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(Jan 3, 2013 4:19 PM) A big CDC survey finds that 1 in 24 Americans admit to nodding off while driving at least once, reports AP. What's worse, officials think the number is probably higher because people often don't remember doing so. Men are more likely to fall asleep, as are those ages 25 to 34, and Texans in general, for reasons that aren't explained. Add it to the list of road dangers, along with people driving too fast or too slow, going the wrong way, texting, driving while drunk or stoned, driving with a lapdog, and, of course, making espresso in the car.

(Oct 26, 2015 3:20 PM CDT) Stocks are closing mostly lower as traders look ahead to a busy week of corporate earnings and a Federal Reserve meeting. Xerox slumped 3% Monday after its quarterly revenue missed analysts' estimates. The company said it would review its business and spending plans. The Dow Jones industrial average fell 23 points, or 0.1%, to 17,623. The Standard & Poor's 500 index fell four points, or 0.2%, to 2,071. The Nasdaq composite inched up two points, or 0.1%, to 5,030. Bond prices rose. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note fell to 2.06%.

(Jan 1, 2018 6:26 AM) At least 12 people have been killed in the ongoing protests in Iran, and armed protesters have tried to take over police stations and military bases, state TV reported Monday. The protests began Thursday in Mashhad over economic issues and have since expanded to several cities, with some protesters chanting against the government and the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the AP reports. Hundreds of people have been arrested. The state TV report said 10 were killed during clashes Sunday night, including six in the western town of Tuyserkan, 185 miles southwest of Tehran. Two demonstrators were killed during a protest in western Iran late Saturday.

(Sep 4, 2013 2:40 PM CDT) A Senate panel has voted to give President Obama the authority to use military force against Syria in response to a deadly chemical weapons attack. The tally in the Foreign Relations Committee was 10-7, setting up a vote in the full Senate next week. The resolution would permit Obama to order a limited military mission against Syria, as long as it doesn't exceed 90 days and involves no American troops on the ground for combat operations. The voting breakdown suggests the White House has some work to do before next week's vote. Obama won the support of three Republicans--John McCain, Jeff Flake, and Bob Corker--but he lost the support of two Democrats--Tom Udall and Chris Murphy. Democrat Ed Markey voted present. In all, five Republicans, including Rand Paul and Marco Rubio, voted against the measure, reports Politico.

(Jun 14, 2013 10:35 AM CDT) The Airbus A350's maiden flight ended with a safe landing today, setting the stage for intensifying competition with US rival Boeing in the long-haul wide-body aircraft market. Airspace at the airport in the southern French city of Toulouse, where Airbus has its headquarters, closed for both take-off and landing. The four-hour flight marks a key step on the path to full certification for the jet, which can carry between 250 and 400 passengers and is the European aircraft maker's best hope for catching up in a long-haul market dominated by Boeing's 787 and 777. Boeing's list prices for its 787 line range from $206 million to $243 million. Airbus lists prices ranging from $254 million to $332 million, and had 613 orders as of May, compared with 890 orders for the 787. Steep discounts are common on large orders, although the details are rarely made public. Airbus claims the A350 burns 25% less fuel than the Boeing due to its lighter weight, redesigned Rolls Royce engines and new aerodynamics.

(Jan 27, 2010 11:58 AM) A restaurant on the outskirts of Port-au-Prince is taking up the slack left by still-incomplete relief efforts and feeding 1,000 hungry and homeless Haitians a day--for free. Before the earthquake, Muncheez was a pizza joint too expensive for most people in the area. But after the quake, its owner realized all his supplies would soon spoil. So instead of losing the food, he tells NPR, we said let's cook the food and give it away. The story of neighborly generosity in the face of disaster continues. Two days after, we were running out of diesel, running out of gas, running out of food, the owner continues. But others started to bring food to us. And we are doing that since. To supplement the home-cooked meals of spaghetti and rice and beans, an aid group is using the restaurant as a distribution point for dry goods. Muncheez has also set up a Facebook page to keep donations rolling in.

(Jul 8, 2011 9:03 AM CDT) Despite the fact that a recently unearthed, unused train ticket led to the arrest of Jack Daniel McCullough for an unsolved 1957 murder, the 71-year-old is sticking with his original story. I have an iron-clad alibi, McCullough tells the AP from a Seattle jail. I did not commit a murder. McCullough still claims he traveled to Chicago on the day in question to take military medical exams, and thus could not have murdered 7-year-old Maria Ridulph in Sycamore, 50 miles away. McCullough says the ticket was unused because he got a ride to Chicago from his stepfather instead of taking the train. He says he hitched a ride with someone he'd just met back to Rockford, about 40 miles from Sycamore, then called home to ask his stepfather to come pick him up. Records do show that a two-minute collect call was made from a Rockford payphone to his home that evening at 6:57pm. How am I involved in a kidnapping at 6pm in Sycamore? he asked. A fifth-grader can figure this out. McCullough says investigators can further verify his alibi by checking military personnel records at the National Archives repository in St. Louis. Click for the full interview.

(Mar 4, 2019 1:35 AM) At least 23 people--ranging in age from children to people in their 80s--were killed when a powerful tornado left a path of destruction in eastern Alabama on Sunday. Authorities say the tornado, one of several reported as a severe weather system hit the area, traveled straight down a country road in the rural Lee County community of Beauregard, destroying homes along a path several miles long and around half a mile wide, the AP reports. This is a day of destruction for Lee County, says County Coroner Bill Harris, per NBC. We've never had a mass fatality situation, that I can remember, like this in my lifetime. Tornadoes were also confirmed in Florida and Georgia. Scores of people were hospitalized in Lee County, which is on the Georgia border, and authorities say they expect the death toll to rise when an intensive ground search, halted due to dangerous conditions late Sunday, resumes Monday morning. To the great people of Alabama and surrounding areas: Please be careful and safe, tweeted President Trump. Tornadoes and storms were truly violent and more could be coming. To the families and friends of the victims, and to the injured, God bless you all! No deaths were reported in five other storm-damaged Alabama counties. Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey says she is extending a state of emergency declared on Feb. 23 to deal with flooding, AL.com reports.

(Mar 1, 2008 9:33 PM) In year-old video just now resurfacing, best-actress Oscar winner Marion Cotillard says she doesn't believe the official story of the 9/11 attacks--and she's not sure the moon landing was real, either, the Telegraph reports. In a TV interview, the French star of La Vie en Rose speculates that the World Trade Center towers were so outdated that their destruction was engineered and passed off as a terrorist attack, since it would be cheaper than trying to renovate. Central to her theory is that other towers hit by planes haven't burned down or collapsed. For good measure, the 32-year-old Cotillard, who also won a Golden Globe for playing Edith Piaf, casts a skeptical eye on the moon landing: Did a man really walk on the moon? I saw plenty of documentaries on it, and I really wondered. And in any case I don't believe all they tell me, that's for sure. Cotillard is an environmental activist, and is due to start filming Public Enemies with Johnny Depp.

(Jul 18, 2018 12:13 PM CDT) Rodney Smith Jr. has visited all 50 US states twice, but you'll have to forgive him if he doesn't recall any as particularly distinctive. There was little time for sightseeing as Smith spent much of his time mowing lawns voluntarily. The 29-year-old founder of Raising Men Lawn Care Service in Huntsville, Ala., which encourages kids to get involved in community service, set out on his second round-the-country trip in May, pledging to mow two to three lawns for strangers in need in each state, provided they were within a 30-mile radius of a major city. Starting in Milwaukee, Wis., he drove around the 48 continuous states, assisting a Korean War veteran in Minneapolis, Minn., and an amputee in Casper, Wy. He then flew to Alaska and on to Hawaii. It was there, after mowing the lawn of a stage 4 cancer patient, that he completed his mission Tuesday, per the BBC. Smith celebrated by announcing that more than 200 kids across the US have accepted his call to mow 50 lawns for community members free of charge. Children who complete the 50 Yard Challenge will receive a free mower, according to Smith's website. Smith, however, is setting higher goals. For 2019, he plans to mow seven lawns in seven continents, though he admits he might have to settle for shoveling snow in Antarctica. The free lawn care service we ... provide to the elderly, disabled, single moms and veterans isn't just a service needed here in America, it is also needed worldwide, he writes on Facebook, per WAPT. I'm just doing what God wants me to do, and I encourage people to get out there and do the same, Smith adds, per the Wichita Eagle. And it doesn't have to be with a lawn mower. There's many ways to make a difference.

(Jan 30, 2009 10:27 AM) Always wanted to party with the celebs, but just don't have the cash? Head to Toronto, where you can celebrate Nick Carter's birthday and virtually dormant music career with the Backstreet Boy himself, Perez Hilton reports. Tickets to the high-profile event are a mere $15, or $20 at the door--but be careful, because the flyer warns, This will be a sold out event.

(Sep 5, 2020 10:00 AM CDT) Police arrested more than 70 environmental activists who blockaded two British printing plants, disrupting the distribution of several national newspapers on Saturday, the AP reports. The group Extinction Rebellion said it targeted printworks at Broxbourne, north of London, and Knowsley in northwest England, that are owned by Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. Dozens of protesters locked themselves to trucks and bamboo scaffolding to block the road outside the plants. The facilities print Murdoch-owned papers the Sun and the Times, as well as the Daily Telegraph, the Daily Mail and the Financial Times. The group said it was disrupting the newspapers to expose the failure of these corporations to accurately report on the climate and ecological emergency.

(Jun 6, 2016 3:16 PM CDT) Stocks closed at a new high for the year after a speech by Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen raised doubts over an interest rate hike this month, the AP reports. Stock gains were led by energy companies as prices for oil and gas climbed. Offshore rig operator Transocean jumped nearly 15% Monday and National Oilwell Varco rose almost 9%. Crude oil rose 2.2% to just under $50 a barrel in New York. Natural gas prices also rose. Banks also rose as long-term interest rates moved higher. JPMorgan Chase rose 1%. The Dow Jones industrial average rose 113 points, or 0.6%, to 17,920. The Standard & Poor's 500 climbed 10 points, or 0.5%, to 2,109. The Nasdaq composite added 26 points, or 0.5%, 4,969.

(Apr 16, 2013 5:15 AM CDT) At least five earthquakes have shaken Oklahoma this morning. The latest had a magnitude of 4.2, while the previous four ranged in strength from 2.8 to 4.3, NewsOK reports. No damage has been reported thus far, the site notes. Much of the state's central region felt the rumblings. At this point it looks like a main shock, aftershock sequence. There are even a bunch of smaller ones, says an expert. The state's strongest-ever earthquake hit a magnitude of 5.7, he adds.

(Sep 12, 2010 9:20 AM CDT) The Sarah Palin and Glenn Beck traveling show played to a packed house in Alaska last night. The dynamic duo of the Christian right remembered 9/11 and then hit on some of their favorites: love of country, small government, and 'common sense conservatism.' Palin told the crowd Beck inspired millions and represents why so many citizens never have to apologize for being American, notes the Anchorage Daily News. I can think of no better way to commemorate 9/11 than to gather with patriots who will 'never forget,' she wrote on Facebook earlier this week. Last night she recalled that when told of the terror attacks, she closed Wasilla city hall and went to her church to pray for the country. And with the crowd fired up, Beck took the opportunity to joke about that much-ballyhooed Beck-Palin ticket in 2012. I'd like to announce that in 2012, we will both be ... voting, he said. But not everybody was laughing: The Daily News notes about 80 protesters, complete with Freedom isn't just for zealots signs, picketed the event.

