Datasets:

Sina-Alinejad-2002

/

round_operation_prediction

like 0

(Jul 18, 2012 5:40 PM CDT) Chalk one up for 4Chan: A Burger King employee posted a photo of himself on the forum standing in trays of lettuce with the caption, This is the lettuce you eat at Burger King. Yeah, 4Chan users didn't think it was all that funny, either. Within 15 minutes, they used the GPS data in the photo to figure out that it came from a store in Mayfield Heights, Ohio, then put the word out, reports HyperVocal. Said employee is now out of a job. A reporter from Cleveland Scene called the store and talked to a breakfast manager, who hadn't seen the picture yet. Oh, I know who that is, she said after doing so. He's getting fired. In a statement, Burger King said the franchisee has taken swift action to investigate this matter and terminated the employee involved in this incident, according to Fox 8.

(Feb 2, 2009 2:06 PM) India's government will launch an ultra-cheap laptop computer tomorrow as part of a new initiative to update the nation's educational system, the Guardian reports. The Sakshat will sell for $10 (500 rupees), a price India hopes will be accessible for most students. The laptop is the centerpiece of a national plan to give college students access to textbooks, class lectures, and homework online. Each laptop costs about $20 to make, but India's top education official said the cost is bound to come down with mass production. Nonetheless, some tech experts are skeptical: You cannot even make a computer screen for $20. And India does not build much computer hardware. So where will the savings come from? asked the director of India's Netcore Solution.

(Mar 27, 2018 11:46 AM CDT) It's been nearly a quarter-century since Nevest Coleman helped powerwash and pull back the tarp at Comiskey Park, the Chicago White Sox stadium now known as Guaranteed Rate Field. But the 49-year-old is back on the job, after 23 years behind bars for a crime he didn't commit. The Chicago Tribune reports Coleman, whose conviction for a 1994 rape and murder was overturned in November after DNA evidence cleared him, would often watch his former groundskeeping colleagues taking care of the rain-delay tarp on TV in prison, and once released, he talked fondly about his old role at the stadium. I'd wake up in the morning proud to go to work, he tells the Tribune. I loved it. When the White Sox got wind of his desire to return, they called him in for an interview, and to Coleman's delight he got the gig, which started Monday, per CBS News. The head groundskeeper greeted him with: I saved your spot for you. I knew you'd be back, per the Tribune. As for the White Sox, they said in a statement, We're grateful that after more than two decades, justice has been carried out for Nevest. It has been a long time, but we're thrilled that we have the opportunity to welcome him back to the White Sox family. Coleman, who kept his mind occupied in prison by reading the Game of Thrones and Harry Potter books, among others, is now looking forward to spending time with his kids (whom he left on the outside when they were babies) and grandkids and getting used to all the changes at the park. And he's done looking back at the past, per CBS Chicago. If I'm happy, everybody else will be happy, he says. I don't have time to be miserable, you know?

(Aug 4, 2013 2:35 PM CDT) Despite mediocre reviews, Mark Wahlberg and Denzel Washington shoot-em-up 2 Guns fired to No. 1 at the box office this weekend, with a $27.4 million US opening, the AP reports. It was a less explosive domestic debut for The Smurfs 2, which earned an underwhelming $18.2 million to take third place. Fortunately for producer Sony Pictures, the international market proved more interested in the '80s throwback, and the film grossed $52.5 million in foreign cinemas, per the Hollywood Reporter. Sandwiched in between them at No. 3, was last week's No. 1 The Wolverine, which brought in $21.7 million. Rounding out the Top 5, The Conjuring took No. 4 with $13.6 million, and Despicable Me 2 grossed $10.4 million for No. 5. And at the specialty box office, the much-discussed Bret Easton Ellis-penned The Canyons, starring Lindsay Lohan and porn star James Deen, failed to live up to the amount of press it received, earning just $15,200.

(Nov 17, 2015 3:21 AM) It took less than a half-hour for the lives of Gabriella Doolin's parents to go from normal to nightmare. The 7-year-old girl was found dead 25 minutes after she disappeared from a youth football game in Scottsville, Ky., Saturday night, and police have confirmed that she was murdered. Gabriella's brother, Alec, 11, had been playing in the game, and she was there with her parents. They asked the stadium announcer to call her name as soon as they lost her in the small crowd. It came over the intercom the third time and they shut it down, a family friend tells WSMV. We quit and the entire community started looking for her. We had a complete lockdown of the school. I mean, it was super quick. Her body was found in a creek behind the high school, and authorities have not released autopsy results or details of the investigation. No arrests have been made, but the case is being treated as an isolated incident and we do not feel that there is an ongoing threat, the Allen County sheriff's office said in a Facebook post. The Bowling Green Daily News provides a closer look at the girl known as Gabbi-- the blue-eyed blonde was an avid reader and a girlie girl who at one time said she wanted to play in the NFL. She opted for cheerleading, instead. The Saturday night game was actually an all-star game, and had it been a regular contest, Gabbi would have been on the sideline cheering on Alec. She was a child that loved, says a former teacher, who considers herself blessed to have had Gabbi in the classroom. She always had a smile on her face and the personality to make all those around her laugh. (In Alabama, authorities are dealing with case of an 8-year-old accused of murdering an even younger victim.)

(Aug 25, 2010 1:20 AM CDT) The United Nations has launched an investigation into reports that close to 200 women and baby boys were gang raped over a series of days by Congolese rebels and Rwandan fighters--just a few miles from a UN outpost. The secretary-general is outraged by the rape and assault, a UN spokesman tells the BBC. This is another grave example of both the level of sexual violence and the insecurity that continue to plague Congo. An official in charge of peacekeeping and an expert on sexual violence in conflict have been assigned to lead the probe. The Democratic Republic of Congo has been called the rape capital of the world, with more than 8,000 women raped during fighting last year.

(Apr 17, 2010 2:49 PM CDT) The travel mess in Europe is costing the airline industry about $200 million a day, reports the Guardian, and that appears to be a conservative estimate. The Iceland volcano, meanwhile, shows no signs of slowing down, meaning most flights will remain canceled at least into tomorrow. The BBC is collecting travelers' stories here.

(Mar 5, 2009 2:25 AM) A West Virginia lawmaker wants to boot Barbie and dolls like her from store shelves before the famous babe celebrates her 50th birthday next week, reports Fox News. Banning the dolls would send a message to children and adults that education is more important than physical beauty, said the lawmaker. A colleague hailed the legislator's concerns but doubted his bill would pass.

(Mar 10, 2009 8:28 AM CDT) United Technologies Corp, which owns Sikorsky Aircraft and Pratt & Whitney, maker of jet engines, will cut 11,600 jobs and has lowered its 2009 forecast in a crumbling commercial aerospace market. The moves, part of an expanded $750 million restructuring program, are fueled by a decline in anticipated revenue, which is now expected to total $55 billion this year, down $2.7 billion from a December estimate. Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected $55.2 billion. United Technologies also now forecasts earnings per share between $4 and $4.50, less than the $4.60 analysts anticipated.

(Oct 14, 2014 2:13 AM CDT) Some 673 days after it was launched into space for a secret mission, the Air Force's robotic X-37B space plane is set to return to Earth today--and there's still no word on what it was doing up there. Some rumors say that the robotic mini-space shuttle was interfering with foreign satellites or functioning as a space-based bomber. Sources tell the Daily Beast that the spacecraft is designed to carry specialized payloads of sensors like ground-mapping radars--useful stuff for the military to have on a spacecraft with an orbit over countries including Iran, Afghanistan, and China. This is the third space mission for the Boeing-built craft, which is overseen by the US Air Force Rapid Capabilities Office. Space.com notes that while all the plane's landings so far have been at an Air Force base in California, Boeing is retooling an old NASA shuttle hangar for the X-37B. The X-37 program has conducted testing at Kennedy's Shuttle Landing Facility to demonstrate that landing the vehicle at the former shuttle runway is a technically feasible option, NASA says in a statement.

(Aug 17, 2016 11:14 AM CDT) A man and two children are dead in India after a kite flying tradition on Independence Day went horribly wrong. Two children, aged 3 and 4, had their throats slit by kite strings covered with powdered glass or metal--a coating used to cut down competitors' kites--while riding with their heads out of car sunroofs in separate incidents in Delhi on Monday, reports the BBC. A 22-year-old motorcyclist suffered a fatal fall when he became entangled in a string, per the Indian Express, while a police officer was also injured. The Delhi government has since banned the sale of the sharp strings.

(Aug 21, 2016 11:38 AM CDT) Matt Roberts, the lead guitarist for 3 Doors Down from the group's founding in 1996 until he left for health reasons in 2012, was found dead Saturday in a Wisconsin hotel, reports Rolling Stone. He was 38. I was wakened at 8:50 this morning by some detectives beating on my door. It's always scary as a parent, they were in suits and that's when they told me. They asked me if Matt Roberts was your son, I said yes, and they said 'we have bad news to tell you, Matt deceased last night,' dad Darrell Roberts tells CNN. The younger Roberts had been rehearsing for a veterans fundraiser; hours after the Robertses returned to the hotel police were called on a reports of a man asleep or passed out in the hallway. Matt Roberts was pronounced dead shortly after. An autopsy is planned to confirm a cause of death. Darrell Roberts says his son had prescription drug addiction. He suffered greatly from anxiety. It's crazy as a performer; he never liked crowds or liked places he didn't know about as a baby, as a child, and this was his way of dealing with it and me and him talked about it often. The father says he thought his son was OK. I thought he had beaten it all, he says.

(Jun 20, 2012 11:58 AM CDT) The Federal Reserve is extending a program intended to further lower long-term interest rates, noting hiring has weakened, consumer spending is rising more slowly, and the economy needs more support. The Fed will continue Operation Twist through the end of the year, it announced today. The Fed has been selling $400 billion in short-term Treasurys since September and buying longer-term Treasurys. It says it will shift another $267 billion through December. The Fed's goal is to spur more borrowing, spending, and growth. But extending Operation Twist might not provide much benefit. Long-term US rates have already touched record lows. Businesses and consumers who aren't borrowing now might not do so if rates slipped slightly more. Fed officials are also reiterating their plan to keep short-term rates at record lows until at least late 2014.

