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(Jun 6, 2019 3:16 PM CDT) Stocks are rising for a third straight day as investors hope US and Mexican officials can reach a deal that avoids tariffs on goods from Mexico, the AP reports. One report said the US could delay the tariffs, set for June 10, but there was no official word from Washington. Energy and technology stocks posted solid gains. Chevron shares went up 2.6% as the price of oil rose. Advanced Micro Devices gained 7.9%. A number of food and beverage companies, including McDonald's and Coca-Cola, hit 52-week highs Thursday. The S&P 500 gained 17 points, or 0.6%, to 2,843. The benchmark index is up 3.3% so far this week. The Dow Jones industrials rose 181 points, or 0.7%, to 25,720. The Nasdaq added 40 points, or 0.5%, to 7,615.

(Dec 26, 2020 6:23 AM) Bitcoin is going gangbusters this year, rising to more than $24,000 per coin, and the huge rally has Kashmir Hill reflecting on a certain sushi dinner she had seven years ago. In a New York Times op-ed, Hill recalls how she forked over 10 bitcoins in 2013 to treat a group of strangers at a sushi restaurant in San Francisco. Back then, bitcoin was just starting to gain a foothold and was worth about $100 a coin. As an assignment for Forbes magazine, Hill wrote about the cryptocurrency and tried to live on it for a week. She picked up 10 of the coins online for $136 and immediately discovered that her options for spending them were limited. My only transportation options were walking or riding a bike that a friend rented to me for half a bitcoin, she writes. And getting a cup of coffee? Forget it. At the end of the week, she decided to spend her remaining bitcoins at a sushi restaurant called the Safe Zone, one of the few establishments that accepted it. She ended up forking over 10.354 of them to cover the nearly $1,000 bill, which today would be worth roughly a quarter of a million dollars. At the time, she felt guilty using funny money to pay for the big meal. But she caught up recently with owner Yung Chen and discovered that he and his wife retired from the restaurant business a few years ago thanks in part to the 41 bitcoin they had accumulated. When Hill told him how guilty she felt at the time for paying in bitcoin, he said he didn't worry about it even then. At that time, bitcoin wasn't a big money, he said. Now it's big money. Hill concludes her op-ed with, Don't I know it. Burp! (This is nowhere near as bad as a famous pizza purchase in 2010.)

(Aug 26, 2015 10:37 AM CDT) If you're stuck in traffic for a few minutes today, look on the bright side: Those few minutes are nothing compared to the 42 hours the average rush-hour commuter spent in traffic last year--or the 6.9 billion hours American drivers squandered while bumper-to-bumper--at a cost of $960 in wasted fuel. A new study from Texas A&M Transportation Institute and INRIX finds drivers are spending more time in traffic than ever before. In 2009, drivers wasted about 6.3 billion hours on the road, reports ABC News. The average delay has actually doubled since 1985 and it's only going to get worse: By 2020, the study authors predict the average driver will face 47 hours of delays for a combined 8.3 billion hours nationwide, reports USA Today. That number will probably look good to anyone who drives in Washington, DC, though. The capital had the worst traffic in the country, with drivers wasting 82 hours of their time. Los Angeles (80), San Francisco (78), New York (74), and San Jose (67) rounded out the top five. The study notes Cleveland, Pittsburgh, San Diego, and Tampa fared well for their size, but Baton Rouge and Austin had worse traffic than some much larger cities. More roads can ease congestion but that strategy alone isn't enough. This problem calls for a classic all-hands-on-deck approach, a co-author says. Businesses can give their employees more flexibility in where, when, and how they work, individual workers can adjust their commuting patterns, and we can have better thinking when it comes to long-term land use planning.

(Aug 14, 2009 2:28 AM CDT) Flooding and mudslides caused by Typhoon Morakot killed over 500 people in Taiwan, President Ma Ying-jeou said today in the country's first firm estimate of casualty figures. Some 400 people are believed to have been buried alive in a single village, the BBC reports. The military has now reopened a road into the worst-hit district, but officials believe nobody trapped since Monday's mudslides has survived. Thousands of Taiwanese troops have been moving into the affected areas on helicopter and by foot as part of a massive rescue operation to save thousands of stranded people. In one area, survivors had to be hauled 100 feet by cable over a raging river where a bridge had been washed out. Ma has come under heavy criticism for his response to the disaster, with many saying lives could have been saved if the rescue effort had been mobilized faster.

(Oct 4, 2008 6:08 AM CDT) The Boston Red Sox triumphed against the Los Angeles Angels 7-5 in a rollercoaster outing that left Boston up 2-0 in the division series, the Boston Herald reports. The Sox opened an early 5-1 lead, but the Angels closed the gap; it all came down to a two-run homer by J.D. Drew in the ninth. The series will move to Boston for the next two games, if both are needed. The Red Sox could end the Angels' playoff hopes with a win tomorrow, sweeping Los Angeles in the postseason for the third year in a row. But Boston isn't counting its chickens: We've been very good at home, but the bottom line is we can't be throwing a party yet, said outfielder Jason Bay.

(Mar 9, 2009 10:02 AM CDT) Helg Sgarbi, the man European media nicknamed the Swiss Gigolo, was sentenced to 6 years in prison today after pleading guilty in German court to seducing and conning the BMW heiress who is Germany's richest woman, along with several others. Sgarbi apologized to his victims, none of whom were in court, for bilking them out of a combined $11 million, the BBC reports. Sgarbi would blackmail his victims, saying he had compromising material on them. I deeply regret what has happened and apologize to the aggrieved ladies, Sgarbi said. The Swiss man's most famous conquest was Susanne Klatten, a married BMW heiress who gave him $8.9 million he said he needed to pay off the family of a girl he'd hurt in a car accident. Later, he threatened to go public with a sex tape if she didn't give him more.

(May 8, 2008 12:03 PM CDT) The US has sent more than 43,000 troops deemed medically unfit for combat to war in Iraq and Afghanistan, USA Today reports. Since 2003 soldiers deemed non-deployable by medical officers have shipped anyway, according to Pentagon documents, with unit commanders overruling doctors. It is a consequence of the consistent churning of our troops, says one veterans advocate. Among National Guard and reserve troops, 5%-7% were deemed unfit. The papers don't say what conditions the soldiers had; reasons can range from the need for dental work to mental health problems. Commanders consult the health care professionals to see if treatment is available in theater, one colonel explains. But after an investigation of one brigade last year, seven of its 36 medically unfit soldiers were sent home for treatment.

(Jun 11, 2011 9:41 AM CDT) Authorities don't know much more yet about the woman who died at the Bonnaroo music festival near Nashville this week. They have identified her as 32-year-old Beth Myers of Pittsburgh, according to the Tennessean. (Other services say she's from Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.) Friends found her in her tent Thursday night. There was no evident cause of death, says a police spokesman. She didn't have any marks on her body. An autopsy is planned. Reuters notes that with temperatures in the mid-90s, authorities are looking into whether heat exhaustion figured in. The festival wraps up tomorrow.

(Feb 18, 2013 11:49 AM) A labor dispute at a South African mine saw at least 13 workers and security guards shot with rubber bullets or hacked with machetes, according to local reports. Security guards opened fire at the Anglo American Platinum mine, as union factions squared off, Reuters reports. There were no fatalities, though a police spokesman says members of one union survived by running for their lives. The scuffle follows the company's announcement of job cuts last month.

(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.

(Jun 18, 2010 10:59 AM CDT) The United States rallied from two goals down at halftime to salvage a 2-2 draw with Slovenia today in World Cup Group C play. Michael Bradley and Landon Donovan scored in the second half as the United States denied the Slovenians a win that would have made them the first team to advance to the knockout round. The US team's hope of advancing now hinges on Wednesday's game against Algeria. This team still understands how to fight for 90 minutes, said US coach Bob Bradley. This is something we've seen time and time again. The US nearly pulled out a win: Maurice Edu volleyed Donovan's free kick into the net in the 86th minute, but the goal was disallowed as the referee called a foul on Edu. The result left Group C wide open, with the last round of group stage matches to decide which teams move on.

(Jun 30, 2019 8:13 AM CDT) Check your couch cushions, kids, because you're gonna need every penny for this one: Jackie Kennedy Onassis' estate on Martha's Vineyard has hit the market with a hefty $65 million pricetag, reports CBS News. Now that our children are grown, it is time for them to spread their wings, and for us to explore new places, daughter Caroline Kennedy tells the Vineyard Gazette. That $65 million will get you a 6,400-square-foot house on 340 acres on the vacation hotspot, as well as a guest house, pool, tennis court, and a boathouse. When the former first lady bought the Red Gate Farm back in 1979, it was a little more modest: It had only a hunting cabin and cost $1.1 million. It's something of an ecological gem, notes the Gazette, citing stunningly beautiful windswept coastal dunes, wetlands, hillocks and salt-blasted heathlands.

(Jan 4, 2019 12:29 PM) Another longtime Republican senator will call it quits in 2020. Pat Roberts of Kansas said Friday that he won't run for re-election when his term is up, reports Politico. The 82-year-old's decision comes about two weeks after Tennessee's Lamar Alexander announced the same, and the Washington Post notes that both were known for their bipartisanship. Roberts, for example, recently achieved the rare feat of getting an $867 billion agriculture bill passed with the support of all Senate Democrats. He serves as chair of the chamber's agriculture committee, and he is the only lawmaker to have done so in both the Senate and the House, reports the Kansas City Star. One interesting bit of speculation: Among those seen as possible GOP replacements is Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. The Post notes that Pompeo is a former Kansas congressman as well as a strong ally of President Trump, factors that would serve him well in the red state and possibly avoid a nasty primary. Pompeo has not made any public statements about wanting a Senate seat, but the newspaper says Senate leaders are interested in the possibility. Also in the mix are Rep. Roger Marshall and Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach. As for Roberts, he will retire with a 24-0 record in lifetime elections. I'm damned proud of that undefeated record, said Roberts, now in his fourth term as a senator. The GOP will likely be favored to hold onto his seat in 2020, though Democrats have new hope: Democrat Laura Kelly won the governor's race in November.

(Jul 17, 2013 3:50 PM CDT) It might help to know going in that Barry Strang's wife isn't angry--she can deal with the way her husband died. But the way that happened is almost too bizarre to believe. The Star-Tribune of Casper, Wyoming, explains: Barry had a lifelong dream to buy a Harley (date nights over four decades included window shopping), and he finally pulled the trigger at age 59. Wife Pam wasn't thrilled, but he was: 44 years finally got one :), he wrote on Facebook when he picked up the bike and posted a photo. Then he pulled out of the lot and made it all of 3 miles before fatally crashing into a truck. It was something he wanted his whole life, says Pam. It's like my son said, 'Dad went out with the biggest smile on his face.'

