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(Apr 12, 2008 5:50 PM CDT) Traumatized monkeys once the subjects of Soviet experiments are odd remnants of a more prosperous time in Abkhazia, an area of Georgia that calls itself independent, the Los Angeles Times reports. The area was crippled in its effort to break away from Georgia, but the 286 primates living in a research institute remain a point of pride for residents. When the violence ended in a stalemate 15 years ago, other former Soviet states cut off ties with the renegade republic, and the institute sank into oblivion. It now struggles just to care for the animals. People and scientists outside Abkhazia thought we didn't exist anymore, the director says. We only recently started being able to send e-mails to people saying that we exist.

(Sep 1, 2008 11:48 AM CDT) The 17-year-old daughter of Sarah Palin is 5 months pregnant, the Republican vice presidential candidate said today, and plans to keep the child and marry the father. John McCain knew about Bristol Palin's pregnancy before choosing the Alaska governor as his running mate, Reuters reports. The statement comes after speculation on liberal blogs that Palin, 44, faked her most recent pregnancy to cover for her daughter. Our beautiful daughter Bristol came to us with news that as parents we knew would make her grow up faster than we had ever planned, Palin and her husband said in a statement. We're proud of Bristol's decision to have her baby and even prouder to become grandparents. As Bristol faces the responsibilities of adulthood, she knows she has our unconditional love and support.

(Jun 6, 2015 2:03 PM CDT) This looks messy: WNBA players Brittney Griner and Glory Johnson seem headed for a breakup just 28 days into their budding marriage, People reports. The move comes right after Johnson announced her pregnancy, and six weeks after the 24-year-olds were arrested and got league suspensions for getting in a fight at home. Last Wednesday, Glory and I agreed to either legally separate, get divorced, or annul our marriage, Griner says in a statement; she filed papers to annul their marriage on Friday, TMZ reports. Hours later, Johnson posted an Internet meme about unperfect people refusing to give up on each other, but deleted it soon after and said Griner's move blindsided her. Johnson revealed her pregnancy Thursday in an Instagram photo of a bun going into a cake shaped like an oven, but Griner says the pair agreed to call it quits Wednesday. She also claims to know very little about the pregnancy. On Friday, Johnson posted on Instagram, One day until I'm reunited with my wife @brittneygriner. . . This is about to be one CRAZY SUMMER!!! All of this follows a Sports Illustrated interview with Johnson published Tuesday, in which she claims Griner targeted her in their Goodyear, Arizona, domestic dispute. Medical records say Johnson was hit twice on the back of her head by a hard carrying case, giving Johnson spinal trauma and a concussion, while Griner escaped with minor injuries. Adding to the mix, Griner now says Johnson threatened her into getting married in the first place, but doesn't dish on details, notes TMZ.

(Oct 29, 2010 8:54 AM CDT) The economy grew slightly faster over the summer as Americans spent a little more freely: The GDP grew at a 2% rate during the third quarter, in line with what economists had forecast. It marks a slight improvement over last quarter, when the GDP grew at a 1.7% rate. Consumers helped boost last quarter's economic growth with 2.6% growth in spending, the biggest quarterly increase since the end of 2006, before the recession hit. A stock-market rebound made people feel better about spending. Bargains, on everything from cars to home furnishings, also drew them out. But to have any impact on the 9.6% unemployment rate, consumers need to spend even more, and the economy would need to rack up growth of 5% for a full year.

(Nov 21, 2017 7:35 AM) Monaco is set to get 3% bigger. The Guardian looks at Prince Albert II's decision to green-light a construction project that will see 15 acres of land reclaimed from the sea so that more luxury homes can be built on it. The prices are astronomical, and so too, apparently, will be the demand: With its lax tax laws--no personal income tax and no inheritance tax, for instance--about a third of Monaco's residents are millionaires, and the Guardian cites real-estate research that suggests that within 10 years, that figure could jump to roughly 42%. But Monaco measures just 485 acres, and there's basically no more room for additional housing, which can go for as much as $10,000 per square foot. The new Portier Cove neighborhood, which will cost $2 billion to construct, is not the first reclamation project Monaco has undertaken, notes Business Insider: The larger Fontvieille district was constructed in the 1970s. In a 2016 article on the project, the Telegraph reported the project would take 10 years, and that the foundations for the titanic operation alone would take more than 3 years to construct. Hundreds of thousands of tons of sand will be imported from Sicily to create the new land. (in the 20th century, the US shrunk by one square mile.)