(Dec 13, 2011 4:51 PM) A modest business contract signed about 35 years ago sold for a staggering $1.6 million at Sotheby's today, more than 10 times the highest estimate. It is, of course, the deal signed by Steve Wozniak, Steve Jobs, and a poor soul named Ronald Wayne that founded Apple, reports Bloomberg. As for Wayne? He thought the company's prospects were too shaky and relinquished his stake less than two weeks later for total compensation of $2,300. Wayne accomplished the main task Jobs requested of him, however: He convinced Wozniak to leave H-P and join their little venture. The buyer of the contract is Eduardo Cisneros, chief executive of Cisneros Corp., notes the BBC. Lucky seller Wade Saadi bought the documents for several thousand dollars in 1994 from, you guessed it, the same Ronald Wayne.

(Oct 20, 2017 8:57 AM CDT) We're not sure if the guy who goes by the Twitter handle @edgette22 does any detective work on the side, but he may want to look into it. Mashable reports the online sleuth made a startling find during what must have been a day filled with downtime, and it involves KFC's Twitter account. @KFC follows 11 people, he tweeted Thursday, before going on to detail exactly who those 11 are: 5 Spice Girls and 6 guys named Herb. A quick glance on the KFC account confirms the findings, showing the accounts for Mel B, Victoria Beckham, and their former bandmates, as well as those for the half-dozen Herbs, including jazz musician Herb Alpert, Herb Sendek (the head coach for the men's basketball team at Santa Clara University), and Herb Scribner, a writer for the Deseret News. Scribner, in fact, apparently noticed the KFC follow last month, per BuzzFeed, posting on Twitter he found the surprise follow cute. All of this has earned the KFC account a compliment of well played from the AV Club; another commenter wonders if the herb-to-spice ratio has been officially revealed. Meanwhile, Business Insider has ID'd Edge as Mike Edgette, a social media staffer for a PR firm, and while he's still letting this all sink in-- 11 Herbs & Spices. I need time to process this --he's also starting to feel the burden of sudden social-media fame. I feel like @carterjwm. Just without the free nuggets, he tweeted Friday, referencing the teen who caught Wendy's eye earlier this year with a viral tweet and earned a year's worth of chicken nuggets for his efforts.

(May 8, 2012 2:57 PM CDT) One key to The Avengers' record success this weekend: its PG-13 rating. The top six highest-grossing movies ever made are all rated PG-13; the rating points to a film that's titillating enough for teens but isn't likely to offend adults, the Los Angeles Times notes. The rating has become a Holy Grail for movie execs, particularly lately. Last year, R-rated movies accounted for 21% of US box office takings--the lowest figure in decades. PG-13 movies, meanwhile, managed 54%--even though just 35% of films received the rating. This summer will see the release of a host of blockbusters rated PG-13, from The Dark Knight Rises to Battleship, as studios fight to receive the rating. Ratings organization the MPAA has heard nine ratings appeals this year, six of which were efforts to shift Rs to PG-13s. One problem with the R rating: It's an incredibly broad category, making it tough for audiences to know what they're in for, says a Sony exec.

(Aug 2, 2011 11:07 AM CDT) You know those copies of USA Today that sometimes get left outside your hotel room door? Apparently they're not free, at least not at the Hilton Garden Inn Sonoma County Airport, which one guest learned to his dismay. Now Rodney Harmon has filed a federal class-action lawsuit against the Hilton chain over the 75-cent charge, the San Francisco Chronicle reports. Harmon says he stepped over the paper as he left the room. But a few days later, he noticed a small warning on his key card pouch informing him of the charge, according to the New York Times. He did not request a newspaper and assumed it had been placed there by hotel staff, reads Harmon's suit, which adds that the hotel allegedly tried to hide the charge by listing it in an extremely small font which is difficult to notice or read on the key sleeve. Further, the suit accuses the hotel of an offensive waste of precious resources and energy, since newspaper readership is down and most of the papers left for guests probably don't get read. Though the 75 cents is a piddly sum, writes Ben Popken at the Consumerist, the case could have big implications if it becomes the impetus to sue other hotel chains, since many hotels do just the same thing.

(Aug 6, 2008 2:26 PM CDT) Indiana Sen. Evan Bayh's currency with the Obama campaign may be on the rise, perhaps giving the perennial Democratic veep candidate a shot at the Naval Observatory, the Wall Street Journal reports. Many think Bayh's foreign policy experience would bolster Obama's perceived lack of experience, and his modest demeanor could offset the Illinois senator's grandiloquence. Bayh also served as governor of overwhelmingly Republican Indiana, and his knack for pulling dollars and support from far afield earned him a top spot in Hillary Clinton's bid for the Democratic nomination. Bayh is close with the Clintons, and some see his inclusion on an Obama ticket as a peace offering. Bayh was considered for the No. 2 slot by both Al Gore and John Kerry.

(Dec 17, 2014 1:38 PM) For the first time in seven years, Hannah Overton will be able to hug her five kids instead of waving to them through plexiglass. The Corpus Christi mother, who has been in prison since 2007, was released on $50,000 bond yesterday, more than two months after a Texas appellate court threw out her life sentence for the murder of 4-year-old foster son Andrew Burd and ordered a new trial, ABC News reports. The appellate court said the performance of her original defense team fell below a reasonable standard, the Huffington Post reports. Overton was convicted of poisoning Andrew in 2006 with seasoning, with prosecutors painting her as an out-of-control mom who forced him to have 23 teaspoons of hot pepper and then watched him die in agony. Overton's defense team contended that Andrew may have wandered into the kitchen pantry and accidentally ingested the seasoning himself. Overton had been convicted based on not getting timely help for Andrew. But Overton and her husband had taken Andrew to an urgent-care clinic, and a salt intoxication expert whose testimony wasn't used in the original trial said poisoning symptoms initially are mild and wouldn't have roused suspicion right away, the Guardian reports. Several witnesses testified to Overton's character at yesterday's hearing, KRIS TV notes, including a pastor who said Overton went on mission trips to help kids in Mexico, and a man who said Overton had been the best caregiver he ever had for his disabled son. As Overton awaits a new trial, she's just happy to spend time with her family. I know we'll make up for it, but I don't know what we'll be able to catch up for seven years, Overton tells ABC. (A New York mom says her 5-year-old son may have accidentally poisoned himself and died.)

(Jan 16, 2015 6:35 AM) It's been established that reuniting with long-lost relatives can and does result in Genetic Sexual Attraction, a term coined in the 1980s. In fact, some have estimated that elements of sexual attraction occur in as many as half the cases of estranged loved ones who meet as adults. Still, it's widely considered taboo, and even more so when the attraction is between a father and daughter, reports New York magazine. As the woman who coined the phrase GSA told the Guardian in 2003, That group tends to stay very silent. It's still regarded as dangerously close to abuse, even though it is no different from other forms of GSA. But one such unnamed couple living in the Great Lakes region is now making news after the teen daughter talked at length with the magazine about reuniting with her father--whom she hadn't seen since she was about 5--12 years later and finding herself instantly attracted to him. The daughter says they have been dating for nearly two years--since she lost her virginity to her father just days after reuniting with him--and that they plan to marry, if unofficially, and move to New Jersey, where she says adult incest is legal. She says that she and her father, who conceived her on prom night when he was 18, plan to have a large family and that she's not worried about their kids having genetic problems because that happens when there's years of inbreeding, like with the royal family. She adds that incest has been around as long as humans have and everybody just needs to deal with it. Full interview here. In 2010 Wired reported on a study that found, as the lead researcher put it, people appear to be drawn to others who resemble their kin or themselves ; he speculated that incest taboos exist to counter this primitive tendency. (In August, a Brazilian woman learned she had married her brother.)

(Jan 6, 2009 4:09 PM) The Federal Reserve anticipates the recession will continue through 2009 despite its recent rate slash and other planned nontraditional policies, the Wall Street Journal reports. Minutes of the Fed's December 15-16 meeting, at which it cut rates to nearly zero, indicate a deep pessimism about the economy. Officials expect the unemployment rate to keep rising as the GDP contracts. Rates are going to be low for a long time, a former director of the Fed's Division of Monetary Affairs tells Bloomberg. They see the economy as extremely weak. It is a dark document. The central bank also intends to strengthen its balance sheet and use cash, not just interest rates, to stimulate the economy.

(Jul 3, 2014 6:31 AM CDT) Last year, a group of former US investigators including former NTSB investigator Henry Hughes petitioned the NTSB to re-open the investigation into the 1996 crash of TWA Flight 800, but the agency yesterday announced it had denied the petition in its entirety. The petitioners argued that the crash was not caused, as the NTSB concluded in 2000, by a fuel tank explosion, but rather was likely brought down by a bomb or missile. But the NTSB did a thorough review of the petitioners' information and found no evidence the original fuel tank explanation was wrong, Reuters reports. The NTSB notes that the investigators who looked into the petition were not associated with the original investigation, which remains one of the largest transportation accident investigations in US history. Those investigators found that an analysis of radar evidence provided by the petitioners was flawed, and that witness summaries the petitioners provided from the FBI criminal probe of the crash--which ended in 1997 after finding no evidence of a crime--weren't much different from the witness summaries the NTSB reviewed at the time. The board also notes that the original investigation found no evidence of missile fragments. A member of the TWA 800 Project, the group behind the petition, tells the Los Angeles Times, This is not the end of the road by any means, though he did not discuss possible next steps.

(Jul 24, 2013 9:34 AM CDT) A man who was witness to Emmett Till's screams and refused to stay quiet about it died last week, reports the Chicago Sun-Times, which takes a look at the courageous Willie Louis. Louis was 76. He was a key witness at the historic trial, in which an all-white jury ultimately acquitted JW Milam and Roy Bryant in the murder of Till, a 14-year-old who whistled at a white woman in 1955 Mississippi. Described as a godsend by Till's cousin, Louis heard what happened in the tool shed that a kidnapped Till was taken to. The Sun-Times recounts an interview Louis gave to 60 Minutes, in which he explains, I heard the screaming, beating, the screaming and beating. He says Milam confronted him later that day, asking if he had heard anything; he said no. As for why he testified, I couldn't have walked away from that, he said--even though his grandfather told him to stay quiet and he had to go into hiding until the trial began, reports the Chicago Tribune. But doing so wasn't without cost: After the trial he left the South for Chicago, where he suffered a nervous breakdown and changed his last name from Reed in an attempt to escape the public eye. He didn't talk about it much, says his wife, who didn't learn about Louis' role in the trial until eight years after they married.

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

(Nov 2, 2016 8:05 AM CDT) A piece of debris holds a big potential clue, or so finds a new report on Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 from the Australian Transport Safety Bureau. Of the more than 20 pieces of aircraft debris that have been found since MH370 went down in March 2014, three have been verified as coming from the plane, reports CNN. One of those--the right outboard wing flap found on Pemba Island-- was most likely in the retracted position at the time it separated from the wing, states the report. If a pilot was landing or ditching the plane, the wing flaps would have likely been deployed, reports the Guardian. We are very reluctant to express absolute certainty, but that's the most likely scenario, an ATSB rep tells ABC Australia. You can draw [your] own conclusions as to whether that means someone was in control or not. The report--which determined the plane was in a high and increasing rate of descent per its final satellite communications--also includes preliminary drift analysis results in an effort to determine where the debris originated. Officials conclude the crash site is likely within the current search area, or further north. All but a small portion of the 46,000-square-mile search area has now been surveyed, with the final 4,000 square miles to be searched early next year. Officials previously said the search will end at that point, though Australia's transport minister now says a three-day meeting currently happening in Canberra will inform the remainder of the search effort, and develop guidance for any future search operations.