(Apr 11, 2016 12:44 PM CDT) A suicide epidemic that started last fall in a northern Ontario community--with 11 suicide attempts this past Saturday alone, per the CBC--has led the Attawapiskat First Nation to declare a state of emergency, per the National Post. The remote enclave of 2,000 people has reportedly experienced suicides for decades, but the latest string is so worrisome that the Attawapiskat community is pleading for help. Resident Jackie Hookimaw says the latest string of deaths was spurred by the fall suicide of her 13-year-old great-niece. Chief Bruce Shisheesh tells the CBC that 101 people between the ages of 11 and 71 have attempted suicide since September; one has died. I'm asking friends, government, that we need help in our community, Shisheesh says. I have relatives that have attempted to take their own lives. Members of the Attawapiskat community say citizens suffering from drug abuse, overcrowding, and bullying--as well as intense poverty, per the BBC--don't receive enough government help. When a young person tries to commit suicide in any suburban school, they send in the resources, they send in the emergency team, the area's MP tells the Post, calling the problem a rolling nightmare often left to untrained teachers, cops, and parents to handle. The northern communities are left on their own. There are four health-care workers, but they lack training and are burned out and backlogged, says the deputy grand chief of the Mushkegowuk Council, representing eight Ontario First Nations. On Sunday, federal and Ontario health officials said a crisis team of mental health nurses and social workers, as well as an emergency medical team, was being sent ASAP. Canadian PM Justin Trudeau lent his own moral support Sunday, tweeting, The news from Attawapiskat is heartbreaking. We'll continue to work to improve living conditions for all Indigenous peoples. (The Globe and Mail offers further context.)

(May 16, 2017 5:58 PM CDT) When Wisconsin police officer Lindsey Bittorf saw a Facebook post from a nearby mother begging for a kidney donor for her 8-year-old son, she knew she needed to try to help--even though she'd never met the family. The 30-year-old got tested to see if she was a match, and says doctors were shocked she was such a good one, considering she's not related to the boy, Jackson Arneson. This is seriously, like, meant to be, she tells WISN. It's going to be me. Last week, Bittorf showed up at Jackson's home to surprise his family with the good news, ABC News reports. She told Jackson's mom, Kristi Goll, it was an early Mother's Day gift, GazetteXtra reports. I took an oath to serve and protect our community, and now my kidney's going to serve and protect you, she told Jackson, who was born with a kidney condition known as Posterior Urethral Valves. Goll went on Facebook after family and friends got tested and none turned out to be a match. I always knew these days would come, it's just so hard when they are here, she said in her December post explaining that Jackson's kidney function was decreasing and he was in need of a donor. Bittorf, who is also a mom, says simply, I would hope that someone would save my child's life if needed. The transplant surgery is scheduled for June 22. (Other kidney donors have been found via messages on the side of an SUV, Reddit, and even Tinder.)

(Apr 24, 2019 8:49 AM CDT) Canadian trash has been sitting at a port in the Philippines for more than five years, and President Rodrigo Duterte wants it gone--or else. Duterte's word choices tend to grab headlines, and this instance is no exception: I'll give a warning to Canada maybe next week that they better pull that [trash] out, he said Tuesday. We'll declare war against them, we can handle them anyway. CNN reports the issue is the 2013 and 2014 shipment of 2,450 tons of what were supposed to be recyclable plastic scraps. But inspectors in Manila say what was in the 103 containers couldn't be processed--the AP reports there was reportedly plastic bottles inside, but also things like used adult diapers and other household trash--and some of the containers are still sitting there. The BBC reports the shipment was made by a private company based in Canada. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said during a 2015 visit to the country that Canada could not legally force that company to act. The Canadian Press reports Canada's efforts have mainly centered around getting the Philippines to just accept the trash. In 2016, a Filipino court ruled it had to go back to Canada. Trudeau has previously said he is very much engaged in finding a solution. Duterte offered one: He said he'd bring the garbage back himself.

(Dec 13, 2016 3:11 PM) Major US stock indexes set records again Tuesday as energy companies continued to climb following international deals that will cut oil production, the AP reports. Big-name technology companies like Apple and IBM also traded higher as the Dow Jones industrial average closed above 19,900 for the first time. On Tuesday, the Dow gained 114.78 points, or 0.6%, to 19,911.21. The Standard & Poor's 500 index added 14.76 points, or 0.7%, to 2,271.72. The Nasdaq composite rose 51.29 points, or 0.9%, to 5,463.83. For the week, the Dow is up 154.36 points, or 0.8%. For the year, the Dow is up 2,486.18 points, or 14.3%.

(Dec 11, 2019 2:59 PM) On the same day Harvey Weinstein's bail was jacked way up in his criminal case, big news also made headlines in his civil case: The producer and the board of his bankrupt film studio have reached a tentative settlement deal with many of his alleged victims, the New York Times reports, citing lawyers involved in negotiations. The $25 million settlement agreement would not require Weinstein to admit any wrongdoing, and the money would be paid out by insurance companies representing his former studio, not Weinstein himself. It would be part of an overall $47 million settlement meant to close out all of the Weinstein Company's obligations from both the accusers and creditors as it goes through bankruptcy proceedings. The settlement would be shared by more than 30 women who have sued Weinstein for alleged sexual misdeeds, with some set aside for potential future claimants. Nearly every such lawsuit against Weinstein and his company would be settled under the deal, which took two years to hash out, per the Times. One notable lawsuit not covered by it is Ashley Judd's. The actress has said she intends to go to trial. The deal has gotten preliminary approval by those involved, but court approval and a final signoff are still needed. Some accusers tell the Times they're disappointed with the proposed settlement but felt that holding out for something better might ultimately have left them with nothing; the company's entrance into bankruptcy had already caused the potential payout amount to fall sharply. Two women decided to exclude themselves from the proposed deal and challenge it instead; the attorneys for one of those women tells E! the deal is shameful.

(Dec 31, 2013 6:46 AM) It's that time of year again: Time for Australia and New Zealand to steal everybody else's thunder. Auckland has already rung in 2014, and Sydney has lit up the sky with its annual much-heralded firework extravaganza. In most of the rest of the world, everyone's still just getting ready. Dubai is planning to set the record for the world's largest fireworks display, the BBC reports, while in Cape Town, South Africa's celebratory concert will include a 3D Nelson Mandela tribute. We'll keep this story updated with photos as the new year rolls in.

(Jul 2, 2008 3:26 PM CDT) AT&T will sell contract-free iPhone 3Gs for $600 (the 8-gig model) and $700 (16 gigs), a $401 mark-up, the New York Times notes. There are no details available on why a consumer would want the phone without the, er, phone, but AT&T says there is a demand--and notes that other wireless models already cost far more without contracts. A somewhat confused analyst weighed in with a possible explanation: If nothing else, psychologically, it makes people think they are getting a good deal if they sign up for a contract. One research firm broke down the price of the forthcoming device's parts and labor--and valued Apple's object at only $173 (that's $53 less than its groundbreaking older brother).

(Jun 29, 2009 3:15 PM CDT) Rudy Giuliani today got one step closer to maybe announcing a run for New York governor in 2010, the Daily News reports. The former NYC mayor and Republican presidential candidate explained his position to CNN. I'm thinking about it, he said. I don't know if I'm at the point of seriously considering it. It's a little too early. The state GOP has apparently given Giuliani a deadline of early fall to decide. A survey shows Giuliani faring well against current Gov. David Patterson in a general election, Politico adds--52%-34%. But if state attorney general Andrew Cuomo was the Democratic nominee, the study finds, Giuliani would fall 51%-39%.

(Dec 16, 2016 3:01 PM) I will never like being touched or physically embraced by others, a former child gymnast says. Something that should be a joy, enjoyed and cherished in life, will always be a struggle for me. A massive investigation by the Indianapolis Star, encompassing nine months and hundreds of police and court documents, has resulted in a clearer picture of the scope of sexual abuse of young gymnasts around the country: 368 gymnasts alleged sexual abuse at the hands of coaches, gym owners, and others over the past 20 years. That's an incident every 20 days. And the actual number is likely higher. I'm sad for all the parents and athletes who didn't have the kind of warning that that number gives you, the CEO of advocacy group CHILD USA says. The Star's investigation revealed that coaches took nude photos, molested, and in some cases had near daily sex with girls as young as 6. USA Gymnastics was found to have ignored many sexual abuse allegations from its athletes. Coaches fired by multiple gyms--often quietly to protect the gyms themselves--were allowed to move on to coach elsewhere, keeping their membership in USA Gymnastics. One coach was booted from six gyms in four states, yet prospective employees still thought he had a clean record. USA Gymnastics' coach of the year in 2009 was allowed to coach an international competition while being investigated for sexual abuse. Yet USA Gymnastics says it is proud of the work it has done to address and guard against child sexual abuse. Read more from the investigation here.

(Mar 23, 2011 4:42 PM CDT) New York's Daily Intel blog takes note of more innocent times in Brooklyn, courtesy of a local librarian: Marijuana plants, and big ones at that, used to flourish in empty lots and backyards in the 1950s. Residents even got this official notice: If you spot these leaves in your backyard, growing in a tall, erect stalk, you have a budding marijuana crop on tap and the Sanitation Department would like to know about it. In fact, sanitation workers destroyed 41,000 pounds of pot from city lots in the summer of 1951. We can't hope to wipe it out entirely, a city official told the New Yorker back then, notes the CarrollGardensPatch blog. A lot of it is planted, but the weed grows freely here, and most of the marijuana in the city is probably in the backyards of people who don't know what it is, and therefore don't report it. Each plant bears clusters of seeds that are blown away by the wind and sprout elsewhere. Click to read more about how big the plants grew.

(Jan 8, 2013 12:22 PM) An Illinois priest made a very awkward 911 call back in November that's just now coming to light: Father Tom Donovan told the dispatcher he needed help getting out of a pair of handcuffs he had been playing with. I'm going to need help before this becomes a medical emergency, he says in a garbled voice in the recording obtained by the Illinois Times. When police arrived at the church, where Donovan was alone in the rectory, they found the priest was also gagged. Not surprisingly, the diocese doesn't have much to say on the matter, but it did acknowledge that Donovan was granted a leave of absence sometime before Christmas. He approached Bishop Thomas Paprocki before the incident became news. He came to the bishop and asked for help and was granted leave, a spokesperson says.

(Dec 12, 2012 4:42 PM) Bloomington South 107, Arlington 2. That wasn't a typo in the high school sports pages today, it was the final score of a girls basketball game, reports the Indianapolis Star. And now the Bloomington coach is under fire on social media and from Arlington coach Ebony Jackson: No, it's not OK but he will have to live with that, she says. If that's how they want to carry themselves, that's fine. For his part, Bloomington coach Larry Winters insists his team wasn't running up the score. I didn't tell my girls to stop shooting because that would have been more embarrassing (to Arlington), he says. We weren't trying to embarrass them. At Forbes, Bob Cook says Winters was in a no-win situation and explains the background: Arlington used to have a decent team, but that was before the state took it over because of bad academic performance and turned it over to a private company. When schools schedule each other, perhaps there should be a line in the contract that immediately voids the game if there is a change of control of the school, he suggests. In the meantime, the state is looking into establishing a mercy rule.