(Apr 1, 2016 11:21 AM CDT) Alaska has experienced some unusual natural phenomena lately--including a burping volcano and a desperate need for snow--and it just took another turn into some more weather-related weirdness. Per the Alaska Dispatch News, the mercury at an airport in Southeast Alaska registered at 71 degrees on Thursday, which University of Alaska Fairbanks climate scientist Brian Brettschneider says set a record high for temps in March, beating out a peak of 69 degrees set in March 1915. The fact that it's March--it's pretty amazing, a National Weather Service meteorologist in Juneau says. It's a big deal. What scientists say has brought on this thermometer-busting breach in Klawock, which KTVA notes is northwest of Ketchikan on Prince of Wales Island, is a high-pressure ridge that Brettschneider tells the Dispatch News is basically [like we] had a June or July air mass move in in March. If we had June or July sun, it would have been 80 degrees, but we didn't. Other towns have similarly recorded record highs, and the warm weather is, as of now, anticipated to continue through May. (Alaska also just had the weirdest murder plot in a while.)

(Nov 6, 2019 12:05 PM) A Texas man claims he was sleepwalking when he fatally shot his wife of 35 years a total of six times, including twice in the head and once in the back. Raymond Lazarine of Houston, whose murder trial began this week, admits to the shooting on Dec. 18, 2013. His son, Nathan, describes finding his mother, 63-year-old Deborah, dead on the living room floor of his parents' home after receiving a call from his father that day. A retired detective who investigated the killing recalls Lazarine making an off-the-wall comment along the lines of 'This is like a dream I wish I could wake up from,' per NBC News. But at the start of Lazarine's trial, defense lawyer Feroz Merchant said his 67-year-old client suffered from a sleep disorder and was sleepwalking at the time of the crime so that he wasn't fully responsible. Our position over here is this was a dream and it wasn't voluntary, Merchant said, per KPRC. We've had him evaluated, and obviously the experts are going to come by and say hey, we think he suffers from a medical condition. Four men who were previously incarcerated with Lazarine have testified that he would walk in his sleep, day and night, per KTRK. Nathan Lazarine testified that his father had been seeing a psychiatrist for over a decade and had been prescribed psychotropic drugs, which he sometimes mixed with alcohol. Krysta Johns, however, said Lazarine was a controlling stepfather who'd threatened to kill her mother many times. She described one decades-old event in which Lazarine allegedly pinned down Deborah and held a gun under her chin. (A man committed suicide while sleepwalking.)

(Aug 16, 2008 4:39 PM CDT) Flooding from Tropical Storm Fay killed four people in Haiti and the Dominican Republic, and authorities warned Saturday that the storm could reach hurricane strength as it barreled toward Cuba. Florida's Gov. Charlie Crist declared a state of emergency and said Fay threatened the state with a major disaster. Forecasters said Fay could bring hurricane-force winds to the Florida Keys as soon as Monday. The U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami said that on Saturday afternoon the storm was located about 60 miles south of Guantanamo, Cuba. It was heading west at about 16 mph, and maximum sustained winds had decreased slightly to 40 mph. A man died Saturday in Haiti while trying to cross a river in Leogane, south of Port-au-Prince, said Marie Alta Jean-Baptiste, head of Haiti's civil protection department.

(Oct 7, 2017 1:29 PM CDT) The Canadian government has agreed to pay approximately $600 million to the victims of a program of forced adoption it inflicted on indigenous communities in the 1960s through 1980s, the New York Times reports. According to the BBC, thousands of indigenous children were removed from their families and communities and placed with non-indigenous families in what is known as the Sixties Scoop. Some children were sent as far as New Zealand and Europe, and many never saw their families again. For decades, social workers unfamiliar with indigenous life would remove children who weren't neglected or in danger. The program was part of a pattern of attempts to wipe out the culture of indigenous peoples. The loss of culture, the loss of language, it has dragged with me my whole life. the Canadian Press quotes Stewart Garnett as saying. He was taken from his family in Winnipeg and placed in California. As part of the settlement announced Friday, which could affect up to 30,000 people, approximately $600 million will go directly to the victims of the Sixties Scoop. Another $40 million will fund an Indigenous Healing Foundation. Canada's minister of crown-indigenous relations says it's a first step to right the wrong of this dark and painful chapter. Chief Marcia Brown Martel, a victim of the Sixties Scoop and a lead plaintiff in one of the multiple lawsuits settled Friday, says she has great hope ... this will never, ever happen in Canada again. One of the lawsuits settled Friday had been going on for eight years. A number of other lawsuits are still pending.