(Oct 6, 2011 4:22 AM CDT) Florida's decision to push its GOP primary back to Jan. 31 now looks likely to push the Republican nominating calendar into 2011. Nevada's Republican Party has announced that it plans to hold its caucus on Jan. 14, meaning New Hampshire is likely to shift its primary to even earlier, probably Jan. 3, and voters in Iowa will barely have had time to digest their Christmas turkey before the caucuses, the Hill reports. South Carolina has already shifted its primary to Jan. 21 to stay ahead of Florida. This is absolutely in the best interest of our state, the chairwoman of the Nevada Republican Party said in a statement. We are in the process of creating a caucus that will energize Republicans throughout Nevada and the West, and allow us to play a major role in deciding who will carry the fight to unseat Barack Obama and his destructive policies.

(Jul 19, 2012 9:44 AM CDT) Older Americans are increasingly feeling the hovering specter of foreclosure, after years of not suffering as acutely from the housing crisis, according to a new AARP report. While younger Americans still have a higher rate of serious delinquency, older Americans are now falling behind at a much faster rate, the AP explains. In the past five years, the proportion of loans held by people over age 50 that are seriously delinquent has jumped more than 450%. More than 1.5 million older Americans have already lost their homes, about 600,000 are in foreclosure, and roughly 3.5 million--about 16% of all older homeowners--are underwater on their mortgage. The very old are being hit particularly hard: About one in 30 homeowners over the age of 75 are in foreclosure. What's more, many of the 50-plus crowd have no way to recover, having already spent their retirement savings. The Great Recession has been brutal for many older Americans, says the AARP's policy chief. This shows that homeownership doesn't guarantee financial security later in life.

(Apr 5, 2020 6:11 AM CDT) The CDC wants everyday Americans to mask up in public, and because it wants us to save the N95 masks for health care workers, it is here to show you how to make a cloth mask out of everyday items you can readily find in your quarantine misery and put together in about 45 seconds. Surgeon General Jerome Adams demonstrates his folding prowess with a T-shirt and a couple of rubber bands in the accompanying video, crowing, it's that easy, notes Mashable. It's to help modify spreading, CDC director Robert Redfield says. And there is scientific data to show that when you aerosolized virus through a cloth barrier, you have a reduction in the amount of virus that gets through the other side.

(Oct 7, 2010 8:37 AM CDT) When today's kids enter the job market in 20-something years, would-be employers checking up them may have no trouble finding ... their ultrasound photos. That's because they're leaving a digital trail a mile long, thanks to Mom and Dad. A new study has found that 23% of children had their pre-birth scans posted online. And once those babies leave the womb, things get crazier: 33% have photos uploaded to the Internet from birth; 7% of babies have their very own email address. Internet security firm AVG, which polled Internet-enabled moms in 10 countries, reports that by age two, 81% of toddlers have some kind of digital footprint.

(Feb 23, 2010 6:00 AM) Delaware pediatrician Earl Bradley has been indicted on 471 counts of sexual crimes against 103 children. The indictment is based on video and digital evidence showing all of the victims, all but one of whom were girls, Delaware Attorney General Beau Biden said. These were crimes committed against the most vulnerable among us--those without voices, a tearful Biden said before pausing to collect himself. The charges against Bradley, 53, include rape, sexual exploitation of a child, unlawful sexual contact, continuous sexual abuse of a child, assault, and reckless endangering, the AP reports. Yet more charges in one of the worst sexual abuse cases in American history are expected to surface in the coming months. Bradley's lawyer says he plans to base his client's defense on mental health. It's kind of hard to argue with videotapes, he said.

(Apr 25, 2016 10:46 AM CDT) The week of April 15-21 was a record-breaking one for the TSA, though not a record it likely wanted to break. During that one-week span, the federal agency found 73 guns stashed in carry-on bags at airports nationwide, breaking the previous weekly record of 68 set just last October, the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review reports. Of those firearms, 68 were loaded, and 27 had a round in the chamber. Guns can be brought on flights, but they have to be declared in checked luggage only, unloaded, and secured in a locked container, per TSA rules. Unfortunately, these sorts of occurrences are all too frequent, which is why we talk about these finds, a TSA rep says in a blog post, which features pictures of some of the confiscated items, as well as a list of what items were found at which airports. Also discovered: two replica military rounds at Tucson's airport. The TSA notes that even if a passenger has no ill intent in packing the gun in the carry-on, he or she can receive a citation, be arrested, and/or have to pay a fine as steep as $11,000. And despite applause that may come the TSA screeners' way for a job well done, they'd rather not find these weapons at all. Each time we find a dangerous item, the line is slowed down and the passenger is at risk of the repercussions, the post explains. Oddly, despite findings like this, the TSA has been trying to do away with screenings at smaller regional airports to save money, sometimes screening passengers after they land at larger airports to make connecting flights--a process called reverse screening, per Politico. The agency is now restaffing some of those smaller airports with screeners after Congress got wind of the plan and some members denounced it as dangerous.

(Apr 22, 2020 6:21 AM CDT) Harvard says it has no intention of paying back nearly $9 million in coronavirus relief aid, despite President Trump's demand it do so. During Tuesday's coronavirus briefing, Trump said the world's wealthiest university, with an endowment fund of $40 billion, should pay back $8.6 million it received through the $2.2 trillion aid package signed on March 27, reports the New York Times. This is meant for workers, this isn't meant for one of the richest institutions ... They got to pay it back, Trump said, per the BBC. But Harvard didn't receive any money from a fund granting loans to small businesses. It benefited from $14 billion in relief for higher education, distributed to institutions based on the number and income of students. Arizona State University received $63.5 million, Cornell and Columbia each received about $12.8 million, Arkansas State University received $9.2 million, Central Connecticut State University received $9 million, Stanford received $7.3 million, and Yale received $6.8 million, per the Times. Half of the relief money was intended to go to students, with the remainder assisting in revenue losses as a result of shuttered campuses, canceled athletic events, and more. Though Harvard president Lawrence Bacow tells the Times that resources are already stretched, the university says it has committed that 100% of these emergency higher education funds will be used to provide direct assistance to students facing urgent financial needs due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

(Mar 10, 2015 8:09 AM CDT) What may have been easier: to somewhat vaguely just state that Ryan Bossie died on Jan. 30. Maybe toss in the word suddenly or unexpectedly. But what the family of the man from Caribou, Maine, chose to do instead was much bolder, and more difficult. They opened his obit with this line: Ryan Douglas Bossie, 27, died January 30, 2015, in Portland after losing a hard-fought battle with addiction. Bossie's brother, Andrew, now talks to the Bangor Daily News about the decision to do so, explaining that the first pass at the obituary didn't name Bossie's struggle with drugs. I just said I don't think we should be ashamed of this, recounts Andrew. I hope that by including that maybe it helps someone else just a little bit, that their story has a different ending. And so the family agreed to take what the paper calls the rare step of mentioning the addiction; it's believed Bossie OD'd on heroin. His struggle with drugs included six prior overdoses. A GoFundMe page set up to cover Bossie's funeral expenses noted the investment the family made in trying to get help for Bossie, there described as someone who purposely confronted life, always trying to please the people he loved while balancing personal demons. Bossie died a day after a 26-year-old Ohio man whose obituary was even more explicit about his heroin overdose. All of the wonderful blessings that he had: talent, friendships, positive outlook on life, and, most importantly, family were sidelined by a wrong decision to do drugs, wrote Alex Hesse's family. They similarly expressed a hope that Hesse's story might help one person not make the same mistakes that Alex did, save one family from losing a loved one far too young. (For more unusual obituaries, read this, this, or this.)

(Mar 15, 2019 1:28 AM CDT) New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has confirmed that at least 40 people were killed and 20 injured in Friday's horrific mass shootings at two mosques in Christchurch. Three men and one woman were arrested after the shootings, which Ardern described as a terrorist attack, the New Zealand Herald reports. New Zealand Police Commissioner Mike Bush says improvised explosive devices on vehicles were found and defused after the shootings, the AP reports. He says Christchurch residents should stay off the streets until further notice, and mosques around the country should close their doors until they hear from police again. Bush says there were some absolute acts of bravery involved in the arrests of the attackers. A 17-minute video posted on social media appears to show part of one attack, with the gunman driving to the Al Noor mosque in central Christchurch, entering on foot, and firing for almost two minutes before returning to his vehicle for another gun, the New York Times reports. Authorities, who urged the public not to share the extremely distressing video, have identified the suspect as an Australian citizen who left a 74-page anti-immigration manifesto online.

(Apr 27, 2016 9:25 AM CDT) Venezuela just cut its workweek once again, and not because someone has been reading Timothy Ferriss. Earlier this month, President Nicolas Maduro gave Fridays off to the public sector to minimize power usage in the ongoing energy crisis. Now, VP Aristobulo Isturiz has announced those same workers--numbering about 2 million--should take Wednesdays and Thursdays off, too, effectively creating a two-day workweek, the BBC reports. There will be no work in the public sector on Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays, except for fundamental and necessary tasks, Isturiz proclaimed on national TV (though Forbes wonders why anyone in the bureaucracy [is] doing anything at all that is not a 'fundamental and necessary task' ). Maduro--who said Tuesday that the revised workweek would last at least two weeks, per Reuters--has blamed the energy problems on erratic weather caused by El Nino, including a drought. We are requesting international help, technical and financial aid to help revert the situation, he said, per the BBC. We are managing the situation in the best possible way while we wait for the rains to return. Opposition members, though, blame mismanagement and corruption, CNN notes, and the New York Times reports an electoral panel has started the process to allow Maduro to be removed from office. Maduro says that 'we in government don't stop working for a second.' Of course. Except for Wednesdays, Thursdays, Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays! an opposition newspaper columnist wrote. Venezuelans are enduring ever-increasing blackouts, spoiled food, problems getting running water, and uncomfortable temperatures. We can't go on living like this, a man tells CNN. We Venezuelan people deserve much better. And a shop owner started to cry when asked how difficult things have been, replying, This life is killing us.