(Dec 11, 2017 1:13 AM) Two suspects have been arrested in the horrific murder of a teacher in Hawaii who was cleaning vacation homes for extra income. Police say the body of 51-year-old Telma Boinville was found inside a vacation rental in Pupukea on Oahu's North Shore Thursday. She had been beaten to death, apparently with a baseball bat. Her uninjured 8-year-old daughter was found tied up in another room with duct tape over her mouth. Stephen Brown, 23, and girlfriend, Hailey Dandurand, 20, were charged on Saturday with offenses including second-degree murder, the Honolulu Star-Advertiser reports. Boinville's body was found by visitors from Australia. They tied up my daughter and they beat my wife to death with a baseball bat, Boinville's husband, Kevin Emery told reporters Thursday. They won't even let me in the house because it's so bad. Hours after Emery issued a call for assistance on social media that included a description of Boinville's stolen truck, Brown and Dandurand were arrested near a Walmart where the vehicle was found, Hawaii News Now reports. A crowd of more than 60 people shouted angrily at the pair as they were taken away. Sources tell KHON2 that Dandurand had Boinville's credit card on her and both Dandurand and Brown had dried blood on their hands.

(May 25, 2010 11:05 AM CDT) Sex and the City 2 premiered in New York last night, and the early reviews are not good, to say the least. Read on--or, if you'd rather see the red carpet fashions from the premiere, click here.

(Oct 21, 2012 11:15 AM CDT) With two weeks to go before Election Day, the game is all tied up, according to a new NBC/Wall Street Journal poll making some waves this morning. President Obama and challenger Mitt Romney are each pulling 47% nationally among likely voters in the survey, which was conducted after the second presidential debate; Obama had previously polled at 49% to Romney's 46% before the first debate. NBC notes that Obama holds a 49% to 44% lead among registered voters, which is a bigger pool, and he still leads among women, 51% to 43%. Romney, meanwhile, holds a firm lead among men, 53% to 43%. The margin of error is 3.43% among likely voters.

(Jul 27, 2019 2:30 PM CDT) Boeing's role in adding dangerous technology to the 737 Max is well-documented--but the Federal Aviation Administration fumbled this just as badly, the New York Times reports. According to insiders, the regulatory agency was too cozy with Boeing and ultimately let the airline oversee the development of MCAS, an automated system that helped cause two 737 Max jetliner crashes that killed 346 people. The FAA has long used Boeing's engineers to help approve its planes, but industry lobbying led the agency to relinquish more control in 2005, which lowered morale, caused turnover, and put two fairly green FAA engineers in charge of overseeing early development of MCAS. After the Lion Air crash, the FAA was stunned to learn it didn't even have a full analysis of the system on file. Did MCAS get the attention it needed? That's one of the things we're looking at, says a federal official investigating the approval process. But MCAS, which pushed down the plane's nose--in theory to help it handle better--wasn't the only safety issue that went ignored. FAA engineers also worried about the plane's big engines: What if they broke apart and severed a cable that manages the rudder? But FAA managers sided with Boeing, dismissing the concern as the company pushed for approval to compete with its rival Airbus. Now, as Boeing seeks to resume flying the 737 Max in October, regulators aren't playing so nice. We don't have a timeline, FAA Acting Administrator Dan Elwell tells Reuters. We have one criteria. ... [that] the Max is safe to return to service. (One airline is switching to Airbus.)

(Jun 12, 2015 10:55 AM CDT) Police say a 3-year-old boy killed by a gunshot had been playing with a pistol he found in his mother's purse in their home near Cincinnati. In audio tape of a 911 call released by police, a woman identifying herself as the mother of Marques Green said she carried the gun in her purse, and had set her purse down after getting home. My son just shot himself and I'm not getting a pulse, screamed the woman, who gave her name as Elizabeth Green in the call yesterday afternoon. Oh, my God. Oh, my God, I'm not getting a pulse ... I don't think he's alive! Sgt. Ed Buns says Hamilton police are working with the Butler County prosecutor's office to decide whether anyone should be charged in the case. Police say the boy was wounded in the chest and pronounced dead at a hospital shortly afterward. The woman told the 911 dispatcher: His eyes are open, but he's out. A neighbor says she heard a woman screaming and ran to her balcony to see what was happening. She was holding her son and he was lifeless, just completely lifeless, Amanda Reed, who lives across the street, tells WLWT-TV. Earlier yesterday, a 16-year-old boy was arraigned in juvenile court on a charge of reckless homicide after the June 3 shooting of a 14-year-old boy that also happened in Hamilton. Investigators say they believe the boys were playing with a gun when it discharged, striking Gabriel Mejia in the head. He died last week.

(Feb 13, 2008 5:50 PM) The UK's top judge today quashed the convictions of five young Muslims on charges of downloading and sharing terrorist material, the Telegraph reports. Lord Chief Justice Phillips ruled that, under 2000's Terrorism Act, it is not illegal to possess and study terror literature unless there is obvious evidence of terrorist intent. The ruling is seen as a blow to the British government's terror prosecution and will likely lead to other convictions being overturned. The five students were arrested when one ran away from home after becoming intoxicated by extremist websites, the Telegraph reports. But Phillips maintained there must be a direct connection between the object possessed and the act of terrorism.''

(Mar 14, 2014 8:21 AM CDT) An Alexandria, Virginia, elementary school is closed today to get professionally disinfected after 230 students and staff members came down with a stomach bug. Thirty-three staff members called in sick before Thursday's classes, with five more going home mid-day; and 160 children were absent, with dozens more leaving mid-day. It was a constant calling of parents during the school day to come and pick up more kids, an official tells the Washington Post. Almost 200 students--25% of the John Adams Elementary student body--had so far been affected over two days, officials said yesterday. They're reporting nausea, vomiting, or diarrhea, and health officials believe the likely cause is the highly contagious norovirus.

(Jan 5, 2020 8:15 AM) Five people were killed and dozens injured early Sunday in a crash involving multiple vehicles on the Pennsylvania Turnpike, a transportation official said. A tweet from Pennsylvania Turnpike spokesman Carl DeFebo said the crash involved a tour bus, two tractor-trailers, and passenger vehicles. DeFebo told the AP that the Westmoreland County coroner confirmed five fatalities and said at least 60 people were hospitalized with injuries.

(Dec 20, 2018 2:17 PM) An awful story out of the Seattle suburb of Renton, where police say a 52-year-old woman fatally shot her 14-year-old daughter and seemed bent on killing again before her gun jammed, reports ABC News. The killing took place Tuesday night, beginning when Svetlana Laurel went to the home of her ex-husband and used zip-ties to subdue their 12-year-old son, say police, per the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. The boy told police his mother was complaining that her ex ruined her life. Soon, the ex and the daughter returned home, and Laurel allegedly zapped her ex with a Taser and zip-tied him. When the daughter ran upstairs and called 911, Laurel allegedly followed, drew a gun, and shot her daughter in the head. The dispatcher heard a voice yell, You called 911 and blow your head off, followed by a gunshot. Police say Laurel went back downstairs and tried to shoot her ex-husband, but the gun jammed. Police say he managed to shove Laurel into a wall and get the gun. That's when police arrived. During the dispute, the mother confronted the daughter, while she was on the phone with 911, and then fatally shot her, says a statement from Renton police. Initial indications are that there was a recent child custody issue where the mother had lost custody of her children. Police found the 12-year-old bound on his bed, with a sock stuffed in his mouth. Laurel is booked on first-degree murder charges. (Elsewhere, a 12-year-old boy is charged with killing his twin sister.)

(Mar 3, 2017 6:25 PM) Mercedes is recalling about 1 million cars and SUVs worldwide because a starter part can overheat and cause fires, the AP reports. The recall covers certain C-Class, E-Class, and CLA cars and GLA and GLC SUVs, all from 2015 through 2017, including nearly 308,000 in the US. The German automaker reported 51 fires worldwide, with about 30 in the US. The company has no reports of any injuries. Mercedes said in US government documents released Friday that if for some reason the engine and transmission won't turn over, a current limiter in the starter motor can overheat from repeated attempts to start the vehicles. That can cause the current limiter to overheat and melt nearby parts. Mercedes began investigating the problem last June after getting field reports of thermally damaged current limiters. Owners will be notified this month and again when replacement parts are available in July. It will take about an hour for dealers to install another fuse to prevent the problem. The repair will be done free of charge. Also recalled Friday: soy nut butter that has been linked to 12 cases of E. coli and baby rattles that are a choking hazard.

(Dec 14, 2016 11:00 AM) Her life of crime has involved more than 20 arrests on two continents over six decades--and, apparently, Doris Payne isn't done. The 86-year-old woman, dubbed the granny gem thief, was arrested Tuesday at a mall in an Atlanta suburb where she's accused of trying to steal a $2,000 necklace, reports WXIA. Police say Payne slipped the diamond necklace into her pocket at a department store and tried to leave, per the Atlanta Journal Constitution. The California woman was last arrested in October 2015 when police say she took $700 earrings from an Atlanta store. She was found to have a warrant in North Carolina, where she was accused of stealing a $33,000 engagement ring, but wasn't extradited due to health concerns. Payne--whose crimes were chronicled in the 2013 documentary The Life and Crimes of Doris Payne, available on Netflix--had previously been arrested in Greece, Switzerland, France, and beyond. In a 2014 interview, she said she started stealing watches in her 20s to escape a life of poverty in West Virginia and kept up the habit in later life. She's stolen $2 million worth of jewelry over her lifetime, per the Journal-Constitution, which notes she tends to serve only a short time in jail before getting let out for good behavior. The Desert Sun reports she's also been released from jail because of overcrowding. I don't have any regrets about stealing jewelry, Payne says in the documentary. I regret getting caught.

(Nov 16, 2012 7:37 AM) We certainly aren't getting any healthier: Diabetes rates have soared across the United States since 1995, up 50% in 42 states and more than doubling in 18, reports the AFP. In 1995, only three states had a diabetes rate of 6%, but by 2010 all 50 states topped that rate, for a national average of 7%, according to a new report issued yesterday by the CDC. The two unluckiest states: Mississippi, which claims not just the most obese crown but the most diabetic one as well, with 12% of residents saying they have diabetes; and Oklahoma, whose 226% jump in cases from 1995 to 2010 was the country's biggest and pushed its diabetes rate to about 10%, reports the AP. Regionally, we saw the largest increase in diagnosed diabetes prevalence in the South, followed by the West, Midwest, and Northeast, said the lead author. To wit, the other states that saw the highest rise were Kentucky, up 158% to 9%; Georgia, up 145% to 10%; and Alabama, up 140% to 11%. These rates will continue to increase until effective interventions and policies are implemented to prevent both diabetes and obesity, the study's author added. Type 2 diabetes, which is closely linked with obesity, accounts for between 90% and 95% of all cases.