(Jul 29, 2010 1:22 AM CDT) A security researcher has collected and posted the details of 100 million Facebook users to highlight privacy issues. Ron Bowes of Skull Security used a piece of code to trawl the Internet for the names and unique URLs of users who didn't change their privacy levels from Facebook's default settings, and placed them in a downloadable file, the BBC reports. The list has already been downloaded by more than 1,000 users on the Pirate Bay. The information was already available online via search engines, and Facebook issued a statement clarifying that no personal data has been compromised. But security experts say Facebook should have anticipated a trawl of this size and taken steps to prevent it. Now would be a good time for Facebook to set their default search to 'Friends Only,' TechCrunch suggests. Why? Because most people aren't quite aware that the check mark next to 'Everyone' includes a hacker who can grab your personal info, package it up and sell it to the highest bidder.

(Oct 20, 2020 1:44 AM CDT) Robert Redford's son James died Friday at age 58 in his California home, the AP reports. He had struggled with liver issues since his teenage years, undergoing two liver transplants in 1993, reports the Salt Lake Tribune in a lengthy obituary. The liver disease returned two years ago, and while awaiting another transplant, the bile-duct cancer that would eventually kill him was discovered last November. Jamie died today. We're heartbroken, his wife Kyle Redford tweeted. He lived a beautiful, impactful life & was loved by many. He will be deeply missed. As his wife of 32 [years], I'm most grateful for the two spectacular children we raised together. I don't know what we would've done [without] them over the past 2 [years]. The elder Redford's publicist says the 84-year-old is mourning his son. The younger Redford worked as a filmmaker and activist, co-founding the Redford Center with his dad, a nonprofit focused on environmental filmmaking. He also founded the James Redford Institute for Transplant Awareness, a nonprofit to increase awareness of and raise money for organ and tissue donation. His most recent documentary premiered this month, and Redford was able to promote it from home. In addition to his wife, kids, both of his parents, and both of his stepparents, Redford is survived by his two sisters, Shauna and Amy. His older brother, Scott, died in infancy.

(Jul 25, 2019 11:49 AM CDT) Federal executions will resume later this year after a 16-year hiatus, on the orders of Attorney General William Barr. The Bureau of Prisons has scheduled the executions of five men convicted of murdering children for December and January at Indiana's US Penitentiary Terre Haute, reports CNBC. We owe it to the victims and their families to carry forward the sentence imposed by our justice system, Barr said Thursday. No federal executions have taken place since 2003 as the Justice Department reviewed its lethal injection protocol. A three-drug cocktail once used has been abandoned, and the executions will instead by carried out with a single drug, pentobarbital. A total of 62 prisoners are currently on federal death row. Ruth Friedman of the Federal Capital Habeas Project takes issue with the move, claiming the federal death penalty is arbitrary, racially-biased, and rife with poor lawyering and junk science. She also says there are troubling questions about the new execution protocol, which the Washington Post says is the same one in use in Georgia, Missouri, and Texas. A DOJ release names the inmates: Daniel Lee Lewis killed a family of three, including an 8-year-old girl. Lezmond Mitchell killed a 63-year-old woman and 9-year-old girl. Wesley Ira Purkey killed a 16-year-old girl and 80-year-old woman. Alfred Bourgeois molested and killed his 2-year-old daughter. And Dustin Lee Honken killed five people, two children among them. Some 56% of Americans support capital punishment for murderers, according to a Gallup poll from October.

(May 18, 2011 8:12 AM CDT) Hundreds of protesters, angered by an overnight NATO raid that they believed killed four civilians, clashed with security forces today on the streets of a northern Afghan city. At least 11 people were killed and 50 injured as the protesters fought with police and tried to assault a NATO outpost in Taloqan, the capital of Takhar province, government officials said. The NATO raid they were protesting took place hours before on the outskirts of the city. The provincial governor says the four casualties from the raid were two women and two men who were killed when troops burst into a home late last night, and says that no one in his government was informed about the raid and that NATO acted unilaterally. NATO confirms it killed four people, two of them women, but says all were armed and tried to fire on its troops. NATO also says the raid was conducted by a combined Afghan and coalition security force, and that the governor was contacted ahead of the raid.

(Jul 10, 2015 10:44 AM CDT) Omar Sharif, the dashing Egyptian actor who rose to fame in America in 1962's Lawrence of Arabia and 1965's Doctor Zhivago--both directed by David Lean--has died at the age of 83, the AP reports. His longtime agent tells the news agency that Sharif died of a heart attack in a Cairo hospital. His grandson Omar Sharif Jr., who had just last week posted a photo of himself and his grandfather on Facebook with the message I love you, simply tweeted this morning, Al-Baqa Lillah, an Arab expression used to convey condolences. The Telegraph reports that Sharif had suffered from Alzheimer's, and in May his only child, Tarek El-Sharif told the Spanish newspaper El Mundo his dad couldn't remember certain details about his films. He remembers, for example, that it was Doctor Zhivago but he's forgotten when it was filmed, El-Sharif said. Sharif garnered an Oscar nomination for his turn as Sherif Ali in Arabia, even though he wasn't Lean's first choice--the actor Lean had picked was rejected for having the wrong eye color, per NBC News. Sharif was brought back by Lean for Zhivago then went on to rack up more than 100 acting credits, including roles as Mongol chief Genghis Khan in the 1965 eponymous movie, Che Guevara in 1969's Che!, and as a gambler in Funny Girl with Barbra Streisand, a movie that was banned in Egypt because Sharif played a Jew, NBC reports. The Telegraph notes he was also known as one of the world's greatest bridge players.

(Nov 10, 2011 9:00 AM) Victoria's Secret stepped up its game last night with the introduction of the $2.5 million Treasure Fantasy Bra, a cool half-million more than last year's $2 million offering. Miranda Kerr modeled the diamond-encrusted bra during last night's fashion show, just 10 months after giving birth to her son with hubby Orlando Bloom, the Daily Mirror reports. Click through the gallery for a close-up of the bra--which, sadly, is the only one in existence, at least for now--as well as more from the show, including Kerr's fellow Angels Adriana Lima, Chanel Iman, and Doutzen Kroes.

(Nov 6, 2017 3:11 PM) Stocks are closing at new records Monday as upheaval in oil-rich Saudi Arabia sent crude prices to two-year highs, the AP reports. Chipmakers and media companies climbed on deal reports while phone companies sank. Chipmaker Qualcomm rose 1% Monday, off earlier highs, after competitor Broadcom offered to buy it for $103 billion. Broadcom gained 1.4%. Oil prices hit a two-year high as investors wondered if turmoil in Saudi Arabia will affect crude oil supplies. Sprint sank 11.5% and T-Mobile lost 5.6% after they ended talks about a potential deal over the weekend. The Standard & Poor's 500 index rose 3 points, or 0.1%, to 2,591. The Dow Jones industrial average rose 9 points to 23,548. The Nasdaq composite added 22 points, or 0.3%, to 6,786. All three indexes set new records.

(Sep 1, 2009 6:58 AM CDT) Polish leaders gathered at dawn today at the fort the Nazis attacked to begin World War II exactly 70 years ago, the BBC reports. A German battleship attacked Westerplatte on September 1, 1939, as German troops launched a blitzkreig attack on three fronts. The invasion triggered declarations of war from Britain and France and within a month, Poland had been split between Germany and the Soviet Union. The fort's 182 Polish defenders held out for a week against thousands of German invaders who had expected to prevail within hours. Westerplatte is a symbol, a symbol of the heroic fight of the weaker against the stronger, Polish President Lech Kaczynski said. It is proof of patriotism and an unbreakable spirit. Other European leaders, including German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, will gather for another ceremony at the fort today.

(Sep 12, 2010 8:40 AM CDT) We've heard this so often that someone's going to get it right sooner or later: Prince William will at long, long, long last marry ever-so-longtime girlfriend Kate Middleton, reports the News of the World, but it ain't gonna be this weekend in Vegas. The plodding prince will take a trip down the aisle in spring 2012, the tab says: just ahead of London's hotly anticipated Olympiad, Wills' 30th birthday, and the queen's Jubilee. William and Kate are both aware a royal wedding followed by the jubilee celebrations and the Olympics will really put Britain on the map again, a senior adviser tells the NOTW. The powers that be, and I mean right to the top, see this as the perfect opportunity to secure the monarchy at the heart of the people at a time when the media focus is on our country. Let the games begin.

(Aug 6, 2012 11:17 AM CDT) When Bill McMachen learned that he could buy all 650 of the tax foreclosed properties in Michigan's Macomb County just by paying the $4.8 million in back taxes, he went for it. I got a deal nobody else could have got, he tells Fox News. The millionaire bought the properties at a county auction last week, irking many of the 300 other attendees when the sale ended in just minutes. The properties include houses, vacant lots, and even a big commercial building, the Detroit Free Press reports. One Canadian investor was particularly perplexed, noting that his company had been willing to pay like three to four times what the county got from McMachen. But McMachen says he'll offer some of the properties at near-auction prices to those who missed out. There's no hype, they will just buy it at a realistic price, he says. And they can look inside before they pay for it, which they can't do with the county. Any he can't sell will be donated to needy organizations, according to Fox News. McMachen's purchase is the largest of its kind in county history, the Detroit News adds.

(Aug 18, 2011 3:31 PM CDT) It's a swim suit: A 61-year-old lifeguard is taking New York state to court over his bathing trunks. Roy Lester says he was fired for refusing to don a Speedo for a yearly swim test, the New York Daily News reports. He preferred to wear a less revealing bathing suit. I wore a Speedo when I was in my 20s, he says. But come on. There should be a law prohibiting anyone over the age of 50 from wearing a Speedo. He argues that the Long Island beach where he worked was using the rule to shed its older lifeguards--though 80% of them are over 40, he estimates. They were just trying to get rid of the older guys. To me the whole key to being a good lifeguard is experience. An older guy sees a save before anyone else. You know the water. Indeed, I could have passed that test --a 100-yard swim in less than 75 seconds-- in dungarees. (Click to see a photo of Lester in non-Speedo trunks.)

(Oct 7, 2015 3:25 PM CDT) On Tuesday, a Florida school board approved a $600,000 payout to the families of three students who died after being hypnotized by their high school principal, the Sarasota Herald-Tribune reports. The bizarre case has its roots in 2011, when 16-year-old North Port High School quarterback Marcus Freeman died in a March car crash on his way home from a painful dental visit; principal George Kenney had taught him to hypnotize himself to deal with pain during games. A month later, 16-year-old Wesley McKinley hanged himself after being hypnotized by Kenney three times, including on the day before his death. Friends say Wesley couldn't remember his own name after hypnosis sessions to improve his guitar playing. NBC News reports 17-year-old Brittany Palumbo hanged herself in her closet 5 months later, after Kenney hypnotized her to improve her SAT scores. An investigation launched after Wesley's death found Kenney hypnotized up to 75 students, staff members, and others starting in 2006, the Herald-Tribune reports. A school district official had warned him to stop hypnotizing students three times by the time the deaths started. A lawyer for the families says Kenney never admitted wrongdoing or apologized to the families. He altered the underdeveloped brains of teenagers, and they all ended up dead because of it. In 2011, the Tampa Tribune spoke with a psychologist who said that while it's not really likely that hypnosis can cause suicide, it can trigger some sort of mental health problem that was dormant. NBC News notes Kenney had received training at a hypnosis center in the state, but he had no license to practice therapeutic hypnosis. Kenney resigned in 2012, pleaded no contest to two misdemeanors, served one year of probation, and is currently operating a bed and breakfast in North Carolina. (Another Florida principal is out of a job because of a Facebook post.)