(Mar 27, 2015 2:48 AM CDT) If Google paid its employees in gold, Ruth Porat would be getting more than 3,500 pounds of it for leaving Morgan Stanley to join the company. Instead, she's getting more than $70 million in stock bonuses and cash to become Google's new chief financial officer, reports the Wall Street Journal, which notes that the $30 million the native Californian will receive this year alone is more than her old boss on Wall Street makes, unless he got a significant raise from his 2013 earnings of $18 million. According to Google, Porat will receive $650,000 in base pay this year, a $5 million signing bonus, and a $25 million stock grant, which will be followed by a $40 million stock grant next year. Porat's move is part of what Forbes describes as an apparent brain drain from Wall Street to Silicon Valley, with the moves westward helped by the tech giants' large stockpiles of compensation options, which can be used to pay bonuses without the same scrutiny Wall Street firms receive. Google investors appear to believe Porat is worth the money: Shares jumped 2% this week after her hiring was announced, and investors hope she can bring a more disciplined approach to expenses to the company, according to the Journal. (In completely different Google news, the company might be planning a high-tech deodorant.)

(Aug 16, 2016 5:30 PM CDT) Political talk show pioneer John McLaughlin died Tuesday morning at his home in Virginia at the age of 89, the New York Daily News reports. According to the Washington Post, he had been fighting prostate cancer. After stints as a Catholic priest and speechwriter for President Nixon, McLaughlin started The McLaughlin Group in 1982, NBC News reports. With the PBS political panel show, McLaughlin helped usher in the era of impolite punditry, according to the Post. The kind of thing McLaughlin was doing is [now] being done in so many places, television historian Robert Thompson says. McLaughlin missed the most recent taping of The McLaughlin Group, the Hill reports. It was the first time he'd missed a show in 34 years, seven months, and one week. A note to viewers before the show stated he was under the weather. My spirit is strong and my dedication to this show remains absolute, the note read. His death was announced on The McLaughlin Group's Facebook page: He has said bye bye for the last time, to rejoin his beloved dog, Oliver, in heaven. He will always be remembered.

(Feb 6, 2012 12:04 AM) A powerful 6.8-magnitude earthquake shook the central Philippines today, killing at least 42 people and triggering a local tsunami alert. Houses were buried, windows were shattered, and walls were cracked by the shaker, causing panicked residents to flee their homes, schools, offices, and stores. The quake struck in a narrow strait just off Negros Island, triggering landslides. At least 29 people were missing in the city of Guihulngan, where some 30 houses were buried, reports AP. Their situation is bad because if you are covered by landslide for one hour, two hours, how can you breathe? asked the local mayor. We hope for the best, that there are still survivors. Nearly 45 aftershocks have already been recorded, keeping people from returning to their homes.

(Oct 17, 2011 5:53 PM CDT) A record-breaking 50% of Americans now say it's OK to smoke up for recreational purposes, a new Gallup poll finds. Support broke down along political lines, with liberals 69% in favor and conservatives only 34%; moderates crossed the line at 57%. By region, only the South opposed legalizing marijuana, while Americans aged 18-29 approved (62%) and those over 65 did not (only 31% approved). Marijuana approval hit a previous Gallup-high of 46% last year after a long ride that started at 12% in 1969. Support hovered around the mid-20s into the mid-1990s, and then--after the era of I didn't inhale jokes--jumped past 30% in 2000 and 40% in 2009. A survey in that year found that nearly 17 million Americans over the age of 11 had used Mary Jane at least once a month before being surveyed.

(Nov 18, 2015 12:07 PM) Through Nov. 12, Facebook's Safety Check feature had been activated only in the event of four natural disasters, the first being April's Nepal earthquake. In the five days since, it has been twice deployed for human disasters. CNN Money reports that the feature was turned on Tuesday following a bomb blast in Yola, Nigeria, that, as of the AP's latest report, killed 34 people and injured 80. After the Paris attacks last week, we made the decision to use Safety Check for more tragic events like this going forward, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg wrote in a post Tuesday. (CNNMoney notes some 4 million people identified themselves as safe in Paris.) As for what more means, we're now working quickly to develop criteria for the new policy and determine when and how this service can be most useful.