(Oct 23, 2015 5:00 PM CDT) A depressing state for bibliophiles: 27% of American adults surveyed this year said they had not read a single book during the prior year. That's out of a Pew Research survey conducted in March and April. Seventy-two percent said they had read at least one book in that timeframe (another 1% refused to answer or said they didn't know), though even reading a book in part counted for the purposes of the survey. That's down from 79% in 2011. Interestingly, young adults aged 18 to 29 were more likely than older adults to have read a book in the past year. The survey also found that the average number of books read per American adult over the previous year was 12.

(Jan 5, 2018 7:56 PM) New York City had 290 murders last year, the fewest on record in the modern era, the AP reports. There also were fewer shootings, 789, and fewer overall crimes reported in 2017--a total of 96,517. Arrests also were down by more than 30,000 from 2016. Police say the decline in crime is due in part to focusing more on larger takedowns and less on smaller infractions, and a shift to focus on community-based policing in the city's precincts. New York is not the violent nightmare we once read about. It's our home and we're willing to fight for it, Police Commissioner James O'Neill said Friday.

(May 2, 2011 12:17 PM CDT) Japan saw auto sales drop 51% in April compared to sales a year earlier, the biggest plunge since record-keeping began in 1968. The earthquake- and tsunami-prompted parts shortage squeezed production and dealers' supplies; just 108,824 vehicles sold last month. Toyota was the hardest-hit, with sales sinking 68.7% to 35,557; Nissan saw a 37.2% drop to 17,413 vehicles, and Honda sales fell 48.5% to 18,923, the Wall Street Journal reports. Quake-ravaged northeastern Japan was home to some 500 suppliers' factories. Though operations resumed last month at the three leading automakers, production was well below original expectations, and the future remains unclear. Still, Toyota's president said that all production lines and all models will be back to normal in November to December, while Honda expects operations to match pre-quake plans by year's end.

(Dec 28, 2010 7:51 AM) President Obama's reelection campaign will likely be based in Chicago, not Washington--a rare move for a sitting president, and one that his advisers hope will help him rekindle the energy of 2008, Politico notes. Usually, campaigns are kept close to the president's DC home, where they're easily accessible, said a Democratic consultant: In modern presidential history, this is kind of revolutionary. For people who have been in the White House the past two years, it's probably a good idea to get outside the presidential bubble, the consultant added. It could also help prevent leaks, since staffers won't be mixing with reporters so much. The tough part will be keeping the White House and the campaign staff in sync, said a former Carter administration official: A campaign is a full-time job and running a White House is a full-time job, and the people have to be compatible with each other because events mainly determine reelection.

(Mar 2, 2019 11:07 AM) Johnny Depp is suing ex-wife Amber Heard for no less than $50 million for allegedly defaming him with domestic-abuse allegations, People reports. Calling her claims a hoax, Depp's lawyers say she purported to write from the perspective of 'a public figure representing domestic abuse' and claimed that she 'felt the full force of our culture's wrath for women who speak out' when she 'spoke up against sexual violence.' The op-ed depended on the central premise that Ms. Heard was a domestic abuse victim and that Mr. Depp perpetrated domestic violence against her. Mr. Depp never abused Ms. Heard. Depp also claims the Washington Post op-ed hurt his career and got him dropped from the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise. The suit also says Heard and Elon Musk started a relationship within a month of her February 2015 wedding to Depp. Heard's rep responded by calling the lawsuit a frivolous action and an effort to silence the actress: Mr. Depp's actions prove he is unable to accept the truth of his ongoing abusive behavior, per the rep. But while he appears hell-bent on achieving self-destruction, we will prevail in defeating this groundless lawsuit and ending the continued vile harassment of my client by Mr. Depp and his legal team. The Blast looks back at their very public May 2016 divorce, in which Heard got a temporary restraining order against Depp and he claimed she'd injured him with a vodka bottle. Heard won a $7 million settlement, which she gave partly to charity.

(Jan 25, 2018 10:00 AM) Not for me. Three words buried in an InStyle interview, but enough to quash the overwhelming buzz about a possible presidential run by Oprah Winfrey in 2020--at least for now. Winfrey, who appears on InStyle's March cover, spoke to the magazine three weeks before her Golden Globes speech fueled rumors of presidential aspirations and was already dead set against the idea, according to the interview published Thursday. Though she admitted to receiving an offer of campaign assistance and suggested her friend Gayle King was gung-ho--as is Common, per Variety-- I don't have the DNA for it, the 63-year-old said of a presidential run. I've always felt very secure and confident with myself in knowing what I could do and what I could not. And so it's not something that interests me. Instead, Winfrey will return to her roots on 60 Minutes. The core of me is about conversations, exploring the depth of our human experiences, she said. That is my calling. That doesn't mean she's steering clear of politics. Speaking about her new film A Wrinkle in Time, Winfrey applauded those fighting against the dark before noting, We need an army, we need an arsenal. She also said social engagement, allowing people to get involved in ways that they never would've been before, has created an exciting ... moment in our political history. At the same time--and in a possible dig at President Trump--she criticized the use of Twitter. It makes no sense to speak when you cannot be heard, she said. One hundred and forty characters--that is not how you want to make your mark in the world.

(Jun 20, 2015 5:30 PM CDT) A Cincinnati man killed a police officer yesterday while friends were reading about his suicide-by-cop plan in texts and commenting about it on his Facebook page, CNN reports. Trepierre Hummons, 21, called 911 twice about an armed man in the area, and when police responded, he opened fire. He shot and killed 48-year-old officer Sonny Kim, a married father of three and celebrated karate instructor, WLWT reports. An officer responding to the scene shot and killed Hummons. I love every last one of y'all to whoever has been in my life. ... You're the real mvp, Hummons wrote on Facebook. But no one told police about his messages: That didn't happen in this case, unfortunately, and we lost one of our best police officers, says Police Chief Jeffery Blackwell.

(Nov 5, 2010 11:52 AM CDT) Is the Republican party getting a bit more fabulous? In a CNN exit poll, 31% of those who identified themselves as gay voted Republican, up from 27% in 2008 and 23% in 2004. The sample size is pretty small--only 3% of the 17,504 voters CNN talked to were gay--but Republicans are celebrating anyway, Politico reports. The gay left would have you believe that gay conservatives don't exist, says the executive director of GOProud. This should be a wake-up call for the out-of-touch, so-called leadership of Gay Inc. in Washington, DC, which has become little more than a subsidiary of the Democrat Party.

(Aug 16, 2018 12:02 PM CDT) Good news for many who are saving for retirement: During the second quarter, 168,000 people with 401(k)s managed by Fidelity Investments were millionaires, having at least $1 million in their accounts, per a press release. That's a record high, USA Today reports. It's also up 41% from last year's number of 119,000, CNBC reports. The stock market's performance over the past several years has definitely helped retirement savers, but now would be a good time for investors to take a moment and make sure they are doing their part to meet their retirement goals, says a Fidelity exec in a statement. Fidelity is one of the US' largest administrators of workplace retirement accounts. The average 401(k) contribution rate, not counting employer match, is 8.6%, a nearly 10-year high; the average 401(k) balance is $104,000, just below 2017's all-time high of $104,300. As for individual retirement accounts, there are another 155,849 IRA millionaires whose accounts are managed by Fidelity; the average IRA balance is $106,900, an almost 7% increase from a year ago. Fidelity notes the number of 18-to-34-year-olds contributing to an individual retirement account has increased 19% compared to a year ago.

(May 9, 2017 2:35 PM CDT) Audio tapes leaked Monday reveal authorities had a chance to save the 268 Syrian refugees--including 60 children--who drowned when their boat capsized in October 2013 but instead wasted time with, as the Times of Malta puts it, bureaucratic wrangling and indifference. Mohammed Jammo, a Syrian doctor on the doomed boat, made multiple calls to Italian and Maltese authorities up to five hours before the disaster, pleading for help, the Washington Post reports. We are dying, please. Don't abandon us, Jammo says during one of the calls. He told authorities the boat was taking on water and there were injured children aboard. Italy had a military vessel 20 nautical miles from the sinking ship but didn't send it, instead telling Jammo to call Malta. Malta told Jammo to call Italy. The sticking point: The refugee boat was technically in waters overseen by Malta but was nearly twice as close to the Italian island of Lampedusa, the Independent reports. And Malta didn't have a vessel anywhere near as close as the Italian vessel. Italian authorities also appeared hesitant to bring the refugees to Italy. Italy eventually did send its vessel--hours after the first call from Jammo--but only after a Maltese plane confirmed the boat had capsized and there were people in the water. Amnesty International says it's reasonable to question whether authorities from both countries did everything they could to prevent 268 people from dying.

(Feb 16, 2008 8:59 AM) The founder of '70s rock band Boston is sick of Mike Huckabee using his hit song More Than a Feeling without permission, the AP reports. By using my song, and my band's name Boston, you have taken something of mine and used it to promote ideas to which I am opposed, wrote Eric Scholz, an Obama supporter, to Huckabee. In other words, I think I've been ripped off, dude! A former Boston member who left the band in a bitter split has played the song with Huckabee's band and appeared at campaign rallies, but Huckabee's people deny that any band endorsement is suggested. Governor Huckabee plays Sweet Home Alabama. Does that mean Lynyrd Skynyrd is endorsing him? scoffed his campaign manager. Scholz, however, still recommends that the GOP hopeful stick to music recorded by far-right Republicans.

(Mar 28, 2012 7:49 AM CDT) The FBI missed a big chance to gain intel--compliments of a tapped phone network in Afghanistan--before 9/11 because it was busy fighting with the CIA, according to testimony heard yesterday in Britain's House of Commons. Stay with us on this one: As the Guardian reports, the revelation was made because the UK government wants to hold court cases related to national security in secret. And the official arguing that such a thing should not be permitted in the UK cited a US case as an example. David Davis, the former shadow home secretary, said that the FBI was presented with an incredible opportunity in 1998: to listen in on every single Taliban phone call. The FBI had learned that the Taliban had handed a UK-US venue a major telephone contract. Explains Davis, Because the Taliban wanted American equipment for their new phone network, this would allow the FBI and NSA to build extra circuits into all the equipment before it was flown out to Afghanistan for use. Those circuits would allow the FBI to learn details like the caller's name and the number they were calling. But Operation Foxden got mired in a battle between the FBI and CIA over who should take the lead on the project. It finally got authorized--on Sept. 8. 2001. It's unclear whether the US would have actually gained al-Qaeda- and 9/11-related intel from these calls, but a huge opportunity was missed, Davis said. The businessmen involved in the phone venture got embroiled in a lawsuit, which was sealed to protect state secrets; Davis was using the US case as an example of how intelligence agencies misuse laws to shield embarrassments, rather than protect security.

