties can be found all over the country, from the Rust Belt to rural areas in the South, and even in some parts of fast-growing California. Natural decrease is an important but not widely appreciated demographic phenomenon that is reshaping our communities in both rural and urban cores of large metro areas, a demographer tells the International Business Times, noting that areas with shrinking populations tend to be those that attract fewer Hispanic immigrants. The first place where natural decrease became a statewide trend over the last decade was West Virginia, and census data suggest Maine, Vermont, and Pennsylvania will soon be next.

(Apr 21, 2016 6:57 PM CDT) A Florida man who piloted a one-person gyrocopter through some of the most restricted US airspace and landed on the lawn of the Capitol last year, was sentenced Thursday to 120 days in jail, the AP reports. Douglas Hughes, 62, has said his April 15, 2015, flight in the bare-bones aircraft was a way to call attention to the influence of big money in politics. The former mail carrier was carrying letters for each member of Congress on the topic of campaign finance and the tail of his aircraft had a postal service logo. Hughes pleaded guilty in November to a felony of operating a gyrocopter without a license. Prosecutors had asked for 10 months in prison, arguing that his flight from Pennsylvania to the nation's capital put countless lives at risk. Hughes' attorneys had said that he should be allowed to remain out of jail. In a statement to the court they underscored that no one was injured as a result of Hughes' flight. They called the stunt an act of aerial civil disobedience and a freedom flight and said it was in the nation's proud tradition of nonviolent civil disobedience. The attention his flight gained, Mr. Hughes hopes, will force the nation to finally confront the issue of campaign finance rather than continue to ignore the problem. For this reason, Mr. Hughes should be considered a hero for his conduct, his attorneys wrote. Hughes was sentenced in federal court in Washington by Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly. (His 535 letters on campaign finance reform were never delivered to Congress.)

(Jun 12, 2013 4:08 PM CDT) Reuters has an amazing tale of survival from Nigeria, where the cook on a tugboat spent 60 hours trapped underwater in the sunken vessel and lived to explain how. Harrison Okene managed to find a 4-foot-high pocket of air after getting trapped in a toilet and its adjoining bedroom when the boat went down in stormy seas off the coast. He kept his head above water until stunned divers found him as they were searching for bodies--10 of Okene's crewmates drowned and another remains missing. I heard a sound of a hammer hitting the vessel, the 29-year-old recalls. Boom, boom, boom. I swam down and found a water dispenser. I pulled the water filter and I hammered the side of the vessel hoping someone would hear me. They did. The salt water did a number on his skin, but Okene is otherwise OK after spending another 60 hours in a decompression chamber. He's not rushing back to the sea, however.

(Dec 29, 2013 1:13 PM) Sure, if you want to lose weight you could just eat fewer calories and go to the gym, but what fun would that be? Radar rounds up 30 weird diet and exercise tricks celebrities use to stay thin. Click through the gallery for a sampling, or check out the complete list (including one star whose diet secret involves ... placenta) here.

(Jul 31, 2014 5:02 PM CDT) Another ceasefire is about to start in Israel and Gaza, but this one is expected to last a few days instead of a few hours. The US and UN announced that all parties had agreed to the humanitarian ceasefire, which is to begin at 8am tomorrow local time and last 72 hours--unless international negotiators manage to extend it, reports AP. The development comes as the Palestinian death toll climbed above 1,400, which the Guardian says is more than the previous two Israel-Hamas conflicts combined. The vast majority of victims have been civilians. It wasn't immediately clear whether Israel would continue to destroy tunnels used by Hamas to launch attacks over the three-day lull.