(Jan 21, 2020 2:16 AM) A southern California man deliberately rammed a Toyota Prius full of teenage boys Sunday night, causing a crash that killed three of them, police say. Corona resident Anurag Chandra, 42, was arrested and charged with murder and assault with a deadly weapon, the Riverside Press-Enterprise reports. It was an intentional act, California Highway Patrol Lt. David Yokley said at a press conference Monday. Our investigation led us to believe Mr. Chandra intentionally rammed the Prius, causing the driver to lose control. Police say the Prius slammed into a tree after it was hit by Chandra's Infiniti sedan. One teen was pronounced dead at the scene and two others died in hospitals, the AP reports. Three other teens in the vehicle were hospitalized with non-life-threatening injuries. The Riverside County Coroner's Office identified the victims, who were all 16 years old, as Daniel Hawkins, Drake Ruiz, and Jacob Ivascu. Yokley told reporters that alcohol or drugs are not believed to be factors in the incident. He said there was obviously some sort of contact between Chandra and the teens, but the circumstances are still unclear. Ruiz's mother, Debbie Ruiz, tells KTLA that the boys, one of whom was celebrating a birthday, rang a doorbell and drove off, thinking they were playing a prank on another teen. But it was that angry man, she says. She says she wants to thank a woman who prayed with the dying boys after the crash, and a man who followed Chandra and reported his location to police.

(Apr 17, 2008 7:25 AM CDT) Merrill Lynch today posted nearly $2 billion in losses in the first quarter, after taking another $9 billion in writeoffs, the Wall Street Journal reports. In its third straight quarterly loss, Merrill was in the red $1.96 billion, or $2.19 a share, compared to earning $2.16 billion, or $2.26 a share a year ago. The company said it will cut about 3,000 jobs. The new round of Merrill writeoffs includes $1.5 billion in CDOs, $3.5 billion in residential mortgage-backed securities, $925 million on leveraged loans and $3 billion on hedges with financial guarantors. Citi, BofA and Countrywide are up next.

(May 21, 2016 11:15 AM CDT) Two women who say they were arrested for kissing in a grocery store during a Hawaiian vacation last year will settle their lawsuit against the City of Honolulu for $80,000, the AP reports. Los Angeles residents Courtney Wilson and Taylor Guerrero were holding hands while shopping at a Foodland grocery store. When the couple stopped to hug and kiss, they were approached by officer Bobby Harrison, who was shopping while in uniform. Their lawsuit alleges Harrison ordered them to take it somewhere else. It also states he tried to get the store's manager to issue trespass warnings to Wilson and Guerrero, according to Reuters. The lawsuit claims Harrison later grabbed Wilson's wrist while she was in the checkout line. A scuffle ensued, and the women were arrested. Wilson and Guerrero spent three days in jail, but the felony assault charges against them were eventually dismissed. The couple, who have since broken up, filed a lawsuit against the City of Honolulu in October, the Honolulu Civil Beat reports. The $80,000 settlement was announced Friday and still must be approved by the Honolulu City Council. It's a pretty good outcome as far as we're concerned, an attorney for Wilson and Guerrero tells Reuters. The women already settled with Foodland for $10,000. The Honolulu Police Department investigated Harrison after the lawsuit was filed and found no wrongdoing. I'm glad it's over, but at the same time we wanted the officer to suffer some sort of repercussion, Wilson tells the AP. Harrison retired following the incident.

(Nov 16, 2009 2:23 PM) Moammar Gadhafi hired a couple of hundred attractive Italian women for the night, headed to the Libyan ambassador's place in Rome, shepherded them into a room, and ... tried to convert them to Islam. The Libyan dictator offered $75 for the evening, causing most of the women to assume they'd be working as hostesses. Instead, after several were rejected for dressing too suggestively or being too short, the remaining women got a private lecture in which Gadhafi exhorted them to convert. Gadhafi, in Italy for a UN summit, distributed copies of the Koran and his book, The Green Book. He told them that he knew Jesus was not crucified-- they crucified someone who looked like him, he said. Most felt confused and dismayed. We were at least expecting a snack, an audience member told the Guardian.