(Jul 15, 2009 10:16 AM CDT) The Senate health committee has cast a milestone vote to approve legislation expanding insurance coverage to nearly all Americans, becoming the first congressional panel to act on President Obama's top domestic priority. The 13-10 party-line vote advanced a $600 billion measure that would require individuals to get health insurance and employers to contribute to the cost. The government would provide financial assistance with premiums for individuals and families making up to four times the federal poverty level--or about $88,000 for a family of four. The health committee legislation is but one piece of broader Senate legislation that's still under development. This time we've produced legislation that by and large I think the American people want, said Sen. Chris Dodd, the committee's acting chair with Ted Kennedy ailing.

(May 5, 2013 4:10 PM CDT) A newlywed bride and four of her friends were killed in California on Saturday when the limo they were riding to a bridal shower burst into flames on the San Mateo Bridge, trapping them inside. Four other women and the driver escaped the burning car and survived, but two are still in critical condition in hospital, the San Jose Mercury News reports. It is still not clear what caused the 1999 Lincoln Town Car to catch fire, but the rental company says it is cooperating with authorities. For unknown reasons, the five women had been unable to escape through the rear doors, and they died as they tried to squeeze through a small window into the driver's compartment, the San Francisco Chronicle reports. This is one of the most horrific things I've seen in 21 years with this office, San Mateo County's medical examiner says. Looking at it, they were on top of each other and doing what they could to get out. All the victims were nurses. The bride, 31-year-old Neriza Tojas, had been planning to repeat her wedding vows in her native Philippines next month, family members say.

(Sep 3, 2016 5:19 PM CDT) Police in Memphis say 14 people were injured when they were thrown from an amusement ride at Tennessee's Delta Fair, the AP reports. Shelby County Sheriff's office spokesperson Earle Farrell says 14 people were transported on Saturday afternoon to local hospitals from the fair. Farrell says they were on a ride called the Moonraker. (The spinning ride looks like this.) The cause of the accident is not yet known. Farrell says the injured riders were all in stable condition. He did not know how many adults and children were on the ride.

(Jan 26, 2012 2:52 AM) A stellar idea or just lunacy? Either way, Newt Gingrich wants an American colony on the moon by the end of his second term, reports Politico. Speaking in Florida, home to much of NASA, Gingrich called his moon proposal a Northwest Ordinance for space, and grandiose, comparing it to visions by Abraham Lincoln, the Wright brothers, and John F. Kennedy. I accept the charge that I am grandiose and that Americans are instinctively grandiose, Gingrich said. Does that mean I'm visionary? You betcha. Gingrich also called for 10% of NASA's budget to be dedicated to prize money to spur private inventions toward space travel, manned Mars trips by 2020, and maybe even a moon state, once 13,000 people are living there. His ideas may sound out there, but Gingrich has actually been calling for the colonization of the moon since at least his 1984 book Window of Opportunity, notes Slate. And with Florida's Space Coast unemployment higher than the national average and expected to grow because of contractions in NASA and space funding, proposals to increase cosmic exploration could boost Gingrich's campaign.

(Jul 27, 2018 3:54 PM CDT) Everybody was flabbergasted that a little girl like me could fly these big airplanes all by oneself, Mary Ellis said at her 100th birthday party last year in Britain. But fly them she did, delivering British Spitfires and other warplanes to the front lines during World War II, reports the New York Times. Ellis' story--which the 5-foot-2 aviator chronicled in her Spitfire Girl autobiography--is getting attention again this week because of her death at 101 at home on the Isle of Wright. Ellis estimates that she flew 1,000 planes during the war as a volunteer with Britain's Air Transport Auxiliary, reports the BBC. Only three other female ATA pilots are believed to survive now. Remarkably, most of their missions were flown solo and without compass or radio assistance, notes the Washington Post. Ellis' 2016 memoir recounts a flight in which a German fighter plane flew near her. With one hand I waved at this pilot to move away and get out of my sight, she wrote. I can picture his grinning face now. Then he cheekily waved back again and again--and then suddenly he was gone. I wondered if it was my blonde curls that caused him to stare as I never ever wore a helmet during my whole career with the ATA. What was the point of a helmet when we couldn't speak to anyone? It didn't do much for the hairstyle either. Ellis took flying lessons as a teenager but flew for pleasure until hearing a radio ad in 1941 looking for ATA volunteers. She signed up and flew through the entire war.

(Aug 12, 2014 7:28 PM CDT) Actress Lauren Bacall, who shot to fame in the 1940s and remained a cultural icon, died at home today in New York City of a massive stroke, a family member tells TMZ. She was 89. The co-star of classic films like To Have and Have Not (1944), The Big Sleep (1946), and Key Largo (1948), she was also known for her low, provocative voice and famous marriages to Humphrey Bogart and Jason Robards, Entertainment Weekly reports. On stage, she won Tony Awards for her roles in Applause (1970) and Woman of the Year (1981), then garnered an Academy Award nod in Barbra Streisand's The Mirror Has Two Faces (1996) and won an honorary Oscar in 2010, says the Hollywood Reporter. Born Betty Joan Perske to a Jewish family in the Bronx in 1924, Bacall saw her film career launched by a Harper's Bazaar magazine cover at age 19. Told by director Howard Hawks that she would star alongside the likes of Bogart or Cary Grant, I thought Cary Grant, great, she said later. Humphrey Bogart, yuck. But her 11-year marriage to Bogart was one of Hollywood's most celebrated, ending with his death to esophageal cancer in 1957. Her stormy marriage to heavy-drinking Robards lasted from 1961 to 1969. In later years, she continued acting in films, used her voice for TV commercials, and even played herself in an episode of The Sopranos. She never got locked in any time warp, said director Robert Altman. Think about how many social and attitudinal changes that have occurred, and yet Bacall has always remained unique.

(Jun 9, 2011 1:27 PM CDT) A murder mystery has been solved with the confession of a 96-year-old woman--and it only took her 65 years to do it. The 1946 killing of Felix Gulje, the head of a construction company who had high political ambitions, rocked the Dutch political landscape at the time. Atie Ridder-Visser confessed to the killing in a letter to the mayor of Leiden, saying it happened in the mistaken belief that Gulje had collaborated with the Nazis. Two subsequent interviews with her, and a review of the historical archives persuaded Mayor Henri Lenferink that her story was true. Ridder-Visser will not be prosecuted, Lenferink said. On the cold sleeting night of March 1, 1946, Ridder-Visser rang Gulje's doorbell in Leiden, and told his wife that she had a letter to give to her husband. When he came to the door she shot him in the chest, and he died in the ambulance. Even now, after 65 years, the murder should be strongly condemned, Lenferink said. It is a case of vigilantism, and is unacceptable. But he appealed to reporters to leave her alone. Mrs. Ridder-Visser is a very old, very frail woman who hears poorly, is disabled, and needs help, he said.

(Apr 24, 2020 12:20 AM CDT) Richard Gere has become a father again at the age of 70. The actor and his wife Alejandra Silva, 37, recently welcomed their second child together and are getting to know the new addition to their family at their home just outside New York City, a rep confirms to Page Six. The baby boy is Gere and Silva's second child together. Their first child together, also a boy, was born 14 months ago. Gere also has a 20-year-old son, Homer, from his marriage to Carey Lowell, while Silva has 7-year-old son Albert from a previous marriage, People reports.

(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.

(Aug 18, 2012 5:23 AM CDT) Yesterday was Paul Ryan's turn to release his tax returns--just the last two years, of course--and they show that the veep candidate paid 15.9% of his income in taxes in 2010 and 20% last year, according to documents provided to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Ryan, together with his wife, Janna, paid $34,233 in federal taxes on $215,417 in gross income in 2010 and $64,764 in federal taxes on $323,416 in 2011. That's a pretty normal rate, said one tax expert. About half of their income came from his congressional salary, with most of the rest coming from rental real estate, royalties, partnerships, S corporations, trust, etc. One insider noted that most of Ryan's investment income came from holdings owned by his wife. At his lowest rate, though, Ryan's 15.9% in 2010 was still well ahead of Mitt Romney's 13.9% that year, as well as his estimated 15.4% last year--not to mention his never less than 13% over the past decade--notes the AP. President Obama paid $162,074 in federal taxes last year on $789,674 in gross income, or about 20.5%, after paying 26% in 2010.

(Aug 3, 2019 4:45 PM CDT) A North Carolina man was arrested Friday for allegedly raping and murdering a teenage girl nearly 40 years ago, the Winston-Salem Journal reports. Robert James Adkins, 62, was charged with first-degree forcible rape and first-degree murder of Ronda Mechelle Blaylock, whose partly-clothed body was found in a wooded area in 1980. The 14-year-old was stabbed to death, a medical examiner said, but the rape was only officially revealed after Adkins' arrest, per the Mount Airy News. A multi-agency task force was established in 2015 to break the case using DNA testing and evidence that a former sheriff said was in excellent condition. Blaylock was in ninth grade when she vanished on Aug. 26, 1980. A man in a blue pickup apparently gave her and a friend a lift after school, then dropped off the friend first. Witnesses recalled the driver as being in his early 20s or late teens, smoking cigarettes, and listening to rock on the radio; Adkins was 23 at the time. But the investigation stalled, leaving the girl's mother, Rebecca, wanting the killer to spend his life in prison for the death of her only child: I've been in prison, so to speak, for 35 years, she said in 2015. I want them to know how it feels not to have your freedom, you know. Rebecca died a year to the day before Adkins' arrest. The sheriff plans to reveal more at a press conference on Wednesday.

(Jan 31, 2019 9:15 AM) When you write my obituary, please don't say that I was accused of treason, Morton Sobell told the New York Times in 1998. Wish granted. The third figure in the famous 1951 spying case of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg--found guilty of conspiracy against the US, a charge Sobell once likened to talking about espionage --died in Manhattan on Dec. 26, his son confirmed Wednesday, per the Times. He was 101. Overshadowed by his co-defendants, who were executed in 1953, Sobell served almost 18 years of a 30-year sentence in federal prison before his release in 1969. The son of Russian immigrants would maintain his innocence for another four decades before finally admitting to stealing classified military documents for the Soviets beginning at the end of World War II, though he stressed that he provided no information on the atomic bomb, per the Washington Post. Prosecutors alleged the Rosenbergs helped the Soviets replicate the bomb, though many believe their roles in the case were exaggerated. Indeed, Sobell argued Ethel was only guilty of being Julius' wife. Sobell, however, was said to have passed military secrets to Julius, his college classmate, while working in General Electric's aircraft and marine engineering division. Sobell eventually fled to Mexico, where he was apprehended in August 1950. In prison, he befriended convicted murderer Robert Stroud. After his release, he worked in medical electronics and developed a low-cost hearing aid. I thought the USSR was a genuine socialist country and this was the ideal, he later told the Wall Street Journal of his spying role. The Times sees its lasting impact in crafting an unbridgeable fault line that would open an enduring gulf between liberals and conservatives. (Ethel might still be cleared.)