(Mar 12, 2017 4:40 PM CDT) Faced with aggressive on-air questioning about the president's wiretapping claims, Sarah Huckabee Sanders didn't flinch, she went folksy. Speaking to George Stephanopoulos on Good Morning America, she pulled out a version of an old line from President Lyndon Johnson: If the president walked across the Potomac, the media would be reporting that he could not swim. The 34-year-old spokeswoman for President Donald Trump was schooled in hardscrabble politics--and down-home rhetoric--from a young age by her father, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee. Her way with a zinger and her unshakable loyalty to an often unpredictable boss are big reasons why the deputy press secretary is a rising star in Trump's orbit, reports the AP. Sanders credits her larger-than-life dad with helping her learn how to deliver a message. Huckabee, a frequent political commentator, has long been famed for his pithy rhetoric. The two speak most mornings before 6am. I'll call and say, 'What do you think if I say this?' He'll say, 'That's really good. You might try to say it a little bit more like X,' she said. Arkansas-raised, Sanders moved her young family--a Republican consultant husband and three young kids--to Washington to be part of the administration. As White House press secretary Sean Spicer's public profile has fluctuated in recent weeks amid criticism of his performance, Sanders has increasingly become a chief defender of Trump in some of his toughest moments. Her rise has fueled speculation that she's becoming the president's favored articulator--a notion she disputes. The AP has more on her background.

(Jan 8, 2014 12:05 AM) The fight to keep Asian carp from colonizing the Great Lakes could take longer than any war America has ever fought, the Army Corps of Engineers warns in a report commissioned by Congress. The report offered eight strategies to keep the invasive species from overwhelming the ecosystem and ruining a $7 billion fishing industry, the most effective of which could take up to 25 years and cost around $18 billion, the Christian Science Monitor reports. Physical separation of the Mississippi watershed from Lake Michigan was the most drastic option, but the Army engineers also looked at methods including new locks and electronic barriers to keep out the carp and other invasive species. The $18 billion plan may be a tough sell, but environmentalists fear that cheaper options won't be enough to keep the carp out. If you really want to prevent the movement of species and keep Lake Michigan clean, it's going to cost money, the president of the Alliance for the Great Lakes tells the Chicago Tribune. We can't just keep patching over these problems and hoping they go away.

(Jan 22, 2012 11:22 PM) The San Francisco 49ers watched their chance at the Super Bowl slip through their fingers yesterday when the New York Giants converted a fumble to a field goal in overtime. The Giants tapped a 20-17 victory and their fifth trip to the Super Bowl. Two key errors by back-up punt returner Kyle Williams cost the Niners the game. Williams, filling in for the injured Ted Ginn Jr., muffed one punt in the fourth quarter to set up a Giants touchdown and a 17-14 lead. Niners kicker David Akers ended up tying the score with a 25-yard field goal. But in overtime, the ball was knocked from Williams' hands to give the Giants the ball at the 24-yard line. Five plays later Lawrence Tynes booted in the winning 31-yard field goal for New York. Williams put his hands on his helmet and dropped his head in disgust, observed AP. The Giants will now face off against the New England Patriots for the Super Bowl title February 5.

(Jun 3, 2010 11:06 AM CDT) Rue McClanahan died today, making Betty White the last living Golden Girl. The 76-year-old passed away at 1am this morning after suffering a massive stroke, her manager tells People. The actress who had a minor stroke earlier this year after her bypass surgery, had her family with her, her manager adds. She went in peace.

(May 3, 2008 6:52 PM CDT) Firefighters nearly contained a New Mexico wildfire this week before it leaped containment lines and razed another 50 homes on Wednesday, the AP reports. Nine had already gone up in flames. Firefighters are working today to cut new lines around the blaze, which is 35% contained near Albuquerque. Officials say the 13,790-acre fire was man-made.

(Apr 6, 2011 6:13 PM CDT) Say it with me: Seriously? A 75-year-old woman single-handedly brought down the internet in Georgia and neighboring Armenia for several hours on March 28. The senior citizen was apparently digging for scrap metal when she came upon the fiber-optic cable and cut it to with a view to stealing it, Georgia's interior ministry spokesman told the AFP. She was arrested and could end up serving three years if convicted of damaging property, but taking into account her advancing years, she has been released pending the end of the investigation and subsequent trial, said the rep. The kicker: This has happened before. Many Georgians lost their Internet connection in 2009 when a scavenger damaged the cable during another scrap-metal search.

(Aug 24, 2011 1:52 PM CDT) As Congress debates the weighty economic issues of our times, you can rest easy knowing that almost 80% of them didn't major in business, economics, accounting, or any related field, according to a new study from the Employment Policies Institute. Just 8.4% of legislators studied economics, with another 13.7% studying business or accounting, the Hill reports. The majority (55.7%) majored in government, law, or humanities. This research suggests that our elected representatives may want to dust off their Econ 101 textbook (if they have one) before trying to tackle weighty questions about the impact of taxes, spending, and debt on our economy and the labor market, the EPI wrote in its press release. The research doesn't take into account whether lawmakers have any private sector experience, and researchers admit that it's possible to educate yourself about the issues. But a formal education they argue, would certainly help.

(Jan 17, 2012 1:17 AM) A 36-year-old California man who boasts he's an organic sperm donor and has fathered 14 children through his free donations, has never had sex, he has revealed. Silicon Valley computer security specialist Trent Arsenault tells Anderson Cooper today that he's a donorsexual who has committed 100% of my sexual energy for producing sperm for childless couples to have babies. So I don't have other activity outside of that. An incredulous Cooper asks: So you do not have sex? Arsenault responds: I will probably be the 40-year-old virgin--except I'll have 15-plus kids. Arsenault's free sperm bank, operated out of his home, has been ordered to shut down by the US Food and Drug Administration for possible health violations. The FDA alleges that Arsenault hasn't taken the legally required precautions to prevent the spread of communicable diseases, reports the Mercury News. Arsenault claims the FDA is opposed to his one-man shop because the sperm is fresh instead of frozen, and hasn't been quarantined. I'm helping people in need, he told the Huffington Post. I'm not running a business here. To make everything a tad weirder, Arsenault touts the importance of abstinence during sperm production on his website. To top that, Gawker has dubbed Arsenault an amateur porn star for the explicit videos he has posted of him donating sperm (yep, into a cup) on the web. The program airs today.

(Sep 14, 2008 10:11 PM CDT) Carlos Zambrano pitched the first no-hitter for the Chicago Cubs in 36 years, returning from a recent bout of rotator cuff soreness to shut down the Houston Astros 5-0 tonight in a game relocated because of Hurricane Ike. The storm forced two games of the series to be moved from Texas to Miller Park, home of the Milwaukee Brewers. Zambrano, known for his emotional displays on the mound, kept himself in control until striking out Darin Erstad to finish his gem. The big right-hander dropped to his knees and pointed to the sky with both hands after getting Erstad to swing and miss. Zambrano (14-5) was immediately mobbed on the mound by his teammates. The crowd of mostly Cubs fans erupted in a wild ovation after chanting Let's go Z! throughout the final inning.

(Jun 3, 2011 10:15 AM CDT) Good news in the fight against AIDS: The annual rate of new HIV infections dropped by almost a quarter between 2001 and 2009, AIDS-related deaths have fallen, and the world has seen unprecedented advances in prevention and treatment accessibility, the UN AIDS agency says. Still, the unevenly-spread advancements are highly fragile, and global targets haven't been reached. At the end of last year, more than 34 million were living with HIV; some 2.6 million were infected in 2009, the AP reports. And while, at the end of 2010, some 6.6 million sufferers in low- and middle-income countries were getting antiretroviral treatment, another 9 million who qualified for the treatment weren't receiving it. In the report, Bill Clinton wrote that more than 7,000 people, including 1,000 children, are newly infected with the virus every day and someone dies an AIDS-related death every 20 seconds. People in rich countries don't die from AIDS any more, but those in poor countries still do--and that's just not acceptable. Click through for more on the UN AIDS report, which notes that an estimated 20% of the 15.9 million people who inject drugs worldwide are living with HIV.

(Jun 3, 2011 1:26 PM CDT) Janelle Harris's daughter is 12 years old, as tall as her mom, and old enough to borrow her clothes, shoes, and make-up. But she'll never be too big and bad to get smacked, Harris writes on The Stir. I have to remind Miss Preteen Thang every so often: You could wind up being in the friggin' Guinness Book of World Records for rapidest growth spurt or tallest tween-ager. Doesn't matter to me. If you get out of line, I will mount a chair, climb a step stool, or scale a ladder just to knock some sense into you. Sure, Harris has tried other forms of discipline, but sometimes restricting friends, Internet, and TV just isn't as effective as corporal punishment, she writes. When her daughter has clearly lost her doggone mind, she needs a swift pop to bring her back to her senses. Of course, there's always a discussion that goes along with the wrong side of my open palm, Harris writes; her daughter is never the recipient of excessive, haphazard slaps. As far as Harris is concerned, she'll only stop spanking her daughter when the punishment stops being effective. Click to read Harris's full piece, which includes the tale of a spanking she received in high school.

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

(Aug 9, 2015 2:30 PM CDT) From the football field to the broadcast booth, Frank Gifford was a star--and a winner. An NFL championship in 1956 with the New York Giants. An Emmy award in 1976-77 as television's outstanding sports personality. Induction in the Pro Football Hall of Fame in '77. Gifford, as well known for serving as a buffer for fellow announcers Don Meredith and Howard Cosell on Monday Night Football as for his versatility as a player, died today. He was 84. Frank Gifford was an icon of the game, both as a Hall of Fame player for the Giants and Hall of Fame broadcaster for CBS and ABC, says NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell. Frank's talent and charisma on the field and on the air were important elements in the growth and popularity of the modern NFL. In a statement released by NBC News, his family says Gifford died suddenly at his Connecticut home of natural causes this morning. His wife, Kathie Lee Gifford, is a host for NBC's Today. We rejoice in the extraordinary life he was privileged to live, and we feel grateful and blessed to have been loved by such an amazing human being, his family says in the statement. We ask that our privacy be respected at this difficult time and we thank you for your prayers. A running back, defensive back, wide receiver, and special teams player in his career, Gifford was the NFL's MVP in 1956. He went to the Pro Bowl at three positions and was the centerpiece of a Giants offense that went to five NFL title games in the 1950s and '60s. Click for more on the life of Frank Gifford.

(Apr 2, 2019 1:37 PM CDT) Bernie Sanders is the third Democratic candidate to release first-quarter fundraising figures, and he easily jumps to No. 1. Sanders says he pulled in $18.2 million in the first three months of the year, with 88% coming from donations of $200 or less, reports the New York Times. Earlier, Kamala Harris announced she raised $12 million and Pete Buttigieg $7 million. A big remaining question: How much will Beto O'Rourke get? Like Sanders, he had raised about $6 million on his campaign's first day. Politico notes that Sanders surpassed his fundraising from the first quarter of his 2016 campaign, when he pulled in $15 million. (Sanders' campaign workers have notched a historic first.