(Nov 8, 2011 7:59 PM) Rapper Heavy D, one of the biggest rap stars of the late 1980s and early '90s, is dead at age 44, reports TMZ. A friend says he had pneumonia, and the rapper apparently began having trouble breathing on the stairs leading to his Beverly Hills apartment building. Born Dwight Arrington Myers, Heavy D and his group released their first album, Living Large, in 1987, notes AP. One of his breakout hits was The Overweight Lover's in the House. Time has more on his role in the Jack Swing style of R&B. (Click to read 10 facts you might not know about Heavy D.

(Nov 13, 2014 7:56 AM) One of the women who died in the botched India sterilization drive was told she'd receive the equivalent of 10 days' wages and be ready to return to work in the fields in 48 hours, reports the Guardian. A man received the astronomical amount of $3,250 from the government after his wife died on Monday; most in the area earn less than $5 a day. He brands the money as useless, telling the New York Times, Who is going to take care of my children? Families say the women were pressured to take the money and get the surgery--the main method of birth control in the country--but cash incentives drove more than just the victims: Village motivators usually get about $2.44 for each patient they recruit; government nurse-midwives can see their salaries docked if they don't meet sterilization targets ; and the surgeon involved received about $1.22 per patient. That surgeon, Dr. RK Gupta, was arrested last night on culpable homicide charges; at least 13 women who attended Saturday's sterilization camp have died, and there have been more victims from a second camp (reports differ on whether Gupta was involved with that one). The surgeries went well but the problem was with the medicines given to the women, Gupta said, according to the BBC. Indeed, owners of the factories that produce the drugs used have been called in for questioning, Reuters reports, but the exact cause is still not clear. Witnesses tell stories of a dust- and cobweb-strewn clinic and little concern for hygiene. Though Gupta says he performed 83 surgeries in six hours Saturday, one nurse who assisted said it was more like two hours. Government rules cap a surgeon's daily maximum at 35 operations, per the BBC.

(Jun 30, 2018 11:20 AM CDT) A Utah man who said he was the prophet of a polygamist sect is headed to prison after his conviction and sentencing this week on a child sodomy charge. Samuel Shaffer is the Knights of the Crystal Blade leader who was arrested in December on kidnapping charges involving his two daughters, as well as the two daughters and two sons of sect co-founder John Coltharp, who was also arrested. On Wednesday in Sanpete County, Shaffer pleaded guilty to felony sodomy on a child and was sentenced to 15 years to life in prison, KUTV reports. Among the details Shaffer shared with detectives as they looked into his case, per People: that he'd married Coltharp's 8-year-old daughter, and Coltharp had done the same with his 7-year-old daughter. Shaffer, listed as either 34 or 35, had previously been sentenced to 26 years to life in Iron County on child rape and child abuse charges; his new sentence will run concurrent with that one. I sincerely believed that child marriage was a correct principle from God, Shaffer told Sanpete County Judge Marvin Bagley, per USA Today. And I've seen the consequences of what's happened, and I know that I shouldn't have done it now. But Bagley wasn't buying his excuses. I'm not aware of any religion in this world that justifies an adult having a sexual relationship with an 8-year-old girl, Bagley said. Certainly it's a violation of Utah law. Coltharp is set to be sentenced Aug. 8.

(Aug 11, 2016 4:18 PM CDT) The sun was nearly responsible for the Cold War going nuclear 50 years ago, according to a study released this week. On May 23, 1967, three US Ballistic Missile Early Warning System radar sites seemed to be jammed. CBS News reports it appeared to the US Air Force, which was now unable to tell if missiles were headed toward the US, that the Soviet Union was responsible. It was considered an act of war, and the Air Force prepared to launch additional planes carrying nuclear weapons. It's unclear how close the US actually came to starting a nuclear war that day, but study author Delores Knipp says, What we do know is that the aircraft did not launch. That's thanks to a handful of space weather forecasters working at NORAD, who quickly explained to the Air Force that the jamming was actually the result of a massive solar storm. Knipp tells Space it's fortunate the US invested very early on in solar and geomagnetic storm observations. The 1967 solar storm was one of the biggest of the last century. The solar flare was visible to the naked eye, and the coronal mass ejection that followed affected radio communications for days and made the northern lights visible as far south as New Mexico. As a result of the events of May 23, 1967, both the US and Soviet Union expanded funding for solar weather observation.

(Oct 20, 2020 6:26 PM CDT) An altered photo of rappers Ice Cube and 50 Cent in hats that appear to show support for President Trump circulated widely on social media Tuesday, fueled in part by a tweet from Eric Trump. Two great, courageous Americans, Trump's son tweeted. He removed the tweet with a photo of the two rappers in hats saying Trump 2020 after being called out by Ice Cube on Twitter the AP reports. In the original photo, both entertainers were wearing baseball caps with sports logos. Ice Cube's hat says Big3, a reference to a 3-on-3 basketball league he co-founded, and 50 Cent wears one with the New York Yankees logo. Ice Cube shared the original photo on his Twitter account on July 6 to send a birthday message to 50 Cent.

(Apr 17, 2014 11:53 AM CDT) It took police 15 minutes to get to a Denver home after a woman called 911 on Monday--and in the meantime, she was shot and killed. After authorities arrested Kristine Kirk's husband, Richard, police say he told them he had shot her, ending what NBC News reports was a 13-minute call Kristine had with a 911 dispatcher. There's a police station just a mile from the house, and investigators are still trying to determine why it took so long for cops to get there, the Denver Post reports. Kristine, 44, told a 911 operator that Richard, 47, was hallucinating, scaring their three kids, and asking to be killed; she said he may have consumed edible marijuana and that their gun was locked in a safe, 9News reports. At 9:32pm, dispatchers reported domestic violence to two officers, adding that Richard had been smoking marijuana, the Post reports. Police records say an officer was headed to the home more than 10 minutes later; that's when a shot rang out, with the dispatcher noting a possible shooting by using the phrase Code 10 at 9:45pm. It wasn't until 9:47pm that an officer radioed his arrival at the home. Charges hadn't been filed in the case as of last night.

(May 28, 2010 7:22 AM CDT) Foxconn, the electronics manufacturer hit by suicides of unhappy workers at its main plant in China, says it will raise wages by 20%. The company, which makes parts and assembles products for Apple, Sony, Dell and Hewlett-Packard, claims the raise has been in the works for months in response to a labor shortage. Still, after 10 suicides and three more attempts this year, an official expressed hope that the raises would boost morale. Feeling sad is contagious, and so is feeling happy, he told the AP. We hope the workers will have a positive attitude toward their lives. Labor activists have urged Foxconn to raise wages by at least 50%, which they say would enable workers to earn enough to make a living without having to do overtime, CNN reports; the base salary is currently about $130 a month. Foxconn's chairman said earlier this week that the mammoth factory's 30,000 employees were being divided into groups of 50 that would watch for signs of emotional trouble among their members.

(Apr 2, 2012 8:37 AM CDT) Aung San Suu Kyi didn't just win a seat in yesterday's historic election in Burma; her National League for Democracy party won 43 of the 45 parliamentary seats that were up for grabs, the Guardian reports. We hope this will be the beginning of a new era, the oft-imprisoned Nobel laureate told a crowd of thousands at NLD headquarters today. What is important is not how many seats we may have won, but that ... the people participated in the democratic process. But despite the NLD's victory, Suu Kyi says the party will be filing complaints about the rampant irregularities that allegedly took place in yesterday's election. And there's a chance the country's military leaders won't take the results lying down. This is a very scary moment for the current ruling hardliners--this is not the way they wanted to see things go, said exiled opposition leader Nyo Myint. Maybe at this point they will challenge the election results.

(Apr 23, 2010 2:42 AM CDT) A stash of 20th-century artworks hidden for generations because of war and legal wrangling is finally seeing the light of day. The 140 artworks, including works by Picasso, Derain, and Renoir, had been placed in a Paris bank vault by influential art dealer Ambroise Vollard's assistant after Vollard's death in 1939. The Jewish assistant died at the hands of the Nazis and the stash wasn't uncovered until the bank unsealed the vault in 1979 after storage fees went unpaid for 40 years. Legal battles between the estates of Vollard and the assistant kept the works under wraps until recently. An exec at Sotheby's auction house, which will be selling the collection off later this year, says seeing the array of works is like looking into a lost world. The gem of the collection, Andre Derain's Arbres a Collioure--described as a knock-you-off-your-seat explosion of color by the Guardian--is expected to fetch up to $26 million.

(Jul 23, 2020 6:54 PM CDT) The Red Sox have not always shown support for civil rights. Boston was the last MLB franchise to integrate, per Sports Illustrated--in 1959, 12 years after Jackie Robinson joined the Brooklyn Dodgers. Just last month, the Red Sox apologized for racist attacks in Fenway Park against Black players on other teams, the Boston Globe reports. You need to pull together and talk about these issues, the team president said at the time. That's how we're going to do better. The Red Sox took another step this week, installing a 254-foot Black Lives Matter mural on the outside of the park, visible to those driving by Fenway on a highway. Recognizing that we have work to do ourselves, we wanted to show that we stand with those who are working to achieve racial equity, a Red Sox spokeswoman said. The organization plans to amplify the voices of those who share our values, but may not share our platform throughout the season. Baseball is making provisions for all teams and players to show their support, per ESPN. Players can choose a Black Lives Matter or United for Change patch for their jersey on opening day. For opening weekend, home teams can add United for Change or an inverted MLB logo with BLM on the pitcher's mound. For the season, players can put messages of social justice or other causes on their spikes, which had been against the rules. Jack Flaherty, the starting pitcher in St. Louis on Friday, said the Cardinals have something planned for the pregame ceremony-- just to try to bring some unity to everybody and bring everybody together, he said, per KSDK. There were things that we wanted to do.

(Sep 21, 2011 11:07 AM CDT) Even more bad economic news from a report released today: Housing prices will remain depressed for years, dropping by an expected 2.5% this year and rising only 1.1% each year through 2015, according to the survey of more than 100 economists. Since the 2005 peak, housing prices have dropped 31.6%, so if this forecast plays out, prices will recover little of what has been lost--leading to what the Wall Street Journal calls a lost decade. In order to get the housing market back on its feet, the economy needs to add jobs, but that's a difficult prospect when the economy, in turn, needs a job boost housing would typically provide. The result will be millions of homeowners with little to no equity in their homes; rapidly disappearing equity--$7 trillion lost so far--has already led to decreased consumer spending. Builders and mortgage analysts share the economists' fears. With all of the economic turmoil, both domestic and international, there's not much that points to an improving housing market at any point in the near future, says one builder exec. A cycle could result: More underwater mortgages and foreclosures leading to more credit tightening, leading to an even smaller pool of home buyers--meaning fewer people to purchase newly foreclosed homes and fewer jobs in new construction.