(May 17, 2018 3:33 PM CDT) Police say a 7-year-old boy fatally shot himself in his suburban Minneapolis home after a loaded handgun was found in a box containing a toy, the AP reports. Police were called to a townhome apartment complex in Plymouth around 3pm Wednesday on a report of a child bleeding from the head. When officers arrived they discovered Keyaris Samuels with a gunshot wound. Police said Thursday that the boy and his siblings were home alone when the gun was discovered in a box containing a hoverboard. The three other children were outside when Keyaris accidentally shot himself. The boy's mother came home shortly afterward. Plymouth Police Chief Michael Goldstein says the boy's mother told police she doesn't know the source of the gun. Police are investigating and want to hold the gun owner responsible.

(Apr 27, 2008 4:34 AM CDT) Hillary Clinton is riding high from her Keystone State win. After lagging in Gallup polls much of this month, she tied Barack Obama in the latest tracking poll at 47%. She also leads John McCain by 3 points, while Obama is even with the GOP nominee at 45%. The two Democratic hopefuls had been roughly tied with McCain since Gallup started polling election preferences last month.

(Feb 13, 2017 4:03 AM) It was crime that shocked Australia: A British man shot dead in the wild outback of the Northern Territories by a man who then abducted his girlfriend. She managed to escape and hide in the scrub for hours as the killer stalked her with a dog. Now, 15 years later, Joanne Lees is back in the untamed heart of Australia to look for Peter Falconio's body, trailed by an Aussie TV crew. I need to bring him home, she tells Network 9's 60 Minutes. Pete lost his life on that night, but I lost mine, too. Bradley Murdoch, the man convicted in 2005 of killing Falconio, 28, has never revealed what he did with Falconio's body, the Guardian reports. The vacationing couple was driving on an isolated highway at night in July 2001 when Murdoch flagged down their camper van. He shot Falconio in the head, and beat Lees, then 27, and tied her up. When Murdoch left her to check Falconio, Lees bolted. She was found on the highway with her hands bound. Her calm demeanor during questioning initially led police to consider her a suspect, per the Telegraph. Flying over the remote scene in a helicopter, Lees, now 43, tells 60 Minutes, I know that he's somewhere here. His spirit just feels stronger. Members of the local Aboriginal community are helping scour the bleak landscape for the body and have donated artwork to help Lees pay for a memorial. She is planning to dedicate a silver falcon sculpture to Falconio's memory. (The killer of the ex-wife of a Righteous Brothers member was identified after 41 years.)

(Aug 23, 2012 2:33 AM CDT) Ever wonder how many black voters support Mitt Romney? The simple answer is: 0%. A new NBC/Wall Street Journal poll has found that 94% of blacks back President Obama, compared to zilch for Romney. The poll also found that Obama is doing better among Latinos, voters under 35, and women. Romney fares better with whites, rural voters, and seniors. Overall, the news isn't good for Romney as he's about to head to the GOP convention. A Romney-Paul Ryan ticket rates 4 points behind an Obama-Joe Biden ticket, the poll finds. Fears about the economy continue to create problems for the president, but voter concerns about Romney's tax returns and Medicare plans present even bigger obstacles for Mitt, notes NBC. Observers point out, however, that Obama isn't out of the woods until he passes the 50% mark in polling. When a guy gets stuck at 48%, it doesn't mean they are out in the clear, says GOP pollster Republican pollster Bill McInturff. It means they are in an incredibly competitive campaign.

(Jan 26, 2012 7:20 AM) The Treasury Department has had a tough time selling off some of the stock it took on in exchange for TARP bailout funds, meaning taxpayers are still on the hook for some $132.9 billion--some of which they may never get back, according to a report released today by the government watchdog overseeing the program. Selling the stock has been complicated by swingy stock market prices, and deep dips in some of the bailed out companies, the AP reports. Treasury is trying not to lose money on any of the investments, but that'll be tough--it'll have to get $28.73 per share for AIG and $53.98 per share for GM, for example, a daunting prospect since the two closed at $25.31 and $24.92 respectively yesterday. TARP is not over, said the acting inspector general for the program, promising that his office would watch it until it was.

(Oct 6, 2016 12:37 PM CDT) As Florida and the rest of the East Coast are bracing for Hurricane Matthew, Haiti is starting to dig out from the storm's devastation. Officials from the island nation reported Thursday that at least 108 are dead so far, with that number expected to rise and catastrophic damage sustained, reports the Miami Herald. More than 28,000 homes have been damaged (with more expected to be reported), and the nation's Office of Civil Protection notes more than 21,000 people are still holed up in shelters. The situation is critical, President Jocelerme Privert said. Haiti's southern peninsula appears to have taken the brunt of the storm, with reports of scarce food supplies, destroyed banana crops, no phones or electricity, and a demoralized populace. Everybody's house is destroyed, the people can't eat and have to drink coconut water to sustain them, a local legislator says. The BBC reports that the southwestern town of Jeremie was pretty much wiped out and has been cut off from communications with the rest of the world, per a Port-au-Prince radio host. A pilot who flew overhead reported that only about 1% of the homes were left standing, a Connecticut-based Haitian NGO tells ABC News. Haiti is facing the largest humanitarian event witnessed since the earthquake six years ago, a spokesperson for the UN secretary-general said in a statement. Meanwhile, the Weather Channel says the storm, currently a Category 4 weather force, could remain at that level or even escalate to a rare Category 5 before it hits Florida's coast later Thursday. (CNN has posted 12 more photos that capture the destruction in Haiti.)

(May 7, 2018 6:03 AM CDT) Things were looking so dire for 13-year-old Trenton McKinley of Mobile, Ala., that his parents signed the papers to donate his organs to five other kids. But a day before doctors were to take him off life support, Trenton began showing signs of recovery from a traumatic brain injury, reports WALA. Now he's shooting hoops during rehab. It's a miracle, mom Jennifer Nicole Reindl tells USA Today. Trenton's ordeal began two months ago, when he was riding in a cart being pulled by a dune buggy, and the cart flipped. I hit the concrete and the trailer landed on top of my head, Trenton tells the Alabama TV station. After that, I don't remember anything. Reindl wrote on a Facebook fundraiser that her son suffered seven skull fractures requiring multiple surgeries, and that doctors were detecting no brain activity over several days. At that point, they made the decision to donate his organs-- I knew he would not hesitate to save 5 more lives --until a final test of brain waves came back positive. Trenton is recuperating at home, and he suffers from nerve pain and daily seizures. But he's thankful for his recovery, and tells WALA that he credits something beyond the hospital. There's no other explanation but God, he says. There's no other way.

(Dec 14, 2018 3:17 PM) Stocks ended the week with a steep loss on Wall Street as the S&P 500 dropped to its lowest level since April, the AP reports. The benchmark index is now down almost 3% for the year. New concerns about slowing growth in China as well as growing disarray surrounding plans for Britain to exit the European Union put investors in a mood to sell Friday. Johnson & Johnson plunged 10% after Reuters reported that the company has known since the 1970s that its talc baby powder sometimes contained asbestos, a charge the company denies. The S&P 500 index fell 50 points, or 1.9%, to 2,599. The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 496 points, or 2%, to 24,100. The Nasdaq composite skidded 159 points, or 2.3%, to 6,910.

(Oct 14, 2014 12:42 PM CDT) With a name like Howard Cocks Dickinson IV, it's no wonder this New Hampshire man's obituary opens with a penis joke. He walked through heaven's gate 'prick first,' just as he would have wanted, reads the obituary in the Conway Daily Sun. It goes on to inform us that Dickinson was a lover of hunting, fishing, food, the woods, women, politics, dogs, guns, porn, and last but not least, himself. Did we mention he liked women? The obit also notes, As he begins his new journey we wish him ... a room full of women with an open bar! He's survived by three children-- that we know of, the obituary reads--and it looks like those are the people we have to thank for the delightful remembrance: Lesson to be learned: Be nice to your children, because they are the ones who hold your hand when you are dying and write your obituary, it concludes. Jim Romenesko spotted the obit and called it an obit that a junior-high boy would love, noting, Mr. Dickinson was 78, by the way. (Click for another funny obituary in which the Kardashians play a part.)

(Mar 1, 2012 9:23 AM) Christie Brinkley and Peter Cook may have settled their divorce back in 2008, but the ex-couple isn't done battling in court. Brinkley claims Cook owes her more than $32,000 in child support, but Cook--in a 91-page court filing--says it's actually Brinkley who owes him. The New York Post reports the document is full of complaints, some years old, and packed with insults; Cook calls her a narcissistic egomaniac, for instance. (But he also complains in the document that she calls him truly narcissistic. A source says Cook, who famously had an affair with an 18-year-old, also claims in the filing that Brinkley turned him into the scapegoat for all the evils in her life, and that she once told their son that Cook was jealous of her success. He complains about everything from iPhone plans to a $34.65 boat storage charge to make his argument that Brinkley actually owes him $25,000, noting that he took care of the kids while Brinkley performed in Chicago for five months.

(Nov 11, 2019 5:25 AM) A determined American explorer has discovered a submarine lost for 75 years--and the final resting place of 80 American servicemen. Tim Taylor, who runs a project dedicated to finding the 52 US submarines lost in action during World War II, says his team has found the USS Grayback off Okinawa, the New York Times reports. The sub, which sank more than a dozen Japanese ships and rescued a group of downed American airmen, left Pearl Harbor on Jan. 28, 1944, for its 10th combat mission and never returned. Japanese records translated after the war said a plane had hit the sub with a 500-pound bomb and gave the latitude and longitude. But last year, Yutaka Iwasaki, a Japanese researcher who works with Taylor's team, discovered that one digit had been mistranslated. Iwasaki's finding revealed that the Grayback had been hit 100 miles from the approximate location the Navy had listed. Taylor and his team searched the area using autonomous underwater drones. When the main underwater vehicle malfunctioned on the next-to-last day of the expedition, the team prepared to leave, until data from the vehicle led them to the Grayback. It was amazing. Everyone was excited, Taylor tells the Washington Post. Then you realize there are 80 men buried there, and it's a sobering experience. John Bihn of Wantaugh, NY, is named for his uncle, who died on the Grayback. He tells the Times that he was dumbfounded to learn that the sub had finally been found. I wish my parents were alive to see this, because it would certainly make them very happy, he says.

(Jan 25, 2013 10:20 AM) Police in Marion, Iowa, a small city of 38,000 in the eastern end of the state, are planning to upgrade to AR-15s ... by buying the $2,000 weapon themselves, reports Fox News. Half of Marion's 50-strong police force intend to get the new weapon, and are willing to have $55 deducted from their biweekly paychecks for 18 months to pay for the guns. The move is designed to give police the firepower to respond to heavily armed criminals--though Marion had zero homicides last year. But police say they want the more powerful guns in response to recent high-profile national shootings that involved semi-automatic weapons. It's more accurate over a longer range, says the head of the National Association of Police Organizations, which approves of Marion's move. For me, if I had to choose, I'd rather be shot by an AR-15 than a shotgun. The Marion Times reports that the city council last night approved the purchase of the guns, but tabled the motion that would give officers the OK to pay for them via payroll deductions until Feb. 21.