(Jan 19, 2016 3:15 PM) US stocks struggled to close with meager gains, narrowly avoiding another down day. The Dow Jones industrial average edged up 27 points, or 0.2%, to 16,016 Tuesday. The Standard & Poor's 500 index eked out a gain of a point, less than 0.1%, to 1,881. The Nasdaq composite gave up 11 points, or 0.3%, to 4,476. Safe-play stocks like utilities and telecommunications companies were the biggest gainers on Tuesday as the market comes off its worst opening to a year in history. Energy stocks fared poorly as the price of oil took another tumble. US crude sank $1 to a little under $29 a barrel, its lowest price since 2003. Tiffany sank 5% after the company reported weak holiday sales for jewelry.

(Nov 20, 2017 1:55 PM) Della Reese, the actress and gospel-influenced singer who in middle age found her greatest fame as Tess, the wise angel in the long-running television drama Touched by an Angel, has died at age 86, the AP reports. Reese's co-star on the series, Roma Downey, said in a statement that the actress died peacefully Sunday evening in her home in the Los Angeles area. No further details were included. Before Touched by an Angel debuted in 1994, Reese was mainly known as a singer, although she had costarred on Chico and the Man, Charlie and Company, and The Royal Family and hosted her own talk show, Della. Reese is survived by her husband, Franklin Lett, and three children.

(Dec 30, 2020 10:45 AM) It's hard to see the light from the dark. But Anthony Hopkins is urging people affected by the coronavirus pandemic to hang in there. It's been a difficult year full of grief and sadness, but there's a light at the end of the tunnel, the Oscar-winning actor said in a video shared on Twitter on Tuesday--a day that marked more than four decades of sobriety for Hopkins. Forty-five years ago today, I had a wake-up call. I was heading for disaster, drinking myself to death. I'm not preachy, but I got a message, the actor said of that day in 1975, per USA Today. A little thought that said, 'Do you want to live or die?' And I said, 'I want to live.' And suddenly the relief came and my life has been amazing. Hopkins said he has off days and sometimes little bits of doubt. But all in all, I say hang in there, he continued in the minute-long video, viewed more than 7.6 million times as of this writing. Today is the tomorrow you were so worried about yesterday, he added, using a quote the Los Angeles Times attributes to Dale Carnegie. Young people, don't give up. Just keep in there. Just keep fighting. He then offered up advice the Times says comes from Goethe. Be bold and mighty forces will come to your aid, said Hopkins, who turns 83 on Thursday. That's sustained me through my life. Happy New Year! the actor cheerily concluded. This is going to be the best year. (Brad Pitt previously opened up to Hopkins about his own sobriety.)

(Nov 26, 2008 5:23 PM) Churches led the charge against Proposition 8 and gay marriage because of their insecurities over the breakdown of heterosexual families and the consequent rise of independent women, says gay author and devout Catholic Richard Rodriguez. Gays are scapegoats because they--like feminists--threaten an alternative to the traditional male-structured society. Churches want to reassert some sort of male authority over the order of things, says Rodriguez. But their actions smack of hypocrisy. The real challenge to the family right now is male irresponsibility and misbehavior toward women, he says. If the Hispanic Catholic and evangelical churches really wanted to protect the family, they should address the issue of wife-beating in Hispanic families and the misbehaviors of the father against the mother. But no, they go after gay marriage.

(May 16, 2018 3:18 PM CDT) Stocks are closing higher on Wall Street as technology and health care companies post solid gains, the AP reports. Retailers also did well Wednesday, led by a 10.8% surge in Macy's after the company reported a surprisingly strong quarter. Target added 2.9%. Small-company stocks fared even better than the rest of the market. Safe-play stocks like utilities and real estate companies lagged. Abaxis soared 16.2% after the veterinary diagnostic products company agreed to be acquired by Zoetis. The S&P 500 index rose 11 points, or 0.4%, to 2,722. The Dow Jones industrial average climbed 62 points, or 0.3%, to 24,768. The Nasdaq composite increased 46 points, or 0.6%, to 7,398.

(Apr 14, 2008 9:15 AM CDT) A copy of an FBI-classified Marilyn Monroe sex tape quietly surfaced last month and sold for $1.5 million, reports the New York Post. The 15 minutes of silent footage, which the anonymous New York buyer plans to keep private so as not to make a Paris Hilton out of her, features Monroe performing oral sex on a mystery man in the 1950s. The sale was brokered by a memorabilia agent who learned of the film's existence from an FBI source. The same source told him J. Edgar Hoover had had agents confiscate the original and try to link it to John F. Kennedy or his brother Bobby. The copy was made by the informant who tipped the FBI to the film. Partially redacted FBI documents said the informant was once offered $25,000 for the French-type film by Marilyn hubby Joe DiMaggio but refused the offer.

(Oct 6, 2009 12:33 PM CDT) The Jackson 5 may well be back on the charts this November with the release of I Want You Back! Unreleased Masters, a collection of never-before-heard material and alternate versions of beloved tunes. One of the new songs, That's How Love Is, can be heard on the group's website, jackson5.com. And there's more to come for those grieving brother Michael. We are going to miss him, a collaborator tells USA Today, but hopefully, we can fill in the blanks.

(Feb 4, 2009 6:47 AM) A strong yen and softening consumer demand is prompting Panasonic to cut 15,000 jobs, close 27 plants, and restructure as it struggles to withstand burgeoning losses, reports the Wall Street Journal. The electronics company last quarter posted a $707.2 million net loss, and experts expect the downward trend to steepen. Panasonic joins a slate of Japanese electronics companies stung by the strong yen.

(Oct 1, 2008 10:17 AM CDT) Congress should stop fighting over the Paulson bailout, writes BusinessWeek economist Michael Mandel, and approve an expansion of FDIC deposit insurance to $1 million. It should also triple deposit insurance reserves to $145 billion. It would solve the immediate problem, calming the hysteria in the market, and attract funds to banks, he argues, and give Congress time to decide whether banks, and the housing market, still need federal support. It's an augmentation of an existing program likely to be greeted with open arms by both parties--and even by Wall Street, which once fought it as unfair to investment banks, Mandel says. Now, those investment banks are all but extinct. The expansion would calm Americans' nerves and avert a run on commercial banks.

(Aug 16, 2014 9:36 AM CDT) The Yazidis who managed to escape to the mountains seem to be protected from Islamic State militants, but those who stayed in their villages clearly are not. Reports from the village of Kocho in northern Iraq say that extremists executed about 80 Yazidi men yesterday and took away about 300 women and children. They arrived in vehicles and they started their killing, a Kurdish official tells Reuters. We believe it's because of their creed: convert or be killed. A resident of a nearby village said the militants had spent the better part of a week trying unsuccessfully to convince the Yazidis in Kocho to convert to their brand of Islam. The villagers had received local assurances that they were safe, Hoshyar Zebari, Iraq's former foreign minister, tells the Washington Post. Maybe they killed them in revenge for the setbacks they have suffered from the airstrikes. The accounts have not been confirmed, though NPR notes that Iraqi officials reported an even larger massacre last week. Elsewhere, the AP reports airstrikes near the giant Mosul Dam in an apparent attempt to wrest control of it back from the militants. It wasn't clear whether US or Iraqi planes were involved.

(May 19, 2017 8:04 AM CDT) More bad headlines for Steve Harvey. On the heels of him having to explain a memo in which he ordered staffers of his talk show to never approach him comes a whopping lawsuit from an ex-wife. TMZ reports that Mary Harvey filed papers this week seeking $60 million, saying she's been a physical and emotional wreck since their 2005 divorce. The suit uses a volatile phrase to describe the situation: soul murder. E! Online says the court papers even provide a definition: Soul murder is achieved by a combination of torture, deprivation, and brainwashing. But that's not all she's suing over: The suit also lists child endangerment, torture, conspiracy against rights, breach of contract, and intentional infliction of emotional distress. Harvey's camp has not responded publicly.

(Jan 2, 2017 4:53 AM) One of the most violent years in Chicago history ended with a sobering tally: 762 homicides, the most in two decades in the city and more than New York and Los Angeles combined. The nation's third largest city also saw 1,100 more shooting incidents last year than it did in 2015, according to data released Sunday by the Chicago Police Department. The statistics underline a story of bloodshed that has put Chicago at the center of a national dialogue about gun violence. The numbers are staggering, even for those who followed the steady news accounts of weekends ending with dozens of shootings, the AP reports. The increase in homicides compared to 2015, when 485 were reported, is the largest spike in 60 years. Police and city officials have lamented the flood of illegal guns into the city, and the crime statistics appeared to support their claims: Police recovered 8,300 illegal guns in 2016, a 20% increase from the previous year. Chicago Police Superintendent Eddie Johnson said during a news conference Sunday that anger at police, including in the wake of video released that showed a white Chicago officer shooting a black teenager 16 times, has left criminals emboldened to violent crimes. He also said it's becoming clearer to criminals that they have little to fear from the criminal justice system. In Chicago, we just don't have a deterrent to pick up a gun, he said. Any time a guy stealing a loaf of bread spends more time pre-trial in jail than a gun offender, something is wrong.

(Dec 6, 2014 2:49 PM) The fast-paced world of social media wasn't quite so speedy at the Mitt Romney presidential campaign. Sure, tweets may only be 140 characters at most, but they required the approval of 22 different people towards the end of the campaign, a digital media campaign staffer says in a new study. Whether it was a tweet, Facebook post, blog post, photo--anything you could imagine--it had to be sent around to everyone, Caitlin Checkett told journalism professor Daniel Kreiss, as Politico reports. The campaign's digital director calls them the best tweets ever written by 17 people, Vox reports. At the Obama campaign, things were a little different. Digital head Teddy Goff's four-person team had significantly more autonomy to decide what should be posted, the study says. That made it easier to respond right away to events like Clint Eastwood's Republican convention speech. The team aimed to make sure that no matter what was going on--frankly, whether or not the president did his job--there would be very loud voices talking about how we were doing well, Goff says.