(Sep 4, 2017 7:49 AM CDT) A Minneapolis bar was forced to close after it was revealed the owner donated to David Duke's 2016 Senate campaign. Outraged to learn their boss had given $500 to the ex-KKK leader, many employees at Club Jager walked off the job, reports the Star Tribune. Several performers promised to boycott the bar, with one local DJ writing on Facebook that he couldn't condone a venue where the owner supports the likes of David Duke and his messages of hate. Former bartender Drea Kingston tells WCCO the contribution is vile and it's disgusting. Jack Callahan, who canceled the trivia night he hosted, says per the Tribune that employees got angry messages calling them Nazi sympathizers. A group of men followed and spit on one worker, calling her a Nazi lover. The bar was empty by mid-week save for a few white supremacists who showed up to support owner Julius DeRoma, per City Pages. By Thursday, the remaining employees decided to shut it down for good, Callahan tells theTribune, adding that they didn't want to keep this guy's business operating and continue to face the harassment. He calls the episode pretty emotional for the racially diverse staff. Half the people were in tears, Callahan tells City Pages, and the other half were pretty much punching walls. Workers felt betrayed by DeRoma, who was rarely in the bar but who Callahan says, per the Tribune, seemed like a really nice guy. De Roma tells WCCO his Duke donation just basically free speech. He says the controversy was blown up beyond what it should be. (Duke's godson was heir to the throne--until he flipped.)

(Mar 11, 2010 9:39 AM) The largest aftershock since Chile's massive earthquake rocked the country today minutes before the inauguration of President Sebastian Pinera. The 7.2-magnitude aftershock was stronger than the Jan. 12 quake that devastated the Haitian capital. It happened along the same fault zone as Chile's magnitude-8.8 quake on Feb. 27, says a geophysicist for the US Geological Survey, adding that Chile now can expect to feel aftershocks of the aftershock. The tremblor shook buildings in the capital, rattled windows and provoked nervous smiles among dignitaries arriving for today's ceremony in coastal Valparaiso. Bolivian President Evo Morales seemed briefly disoriented. Peru's Alan Garcia joked that it gave them a moment to dance. Pinera, a Harvard-trained economist and airline executive with little patience for bureaucracy, had been planning a stripped-down ceremony consisting mostly of a brief lunch with the foreign dignitaries. Then he had been planning to visit tsunami survivors in the coastal town of Constitution.

(Oct 16, 2011 1:35 PM CDT) While pancreatic cancer was slowly killing him, Steve Jobs dedicated his final months to a new project: the iPhone 5. The next-generation phone was the last project that Steve Jobs was intimately involved with from concept to final design, a financial analyst wrote in a report acquired by CNET. The analyst predicts a slimmer phone, bigger screen size, 4G capability, and the same overall proportions as the 4S. Another source says the phone will boast a brand-new design. This is a very large project that Steve dedicated all of his time to, the source says. He was not that involved in the 4S because his time was limited. The next-gen device will be a cult classic due to Jobs' involvement, the financial analyst predicted--and should be released around the Apple's Developer's Conference next summer. (Click through to see another Steve Jobs creation: the short-turtleneck-and-jeans look.)

(Aug 3, 2015 7:59 AM CDT) A 9-year-old boy in Kansas died last night after being hit in the head with a baseball bat on Saturday afternoon while doing something he loved. Kaiser Carlile was a bat boy for the amateur team the Liberal Bee Jays. He was retrieving a bat after an out when he [strayed] into the on-deck circle and was struck in the head by a player taking a practice swing, NBC News and the Wichita Eagle report. Kaiser was wearing a helmet at the time, and an umpire with EMS experience cared for the boy until first responders got to the scene. Right before he fell, the umpire and the base player both rushed up and caught him before he hit the ground, a witness tells KWCH. They all clustered around him quickly. It was really silent. The team announced his passing with the permission of the family, and with much sorrow and a very broken heart in a Facebook post made today just after midnight. The Bee Jays created a GoFundMe page to help offset expenses for Kaiser's family, and about $10,000 has been raised so far. In a statement, the National Baseball Congress wrote that while the NBC has experienced tragedy many times in 84 years ... it's difficult to remember a day that is darker than this one. Sometimes life doesn't make sense and this accident certainly is a memorable example. Kaiser was simply doing something he loved. Bob's Lutz's full column on the tragedy for the Eagle is worth a read.

(Feb 18, 2019 8:43 AM) An apparent beef between 50 Cent and an NYPD precinct commander now has the officer under investigation after an incident that allegedly happened last spring. The New York Daily News reports that on June 7, the rapper was set to appear at an NYPD-sanctioned boxing match in the Bronx, and Deputy Inspector Emmanuel Gonzalez, out of Brooklyn's 72nd Precinct, got wind of it. Gonzalez's supposed instructions to cops about 50 Cent (real name: Curtis Jackson) during that day's roll call, per a source: Shoot him on sight. The source's reaction to that alleged threat: WTF. A month earlier, Gonzalez put in an aggravated harassment claim against Jackson for one of the rapper's Instagrams. In that now-deleted post, Jackson wrote Get the strap (code for get the gun ) on a story about a suit involving Gonzalez. No charges came about from Gonzalez's complaint on that. Meanwhile, the head of Gonzalez's union tells TMZ that Gonzalez denies ever making the shooting remark. The incident is under internal review, an NYPD spokesman says. Rolling Stone notes 50 Cent's response on Instagram to the news on Gonzalez, who has almost 30 years on the force and remains on active duty. He think he got beef with me, so he sending the Homies to put some work in, the rapper posted, along with a Gonzalez photo. NYNOTSAFE #thegangstagotabadge. He added in another post that he takes the allegations very seriously and is consulting with my legal counsel. Jackson says he's also concerned that the NYPD itself didn't make him aware of the supposed threat.

(May 12, 2009 2:25 PM CDT) Five men were convicted today of plotting to join forces with al-Qaeda to destroy Chicago's Sears Tower and bomb FBI offices in hopes of igniting an anti-government insurrection. A jury in Miami acquitted one member of the so-called Liberty City Six. Ringleader Narseal Batiste was the only one convicted of all four terrorism-related conspiracy counts, and faces 70 years in prison. The four others also face decades in prison. The men were arrested in June 2006 on charges of plotting terrorism with an undercover FBI informant they believed was from al-Qaeda. Defense attorneys said terrorist talk recorded on dozens of FBI tapes was not serious and the men wanted only money. Two previous trials ended in mistrials.

(Sep 21, 2020 3:37 PM CDT) Electric and hydrogen-powered truck startup Nikola secured a $2 billion partnership with General Motors earlier this month--and lost its founder two weeks later amid swirling accusations about an intricate fraud allegedly carried out by the company. Trevor Milton, who also served as the executive chair, stepped down Monday while promising to defend himself against the false allegations, reports NBC News. Nikola is truly in my blood and always will be, and the focus should be on the company and its world-changing mission, not me, he said in a statement. Things turned for the company by way of a Sept. 10 report from short-seller Hindenburg Research that alleged the company was bolstered by an ocean of lies, including that it captured video of a truck rolling down a hill but presented it as if it was driving on a highway and painted the words hydrogen electric onto a vehicle that uses natural gas. Nikola suggested the ocean of lies is more applicable to the Hindenburg report, which the AP reports it described in a statement as replete with misleading information and salacious accusations directed at our founder and chairman. Nikola says it has lawyered up and is looking at possible actions, and stated that the video did not describe the truck as moving under its own propulsion. GM plans to close the deal, with GM CEO Mary Barra last week stating that a very, very capable team has done the appropriate diligence on it. Under the deal, GM will engineer and build Nikola's Badger hydrogen fuel cell and electric pickup truck. CNN reports Nikola board member Stephen Girsky, a former vice chairman of GM, will immediately take over as Nikola chair.

(Mar 28, 2017 1:57 AM CDT) What's big, beautiful, and roughly $3,000 a foot? It's President Trump's border wall, according to Homeland Security budget documents obtained by CNN. The documents outline a request of $1 billion to cover 62 miles of border wall--48 miles of new barriers in San Diego and the Rio Grande Valley region, and 14 miles of replacement barrier in San Diego. Trump has promised a wall along all 1,954 miles of the border with Mexico, and while he has spoken of building a concrete barrier, US Customs and Border Protection has asked contractors to provide plans for see-through fences as well, an option preferred by officials who say they want to see what's happening on the other side. Trump is also seeking funding for border expenses beyond wall construction, including expanded detention facilities, according to the funding documents. Another expense is legal support, which will include funds to buy privately owned land along the border through eminent domain. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has fought fiercely for the rights of property owners in other cases but he says he does not have a problem with eminent domain being used in cases that serve a public purpose, such as road construction. In my mind, this is a very similar purpose, he tells the Dallas Morning News. It's a public purpose providing safety to people not only along the border, but to the entire nation.

(Jan 5, 2012 7:20 PM) British scientist Stephen Hawking has decoded some of the most puzzling mysteries of the universe, but he has left one mystery unsolved: How he has managed to survive so long with such a crippling disease. The physicist was diagnosed with Lou Gehrig's disease when he was a 21-year-old at Cambridge. Most people die within a few years: Hawking will turn 70 on Sunday. I don't know of anyone who's survived this long, says the director of the Motor Neurone Disease Care and Research Centre in London. The author of A Brief History of Time has achieved his greatness despite being nearly entirely paralyzed and in a wheelchair since 1970. He now communicates only by twitching his right cheek. Since catching pneumonia in 1985, Hawking has needed around-the-clock care and relies on a computer and voice synthesizer to speak. The only trouble is (the voice synthesizer) gives me an American accent, he wrote on his website. (Hawking also is looking for an assistant.)

(Jul 5, 2016 7:39 AM CDT) Jupiter is the big story in the news today, but Jupiter Island, Fla., is making headlines, too, for an entirely different reason, WJXT reports. Per a Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission Facebook post, a report came in about someone taking sea turtle eggs from a beach behind a local home, so cops started patrolling the area. Sure enough, officers say they spotted a man a few days later lifting eggs from a female loggerhead turtle as she was actually laying them. When police arrested him, they say he had a grand total of 107 eggs in his possession. The suspect, IDed as 49-year-old Glenn Robert Shaw by the Palm Beach Post, was booked into the Palm Beach County Jail on a third-degree felony charge, which could earn him up to five years in jail and a $5,000 fine. As for the eggs, 92 were reburied in the hopes they'll still hatch, while 15 were kept as evidence and for DNA testing. (A Florida woman was arrested last year for riding a sea turtle.)

(Jan 9, 2019 2:15 PM) Wish you could have experienced Woodstock? You'll get a chance, sort of, this summer on the 1969 festival's 50th anniversary. The organizer of the original festival confirms to Rolling Stone that a three-day music festival will be staged in Watkins Glen, NY, from Aug. 16-18--and it will be different than Woodstock '99, an event Rolling Stone calls disastrous and that Woodstock co-creator Michael Lang decries as just a musical experience with no social significance. It was just a big party. This time around, he says, We're going back to our roots and our original intent, and the creators are maintaining all control of the event rather than outsourcing. The 1,000-acre green space where the festival will be held is near the Finger Lakes in upstate New York, NPR reports, and organizers expect most attendees will camp. More than 40 performers have already been booked, including some bands who performed at the original festival, and tributes to other bands from the 1969 festival are also planned. Specific acts will be announced closer to the time tickets go on sale next month. The original Woodstock venue in Bethel, NY, about 150 miles away, was transformed from a farm into a concert venue in 2006, and it is also planning a 50th anniversary tribute over the same three-day period, USA Today reports. As for what is being called Woodstock 50, if you can't attend yourself, organizers plan to stream it online. There will be three main stages and three festival neighborhoods. Woodstock, in its original incarnation, was really about social change and activism, Lang says. And that's a model that we're bringing back to this festival. (Or was the original Woodstock just a chaotic mudfest with mediocre performances?)