(Jun 10, 2013 3:24 PM CDT) Big gold-dealing Deutsche Bank has opened a 200-ton gold vault in Singapore, a move that reflects the city-state's rising status as a tax haven to rival the likes of Switzerland, Quartz reports. Gold has traditionally been stored in London, Zurich and New York, but there is a serious shift in dynamics going on as the global financial crisis continues to evolve, says a Deutsche rep. With instability in Europe's markets, Singapore is becoming an increasingly safe and stable option for investors, the Wall Street Journal reports. It also scrapped its 7% goods-and-services tax on gold last year, making it an especially attractive destination to stash any spare precious metals you have lying around.

(Jan 21, 2008 4:10 PM) Amid continuing concerns about a US recession, European stocks took their biggest single-day plunge since 9/11 today, reports MarketWatch. Losses from financial institutions appeared to be the biggest culprit in the day's 5.4% drop, which added to a crippling trend: The Dow Jones Stoxx 600 index has dropped 23% since mid-2007. On American shores, Dow futures dropped, sparking fears of a nosedive tomorrow. Market sentiment is really sour, said a strategist. There's been more bad news from the financial sector on top of continued recession fears. A decline of over 20%, such as Europe has seen, is considered indicative of a bear market--and some blame President Bush. Ambivalence over Bush's rescue plan for the US economy was the trigger of this rout, said an analyst.

(Oct 5, 2016 9:11 AM CDT) Tori Spelling is apparently enough recovered from financial ruin to support another child: The 43-year-old actress is expecting baby No. 5 with hubby Dean McDermott, who also has an adult son from a previous marriage. It was a total surprise, Spelling, whose eldest child is 9, tells People. Nothing is ever perfect, she adds, but this baby happened at the best time. It's not all roses and baby powder, however: Spelling was just ordered to pay $39,000 to American Express for unpaid debts, while the state of California has sued the couple for an alleged $260,000 in unpaid taxes, per CBS News.

(Jun 25, 2015 3:25 PM CDT) Let's hope Tampa has a steady supply of deodorant. A new survey from the makers of Honeywell Fans has produced a list of the 10 sweatiest cities in the country, based on temperature and humidity levels, population, housing density, wind speed, and more, per a press release. The consensus: Florida is pretty clammy.

(Sep 9, 2011 4:00 PM CDT) A magnitude-6.4 earthquake struck today off the coast of British Colombia, the US Geological Survey said. The quake struck at 12:41pm PDT about 173 miles west of Vancouver. No immediate reports have damage have surfaced. It's been felt pretty widely--we have reports of it being felt in Vancouver, Victoria, and even in Seattle, a USGS geophysicist tells the Vancouver Sun. The quake shook buildings on Vancouver Island. As a precaution, the Washington state Transportation Department sent inspectors to check for damage at the Alaskan Way Viaduct, an aging elevated highway on the Seattle waterfront, as well as two other bridges. No tsunami warning was issued.

(Apr 9, 2012 7:10 PM CDT) Think pornography is popular online? One tech site estimates that 30% of all Internet traffic involves porn, with the world's biggest porno site trumping traffic on CNN or ESPN three times over, the New York Daily News reports. That site, Xvideos, draws 4.4 billion page views monthly--which means enormous traffic when you consider that viewers on porn sites stay an average of 15 to 20 minutes. And that porn sites offer video requiring massive bandwidth. Take YouPorn, the Web's second-biggest porn site with more than 100 million page views daily. It claims to transfer 100 gigabytes per second. Consider that the entire Internet only moves an exabyte of data daily--and that there are dozens of YouPorn-sized websites--and you get ExtremeTech's 30% estimate, which it considers conservative. The Internet really is for porn, it quips.

(Jan 1, 2021 1:00 PM) Authorities in Belgium say a 27th elderly person has died in an outbreak at a nursing home from a superspreading St. Nick party last month, but they hope the situation is now under control. The Hemelrijck home in the northern Belgium city of Mol had organized an early December visit from actors playing St. Nicholas and his helper, reports the AP. Days later, however, residents started exhibiting COVID symptoms, and now, nearly a month later, there are at least 88 infections among residents and 42 among staff. The death of the 27th person from the virus was announced Thursday. The city and families of some of the deceased are complaining that the nursing home should never have organized the party when restrictive measures on events were in place throughout the country to contain the pandemic.

(Jun 12, 2019 9:45 AM CDT) An Oregon man has survived a reported 800-foot fall into a sleeping volcano's caldera. The man, whose name hasn't been released, fell from the caldera's rim at Crater Lake National Park before the Coast Guard was alerted shortly before 4pm Monday. A rescue team had by then descended 600 feet into the crater, but though officials could hear the man yelling for help, they were unable to reach him, per CBS News. Luckily, a helicopter was hovering above the injured man within 15 minutes of arriving on scene around 4:30pm, the Coast Guard said in a statement, per ABC News. The aircrew conducted the hoist before landing in a nearby parking lot and transferring the injured man to the AirLink helicopter crew. He was taken to Bend for treatment, according to the Coast Guard, which didn't comment on the man's injuries other than to say he was able to walk, per CBS. The man isn't the first to tumble into the crater. A few times every year, visitors get too close and fall, often resulting in severe injury or death, Crater Lake said in a May statement, noting rocks and snow near the edge of the caldera are unstable and may give way without warning. The park's latest advice: Don't get too close. (The same thing happened last month in Hawaii.)

(Aug 10, 2020 11:38 AM CDT) As police in Hong Kong stepped up a crackdown on pro-democracy figures, China slapped sanctions on 11 American citizens for behaving egregiously on Hong Kong-related issues. Those sanctioned include Human Rights Watch executive director Kenneth Roth, as well as Republican Sens. Marco Rubio, Ted Cruz, Josh Hawley, Tom Cotton, and Pat Toomey, the BBC reports. Beijing acknowledged that the sanctions were tit-for-tat retaliation for the placing of US sanctions last week on 11 officials responsible for the degradation of Hong Kong's autonomy, including Hong Kong chief executive Carrie Lam. The US sanctions on Chinese and Hong Kong officials ban them from traveling to the US and freeze any US-based assets they have. It's not clear what exactly the Chinese sanctions on American citizens involve, but because few American lawmakers hold assets in China, they are seen as largely symbolic, the Guardian reports. Roth tweeted that the sanctions are little more than an effort to distract attention from its wholesale assault on the rights of the people of Hong Kong. He added that the so-called egregious behavior he is being sanctioned for was (proudly) standing up for the people of Hong Kong as they resist Beijing's efforts to crush their freedoms.

(Oct 2, 2015 8:00 AM CDT) Five children perpetrated the suicide bombings that killed 15 people, including themselves, and injured at least 35 others Thursday in the Nigerian city of Maiduguri, the BBC reports. Witnesses say the child suicide bombers--four girls and one boy--were between the ages of 9 and 15. Three of the bombs exploded at a mosque just before final evening prayers. The girl with the fourth bomb intended for the mosque ran off but died when her bomb also exploded. The fifth child suicide bomber struck the house of a vigilante leader, who was not home at the time. The BBC reports Boko Haram is believed to be behind the attacks Thursday in Maiduguri, which was the Islamist militant group's original base six years ago. Boko Haram is stepping up attacks against civilians as the Nigerian military has begun seeing success in fighting them, according to Al Jazeera. A wave of attacks in Maiduguri less than two weeks ago killed at least 117 people. Earlier this week, Amnesty International called for greater protection for citizens from Boko Haram attacks. The group is believed to have killed at least 17,000 people since beginning attacks in 2009.

(Dec 4, 2008 2:11 PM) The fairy godmother of inauguration balls is Earl Stafford, a Virginia businessman who plans to host disadvantaged Americans at The People's Inauguration. The devout Baptist paid $1 million for a build-your-own-ball opportunity at a hotel along the Washington parade rout, and promises to spend more to offer a cross-section of distressed Americans lodging, festivities, and a primo view, he tells the Post. Stafford, who runs a weapons-simulation company, says he'll hire a beautician and tuxedos if needed for guests which he says will include wounded veterans, the terminally ill and others going through tough times. Inspired by his faith, the Obama supporter says he wanted to bless those who otherwise wouldn't have the opportunity to be part of the great celebration.

(Oct 6, 2013 1:00 PM CDT) Critics dubbed Alfonso Cuaron's Gravity extraordinary, and moviegoers this weekend sealed the deal: The George Clooney-Sandra Bullock space drama soared to No. 1 at the box office, with a $55.6 million opening that set a record for an October debut. That's about $20 million more than Gravity was predicted to make, notes the LA Times; it's also an opening-weekend record for both Clooney and Bullock, adds the AP. Rounding out the top five were Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs 2 ($21.5 million), Runner Runner ($7.6 million), Prisoners ($5.7 million), and Rush ($4.8 million).

(May 1, 2020 9:49 AM CDT) Madonna says she plans to breathe in the COVID-19 air after testing positive for antibodies of the novel coronavirus. Took a test the other day. And I found out that I have the antibodies, the 61-year-old singer said Thursday in a diary video shared on Instagram, per USA Today. So tomorrow, I'm just going to go for a long drive in a car, and I'm going to roll down the window, and I'm going to breathe in, I'm going to breathe in the COVID-19 air, she continued. I hope the sun is shining. The CDC would not recommend you follow suit even if if you have contracted COVID-19, per People. According to the agency, there is no concrete proof that antibodies provide immunity from the disease, though that is the hope. (Madonna called the virus the great equalizer.

(Oct 3, 2019 7:20 AM CDT) Seven people have been confirmed dead in the crash of a World War II-era bomber in Connecticut Wednesday morning, making it one of the worst air disasters in the state's history. State public safety commissioner James Rovella says six of the 13 people on the Boeing B-17G Flying Fortress survived the crash at Bradley International Airport, the Hartford Courant reports. He says some of the survivors were critically injured. At least one person on the ground was also injured when the plane slammed into a maintenance building and caught fire. Officials have not identified those killed in the crash, but they say none of them were children, reports the New York Times. Two of the victims were firefighters. Rovella says the death toll would likely have been higher if not for the efforts of rescuers and people on the plane who helped others escape. You're going to hear about some heroic efforts from some of the individuals that were in and around that plane, he says. National Transportation Safety Board member Jennifer Homendy says the plane's crew reported an issue five minutes after takeoff. It struck equipment on the ground as it attempted to land. The vintage plane, owned by the Collings Foundation nonprofit group, was built in 1945, the AP reports. The foundation says the plane was subjected to the effects of three nuclear explosions before being sold as scrap and restored. The plane, which was almost completely destroyed by fire Wednesday, also suffered a crash that injured several people at an air show in Pennsylvania in 1987.