(Sep 18, 2008 11:58 AM CDT) In his first interview since beating child pornography charges in June, R&B star R. Kelly said, I don't like anyone illegal. But when asked if he liked teenage girls, the AP reports Kelly, 40, told BET: When you say teenage ... how old are we talkin' ... 19? I have some 19-year-old friends. The R&B singer says that in his next album, due out this fall, he's toning down the sexual charge that made him famous: Take a little bit of the edge off, you know? And you know, clean up a few lyrics if I can.

(Mar 1, 2017 1:16 PM) In 2010, Hillary Clinton was among those to apologize on behalf of the US for horrific medical experiments that government researchers performed on Guatemalans in the 1940s. More than 1,000 were infected with STDs without their consent and at least 83 died as researchers sought to prevent illness in those who'd been exposed to disease before the time of penicillin. Seven decades later, the consequences of those experiments are still being felt, Slate reports in a lengthy feature. It describes not only the experiences of participants--who had gonorrhea and syphilis bacteria inserted into their urethras, spinal cords, and eyes--but the effects suffered by their children and grandchildren as the infections have silently passed through the generations. The methods used were even more egregious than what happened in Tuskegee, writes Sushma Subramanian, and only 678 of 1,308 people exposed to an STD in the experiments are known to have received treatment. A class-action lawsuit filed against the US government on behalf of victims and their families was dismissed in 2011 because of a rule blocking the US from being sued by a foreign government. A second lawsuit targeting private entities involved in the research is ongoing, but it's complicated by the fact that some plaintiffs can't prove they contracted an STD from the experiments and not a sexual partner. Click for the full piece, which describes one other path to compensation for victims--one that may depend on Donald Trump.

(Oct 18, 2016 10:27 AM CDT) One of the makers of This Is Spinal Tap is suing entertainment group Vivendi, claiming the company is hiding millions from those who made the film possible. Harry Shearer--perhaps better known as the guy who voices dozens of Simpsons characters--co-created the 1984 film along with Rob Reiner, Michael McKean, and Christopher Guest and also co-wrote its soundtrack and starred as bassist Derek Smalls, reports Variety. He claims the four creators were promised 40% of net receipts from all sources of revenue, but he accuses Vivendi--which acquired the rights to the film in 1989--of a concerted and fraudulent campaign to hide, or grossly underreport, the film's revenues in order to avoid its profit participation obligations, per the Guardian. In particular, Shearer, who is seeking $125 million, says Vivendi claimed just $98 from soundtrack sales between 1989 and 2006, and $81 from global merchandising income from 1984 to 2006. Vivendi has failed and refused, and continues to fail and refuse, to provide [Shearer] with proper and accurate accountings reflecting the amount of revenues, reads the complaint filed at the Central District Court of California on Monday. The only people who haven't shared Spinal Tap's success are those who formed the band and created the film in the first place, adds Shearer, noting his suit is on behalf of all creators of popular films whose talent has not been fairly remunerated. Vivendi declined to comment, per the BBC.

(Apr 28, 2010 11:08 AM CDT) Republicans are convinced that the road to a takeover of the House is lined with white picket fences. Suburbia is the key to the 2010 elections, strategists from both parties tell the Wall Street Journal. An influx of minorities and the college educated--both groups that lean left--has shaded many suburban areas blue in the past few elections, but Republicans think that unease over health care and the national debt could turn the tide. Virginia's 11th, for example, used to be reliably Republican, but in the past election, Barack Obama took it by 21 points. Now, it's seen as a bellwether. If Republicans can win back this seat, we will win back the House, said the district's former Republican rep. Both parties agree it's essential to win over the lawn-mowing crowd; half the country now lives in suburbs, up from a third in 1980.

(Apr 14, 2016 9:00 AM CDT) Ted Cruz showed up Wednesday for a CNN town hall--or what Gawker frames as another glimpse into the waking hell that is Heidi Cruz's daily life --with his wife and two young daughters in tow, and Heidi offered up a personal, if bizarre, nugget of life with the GOP presidential candidate. She dished on what her husband did right after they got back from their honeymoon: bought 100 cans of Campbell's Chunky soup. I never bought 100 of anything, she told moderator Anderson Cooper. This was shocking to me, so we had a tough conversation about it. I said, You don't buy 100 of anything, much less canned soup. We can't do this. Heidi said that while Ted was sleeping, she brought all 100 cans back to the store, but after a panicked phone call to her mother just to make sure I'd done the right thing as a newlywed, she realized the soup should stay. As the New York Daily News notes, that wasn't the only odd revelation about Cruz that emerged during the town hall. The man who once fought against masturbation also relayed how he'd once watched porn with Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor. And in what may be one of the more scandalous tidbits to arise in Election 2016, Cruz's daughter, Caroline, who just turned 8, revealed she's got tape of her dad dolled up in granny panties and a pink feather boa at a father-daughter picnic. (Ted also has a Plants vs. Zombies obsession.)

(May 22, 2013 12:12 PM CDT) A valuable lesson in how not to react when a cop pulls you over: A Colorado man who was pulled over for driving without his headlights just after 2am today exited his car and opened fire at a police officer with an AR-15-style rifle. The cop survived uninjured, but the unnamed 28-year-old suspect was not so lucky: The officer returned fire, shooting him at least three times, the Coloradoan reports. The suspect had to be airlifted to the hospital, and is now in critical condition. (It's been a rough week for Colorado police; another officer got kicked outside a bar on Monday.

(Jun 13, 2011 3:02 AM CDT) The National Archives has at long last published the entire 7,000-page Vietnam report known as the Pentagon Papers. The documents are among the most important in modern presidential history, leading the Nixon administration to crack down on leaks that led to phone taps, break-ins, and arguably even Watergate, the AP reports. Even the 11 words that Archives officials originally said would be omitted are included in today's release. The Pentagon Papers were a classified report on US involvement in Vietnam commissioned in 1967. They were originally leaked to the New York Times by Daniel Ellsberg, leading to a Supreme Court showdown with the Nixon administration over the First Amendment. The fact that the Pentagon Papers were still secret is an embarrassment to the United States government, one researcher tells the Washington Post. You've been able to read them for 40 years, but they're still secret.

(Jan 1, 2009 5:17 PM) Claiborne Pell, the quirky blueblood who represented blue-collar Rhode Island in the Senate for 36 years and was the force behind a grant program that has helped tens of millions of Americans attend college, died today of Parkinson's disease. He was 90. Pell sponsored legislation creating the Basic Educational Opportunity Grants, which passed in 1972 and provided direct aid to college students. The awards were renamed Pell Grants in 1980. By the time Pell retired, the grants had aided more than 54 million low- and middle-income Americans. Any student who has ever received federal aid has Senator Pell to thank for his or her education, said Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. Pell was first elected to the Senate in 1960. Though he spoke with an aristocratic tone, he was an unabashed liberal who spent his political career championing causes to help the less fortunate.

(Jun 30, 2017 3:12 PM CDT) US stocks faded at the finish but are ending the second quarter with gains as retailers and industrial companies rise, the AP reports. Athletic apparel maker Nike had its best day in almost two years Friday. Its shares jumped 11% after a strong quarterly report. Nike also said it's testing a program to sell sneakers directly through Amazon.com. Among industrial companies, construction equipment maker Caterpillar climbed 1.7%. Stocks took a downturn in the final minutes of trading as health care and technology companies and banks finished with modest losses. The Standard & Poor's 500 index rose 3 points, or 0.2%, to 2,423. The Dow Jones industrial average picked up 62 points, or 0.3%, to 21,349. The Nasdaq composite lost 3 points, or 0.1%, to 6,140.

(Aug 27, 2009 4:08 AM CDT) Hooded men killed 12 indigenous victims this morning in a Colombian region notorious for coca plantations and armed rebel activity, BBC reports. At least four children were among family members killed in a dawn raid on an Awa tribal reservation, where both Marxist and right-wing rebels are active. The gunmen demanded to see a woman who purportedly owed them money, then started shooting at anything that moved, reported a witness.

(Jan 28, 2009 9:29 PM) ABC is exploring the idea of moving Jimmy Kimmel's show to 11:35 later this year, in place of Nightline, so he can compete directly with Conan O'Brien, the New York Times reports. ABC denies it, and the speculation all comes from anonymous sources. But those sources say that ABC is trying to figure out how to better compete with NBC once the Leno-O'Brien time-slot changes kick in. Kimmel now starts at 12:05. All of which begs the question: What happens to Nightline, which has been in the 11:35 slot for nearly 30 years. The news department is anxious to protect its show, the Times notes, which has seen resurgent ratings of late. But the rise of network entertainment divisions and the corresponding descent of news departments' clout could make that difficult.

(Jan 21, 2009 11:21 AM) Presumably, this will be a little more revealing than Crossroads: Britney Spears has signed a nearly $14 million deal to write an autobiography, the Daily Mirror reports. The 27-year-old star may drop some bombshells unofficial biographers never uncovered, a source says: Some of the stories she's got are absolute dynamite. She's kept diaries so there's nothing she'll leave out unless she wants to.

(Dec 23, 2018 7:37 AM) Simcha Rotem, a Holocaust survivor who was among the last Jewish fighters from the 1943 Warsaw ghetto uprising, has died. He was 94. Rotem, who went by Kazik, took part in the single greatest act of Jewish resistance during the Holocaust, reports the AP. Though guaranteed to fail, the Warsaw ghetto uprising symbolized a refusal to succumb to Nazi atrocities and inspired other resistance campaigns by Jews and non-Jews alike. Rotem, who passed away Saturday after a long illness, helped save the last survivors by smuggling them out of the burning ghetto through sewage tunnels. The Jewish fighters fought for nearly a month, managing to kill 16 Nazis and wound nearly 100. Kazik was a real fighter, said Avner Shalev, chair of the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial. The challenge for all of us now is to continue giving meaning to remembrance without exemplary figures like Kazik.

(Mar 15, 2010 9:40 PM CDT) A man responsible for at least 12 rapes over the past 13 years, in four states from Virginia to Rhode Island, continues to elude authorities, who now think the suspect--described as a black man in his early to mid-30s, and a smoker--is back in the Washington suburbs, where his spree began in 1997. The bastard's right there, one Virginia cop tells the Post of the so-called East Coast Rapist. We just need that one phone call. Somebody knows this guy. The man's most recent attack--one of as many as 17 police believe are linked--came on Halloween in Dale City, Va., and followed his usual modus operandi: He did it when the women were most vulnerable, after much observation of them and their neighborhood. He is a very bold, fearless predator, says another officer. The concern is that he's out there, he's not going to stop until he's caught and the violence could get worse.