(Apr 27, 2017 4:30 PM CDT) Michael Mantenuto, an actor who starred in Disney's Miracle in 2004 and went on to join the US Army, was found dead of a self-inflicted gunshot wound in Washington state Monday. He was 35. As Deadline reports, Mantenuto played hockey from a young age, going on to play in college before being cast as Jack O'Callahan in the Disney flick about the Miracle on Ice when the US hockey team beat the Soviets in the 1980 Olympics. After a brief stint as an actor that included a role in a Matthew McConaughey film, Mantenuto joined an Army Special Forces unit. He leaves behind a wife and two children.

(Feb 12, 2018 5:21 AM) Both parties agree that America's infrastructure is in need of some serious work after decades of under-investment, but the $1.5 trillion plan President Trump plans to roll out Monday is still expected to be controversial--especially because of disagreements over where the $1.5 trillion is supposed to come from. The plan involves around $200 billion in federal funding over 10 years, to be taken from cuts to other programs, including $100 billion in incentives to state and local governments to stimulate spending on infrastructure such as highways, ports, and airports, reports Reuters. Democrats had sought greater federal funding and new revenue, possibly through a hike in the gas tax, though White House aides say the Trump plan is just the starting point for negotiations. The proposal requires cities, counties, and states to put up at least 80% of a project's cost themselves before they can get 20% federal funding, which reverses the 80-20 federal-state funding split in place for many highways, NPR reports. The federal funding to be announced Monday also includes around $50 billion toward rural infrastructure projects. Jay Timmons, president of the National Association of Manufacturers, praised the proposals, the AP reports. When ports are clogged, trucks are delayed, power is down, water is shut off, or the internet has a lapse, modern manufacturers' ability to compete is threatened and jobs are put at risk, he said. There is no excuse for inaction. Critics, however, said the plan needs more federal investment--and called moves to speed the approval process, including reducing environmental reviews, a corporate giveaway.

(May 15, 2009 2:05 AM CDT) First lady Michelle Obama has joined the rarefied ranks of Maxim's 100 hottest women in the world, AFP reports. Obama, who comes in at 93 on the list, is described in the lad mag as the stimulus package America really needs. She's the first first lady to receive the honor, but gawkers shouldn't get too excited. Her portrait in the magazine is the not-so-steamy White House official photograph.

(Apr 21, 2014 5:04 PM CDT) A basement blaze that killed 4-year-old half-siblings was accidentally set by children playing with fire, authorities said yesterday. The twin of one of the children survived the blaze that was reported to authorities just before midnight Saturday in a two-story brick home in the Far Rockaway section of Queens. Authorities wouldn't elaborate on exactly what caused the blaze. Within minutes of police and firefighters arriving, the children were carried outside and rescue workers tried to resuscitate them as neighbors watched. Two 4-year-olds, a boy and a girl, were pronounced dead at St. John's Episcopal Hospital. Police identified the boy as Jai'Launi Tinglin and the girl as Ayini Tinglin. They shared the same father. Their 4-year-old sister--Jai'Launi's twin--was hospitalized in stable condition at St. John's. The children's 63-year-old grandfather and a 55-year-old woman were listed in stable condition at other hospitals.

(Dec 19, 2008 3:18 AM) The FBI agent who helped bring down Richard Nixon has died at his California home at the age of 95, the New York Times reports. W. Mark Felt was Deep Throat --the anonymous source who supplied crucial leads to Washington Post reporter Bob Woodward about White House abuses of power, setting in motion the Watergate scandal that led to Nixon's resignation. Felt, who was the second-in-command at the FBI at the time, was infuriated by what he saw as efforts by Nixon to use the bureau for political purposes, and rejected orders not to investigate the White House-ordered 1972 break-in at Democratic National Committee headquarters. He set up covert meetings with Woodward using tactics he had learned rooting out Nazi spies in the US during WWII. Felt decided to unmask himself in 2005 after over 30 years of secrecy.

(Dec 24, 2018 10:30 AM) A man playing poker at an Atlantic City casino has won $1 million on a $5 bet. The man, identified only as Lakewood resident Harold M., made the three-card poker 6 Card Bonus bet Saturday afternoon at the Borgata Hotel Casino, per the AP and the Press of Atlantic City. He then hit a royal straight flush of diamonds, a hand that overcame 1-in-20-million odds. The man was dealt the 10, queen, and ace of diamonds. The dealer's hand was the nine, jack, and king of diamonds. Casino officials say it's the first time this bet has been hit at the Borgata.

(Oct 26, 2015 8:14 AM CDT) The massive earthquake that shook South Asia Monday created a second tragedy in the Takhar province of Afghanistan when 12 schoolgirls rushing to escape the building they were in died in the ensuing stampede, AFP reports. Between 30 and 40 other girls were injured and taken to local hospitals, media sources report. The victims are all girls between the ages of 6 and 16, a spokesman for the Takhar provincial governor says, per the New York Times. Meanwhile, more students were injured in Baghlan province, where a high school collapsed in the city of Pul-i-Kumri, injuring 12, per the Times.

(Feb 16, 2009 5:44 AM) A US drone plane fired missiles at a building reportedly housing militants in northwest Pakistan, killing at least 31 people, reports the New York Times--the second time in three days such a strike has claimed upward of 30 lives. Afghan Taliban were holding an important meeting there when the missiles were fired, an intelligence official told Reuters. The attack was the fourth on Pakistan since Barack Obama took office--continuing a controversial Bush administration policy of pilotless strikes.

(May 23, 2009 9:43 AM CDT) US and Afghan forces seized a massive drug cache and and killed 60 militants in a four-day operation in Helmand province, Reuters reports. The troops scored more than 17 tons of morphine, opium, and heroin, along with 75 tons of poppy seeds, and caches of weapons and equipment, the military said. The initiative included air strikes on buildings used for drug making and strategic planning. Civilians had been escorted out of the area before the assault, and an unmanned aircraft was used to observe the scene to detect any attempts by militants and criminals to change the conditions to falsely claim civilian casualties, the military said.

(Aug 14, 2019 4:50 AM CDT) New Zealand officials admitted Wednesday that they made a mistake by allowing the man accused of killing 51 people at two Christchurch mosques to send a hand-written letter from his prison cell. The six-page letter from Brenton Tarrant was posted this week on the website 4chan, which has become notorious as a place for white supremacists to post their views. And it comes at a sensitive time, with other alleged killers from El Paso to Norway citing Tarrant as an inspiration. The letter appears to be written in pencil on a small notepad and is addressed to Alan in Russia. Much of it appears to be relatively innocuous, discussing a one-month trip Tarrant says he took to Russia in 2015. But the letter also warns that a great conflict is coming and uses language that could be construed as a call to arms, the AP reports. Corrections Minister Kelvin Davis said he didn't believe the prison system should have allowed Tarrant to send the letter. I have made myself clear that this cannot happen again, Davis said. But Davis also said that all New Zealand prisoners have rights that include the ability to send and receive mail, though the system has the ability to withhold correspondence and withheld some other letters Tarrant had attempted to send or receive. We have never had to manage a prisoner like this before--and I have asked questions around whether our laws are now fit for purpose and asked for advice on what changes we may now need to make, Davis said. In the letter, dated July 4, Tarrant cites Plato and other philosophers and writers as inspiration for his views, and says he cannot go into any great detail about regrets or feelings as the guards will confiscate my letter if I do and use it as evidence.

(Sep 10, 2010 5:04 AM CDT) September 11th was once a day of remembrance. No more. The anniversary of the worst terror attacks in American history is now a day of fighting and political battles, writes Gregor Peter Schmitz in Der Spiegel. The battle over the so-called Ground Zero mosque, plans to publicly burn copies of the Koran, and right-wingers Glenn Beck and Sarah Palin's $100-plus-a-head party to celebrate America on September 11 all speak to this change. The tone of solidarity that reigned after 9/11 is long gone, Schmitz notes. Instead, there is a political climate with no room for nuance led by the ultra conservative Tea Party movement, he writes. Their goal, Schmitz says, is to return the country to the ideas of its white and mostly Christian founders. America may have just celebrated the withdrawal of combat troops from Iraq, but the war at home may be just beginning, he adds.

(Jul 14, 2014 8:14 AM CDT) Their voices only recently dropped, but that didn't keep a hot new metal band from signing a record deal with Sony. All three members of Unlocking the Truth will be starting eighth grade next year, but in addition to their two-album contract (with an option for at least another three albums), they've already played Coachella and the Vans Warped Tour, and even opened for Guns N' Roses. Guitarist Malcolm Brickhouse, 13, bassist Alec Atkins, 13, and drummer Jarad Dawkins, 12, all of Brooklyn (and all of whom now sing--but only after the aforementioned voice change, the Washington Post notes; initially they skipped the vocals), were discovered by Eric Clapton's drummer, Steve Jordan, in Washington Square Park in 2012, the New York Daily News reports. What started out as play dates went to Times Square and now this, says Jarad's mom, Tabatha Dawkins. Jordan introduced the boys to Alan Sacks, producer and co-creator of Welcome Back Kotter; he's now their manager, with Malcolm's mom, Annette Jackson, serving as co-manager. Sacks tells the New York Post that Sony called after seeing one of the band's viral videos on YouTube and was willing to sign the boys over the phone (the group ultimately got flown to LA, gave a private performance, and signed the deal). If the label ends up making all five albums with the band, the boys could rake in $1.8 million in advances, per TMZ--as long as they do their homework first. If their school work is not done, they don't play, Tabatha Dawkins says, adding that all three are good students. The boys got into metal by watching anime and wrestling, and formed their first metal band at age six, they said in a Spin profile last year.

(Sep 26, 2011 9:29 AM CDT) We are not a very content bunch. Majorities of Democrats and Republicans alike are unhappy with the US government, leading to a record high of 81% who are dissatisfied with the way America is bring governed, the latest Gallup poll shows. A whopping 92% of Republicans are dissatisfied, as are 65% of Democrats. The poll results feature a laundry list of specific areas of unhappiness, from Congress and other elected officials to how the government spends tax revenue (on average, Americans believe the feds waste 51 cents of every dollar). A full 82% say they don't approve of how Congress is doing its job, and an all-time high of 69% say they have little or no confidence in the legislative branch. How many of us do hang on to confidence? Gallup found that 31% have confidence in the legislative branch, 47% have confidence in the executive branch, and 63% have confidence in the judicial branch. Another all-time high, 57%, say they have little or no confidence in the government's ability to solve domestic problems. Click for the full results.

(Sep 21, 2013 4:24 PM CDT) No one ever said you have to be tall to be famous--as these 20 stars rounded up by Radar definitely prove. The best part: Famously short Tom Cruise is actually the tallest person on the list. Click through the gallery for a sampling, or check out the complete list here if you want to know who else is shorter than Cruise (and that includes 10 men).