(Nov 13, 2018 6:33 PM) Monica Lewinsky sat for more than 20 hours of interviews to participate in an upcoming docuseries on her involvement with then-President Bill Clinton and the aftermath, and in a new essay for Vanity Fair, she explains why she would choose to relive such a painful and traumatic time in her life. An important part of moving forward is excavating, often painfully, what has gone before, she writes. And that excavation process led her to feel grief, regret, and shame. Grief for the pain I caused others. Grief for the broken young woman I had been before and during my time in DC, and the shame I still felt around that. Grief for having been betrayed first by someone I thought was my friend, and then by a man I thought had cared for me. But there's someone else she thinks should be feeling some of those same things. Yes, that would be Bill Clinton, who this year said in an interview that he does not believe he owes Lewinsky a direct apology. Bill Clinton should want to apologize. I'm less disappointed by him, and more disappointed for him, she writes. She also recalls her own apology back in 1999, the year after the scandal, to Hillary and Chelsea Clinton. That's an apology she would offer again if given the opportunity, she writes. I would summon up whatever force I needed to again acknowledge to [Hillary Clinton]--sincerely--how very sorry I am. I know I would do this, because I have done it in other difficult situations related to 1998, she writes. When we are trapped by our inability to evolve, by our inability to empathize humbly and painfully with others, then we remain victims ourselves. Her full piece here. The Clinton Affair premieres on A&E Sunday. (Hillary Clinton recently came under fire for her comments about Lewinsky.)

(Aug 17, 2017 12:15 PM CDT) Human blood is rich with genetic material, and scientists have in recent years taken many steps forward in decoding it. The latest announcement--that a blood test can spot cancer at its earliest stages--has the potential to save millions of lives as treatment is administered earlier in the disease's progression, reports Reuters. Reporting in the journal Science Translational Medicine, scientists say that by analyzing DNA fragments in blood to look for several dozen cancer-driver genes, they spotted 86 out of 138 stage 1 and stage 2 cancers; they also confirmed no trace of cancer in 44 healthy patients (in other words, there were zero false positives). Some call this minimally invasive test a liquid biopsy. This is one of the first studies that has looked directly at early-stage cancers, says lead author Dr. Victor Velculescu, an oncologist at Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center. While the test is proof-of-concept and not yet ready for prime time, detecting 62% of cancers that were only in stages 1 or 2 is a major milestone, experts say. For instance, less than one in five ovarian cancers are caught that early, when the survival rate is higher than 90%; those that are caught after the cancer has spread face a dramatically lower 40% survival rate five years out, per HealthDay News. For this study, however, the blood test caught early-stage ovarian cancer 68% of the time. Scientists hope they can get the test much closer to a 100% detection rate. (This cancer treatment is being hailed as the most exciting in a lifetime.)

(Nov 21, 2016 10:36 AM) Financial crusader John Oliver is riding a horse made of money on the latest cover of Money as its champion of the year. While Oliver recently joked that he's wasting HBO's resources, per Vanity Fair, Money notes he dedicated whole episodes of his third season of Last Week Tonight to complicated subjects critical to Americans' financial health, including credit reports and retirement savings, offering detailed explanations, investigative reporting, exhortations for viewers to take action, and even practical advice. The millions of viewers who tuned in suggest his approach--similar to the kind of populist TV journalism made famous by 60 Minutes -- resonates in a way that personal finance never has before, the magazine says. The heightened public awareness creates an environment in which it's possible to win reform, says the head of Public Citizen. Indeed, Money credits Oliver with pushing the Big Apple to revamp its bail policy, while noting the FCC issued its net neutrality ruling a few months after Oliver's fans caused its website to crash. John Oliver shines a light on some really big problems, says Elizabeth Warren. He makes us laugh and teaches us something, but he also calls on the audience to take action to influence public policy. He helps make change. Money also named 12 other champions of 2016, including the parents who rallied against a spike in EpiPen prices, leading to $500 million in penalties for maker Mylan. (In one episode of his show, Oliver gave away $15 million.)

(Jul 20, 2012 3:41 AM CDT) A Harlem icon has passed on. Sylvia Woods, the Queen of Soul Food, died yesterday at 86 after fighting Alzheimer's, her family says. Tourists and celebrities from all over the world have flocked to her restaurant, Sylvia's, for half a century to sample its corn bread and fried chicken. Sylvia gallantly battled Alzheimer's for the past several years, but never once lost her loving smile, her family said, according to CNN. We lost a legend, said Mayor Michael Bloomberg. In her words, the food was made with 'a whole lot of love' and generations of family and friends have come together at what became a New York institution. Woods' empire reached far beyond the restaurant: She wrote two successful cookbooks, started a catering service, and launched Sylvia's Food Products across the country.

(Mar 26, 2015 4:43 PM CDT) A 22-year-old man shot himself to death while on a ski vacation in Colorado, and his family is certain it knows why: It was 100% the drugs, the mother of Luke Goodman tells CBS Denver. It was completely because of the drugs--he had consumed so much of it. Kim Goodman is referring to the edible marijuana her son ate before his suicide. He and a cousin bought pot-infused candy from a legal shop Saturday, and the cousin says Goodman quickly put down four 10mg chews--and soon a fifth when he felt no effects. Then things changed. He would make eye contact with us but didn't see us, didn't recognize our presence almost, says Caleb Fowler. He had never got close to this point, I had never seen him like this. Goodman's mother says her son likely didn't see a warning on the package that the drug's effects might be delayed for a few hours. He refused to leave the rental condo later when the family went out that night, then shot himself with a gun brought along for protection. He died Tuesday. The coroner agrees the death is suicide and is awaiting toxicology reports before weighing in on whether marijuana might have contributed. If the link is confirmed, it would be the second time since legalization in 2014 that a person committed suicide after consuming edible marijuana, notes the Denver Post. Goodman, a graduate of Oral Roberts University who lived in Tulsa, had no history of depression, says his family. (In the first fatal incident, a student jumped to his death while on spring break.)

(Aug 20, 2011 12:36 PM CDT) The US already has spent a decade fighting in Afghanistan, and the Telegraph suggests it might spend a decade or so more. The British paper reports that US and Afghan officials are close to a deal that would keep thousands of US troops in the country until 2024--not just military trainers but special forces and air power. They would remain after the formal handover of power to the Afghan military in 2014. The Pentagon is drawing down US troops in Afghanistan in anticipation of that deadline, and the Telegraph isn't specific on just how many would remain under this deal. The report quotes Hamid Karzai's top security adviser: If they train our police and soldiers, then those trainers will not be 10 or 20, they will be thousands. He said 2014 is not the end of international terrorist networks and we have a common commitment to fight them. For this purpose also, the US needs facilities. Word of the deal already is angering Pakistan, Iran, and the Taliban.

(Jan 31, 2012 4:39 AM) Fox News has plenty of critics--including Kermit the Frog and Miss Piggy--but it also has more viewers than its two closest rivals combined, according to the latest Nielsen Ratings. The figures show that Fox is the most-watched cable news channel for the 10th year in a row, averaging 1.86 million viewers in prime time, while MSNBC had 775,000 and CNN had 689,000, the New York Daily News reports. Fox beat CNN to the top spot five years after its launch in 1996, and has been there ever since. At the outset, Fox News chief Roger Ailes promised to make the network No. 1, recalls anchor Shepard Smith. No category leader had ever been dethroned in cable. He had a plan and he said if we stick with it, we'd be OK, says Smith, who predicts years of Fox dominance ahead. I don't know why it can't last, he says. It's lasted 10 years.

(Nov 20, 2019 7:04 AM) New uncertainty hangs over the Democratic presidential primary as 10 candidates meet on the debate stage once again Wednesday night--just 75 days before primary voting begins. Here are 7 big questions heading into the debate, which begins at 9pm ET on MSNBC and will feature an all-female line-up of moderators.

(Jul 10, 2014 11:25 PM CDT) Ghana's World Cup team went home without having won any of its three games in Brazil (though it did tie Germany), but a few hundred of its fans want to stay behind permanently. Brazilian authorities say 200 Ghanians who entered the country on tourist visas for the tournament have applied for asylum, saying they are Muslims fleeing religious conflict. Authorities say they expect another 1,000 Ghanians to seek asylum before the end of the conflict, reports the BBC, which notes that the fans filed their claims in a prosperous southern city more than 1,000 miles from where the Ghanian team played. The fans will be allowed to work and travel in the country while their applications are considered, and a Justice Ministry official says the fact that the fans entered the country on tourist visas won't be held against them. Asylum cannot be requested at a Brazilian embassy. The asylum seeker must be in the country to apply, he explains. Some officials sound suspicious of the Ghanians' motives--the area where they applied is a magnet for foreign workers that is now overcrowded, they say--but local Catholic churches have offered their support, giving the fans shelter and helping them file their asylum claims, AllSports reports.

(Apr 21, 2010 6:46 PM CDT) The Coast Guard says it will search through the night for 11 missing oil rig workers in the Gulf of Mexico. One hopeful note: the men were spotted in a lifeboat shortly after the nighttime explosion on the rig, about 50 miles off the coast of Louisiana. Seventeen workers were injured in the blast, three critically, and nearly 100 were rescued unharmed, reports the New Orleans Times-Picayune. We will continue searching as long as it is reasonable that we might still find someone, said a Coast Guard commander. The rig is leaking 13,000 gallons of crude oil an hour, but almost all of it is being burned in the intense fire, said the commander. We do not see a major spill emanating from this incident.

(Mar 16, 2014 5:14 PM CDT) A 7.0-magnitude earthquake struck off the coast of Chile today and forced Chilean officials to order an evacuation along the northern coastline, Reuters reports. According to the US Geological Survey, the quake hit at a depth of 21 miles and was centered 40 miles northwest of the port city of Iquique. The good news: The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center says there's no tsunami threat, although people were evacuated between the northern towns of Tocopilla and Arica due to the chance of a minor tsunami. So far, no reports of damage or injury.

(Aug 21, 2012 2:22 PM CDT) Jimmy Kimmel is getting a bigger spotlight: Starting Jan. 8, his show will be moved to 11:35pm, putting him in direct competition with Jay Leno and David Letterman. The shift is the result of improving ratings and growing advertising demand, the Hollywood Reporter notes. With a 3% jump in total viewers this season, Jimmy Kimmel Live was the only late-night broadcast program to increase its viewership. The time is right to make the move, says president of Disney/ABC Television Group Anne Sweeney. There is the potential for far greater upside over the long term with this shift, given increased advertiser demand for competitive entertainment programming in the timeslot. Nightline will air afterward, at 12:35--and it will also get an hourlong slot on Fridays at 9pm. It's been a big year for Kimmel, the Reporter observes, between his White House Correspondents Dinner appearance, Emmy hosting gig, and his show's first Emmy nod in the late-night category--not to mention his engagement.