(Sep 30, 2009 1:42 AM CDT) A giant diamond experts believe ranks among the top 20 gems ever found has been unearthed at a South African mine. The egg-sized, 500-carat sparkler was found at the same mine where the biggest diamond in history, the Cullinan, was found in the 19th century. The diamond is being analyzed and is expected to be worth over $20 million when it's cut and polished.

(Feb 14, 2020 8:20 AM) The equivalent of France's Academy Awards will be held later this month, and one film in particular has racked up a dozen nominations--and the controversy surrounding that fact has now led to a big move from the board that oversees the honors. The BBC reports that all 21 members on the board of the Association for the Promotion of Cinema, which oversees the Cesar Academy that hands out the awards, have unanimously decided to resign, per a board statement, to find calm and ensure that the festival of film remains just that, a festival. What had threatened to disrupt that calm: the 12 nominations that director Roman Polanski had received for J'Accuse (An Officer and a Spy). Polanski fled the United States in early 1978 after being convicted of raping a 13-year-old girl. The 86-year-old, who has both French and Polish citizenship, has been living in France, which doesn't extradite its own citizens. Per Variety, the Cesar Academy has been under the microscope of late, with hubbub not only directed at the Polanski film but at the organization's lack of diversity and gender parity. While Al Jazeera reports on the pushback the Polanski film and its nominations have been receiving from feminist groups, the Cesar Academy has noted that it shouldn't be taking moral positions on films or filmmakers when considering the merits of a particular movie. After the awards ceremony on Feb. 28, a general meeting will be scheduled so that a new board can be elected.

(Jun 3, 2013 9:15 AM CDT) Frank Lautenberg, the New Jersey Democrat who was the oldest sitting member of the United States Senate, died this morning of viral pneumonia at the age of 89, reports the Record. Lautenberg, who had been diagnosed with stomach cancer in 2010, had been in ill health since late last year and said in February he would not run for re-election in 2014. Gov. Chris Christie will appoint his temporary replacement and schedule a special election; Cory Booker has not been shy about his intention to run for the seat. A few notable facts, by way of the Record, AP, and Washington Post: Lautenberg was New Jersey's longest-serving senator ever, the chamber's last World War II vet, and the author of the bill that banned smoking on domestic airline flights.

(Jan 23, 2010 2:26 PM) It's no coincidence that David Plouffe has an essay in tomorrow's Washington Post advising Democrats about the 2010 elections. President Obama has summoned Plouffe and other key members of the team that won him the 2008 election to guide the party in the upcoming elections. In addition to Plouffe, who will work out of the Democratic National Committee, Obama has asked other top operatives from the campaign to fan out around the country to oversee key races, reports the New York Times. We are turning the corner to a much more political season, said David Axelrod. We are going to evaluate what we need to do to get timely intelligence and early warnings so we don't face situations like we did in Massachusetts. Obama called Plouffe, his former campaign manager, in the hours before the polls closed in Massachusetts to ask him to assume the new role, notes the Times.

(Mar 10, 2016 7:24 PM) California lawmakers voted Thursday to raise the legal age for purchasing and using tobacco and e-cigarettes from 18 to 21, putting the nation's most populous state on the brink of becoming only the second after Hawaii to bar teenagers from lighting up, dipping, or vaping, the AP reports. Before it can become law, Gov. Jerry Brown must sign the legislation. We can prevent countless California youth from becoming addicted to this deadly drug, save billions of dollars in direct health care costs, and, most importantly, save lives, said Democratic Sen. Ed Hernandez, who wrote the bill. Dozens of cities, including New York and San Francisco, have passed similar laws of their own. The higher age limit, part of a package of anti-tobacco bills, won approval despite intense lobbying from tobacco interests and fierce opposition from many Republicans, who said the state should butt out of people's personal health decisions, even if they are harmful. Advocates noted that the vast majority of smokers start before they are 18, according to data from the US surgeon general. Making it illegal for 18-year-old high school students to buy tobacco for their underage friends will make it more difficult for teens to get the products, they said. Opponents said American law and custom has long accepted that people can make adult decisions on their 18th birthday and live with the consequences, including joining the military. In response, Democrats changed the bill to allow members of the military to continue buying cigarettes at 18.

(Oct 2, 2010 6:38 AM CDT) After just two episodes, Fox's Lone Star has been canceled--but that's nowhere near surprising, writes Jace Lacob on the Daily Beast. The broadcast network business has become increasingly cutthroat, and Lone Star was severely ratings-challenged (although people seemed to like it). Unlike cable, there is no significant opportunity to find an audience if a show doesn't click with the public in the first week, he writes, and lists 10 other shows from the past 15 years that have been put out of their misery after one or two episodes. View clips in the gallery, or for the complete list, click here.

(Oct 5, 2016 5:03 PM CDT) High up in a corner of a 300-year-old house in Scotland, unnoticed, hung a painting by a Renaissance master worth more than $25 million. It's getting a lot more attention now. The Guardian reports the painting by Raphael, famous Italian artist and ninja turtle namesake, was discovered by art historian Dr. Bendor Grosvenor at Scotland's Haddo House. He was there to look at other works, but the painting of the Madonna drew his eye despite being obscured by discolored varnish. I thought, crikey, it looks like a Raphael, Grosvenor says. The 500-year-old painting was purchased in the early 19th century as a legit Raphael, but it was later credited to Innocenzo da Imola, according to the BBC. Restoration and further examination of the painting showed it almost certainly is the work of Raphael. Grosvenor tells the Guardian it's simply too good to be by Innocenzo. The painting still needs to be verified by Raphael scholars, Smithsonian reports. But if it's confirmed, it would be Scotland's only publicly owned work by the great artist. Finding a possible Raphael is about as exciting as it gets, Grosvenor tells the BBC. The painting has since been moved to a more prominent dining room location in Haddo House, which is owned by the National Trust for Scotland and open for tours. There are not many places where you can experience the work of one of the Renaissance's giants in a dining room, Smithsonian quotes a press release from the National Trust. (A rare work by Renaissance master was found in Kansas City.)

(May 14, 2008 2:55 AM CDT) MySpace has been awarded $234 million from spammers in what's believed to be the largest such judgment ever, AP reports. A federal court ordered two notorious spammers to pay damages for sending hundreds of thousands of messages to MySpace members. The social networking site hailed the award as a landmark. MySpace has zero tolerance for those who attempt to act illegally on our site, said the company's chief security officer. It's our job to send a message to stop them.

(Apr 13, 2017 11:52 AM CDT) Nearly 50 years after a 3-year-old girl was abducted from a changing room on an Australian beach--her body never found--police made an arrest in her murder. Now, police are asking for a family that witnessed Cheryl Grimmer's abduction to come forward. Peter William Aubrey Goodyear, who was 37 at the time, made statements to police on the day the toddler disappeared in 1970, along with wife Mavis and their two daughters, 6-year-old Karen and 5-year-old Jannette. Police are trying to track them down again now, and are asking for the public's help, the Guardian reports. According to the Illawarra Mercury, Goodyear told reporters at the time, I saw a little, dark man carrying a limp, blond-haired girl to the car. My daughter said to me, 'Daddy, why is that man carrying that little girl?' Per Australia's ABC, a detective says that at the time, Goodyear was standing outside the girls' changing room from which Cheryl disappeared. His wife and daughters were having a shower, [and] he was waiting outside the changing pavilion. The family is since believed to have moved to the UK. (Police are still getting tips in one of Australia's most high-profile child abduction cases, which rocked the country in 1966.)

(Jul 29, 2016 4:13 PM CDT) For the love of GPS, somebody stop Australia from moving. The Australian Broadcasting Corporation reports the country is located smack dab on top of the fastest moving tectonic plate in the world. That means Australia is approximately 5 feet north of where it was in 1994--the last time the Geocentric Datum of Australia was updated--and where current mapping shows it, according to CNET. If you want to start using driverless cars, accurate map information is fundamental, Dan Jaksa at Geoscience Australia tells the BBC. We have tractors in Australia starting to go around farms without a driver, and if the information about the farm doesn't line up with the coordinates coming out of the navigation system there will be problems. To fix it, Geoscience Australia is updating the country's latitude and longitude to better reflect its actual location. Those new coordinates will be released in 2017 but will be based on projections for 2020. By the time 2020 rolls around and the coordinates are accurate, Australia hopes to have switched to a new system that takes the continent's drifting--about 2.75 inches per year--into account. (Click for the story of how the US shrank one square mile.)

(Oct 9, 2008 10:32 PM CDT) Pat Burrell, Chase Utley, and the Philadelphia Phillies had more than enough power to offset Manny Ramirez in the NL championship series opener tonight. Utley and Burrell homered off Derek Lowe in the sixth inning to back a strong performance by Cole Hamels as the Phillies beat the Dodgers 3-2. Ramirez put LA ahead with a long RBI double in the first, just missing a two-run homer. But the Phillies' big bats answered in the sixth. Burrell hit a go-ahead solo homer after Utley's two-run shot tied it in the sixth.

(Mar 27, 2009 5:59 AM CDT) President Obama's spending plans have passed a major hurdle in the Senate, the Wall Street Journal reports. The Senate Budget Committee passed a plan largely similar to Obama's $3.6 trillion request in a 13-10 vote split along party lines. The House committee passed its version Wednesday, clearing the way for debate in both houses of Congress next week. The Senate plan trimmed the president's spending request slightly, but left his agenda on energy, education, and deficit reduction mostly intact. The plan leaves room for an overhaul of health care, but defers a decision on how to fund it until later this year. Republican efforts to freeze spending on public services to curb the deficit--$1.2 trillion in 2010 under the Senate plan--were rejected.

(Feb 26, 2010 2:16 PM) New York doesn't want the trial of accused 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheik Mohammed to take place in lower Manhattan, so bring the proceedings to the nation's capital, writes Thomas Penfield Jackson. After all, KSM's crimes were committed against the entire nation, so a trial in Washington is only fitting, contends Jackson, a retired federal judge who presided in DC. Jackson worries that New York's demurral may result in an inappropriate military trial for KSM. His crimes were civil, he writes in the Washington Post. His weapons were four stolen commercial aircraft, and he was not captured on a battlefield. Terrorists should be convicted as the common criminals they are. There is no more appropriate forum than the DC federal district court.