(Feb 8, 2018 9:11 AM) To save you the ignominy of Googling how long can you go without pooping? we did it for you. The question is sure to come to mind after reading about a bizarre case out of the UK, where Essex Police are on #poowatch and tweeting about it. This after a suspected drug dealer believed to have drugs hidden in his body has now for 21 days refused to poop. The BBC reports the 24-year-old was arrested Jan. 17 and has been under supervision since then, with the department's Operation Raptor team that arrested him providing updates like this one, tweeted Wednesday: Day 21/3 weeks for our man on #poowatch still no movements/items to report, he will remain with us until Friday when we are back at court where we will be requesting a further 8 days should he not produce anything before that hearing. Last Friday they tweeted that the man is being watched by doctors and was in fine health at the time. Per the BBC, police decided to keep the public informed of the man's bowel movements in an effort to quash any illusions that drug dealing is glamorous. The man is reportedly a couple of days away from what a police rep believes to be the record for a suspect not pooping: 23 days. As for the original question about how long one can go, an answer-ish: The Cleveland Clinic says to seek medical help if it's been longer than three weeks; a 16-year-old British girl died in 2013 after the Telegraph reports she did not have a bowel movement for eight weeks. (This remains one classic story of a poop gone wrong.)

(Apr 2, 2018 7:30 PM CDT) A legal defense fund created for fired FBI deputy director Andrew McCabe will no longer accept donations after raising more than a half-million dollars in four days, the AP reports. The fund is to defray costs for McCabe, who was fired after FBI disciplinary officials and the Justice Department concluded he hadn't been candid during an inspector general investigation. The firing came less than two days before he was to retire. The fund will stop accepting donations at 7 p.m. Monday after more than tripling the original goal. McCabe said Monday he's grateful and that the contributions reflect donors' acknowledgement that something in this situation is not fair or just. He has denied wrongdoing. His supporters said the fund was needed for McCabe to respond to congressional inquiries and the inspector general report. The GoFundMe page was updated Monday with a statement of gratitude from McCabe, who called the fund's success an acknowledgement that something in this situation is not fair or just. The page also claims the money will soon go into a formal legal trust. The outpouring of support on GoFundMe has been simply overwhelming, McCabe wrote. Despite its success, some have called the ethics of such a campaign into question. As ABC News reports, Glenn Greenwald of The Intercept pointed out McCabe's apparent personal wealth while calling the campaign obscene, and a pundit on Fox noted that thousands donated despite the FBI's Office of Professional Responsibility investigation on McCabe being unreleased.

(Mar 23, 2009 8:09 AM CDT) The Treasury unveiled its three-part Public-Private Investment Program today, reports the Wall Street Journal. Under the program, up to $1,000 billion in TARP funds will be partnered with private investments to buy troubled assets. The Treasury, Federal Reserve, and FDIC will work with hedge funds and private equity to try to restart the market, and taxpayers will gain if investments turn profitable. In addition to measures targeting troubled assets, the program also includes one to jumpstart traditional lending, which has deteriorated due to the recession, with the FDIC providing a guarantee. Also the government will create several private investment funds that will trade in risky securities, with the Treasury matching private capital dollar for dollar.

(Dec 11, 2020 11:33 AM) The FDA is expected to issue emergency authorization of the Pfizer-BioNTech coronavirus vaccine as soon as Saturday, reports the New York Times. That means we could see people getting vaccinated Monday, Tuesday, Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar said Friday on Good Morning America. Some 2.9 million doses will be shipped within 24 hours of approval, per the Times. It's welcome news at a difficult time. On Wednesday, the US recorded a record 3,124 COVID-19 deaths, more than the roughly 2,900 that occurred in the 9/11 attacks and the roughly 2,400 deaths that occurred in the 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor, according to John Hopkins University. While Thursday's count was slightly lower--3,110, per NBC News--CDC Director Robert Redfield says the US is likely to see at least 3,000 deaths for the next 60 to 90 days, reports the Hill. The reality is the vaccine approval this week's not going to really impact that I think to any degree for the next 60 days, says Redfield. He's urging Americans to double down on basic precautions, like wearing a face mask. About 72% of Americans wear masks. But some 56,000 lives could be saved if that figure rose to 95%, according to forecasts from the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, per CNN. In contrast, vaccinations will only save between 25,200 and 44,500 lives by April, according to the institute. It predicts 500,000 US deaths by that time, up from the current death toll of 292,382, according to John Hopkins. Depressingly, that toll is more than all US deaths recorded on World War II battlefields, per NBC. The Department of Veterans Affairs lists 291,557 battle deaths over the course of four years, not including 113,842 non-theater deaths.