(Jan 13, 2011 9:07 AM) It's been a half-century since John F Kennedy admonished his fellow citizens to ask not what their country could do for them, and his presidential archive is going online today, just ahead of the anniversary, reports the Boston Globe. The $10 million project took four years to complete, but Camelot has gone digital--from key foreign policy speeches to intimate family photos and podcasts describing how Jackie Kennedy entertained at the White House. In all, the archive contains 200,000 pages, 1,500 photos, 1,250 audio and video files, and 17 1/2 hours of phone conversations. Among the gems: A rough draft, in Kennedy's handwriting, of his aforementioned inaugural address. Click for the JFK Library and Museum.

(Jan 26, 2011 11:40 AM) Ronald Flanagan already has the donor for a potentially life-saving stem cell transplant, but he can't have the surgery--because a $0.02 mistake left him without insurance. The Vietnam veteran's wife, Frances, accidentally paid $328.67 instead of $328.69 when paying November's bill online, she tells ABC Denver. As a result, Ceridian Cobra Services dropped the couple--and though the company says the Flanagans were warned, they claim that's not true. Ceridian claims several notices were sent, but Flanagan, who is fighting cancer, says the only thing they ever saw was the two-cent shortage on a December bill--with no notice that that shortage could lead to their policy being canceled. They paid the December bill without adding on the extra two cents, and Ceridian promptly cashed the payment. It wasn't until a Jan. 13 doctor's appointment the couple found out their coverage had been dropped.

(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.

(May 14, 2013 12:01 PM CDT) How much can you legally drink before getting in a car? The National Transportation Safety Board thinks the answer right now is too much, so this morning it voted to lower its recommended legal blood alcohol content limit for drivers from 0.08% to 0.05%, ABC News reports. Most industrialized nations already adhere to the 0.05% standard, one NTSB member says, adding, We are behind the world. The board is also recommending more stringent penalties for first-time drunk drivers and better police technology, like alcohol-sniffing flashlights. Individual states will actually have to enact the recommendation, which might take some doing; it took more than 20 years to drop the limit from 0.15% to 0.08%, with the last state conceding in 2004. The change would mean that a 180-pound man could only have two or three drinks in an hour instead of four, by CNN's calculations. The NTSB says that would save 500 to 800 lives a year. But the American Beverage Institute called the proposed change ludicrous, saying it would criminalize perfectly responsible behavior.

(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.

(Jun 1, 2011 8:47 AM CDT) Something to read on the bus: Alaska will release 24,000 pages of Sarah Palin emails from her days as governor, reports the Anchorage Daily News. News services actually requested them when she was running for vice president, and now they'll get them as she may or may not be running for president. (Jon Stewart is in the yes-she-is camp.) About 2,400 pages of emails will be withheld because the state deems them privileged or private. Some of Palin's old enemies also have requested the emails, including Andree McLeod, who has filed ethics complaints against the governor (and had them dismissed by the state). I don't hold out much hope that all of these emails haven't been scrubbed of any incriminating information, she says. Those who made the requests will have to shell out $725.97 in copying fees and hundreds more for shipping what's expected to be five 55-pound boxes. The state will send the emails to a commercial printer this week, who will likely take about four days to copy them.

(Jul 22, 2010 9:31 AM CDT) A jellyfish the size of a trash can lid raised a posthumous ruckus yesterday, stinging up to 150 at a New Hampshire beach and sending five of those to the hospital. Beach officials had apparently tried to remove its carcass earlier, causing it to break up into pieces that floated through the water stinging swimmers. Officials responding to the scene found a pavilion and beach packed with children crying like they had been stung by a bee, says a firefighter. They do have an awful lot of tentacles,'' one Boston jellyfish expert tells the Globe. It can be fairly painful, especially if you're sensitive the way people are sensitive to other stings.''

(Aug 11, 2009 5:03 PM CDT) A former commander in Adolf Hitler's army has been sentenced to life imprisonment for a massacre in Italy he ordered 65 years ago, the BBC reports. In what is expected to be one of the very last Nazi trials, a Munich court found Joseph Scheungraber guilty of murder in the killing of 10 Italian civilians in reprisal for partisan attacks. The victims were herded into a barn, which was then blown up. A 15-year-boy survived and testified at Scheungraber's trial.