(Oct 23, 2012 5:43 PM CDT) The good news for long-shot Senate candidate Mark Clayton is that the Washington Post deems his run worthy of a lengthy feature story. The bad news is that the piece by David A. Fahrenthold concludes that Clayton--a Democrat challenging GOP incumbent Bob Corker in Tennessee--is probably America's worst candidate and the living personification of rock bottom for state Democrats. Why? Start with the campaign war chest of $278, the grand total of one campaign sign, and the lack of a campaign headquarters or, in fact, actual campaign events. All of that might be kind of charming if not for Clayton's links to an anti-gay hate group and his tendency to spew weird conspiracy theories. His party has disavowed him, and the Post explains that he won the primary mainly because the ballot was in alphabetical order. Click for the full story on Democrats' plunging fortunes in the state.

(May 19, 2008 4:20 AM CDT) At least 12 foreigners were shot, stabbed, beaten or burned to death over the weekend in anti-immigrant protests in and around Johannesburg. Thousands of terrified immigrants, many of them Zimbabweans fleeing problems in their own country, are now seeking refuge in churches or police stations, reports the New York Times. Immigrants have become the scapegoat for problems in the nation, rocked by a 23% unemployment rate, soaring food prices and one of the highest crime levels in the world. We should be the last people to have this problem of a negative attitude toward our brothers and sisters who come from outside, said the president of the African National Congress.

(Jan 4, 2018 11:20 AM) Nine backpackers from four countries were sent to hospitals in Australia this week, including at least three who were on life support Wednesday, after snorting a white powder sent through the mail. Seven men and two women, ages 21 to 25, snorted a white powder they assumed was cocaine around 9pm Tuesday after finding it inside a package delivered to the Perth property at which they were staying, reports the West Australian. Authorities now say the package from New York, which one of the backpackers says was addressed to someone not living at the Perth residence, contained hyoscine, an anti-nausea drug sometimes used in high doses as a date rape drug, after a friend found the backpackers semi-paralyzed and suffering from seizures and hallucinations, per the BBC and ABC Australia. We were powerless, we couldn't do anything, an Italian victim tells the West Australian, noting the white powder was labelled scoop --a possible reference to hyoscine's alternate name: scopolamine. The Italian is now out of the hospital, along with three French citizens, a German, and a Moroccan. A French man and a German woman remain in critical condition Thursday, while another French man is in stable condition. A doctor who said the backpackers arrived in a state of agitated delirium, with several put in a medically induced coma for their own protection, described the three still in the hospital as being on full life support as of Wednesday, per the West Australian. Doctors tells ABC Australia they might've died if ambulances had been delayed by just 40 minutes.

(May 23, 2018 4:13 PM CDT) It's the weirdest controversy of the young baseball season. Cleveland Indians pitcher Trevor Bauer is fending off accusations that he used his cleats to make a statement on the mound about the 9/11 attacks, reports Cleveland.com. Checked Twitter to see a bunch of people making ridiculous accusations, Bauer wrote after a game Tuesday in Chicago. Bauer says he did indeed write a message--you can kind of see it here--and it read BD 91.1. But some on Twitter read it as BD 911 and interpreted that as a reference to the conspiracy theory meme Bush Did 9/11, per the New York Post. That's just nuts, says Bauer. So what does BD 91.1 mean? Bauer isn't providing details, but it's apparently a reference to a friend who trains with him. It's a personal thing with me and a close friend of mine and training, he told reporters. That's it. It has nothing to do with anything else. Bauer broached the topic with reporters before being asked a single question, saying he needed to clear the air. For the record, the KnowYourMeme blog notes that Bush Did 9/11 is usually used to mock those who think the government had some role in the attacks.

(Nov 5, 2017 3:32 PM) A Massachusetts woman faces charges after police say they found 19 dead animals at her home, the AP reports. New Bedford police say officers found dead lizards in cages in the bedroom of Amanda Vicente's 13-year-old son last week. Finches, cockatiels, and hamsters were also found at the home. Police say 17 living animals were at the residence, including a bull mastiff. They say many of the animals were emaciated and lacked food and water.

(May 4, 2018 7:31 AM CDT) It took five hours and more than 20 specialists, but a Connecticut woman is now free of 132 pounds--the weight of a 39-inch tumor on her left ovary. I might expect to see a 25-pound ovarian tumor, but a 132-pound tumor is very rare, says Dr. Vaagn Andikyan of Danbury Hospital, where the operation took place on Feb. 14. His patient, a 38-year-old woman, had experienced sudden weight gain of about 10 pounds per week for two months and went to her OB/GYN, per Live Science. A CT scan then revealed a noncancerous tumor growing on her left ovary. Because the mucinous mass grew to sit on her digestive tract, the 350-pound patient was extremely malnourished ahead of surgery and used a wheelchair because of the tumor's weight, Andikyan says. The tumor itself was gigantic, pushing up against blood vessels and putting the woman at risk of potentially fatal blood clots, doctors tell CNN. She was so hopeless, because she had seen several other doctors, and they were unable to help her, Andikyan adds. The woman is now recovering well and back to work as a teacher after doctors removed the mass, her left ovary, left fallopian tube, and excess skin stretched by the tumor (see a pre-surgery image here). Reconstructive surgery was also required as the abdominal wall had been pushed out by the tumor. Describing the mass as one of the 10 biggest ever removed from a patient, Andikyan notes we are doing genetic testing on it to determine if there is any mutation that caused it to grow as large as it was, per WCVB. (This 140-pound tumor started as an ingrown hair.)

(Aug 19, 2011 3:15 PM CDT) Still saving up for that iPad 2? You might wanna hold off a couple more months. Apple is already in development of the iPad 3 and hopes to release it early next year, reports the Wall Street Journal. The device is expected to have twice the resolution for its 9.7-inch screen as Apple looks to stay ahead of competitors' tablets. One unnamed source says Apple has ordered parts to build 1.5 million of the devices.

(May 7, 2018 9:35 AM CDT) Police say the two mysteries were one--but 120 miles separated them. Now, investigators believe they know what happened to Mary Ann Perez, a 33-year-old mother of three who disappeared after meeting friends at a New Orleans-area country-western bar on March 26, 1976. As WKRG explains, just eight months after her disappearance, a set of female remains were found by hunters in Alabama's Mobile County near the Mississippi border, but in the pre-computer age, the 120 miles that separated the two cases proved too great: No one put one and one together. Four years later came a revelation, but not one big enough to solve the mystery. In 1980, a man arrested in Kansas confessed that he and his wife had killed multiple women, including one they picked up at a country-western bar, reports the Washington Post. It sounded like Perez. But there was a problem. David Courtney revealed the location of the bodies to cops, and those remains were found. All except one, that is: the New Orleans woman, whom the Advocate reports the Courtneys say they saw having car trouble. She accepted their offer for a ride, and David said he strangled her and deposited her somewhere along the Mississippi border. But no body, no crime. Things went nowhere for decades, until Det. JT Thornton of the Mobile County Sheriff's Office started looking into cold cases, came across the Jane Doe, and then learned about Perez. He met with her family, who told her Perez had a partial dental plate due to a traffic accident--as did the remains found more than 40 years ago. Those remains are now being DNA-tested to confirm the mystery has indeed been solved. Courtney is serving a life sentence in Kansas; his wife, Donna, served 10 years and died in the '90s.

(Jul 23, 2018 5:19 PM CDT) Vermont State Police say a 5-year-old boy has died two days after his grandmother died while trying to save him from drowning, the AP reports. Authorities say Jaxon Lawrence was pronounced dead at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center Sunday. Police say Jaxon fell off a toy flotation device in the water of Lowell Lake in Londonderry on Friday. His 55-year-old grandmother, Julie Lawrence, tried to save him, but she also started to struggle. Rescuers and officers found Julie Lawrence and Jaxon unresponsive in the water and tried to resuscitate both. Julie Lawrence was pronounced dead at the scene. Jaxon's 9-year-old brother also tried to rescue him. Police say the boy swam for help and is in good health. (In upstate New York, a 3-year-old boy went missing from his family's home Sunday afternoon and drowned in the Susquehanna River.)

(Oct 31, 2020 7:30 AM CDT) Doughnuts and ice cream go with chicken wings and roast beef sandwiches, right? Hopefully so, because Dunkin', which owns Baskin-Robbins, is about to get scooped up by Inspire Brands, the holding company that owns Arby's, Buffalo Wild Wings, Sonic, and other eateries, CNN Business reports. The $11.3 billion purchase (which includes debt) by Inspire, which is backed by private equity firm Roark Capital Group and boasts 11,000 of its own restaurants, will boost that footprint threefold, thanks to Dunkin's 20,000 or so doughnut and ice cream stores. Inspire says its all-cash bid to take Dunkin' private would value it at $106.50 per share; that price came in at $99.71 per share by the time the market wrapped up on Friday. We are excited to bring meaningful value to shareholders who ... believe that Inspire Brands ... will continue to drive growth for our franchisees while remaining true to all that is unique and special about the Dunkin' and Baskin-Robbins brands, says Dunkin' Brands CEO Dave Hoffmann, per Fox Business. The companies said on Friday the deal is set to close by year's end, per the Wall Street Journal, which first reported the news.

(May 18, 2011 3:56 PM CDT) They're outcasts on a galactic scale, rebels without a star: Astronomers think they have discovered 10 massive planets that defy a standard definition of what it means to be a planet: They orbit no star. What's more, the astronomers believe there are many, many more roaming free about the Milky Way, possibly twice the number of stars in the galaxy, reports Time. The new findings could shed more light on how planets form. The implications of this discovery are profound, writes a member of the Center for Astronomy in Germany in an accompanying Nature article. Scientists have long speculated that such rogue planets could exist, with one theory being that they got flung away from their own systems because of a too-close-encounter with another planet, explains Bloomberg. Astronomers used a process known as gravitational microlensing to detect the Jupiter-sized objects, and Space.com has more on how it works.