(Dec 29, 2020 9:45 AM) With the governor's executive order barring most evictions due to expire at year's end, the New York Legislature called a special session Monday to pass one of the most comprehensive anti-eviction laws in the nation, per the New York Times. The bill, which Gov. Andrew Cuomo immediately signed, bars landlords from evicting most tenants for 60 days, protects landlords who own 10 or fewer apartments from foreclosure, and automatically renews tax exemptions for elderly or disabled homeowners. Protections are extended until May 1 for tenants who cite financial hardship tied to the coronavirus pandemic or a significant health risk related to a move, per Fox News. Up to 1.2 million New York households are at risk of losing their homes, according to consulting firm Stout, per the Times. In signing a $900 billion relief package on Sunday, President Trump approved $1.3 billion in rent relief for New Yorkers and stretched out a federal eviction moratorium. But state legislators took further action, as some argue the requirements for federal eviction protection are too rigid. Evictions can still proceed in cases where a judge finds tenants have repeatedly faced nuisance complaints, such as for noise. But that's not enough for some landlord groups, who argue tenants don't need to provide proof of hardship. The cost of providing free housing cannot be fully borne by property owners, says Jay Martin, executive director of the Community Housing Improvement Program, per Politico. Meanwhile, the Housing Justice for All coalition has called on lawmakers to clear the back rent owed by New Yorkers and create a hardship fund for small landlords.

(May 18, 2017 9:02 AM CDT) An ex-admiral in the US Navy who served his country for nearly four decades was tempted by parties and prostitutes and ultimately chose karaoke over character, US prosecutors say, and he's now been sentenced to 18 months behind bars for that choice. Reuters reports that 56-year-old Robert Gilbeau, the first active-duty admiral to be handed a conviction for a federal crime, had pleaded guilty in 2016 to lying when federal agents asked him if he'd received gifts from one Fat Leonard --aka Leonard Francis, a foreign defense contractor in Singapore. Per a Justice Department statement, prosecutors say Gilbeau, who had a relationship with Francis that spanned two decades, was showered with fine dining experiences, stays at high-end hotels, and cash, and that the two men often partied together at karaoke bars and clubs, all on Francis' tab. In exchange, prosecutors note, Gilbeau awarded Francis lucrative contracts for services such as waste removal from US ships. Gilbeau reportedly started trashing files and documents tying him to Francis when he found out Francis and others had been arrested in 2013. In a San Diego federal courtroom on Wednesday, US District Judge Janis Sammartino told Gilbeau, You dishonored your shipmates, the Navy, and the United States of America. The Washington Post says Gilbeau offered a shaky, To the Navy, I want to say I am sorry. Gilbeau's attorney notes his client's Bronze Star and Purple Heart to Reuters and says: We respectfully disagree with the court's sentencing decision. Gilbeau, now free on bond, will sign in at the Federal Bureau of Prisons on June 23. Francis, meanwhile, faces up to 25 years in prison on bribery and conspiracy charges. (Another military scandal, this one involving nude pictures.)

(Oct 3, 2017 4:17 PM CDT) A quarter of a century later, you're still my best friend & the most extraordinary man I know, Michelle Obama posted on Instagram along with a photo of her and Barack at their Oct. 3, 1992 wedding. People reports the Obamas celebrated their silver wedding anniversary and first since leaving the White House on Tuesday. Barack responded to Michelle's post by crashing the Pennsylvania Conference for Women, where Michelle was speaking to Shonda Rhimes. Not only have you been an extraordinary partner, not only have you been a great friend, somebody who could always make me laugh, somebody who would always make sure that I was following what I thought was right, but you have also been an example to our daughters and to the entire country, People quotes Barack as saying in a video message that played at the conference. A teary-eyed Michelle joked to the crowd: I better get home.

(May 4, 2017 7:49 PM CDT) Pull up a chair, pour yourself some damn good coffee, and check out the new trailer for Twin Peaks to get your first look at the characters a quarter of a century after the show went off the air. Mashable reports the trailer shows glimpses of Big Ed Hurley, Carl Rodd, Sarah Palmer, Deputy Andy Brennan, Deputy Hawk Hill, and, of course, FBI Special Agent Dale Cooper. A previous trailer had only shown locations, according to Pitchfork. The Twin Peaks limited series revival premieres May 21 on Showtime. David Lynch will also show two episodes at the Cannes Film Festival.