(Jul 13, 2009 10:33 AM CDT) Ryan Seacrest isn't feeling the recession. The ubiquitous TV personality has closed a new deal that's believed to make him the highest-paid reality host, according to the Hollywood Reporter. The American Idol host's 3-year deal with CKX, Idol's parent company, is worth $15 million a year--more than triple his previous salary. Though CKX gets Seacrest exclusively for broadcast TV, he will retain separate deals with Comcast and E!

(Aug 7, 2008 3:32 PM CDT) Salim Hamdan, the driver for Osama bin Laden convicted of providing material support for terrorism, was sentenced to five and a half years in prison today, Reuters reports. The military jury's sentence takes into effect time served at Guantanamo Bay, making him eligible for release in about 5 months. The US, however, insists it can hold him indefinitely as an enemy combatant. At the sentencing hearing, the Yemeni native apologized to US victims of the 9/11 attacks. I don't know what could be given or presented to these innocent people who were killed, he said. I personally present my apologies to them. Prosecutors sought a sentence of 30 years in what was the first US war crimes trial since World War II.

(Mar 2, 2016 9:50 AM) The UN Security Council has unanimously approved the toughest sanctions on North Korea in two decades, reports the AP. Wednesday's move reflects growing anger at Pyongyang's latest nuclear test and rocket launch in defiance of a ban on all nuclear-related activity. The big question, of course, is whether the North will shrug off the penalties as it has done previously. The UN and North Korea's traditional ally China spent seven weeks negotiating the new sanctions, which include mandatory inspections of cargo leaving and entering North Korea by sea or air, a ban on all sales or transfers of small arms and light weapons to Pyongyang, and expulsion of diplomats from the North who engage in illicit activities. The sanctions also include a ban on the sale of aviation fuel to North Korea, notes CNN, which has a more complete breakdown of the penalties. The sanctions send an unambiguous and unyielding message to the DPRK regime: The world will not accept your proliferation, says Samantha Power, US ambassador to the United Nations. Russia had blocked the vote for 24 hours before agreeing to the sanctions Wednesday morning.

(Mar 10, 2008 11:58 PM CDT) Eliot Spitzer, enmeshed in a federal investigation of a prostitution ring, will resign as governor of New York, likely within the next 2 days, CBS 2 in New York reports. Spitzer held a press conference today to apologize but didn't indicate what he was apologizing for and gave no indication of his plans. He has hired a high-powered New York law firm. Meanwhile, Lt. Gov. David Paterson spoke with a state legislator who said the conversation left him with the impression a move was forthcoming. Spitzer made his straight-arrow reputation as New York's crusading attorney general, light-years away from allegations that he is Client 9 on the wiretap transcripts released yesterday, who arranged payment for a prostitute's services by saying, Yup, same as in the past, no question about it.

(Apr 2, 2014 1:37 AM CDT) The winner of California's biggest-ever lottery jackpot has a sense of humor--he turned up to claim the $425 million Powerball prize on April Fool's Day, wearing a T-shirt featuring Yoda and the words Luck of the Jedi I have, reports the San Jose Mercury News. B. Raymond Buxton, a 59-year-old who retired after the lottery draw in February, says he couldn't sleep for days after learning he had the winning ticket, bought at a San Jose-area gas station. Buxton--who covered his face with the giant check while posing for photos--says that after learning of the win, he hunkered down for weeks and hired legal, financial, and PR representation before coming forward, the LA Times reports. He opted to take the prize in one $242 million lump sum, and says he plans to set up a charity focused on areas of pediatric health, child hunger, and education, while still trying to find a way to live a normal and discreet life. The big win couldn't happen to a nicer guy, a spokesman says. He wants to be a winner who affects lives in a positive way.

(Jul 27, 2015 2:15 PM CDT) Want my money while you're still young? Then you have to play by my rules. That's pretty much what deceased Manhattan real estate landlord Maurice Laboz has posthumously told his two daughters, the New York Post reports. According to his will, 17-year-old Victoria and 21-year-old Marlena will get $10 million apiece at age 35 but can only touch the dough earlier if they provide trustees with evidence of a rather traditional lifestyle. To wit: How did Luboz get so loaded? Well, it's New York real estate: Just four years ago, his Regal Real Estate sold nearly $40 million in properties scattered across Manhattan, reported Rew Online at the time. These are core investment properties, they just have great rates of return so you can sit there [and] rent and manage them, said a figure involved in the deal.

(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.)