(Oct 23, 2015 8:50 AM CDT) Martin Shkreli has been hemming and hawing about dropping the price of his company's toxoplasmosis drug since he raised it 5,000% in August, but it may be a moot point: A San Diego drug compounding company is now offering its own version of pyrimethamine for $1 a pill, a far cry from the $750 a pill Shkreli's Turing Pharmaceuticals has been charging for Daraprim, the San Diego Tribune reports. Imprimis Pharmaceuticals also plans on taking on other companies jacking the price up on meds in niche markets with little or no competition, Imprimis CEO Mark Baum tells the AP. While we respect Turing's right to charge patients and insurance companies whatever it believes is appropriate, there may be more cost-effective compounded options for medications such as Daraprim, Baum says in a press release. The Imprimis version of pyrimethamine is combined with leucovorin, a type of folic acid cancer patients take to alleviate chemo's effects, the Tribune notes. There's one caveat, per Baum: The drug's combined form doesn't have FDA approval (which can take years), though the individual ingredients do. As such, the only way the formulation can be legally obtained is via a doctor's prescription for the compound, per Reuters. By avoiding the long FDA approval process--and the millions of dollars that would need to go into that--Imprimis can keep costs low and actually turn a significant profit, the Tribune adds. The company's new Imprimis Cares division will oversee the generic drugs it creates, Baum says, adding, This is the tip of the iceberg. (Does this mean Bernie Sanders would accept a donation from Baum?)

(Aug 18, 2009 6:41 PM CDT) Sony cut the price of its PlayStation 3 by $100 today and introduced a sleeker but more powerful model, reports CNET. The PS3 Slim will sell for $299 when it's available Sept. 1. The new model is 33% smaller and much lighter, though it has a 120GB hard drive, up from the current version's 80GB. Sony is trying to be more competitive with Nintendo's Wii ($250) and Microsoft's Xbox 360 ($200 for a basic console). People were expecting this to happen, an industry analyst tells the Wall Street Journal. (Sony) had to do something. This will bring some new customers to the fold, but they really now have to come out with some good, exclusive games.

(Sep 16, 2016 12:02 PM CDT) In what one might call an ill-advised move, 50 Cent posted a picture to Instagram showing a countdown to the day--Oct. 13, 2017--he no longer has to pay child support for his oldest son, Marquise Jackson. Man real life is gonna start Sooner then you think. Sad part is I wish you well, good. #Shanquagetsajob, the rapper posted, a (misspelled) reference to Marquise's mother, Shaniqua Tompkins. Marquise himself responded to the now-deleted post, the New York Daily News reports: Don't worry I'll make you proud! Just don't forget to tell me happy birthday that day cause u missed a few, the 18-year-old wrote. Tompkins also replied to 50 Cent's Instagram post, calling him out for, among other things, not being able to spell, Perez Hilton reports. The relationship between 50 Cent and his son has long been strained; recently, the caption of a picture of Marquise Jackson at the premiere of a film he's in, Dope Fiend, referred to him as 50 Cent's son. The rapper commented on the image with, His name is Marquise, take 50cent's son out your post please ... I have nothing to do with this project.

(Feb 8, 2011 6:40 AM) Griping about high taxes? Not so fast: Federal tax bills are at historic lows this year, and for the third consecutive year, families and businesses will pay less than they did under George W Bush. The government's take--as a share of the national economy--is its lowest since 1950, the AP reports. And we have the weak economy and an increasing number of tax breaks to thank for the fact that income tax payments will be almost 13% lower than they were in 2008. While income tax rates are unchanged, new deductions, credits, and exemptions are added to the tax code each year, and this year, that means families with two dependent children earning up to $50,000 can avoid paying federal income taxes entirely, while lower-income families can actually make money. That's bad news for the federal budget deficit, which is expected to reach a record $1.5 trillion this year. However, the scenario will soon change: Tax increases are expected in the next few years, and state taxes are already on the rise.

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

(Mar 19, 2014 12:34 PM CDT) While experts remain hopeful Flight 370 will still be found, the possibility that it has simply vanished is rearing its ugly head, and the AP poses a troubling question: What if the plane is never found? For one thing, it wouldn't be the first time. For another, it would mean an agony of non-answers for the families of those aboard the missing jet. In any kind of death, the most important matter for relatives and loved ones is knowing the context and circumstances, New Zealand's Victim Support group chief executive says. When there's very little information, it's very difficult. But that's just the beginning. We could see a push for modern GPS systems in planes and airports--as opposed to antiquated radar--as well as improved monitoring between countries, the AP notes. But the $70 billion to $80 billion price tag in the US alone is a big reason that hasn't happened already. Meanwhile, liability issues would become impossible to resolve without wreckage to determine who bears responsibility. The international aviation legal system does not anticipate the complete disappearance of an aircraft, says a law professor, adding, We just don't have the tools for that at present. Either way, our perceptions have been shaken. We had the illusion of control and it's just been shown to us that oh, folks, you know what? A really big airliner can just vanish. And nobody wants to hear that, says a former aviation accident investigator. We're scared by it.

(Feb 2, 2009 6:39 AM) A suicide bomber blew himself up inside an Afghan police station, killing at least 21 policemen in an attack claimed by the Taliban, reports the BBC. The attack in the south of the country is the deadliest in months. A police spokesman in Uruzgan said the bomber wore a police uniform and infiltrated a group of reservists. Three men were arrested wearing suicide belts in the neighboring province.

(Sep 15, 2009 4:00 PM CDT) Bay Area police are searching Philip Garrido's home and adjacent properties for evidence of two kidnappings in the late 1980s similar to the abduction of Jaycee Dugard, the San Francisco Chronicle reports. Nine-year-old Michaela Garecht was kidnapped in 1988 from nearby Hayward, while 13-year-old Ilene Misheloff was taken 2 months later in Dublin. Hayward and Dublin police are searching the area. Original agencies that were on the properties searching were not familiar with our cases, a Hayward official says. We're taking another shot at the properties to see what we can find. The two departments are even considering tearing down the Garrido home to search underneath. We are working with Contra Costa County and the people who have conservatorship of the property to see if that's possible, a Dublin official says.

(Aug 17, 2020 8:11 AM CDT) A worker at a Toronto strip club has tested positive for COVID-19, but that isn't the only problem the venue has. Per the Guardian, health officials in the Canadian city say that up to 550 additional people may have been exposed to the virus at the Brass Rail Tavern, just days after it officially opened back up for business at the end of July. It's not clear what job the infected employee, who worked four shifts in early August, holds at the club. But an initial probe by Toronto Public Health has found the Brass Rail didn't follow proper safety protocols upon reopening, including not adhering to social distancing guidelines between tables and between staff and customers. We have issued them a notice of noncompliance and we will be going back ... for another inspection, TPH's Dr. Vinita Dubey said Friday, per CP24. The club did have a contract tracing log that customers were asked to sign, but public health experts are wondering how useful that may prove, considering the venue itself. You know how long it's going to take them to chase down 550 guys, half of which probably gave fake ID or information? an infectious diseases professor from the University of Toronto says, per the AP. Dubey assures patrons only the health department will have access to that info, which will be trashed after 30 days. Ontario Premier Doug Ford noted his sympathies not only for those who may become ill, but also for those who have to tell their significant others how they may have been exposed. Sorry for the spouse, seriously, he told reporters Friday, per the Guardian. Man, I wouldn't want to be on the end of that one. As of Friday, the club was still open.

(Apr 19, 2018 7:10 PM CDT) Consumers anywhere in the United States who have store-bought chopped romaine lettuce at home, including salads and salad mixes, should not eat it and should throw it away, even if some of it was eaten and no one has gotten sick. If you do not know if the lettuce is romaine, do not eat it and throw it away. That's the bottom line from the CDC as the number of people hospitalized in an E. coli outbreak linked to chopped romaine grows. Thousands of pounds of the lettuce have been recalled and at least 53 people have gotten sick since March 13, CNN reports; 31 of them were hospitalized and five of them developed a type of kidney failure that can be life-threatening. No deaths have been reported. Illnesses have been reported in 16 states. Health officials have yet to identify a single brand, supplier, distributor, or grower as the tainted lettuce's source, but Pennsylvania-based Fresh Foods Manufacturing Co. voluntarily recalled 8,757 pounds of ready-to-eat salads as a precaution and officials last week warned residents and restaurants about chopped romaine grown in the Yuma, Arizona, area. The states with the highest number of illnesses are Pennsylvania, Idaho, New Jersey, and Montana. Meanwhile, the FDA released a report with new details from the recent recall of more than 200 million eggs due to salmonella; CNN reports the farm linked to the contaminated eggs was found to have a rodent infestation and other unsanitary conditions.

(Jul 30, 2013 2:02 AM CDT) More than 250 inmates--including 25 classed as dangerous terrorists --were freed by a 100-strong group of Taliban militants in a raid on a prison in northwest Pakistan. Authorities say the attackers, armed with bombs and rocket-propelled grenades, destroyed the century-old prison's walls and killed six policemen, two civilians, and six Shia Muslim prisoners during the raid, the AP reports. Roads to the neighboring regions of North and South Waziristan have been blocked but only nine escapees have been recaptured and officials admit most of the prisoners have melted away in the population, the New York Times reports. A senior government official calls the mass escape a debacle of the highest order, noting that security forces had been warned of an attack and a conference on the prison's security had been held. July appears to be jailbreak month: More than 1,000 prisoners broke out of a prison in Benghazi, Libya, over the weekend, just days after 500 were freed in a raid on Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison.

(Oct 30, 2017 1:08 AM CDT) In a grimly ironic death in Virginia Saturday, a 22-year-old woman who worked with children with severe behavioral problems was killed when a 12-year-old boy jumped from a highway overpass and landed on her vehicle. Police believe the boy was trying to kill himself when he jumped from the Cedar Lane overpass onto Interstate 66, killing Marisa Harris when he landed on the 2005 Ford Escape she was driving, People reports. Harris' boyfriend was in the passenger seat of the SUV and was able to grab the steering wheel and safely guide the car off the interstate. The 12-year-old boy was hospitalized with life-threatening injuries. Harris, who grew up in Maryland, lived in Arlington and was pursuing a master's degree in clinical counseling at Marymount University. Her mother says she had a passion for helping troubled children and, given the chance, could have helped the boy who jumped, NBC Washington 4 reports. She was caring--I mean she had an absolute love for children, her mom tells the Washington Post. She was awesome. I miss her so much. Her father says Marisa is from a long line of psychologists. She was fearless, she was absolutely fearless, he says. She was loved by her friends, she was dearly loved by her family, she was admired by her peers, she was just a shining star.