(Jun 29, 2016 2:49 PM CDT) If you're looking for odds on what's going to happen in Election 2016, you can ask a Las Vegas bookie or Nate Silver. And according to what the FiveThirtyEight.com numbers whiz told George Stephanopoulos on Wednesday's Good Morning America, Hillary Clinton has an almost 80% chance of taking the White House, Politico reports. The stats and polling analysis website, which tweeted it will have more on the site about its election predictions later Wednesday, places Clinton with a 79% chance of winning the presidency in November, while Trump can only claim a 20% chance. We're kind of at halftime of the election right now, and she's taking a seven-point, maybe a 10-point lead, Silver told Stephanopoulos. There's a lot of football left to be played, but she's ahead in almost every poll, every swing state, every national poll. Silver noted that no candidate has thrown away a lead as large as the one Clinton currently enjoys since Michael Dukakis in 1988, though he also acknowledged it's been a crazy year, politically. And that lead, per a recent Ballotpedia poll of seven swing states, shows Clinton beating Trump in all seven, with her lead ranging from 4 to 17 percentage points. Interestingly, when similarly matched up against Ohio Gov. John Kasich and House Speaker Paul Ryan, Clinton didn't do as well, with Kasich beating her in five states and Ryan pulling ahead in three. Silver--who shot to fame after correctly calling all 50 states in the 2012 election--has faced criticism, along with many others, for initially downplaying Trump's chances at even becoming the GOP nominee (he gave Trump a 2% chance in August), though he's since admitted he acted like a pundit and screwed up. But he told Stephanopoulos his first impression wasn't based on looking at polls and one big lesson of [Trump's] campaign is don't try and out-think the polls and try and out-think the American public. He did a great job of appealing to the 40% of the GOP he had to win ... the primary, Silver added. A lot different than winning 51% of 100%. (Last year Silver said polls were in bad shape.)

(Apr 18, 2020 6:30 AM CDT) Fiona Apple has been mostly out of the public eye for eight years, but the reclusive artist just came back with a big bang. So big, in fact, that Pitchfork felt compelled to give her new album, Fetch the Bolt Cutters, a perfect score--its first in nearly a decade, per Tone Deaf, which notes that only 11 other albums have received a 10 from the online music publication. The last release to receive such an honor from Pitchfork--which calls Apple's fifth studio album a wild symphony of the everyday, an unyielding masterpiece --was Kanye West's My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, in late 2010. No music has ever sounded quite like it, reviewer Jenn Pelly writes of the 42-year-old Apple's latest effort, noting it can threaten the status quo and it can be outrageously funny, often at once. Fetch the Bolt Cutters seems to almost completely turn the volume down on music history, while it cranks up raw, real life--handclaps, chants, and other makeshift percussion, in harmony with space, echoes, whispers, screams, breathing, jokes, so-called mistakes, and dog barks, Pelly writes. While Tone Deaf points out the debate over just how important a Pitchfork review actually is--some say the publication isn't as prestigious as it once was--it also notes the fact remains that they're somewhat conservative with high praise, and for them to dish out a perfect score indicates that this is truly music worth hearing. Vulture, meanwhile, has compiled all of the best memes from fans expressing their reactions to the release of Apple's new album. Other reviews here, here, and here.

(Jan 8, 2013 12:44 AM) After years out of the spotlight, rock legend David Bowie has marked his 66th birthday with the release of his first new song in a decade. The ballad Where Are We Now? will be followed by a new album, The Next Day, in March, the BBC reports. Bowie, whose last album was 2003's Reality, has not performed live since 2006 and the new single has prompted a flurry of speculation about a possible 2013 tour.

(Jul 1, 2008 9:08 PM CDT) Starbucks will close hundreds of stores across the US in its newest attempt to boost deflated profits, the Seattle Times reports. In the next nine months, about 600 stores are getting the ax, most of which opened after October 2005. About 12,000 employees will lose their jobs, but the company hopes to absorb some of them into other stores. The coffee chain also plans to open fewer than 200 new stores in the US during the next fiscal year. They probably made some poor real estate decisions, and when they opened stores in fiscal 2006, they probably didn't anticipate how tough the economy would be and how the brand would be struggling, said one industry analyst.

(Apr 8, 2015 9:23 AM CDT) The Islamic State released more than 200 Yazidis today after holding them for eight months, an Iraqi Kurdish security official says, the latest mass release of captives by the extremists. Gen. Hiwa Abdullah says most of the freed 216 prisoners are in poor health and bear signs of abuse and neglect. He adds that about 40 children are among those released, while the rest are elderly. No reason was given for the release of the prisoners, who were originally abducted from the area around Sinjar. Tens of thousands of Yazidis fled in August when ISIS captured the northern Iraqi town, but hundreds were taken captive by the group, with some Yazidi women forced into slavery, according to international rights groups and Iraqi officials. In January, ISIS released some 200 Yazidi prisoners as well. At the time, Kurdish military officials said they believed the extremists released the prisoners as they were too much of a burden. Today's handover took place in Himera just southwest of Kirkuk, 180 miles north of Baghdad. The freed Yazidis were taken away by ambulances and buses to receive treatment and care.

(Sep 10, 2014 9:25 AM CDT) Edith Hill, 96, and Eddie Harrison, 95, are thrilled to have found each other. He touched my heart. I fell in love with him, Hill told WJLA in July. The Virginia pair met 10 years ago while buying lottery tickets--splitting a $2,500 winner--and married earlier this year. But that union--an interracial one in a state that banned such marriages for decades--has instigated a court battle over Hill's estate and could end with the couple splitting up, the AP reports. Hill is legally incapacitated, and a judge has ruled daughter Rebecca Wright shouldn't have facilitated the marriage without the court's permission. Wright's sister, Patricia Barber, claims the union complicates the division of Hill's $475,000 estate, because now Harrison could inherit a portion. She wants to sell my mother's house. She wants the money, Wright tells WUSA9. Should Barber win, Hill would have to move in with her or be put in a nursing home--either way, she and Harrison would be separated. They're not gonna separate us. No, we're not gonna let them, Harrison tells the station. The judge agrees on that score: Breaking them up could create a circumstance in Ms. Hill's life that she doesn't deserve, he ruled. To protect Hill's interests, an attorney has been appointed and her daughters removed as guardians. Wright believes ageism and racism are also at play in her sister's court action, telling WJLA that mindsets haven't changed. But Hill and Harrison don't mind: We see hearts, we don't see color. (This couple got married after 72 years together.)

(Oct 27, 2008 10:53 PM CDT) Torrential rain in Philadelphia forced the suspension of tonight's World Series Game 5 midway through the sixth inning with the Tampa Bay Rays and the Phillies tied at 2. Carlos Pena tied the score on a two-out RBI single before Evan Longoria lined out and the umpiring crew called for the tarp. The contest will resume Tuesday night at 8, the Inquirer reports--weather permitting. The Phillies lead the best-of-seven series, 3-1.

(Jan 10, 2017 6:04 PM) Smoking costs the global economy an eye-popping $1 trillion a year, and despite anti-tobacco efforts, deaths are rising, Reuters reports. Tobacco-related illnesses will claim 8 million lives per year by 2030, up from the current 6 million, warns a new study by the World Health Organization and the National Cancer Institute. There are more people lighting up in middle- to low-income countries, which is where 80% of projected smoking deaths will occur in the coming years. Lost productivity and health care costs top $1 trillion per year (that's 12 zeros), a figure that dwarfs that $1 billion governments spent on anti-tobacco measures in the 2013-14 year. Governments could do more to curb smoking and reduce their health-care costs, the authors say. Smoking is the single largest preventable cause of death, notes Reuters. Global efforts to curb tobacco use have fallen short, the study says. Government fears that tobacco control will have an adverse economic impact are not justified by the evidence, the authors write. The science is clear; the time for action is now. They suggest boosting tobacco taxes and the price per pack along with better anti-smoking policies, warning labels and a total ban on marketing tobacco. Australia's strict plain-packaging laws banning cigarette company logos have been praised by health experts as a model for other nations, though the policy has sparked legal challenges. Australia won a legal fight against Philip Morris in 2015 to keep cigarette packs there as drab as possible, per the Guardian. (Smoke just a little bit? It'll still kill you.)

(Jul 18, 2014 5:56 AM CDT) It's one thing when a hiker goes missing for five days; it's another when that hiker is 84 years old. Yet search and rescue squads near Forestport in the Adirondacks in upstate New York were able to find Donald Combs alive--barely. The hiker, who'd set out a full week earlier and left a note at home that he'd be home in a day or two, according to cnycentral.com, was severely dehydrated, weak, and disoriented, and a police captain says Combs was unable to move once they did find him. He was taken to a Utica hospital via helicopter and was being evaluated. I didn't believe he would be alive, son Eric Combs tells WKTV. I know he didn't have a lot of stuff with him. It's just amazing that he made it. When Combs is well enough to talk, police hope to piece together details of his hike and learn how he wandered off course. Some 500 troopers and forest rangers joined in the hunt, and, with the help of a state police K9, found Combs a half a mile outside of their search grid in rough terrain. Police had been about to reevaluate whether to scale back their search after five days without success. (See how this hiker survived several days with a broken leg.)

(Mar 5, 2012 10:04 AM) Al-Qaeda-linked militants attacked an army base in southern Yemen, setting off a pair of car bombs and killing 80 soldiers yesterday in an hours-long battle. At least 20 militants were also killed in what became one of the bloodiest battles the country has seen in years, the Wall Street Journal reports. Militants captured some 50 troops and the majority of the base's weapons. It was just the latest in a series of violence by Islamist militants since new President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi was sworn in two weeks ago.

(May 30, 2013 1:35 AM CDT) A series of morning bomb explosions in Baghdad and the northern Iraqi city of Mosul today killed at least 13 people and wounded dozens in the latest eruption of violence rattling the country, officials said. Iraq is facing its most relentless wave of violence since the 2011 US military withdrawal, deepening fears that the country is heading back toward the widespread sectarian fighting that pushed it to the brink of civil war in the years after the invasion. More than 500 people have been killed in May. April was Iraq's deadliest month since June 2008, according to a UN tally that put last month's death toll at more than 700. Most of today's blasts went off in Baghdad. Car bombs killed four in the northeastern Shiite neighborhood of Binouq, and three died in a bombing at a market selling spare car parts in central Baghdad, according to police. Officials also said a roadside bomb exploded on a police patrol in the largely Shiite central commercial district of Karradah, killing three. In Mosul, officers said a suicide bomber killed three when he blew himself up at a federal police checkpoint. There was no immediate claim of responsibility, but blame is likely to fall on al-Qaeda's Iraq arm.

(Nov 6, 2014 6:13 PM) Fans of the Toy Story trilogy will either love or hate this news: Toy Story 4 will be in theaters June 16, 2017, reports USA Today. No word yet on whether any of the big names--Tom Hanks, Tim Allen, Joan Cusack, Wallace Shawn, etc.--will be back to voice the characters, reports Entertainment Weekly. But at least one familiar name will be involved: John Lasseter, who directed the original in 1995, will again direct. He helped conceive the new story, but the screenplay will be written by former Parks and Recreation star Rashida Jones and screenwriting partner Will McCormack. Lasseter channels fans' concerns in a statement, acknowledging that Toy Story 3 ended Woody and Buzz's story with Andy so perfectly that for a long time, we never even talked about doing another Toy Story movie. But he swears the next chapter won't screw things up.