(Feb 22, 2012 12:54 PM) A train full of people crashed into a station in Buenos Aires today, injuring at least 550 people and killing 48 adults and one child in Argentina's worst train accident since 1970. The train came into the station too fast and hit the shock-absorbing pad at the end of the platform at about 16mph, the AP reports. That was enough to send the train's cars smashing into each other--one plowed nearly 20 feet into the car in front of it. It's the sixth train accident the country has experienced in the past 15 months. Argentina's train system is widely used and heavily subsidized by the government. Union leaders say the state hasn't done enough to maintain or replace its trains, and opposition leader Ricardo Alfonsin tweeted that the accident exposes the reality of a state incapable of controlling and acting to protect its passengers. The train workers' union chief noted that the train's brakes had been working well the day before, and at previous stops.

(Jul 16, 2018 9:34 AM CDT) How much can a toilet-seat cover cost? If you're the Air Force, $10,000. The Washington Post reports on that eye-popping amount and the technological advances that have now dropped the price-point to an easier-to-swallow level. Three covers, required to protect the aircraft from corrosion damage in the latrine area, per the Air Force, needed to be replaced on some of the 52 C-5 Galaxy planes it still has in operation. Except Lockheed Martin, which made the Vietnam-era military cargo plane up until 2001, doesn't make that part anymore, forcing the government to opt for a custom order (see an image of the cover here). The Air Force confirmed it paid that amount for the cover three times, most recently in 2017, but says it will never do so again. That's thanks to 3-D printing, which can now create the part for $300. ABC News reports the $10,000 figure came to light in the first place thanks to a May interview in which the assistant Air Force secretary for acquisition, technology, and logistics explained the benefits of 3-D printing for the Air Force using that example. The Post suggests the need for a part that's no longer made is no one-off. It reports more than two-thirds of the Air Force's budget is spent on the sustainment of equipment that dates to the 1950s.

(Jun 26, 2018 10:39 AM CDT) From Miami to Detroit to San Antonio, an annual household income of $117,400 puts you firmly in the high income group. You'd even land in the upper middle class in New York City, per Business Insider. Not so in San Francisco. Further cementing the city's reputation as the most expensive in the country, the Department of Housing and Urban Development has revamped income limits so that a family of four earning $117,400 a year now qualifies as low income in San Francisco, San Mateo and Marin counties, while a household income of $73,300 is considered very low income, reports the San Francisco Chronicle. Not only is the low-income gauge the highest such limit in the country, but it represents a 10% increase over last year, per the San Jose Mercury News. As the income limits determine who can qualify for affordable housing programs, the increases mean more people are eligible. But they're unlikely to make much difference in a region already suffering from a shortage of affordable housing, the Mercury News reports, noting the median house price in some parts of the Bay Area has jumped 25% in the past year. It just demonstrates how broken and unsustainable our housing market is, says Amie Fishman, executive director of the Non-Profit Housing Association of Northern California. California needs 1 million more units of affordable housing for people at the very low and extremely low [income limits]--those struggling the most and the market will never produce homes for people at that level, she says.

(May 19, 2017 8:22 AM CDT) The Venti Pike Place coffee cost her about $2.50. It ended up costing Starbucks about 40,000 times that. In the latest hot-coffee lawsuit, a Florida woman was awarded $100,492 Thursday after a 2014 incident at a Starbucks drive-thru in Jacksonville left her physically scarred, reports the New York Post. According to defense lawyers, Joanne Mogavero, a 43-year-old mother of three, had received a cup of coffee from a barista and was attempting to hand it to a passenger when the lid popped off and the 190-degree drink spilled in her lap, leaving her with permanent scarring from first and second-degree burns. Mogavero accused Starbucks of failing to adequately fasten the lid, while her lawyers argued Starbucks should warn customers that lids may pop off, reports the Wall Street Journal. After a Starbucks rep testified that the company receives 80 complaints about lids per month, a Duval County jury found Starbucks 80% at fault for the spill and awarded Mogavero $15,492 for medical bills, plus $85,000 for pain and suffering. My client didn't want sympathy from the jury--she wanted justice--and the jury gave it to her, her lawyer says. Starbucks' stance: As we said in trial, we stand behind our store partners (employees) in this case and maintain that they did nothing wrong. The coffee giant is considering an appeal. (This woman was paid $522,000 after tripping and spilling her coffee.)