(Feb 23, 2016 7:28 AM) Napa Valley was once known for its cheap wines. Today it's one of the best wine regions in the world--due in part to Peter Mondavi. The wine pioneer who helped put California wines on the map died at his home in St. Helena on Saturday, says a family rep. He was 101. During more than half a century running Charles Krug Winery--which his Italian-immigrant parents bought in 1943--Mondavi adopted sterile filtration, the use of cold fermentation for white wines, and was the first in Napa to import French oak barrels for aging, earning him a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Napa Valley Vintners trade group, report the AP and Los Angeles Times. He is also in the Culinary Institute of America's Vintners Hall of Fame. Mondavi's reign as president and CEO of Charles Krug Winery wasn't without controversy. For a time, Mondavi ran the winery with his brother, Robert. After a fistfight in 1965, however, Robert was removed from management and went on to create his own Robert Mondavi Winery, reports the Wall Street Journal. Like many Napa wineries, the Robert Mondavi Winery was eventually bought out, but Peter Mondavi was proud to say that the Charles Krug Winery remained within the family. It's now run by his two sons, though Mondavi retained the titles of president and CEO until last year. He said his energy into old age was thanks to good genes, hard work, pasta Bolognese, and a glass of cabernet sauvignon each day.

(Jul 6, 2020 7:33 AM CDT) Two people are confirmed dead and as many as six others are missing after two planes collided on Sunday afternoon over an Idaho lake, NBC News reports. Per the Spokesman-Review, the crash that took place around 2:20pm local time over Lake Coeur d'Alene involved a single-engine Cessna TU206G and a single-engine de Havilland DHC-2, according to the National Transportation Safety Board. Lt. Ryan Higgins, a spokesman for the Kootenai County Sheriff's Office, says two bodies were recovered, though they haven't yet been identified, and he says initial reports suggest there were eight passengers and crew in total on board, though that hasn't been confirmed. Authorities don't know what caused the crash and don't expect to find any survivors. One witness tells the Spokesman-Review that from his boat on the lake he saw what seemed to be an engine explosion on a seaplane flying about 200 feet above him, and that one of the aircraft's wings separated before the plane plunged into the water. Another witness, a pilot himself, says he could tell by the way the planes sounded that they were moving fairly quickly. A third group that screamed bloody murder when they witnessed the crash from their boat tells KXLY they rushed to the wreckage scene and kept two bodies they saw from floating away. Higgins says that officials have used sonar to pinpoint the planes at nearly 130 feet underwater. County divers aren't equipped to go that deep, so a commercial diving group will likely need to be recruited to search the wreckage, Higgins adds. The Federal Aviation Administration and the NTSB will be investigating the crash.

(Mar 15, 2008 5:43 AM CDT) Following a day of violent street clashes between protesters and security forces, China reported 10 people dead in the Tibetan capital of Lhasa. Embarrassed as the country prepares to host this summer's Olympic games, Beijing set Monday as a surrender deadline for rioters to turn themselves in and receive lenient treatment, the Washington Post reports. Those who don't surrender by the deadline will be sternly punished, Beijing warned. Tibetan sources questioned the Chinese death toll of 10, all of whom were reported dead in a fire, saying that an additional five protesters were shot dead by police. The main Tibetan exile group alleges 100 have been killed by Chinese police, the Press Association reports.

(Jun 3, 2011 11:27 AM CDT) Lady Gaga sold a whopping 1.1 million copies of Born This Way in its first week, but 440,000 of those copies went for just 99 cents on Amazon.com. Amazon, however, did pay Gaga's distributor the full price of $8 to $9 per album--which means, the New York Times calculates, the online retailer lost more than $3 million. Of course, New York magazine points out, a big point of the gimmick was to drum up new users for its Cloud Drive service, so the company can just consider those millions marketing costs. As for Gaga, the move does provide much fodder for anyone wishing to quibble with the validity of the 1.1 million number, writes Amos Barshad. Click to see which artist Barshad thinks is probably pretty salted right now.

(Nov 7, 2009 8:30 AM) A NATO airstrike in the western province of Badghis mistakenly hit a joint base housing coalition troops and Afghan security forces, killing four Afghan soldiers and three policemen, Afghan officials said today. An Afghan army commando unit, district police members and foreign forces were in the base in the Bala Marghab district at the time of yesterday's airstrike, which also wounded 15. The Afghan defense ministry said NATO and Afghan authorities were investigating the incident and would issue a report soon. Also yesterday, more than 25 members of NATO and Afghan security forces were injured during a search for two US paratroopers missing from a resupply mission since Wednesday. Local police said the two Americans were swept away by a river in the western province of Badghis when they tried to retrieve supplies that had been airlifted and had accidentally fallen into the water.

(Nov 29, 2014 3:29 PM) If you'd checked on Bill Cosby's celebrity-trustworthiness ranking a year ago, you would have found him ranked among Betty White, Brian Williams, and Tom Hanks. Now, amid continuing sexual assault allegations, he's dropped from 3rd to 2,615th on a scoring firm's list of about 3,000 people, the Wall Street Journal reports. The Omnicom Group's list, which evaluates public perception of celebrities, now puts Cosby in the company of ex-Notre Dame linebacker Manti Te'o--the guy involved in a 2012 story about a fake girlfriend. Cosby was also previously at no. 5 among effective product spokespeople, the same company says; now he's at 2,746, the Journal reports.

(May 24, 2009 7:04 AM CDT) At least 11 people were killed by a fan stampede after a Moroccan concert, reports the BBC. Some 40 others were injured when a wire fence collapsed, causing a mob to surge forward at the event packed with 70,000 spectators. The Rabat event was part of the week-long Mawazine world music festival that included several top musicians, including Stevie Wonder, Alicia Keyes, and Kylie Minoque.

(Mar 25, 2018 8:06 PM CDT) Three teams that need no introduction. One from out of nowhere. Though the 2018 NCAA Tournament produced the biggest upset in the history of the event along with a seemingly endless string of wild finishes and unexpected results, the Final Four will look very much like it has over the last handful of seasons. In one of next Saturday's semifinals, it's a barnburner of a matchup between top-seeded programs with rich histories: Villanova vs. Kansas. In what will quickly become known as the other semifinal, it's an upstart vs. another school that knows this road: No. 11 Loyola-Chicago vs. No. 3 Michigan. Remarkable as Loyola's run--and this tournament--have been, this marks the fifth time over the last six seasons that three teams seeded 1 through 4 have been joined by another seeded 7 or higher, per the AP.

(Nov 23, 2020 1:12 PM) Outside President Trump's golf club in Sterling, Virginia, this weekend, a familiar scene unfolded: Trump supporters set up on one side of the street, and anti-Trump protesters on the other, reports NBC Washington. Then came an incident leading to charges that would have been unheard of before 2020. Police have charged a 61-year-old man with simple assault after he allegedly breathed on people with opposing views, per Fox5. He just proceeded to assault us by taking a deep breath and doing a very powerful exhalation on both of us, Kathy Beynette tells NBC. (See video here. The man, one of the Trump supporters, wasn't wearing a mask. His deep breath came after he approached the anti-Trump protesters and one told him to back off because he was maskless. After video of the incident began circulating online, the Loudon County Sheriff's Office investigated and charged Raymond Deskins with the misdemeanor. He has been released on a summons. Beynette, in her late 60s, says the incident forced her to cancel the small Thanksgiving gathering she had planned.

(Jan 24, 2016 6:59 AM) A large chunk of metal that could be from an aircraft washed ashore in southern Thailand, but Malaysian authorities on Sunday cautioned against speculation of a link to a Malaysia Airlines flight missing almost two years. Flight MH370 is presumed to have crashed in the Indian Ocean, and only one piece of debris has been identified as coming from the plane, a slab of wing that washed ashore on Reunion Island in the western Indian Ocean last July. Malaysian Transport Minister Liow Tiong Lai said he instructed Malaysian civil aviation officials to contact Thailand about the newly found wreckage, a curved piece of metal measuring about 6 1/2 feet by 10 feet with electrical wires hanging from it and numbers stamped on it in several places. The markings, engineering, and tooling apparent in this debris strongly suggest that it is aerospace related, an editor with Flightglobal tells Reuters. It will need to be carefully examined, however, to determine it's exact origin. Thailand's Transportation Ministry said four Malaysian officials and two Thai experts will visit the site Monday. Liow said the search for the missing jet, which carried 239 people, is ongoing in the southern Indian Ocean. Australian Transport Safety Bureau spokesman Dan O'Malley said the agency was awaiting an official examination of the debris. The debris was found on the eastern coast of southern Thailand's Nakkon Si Thammarat province, about 370 miles south of Bangkok on the Gulf of Thailand. While debris can drift thousands of miles on ocean currents, that location would be a surprise based on the data from Flight MH370. The plane was tracked by radar flying over the South China Sea then making a sharp turn west. It crossed the Malay Peninsula and Straits of Malacca, which would put it off Thailand's west coast.

(Feb 5, 2009 4:45 AM) Whether it's hormones, increased self-esteem or stepping out on their spouses, 40-something women are experiencing the best sex of their lives, reports the Guardian. It's one of the best-kept secrets of women's lives, noted one expert. Of 2,000 women polled in a recent survey, 77% said that their sex life was best in their 40s. More confident and unafraid of intimacy, older women are not afraid of going all out to find sexual fulfillment, say observers. Some are searching for satisfaction outside of their marriages. It's great sex, but it's not with my husband, said one woman. He's the last man on the planet I'd want to have sex with.

(Apr 18, 2020 6:30 AM CDT) Fiona Apple has been mostly out of the public eye for eight years, but the reclusive artist just came back with a big bang. So big, in fact, that Pitchfork felt compelled to give her new album, Fetch the Bolt Cutters, a perfect score--its first in nearly a decade, per Tone Deaf, which notes that only 11 other albums have received a 10 from the online music publication. The last release to receive such an honor from Pitchfork--which calls Apple's fifth studio album a wild symphony of the everyday, an unyielding masterpiece --was Kanye West's My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, in late 2010. No music has ever sounded quite like it, reviewer Jenn Pelly writes of the 42-year-old Apple's latest effort, noting it can threaten the status quo and it can be outrageously funny, often at once. Fetch the Bolt Cutters seems to almost completely turn the volume down on music history, while it cranks up raw, real life--handclaps, chants, and other makeshift percussion, in harmony with space, echoes, whispers, screams, breathing, jokes, so-called mistakes, and dog barks, Pelly writes. While Tone Deaf points out the debate over just how important a Pitchfork review actually is--some say the publication isn't as prestigious as it once was--it also notes the fact remains that they're somewhat conservative with high praise, and for them to dish out a perfect score indicates that this is truly music worth hearing. Vulture, meanwhile, has compiled all of the best memes from fans expressing their reactions to the release of Apple's new album. Other reviews here, here, and here.

(Nov 6, 2011 8:20 AM) Rebekah Brooks may have quit News Corp in disgrace at the height of the phone hacking scandal, but the less-than-harsh terms of her severance package are again grabbing headlines. The loyal lieutenant, as the Guardian calls her, landed a $2.7 million severance, along with two years of a chauffer-driven limo and posh offices in London. The renewed interest in Brooks' deal comes as Murdoch son James is set to make a second appearance this week before a Parliament committee investigating the scandal. It is remarkably curious that such an generous package is given to Ms Brooks when others have been cut loose, says one MP. It is almost as if she hasn't really left the company. I am sure Mr Murdoch will want to explain the decision to his shareholders.