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(May 27, 2019 3:03 PM CDT) Two veterans who left high school early for the military in wartime joined the Class of 2019 in walking the stage Saturday to receive their diplomas, CNN reports. Joe Perricone, 95, was drafted in 1943 while in high school in Tampa. The Army veteran was honored at Hillsborough High School's graduation by this year's graduates. Bill William Arnold Craddock, 85, a Korean War veteran, left high school in Churchill, Tennessee, at 16 to join the Air Force. He received a GED but didn't ever walk a graduation stage. It means a lot to me, Craddock said. His advice for Volunteer High School graduates, including those of the Class of 1953: Study hard, be good, and learn all you can. Get the best education you can get.

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

(Oct 30, 2008 9:45 AM CDT) Yesterday Ben Bernanke cut the federal funds rate to an ectomorphic 1%--but the Fed might not be done yet. More and more analysts are predicting that the central bank will have to cut rates all the way to zero if it wants to get the economy moving again. But don't get too excited, writes the New York Times: A 0% funds rate would apply only to interbank lending, and wouldn't mean free money for consumers. In Japan, interest rates remained at zero for 5 years before the central bank cautiously upped them to the current 0.5%. Now economists think America faces a Japanese-style threat of both reduced lending and possible deflation. And if he does cut to zero, Bernanke could go further still; the Fed's next move would be purchasing securities and debt to drive rates down even more.

(May 20, 2012 7:04 AM CDT) Hours of protest marches by up to 1,000 anti-NATO demonstrators and clashes with police in Chicago's Loop led to about 18 arrests last night, but no serious damage or injuries, reports the AP. Protesters tested police barriers as they tried to make their way north of the Chicago River to the upscale downtown area where most of the 60 NATO heads of state and VIPs are staying. But the demonstrators were unable to pass by the authorities and eventually the marches petered out, with most dispersing by 11pm, reports the Chicago Tribune. If anything else happens, the plan is to go in and get the people who create the violent acts, take them out of the crowd, and arrest them, said the Chicago police superintendent. We're not going to charge the crowd wholesale--that's the bottom line. Some protesters shouted against the arrest of three men yesterday on terror charges, but overall most demonstrators were peaceful. Still, protesters were gearing up for a much larger showing today. I'm pretty impressed with what we did, but I'm not looking forward to waking up and doing it again tomorrow, said one protester. But when I wake up tomorrow I think I'll feel differently.

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

(Feb 16, 2016 3:48 PM) The Lincoln Memorial will be getting a much-needed facelift in the coming years thanks to an $18.5 million donation from one history-loving philanthropist, CNN reports. Lincoln deserves to have his memorial in tip-top shape, David Rubenstein tells the AP. The president of the National Park Foundation admits to the Washington Post the nearly 100-year-old memorial has gotten a bit run-down since it first opened. The Park Service plans to use the Rubenstein's donation to clean the memorial, fix its roof, update its restrooms, make its exhibit area 20 times larger, restore its murals, and install an elevator to improve access. The restoration project will also allow visitors to see below the monument, where the original builders left charcoal graffiti, including a caricature of President Taft. I'm very honored as an American to be able to contribute in this way, the Post quotes Rubenstein during the announcement of his donation Monday. The project is likely to be the biggest renovation to the Lincoln Memorial, which receives 7 million visitors per year, since it opened. In the past, Rubenstein has donated more than $40 million to repair the Washington Monument, US Marine Corps War Memorial, the White House Visitor Center, James Madison's home, and the Arlington House. He even gave $9 million to help the National Zoo keep its pandas. The Park Service currently has $12 billion in repairs it's been putting off. The National Park Foundation expects to raise about $100 million in donations this year.

(Oct 14, 2019 2:32 AM CDT) A San Antonio man left messages on Mayor Ron Nirenberg's Facebook page so alarming that an aide warned police the man could be the next mass shooter. Police say Adam Converse, 25, left at least 14 messages on the mayor's page on Oct. 4 and Oct. 5, the San Antonio Express-News reports. People will lose hands, arms, feet, and heads. Don't even try me boyo, one message said. Another said: It would be nicer to leave you all dead with no hope of life after death ... I want to see people dead. Police say Converse also threatened to stab the mayor if he wasn't given money. According to an arrest affidavit, officers from the police department's Mental Health Unit saw him walk out of his home Oct. 5 with a machete in his belt, which he attempted to pull out when an officer tried to detain him for a mental health evaluation. He stated he was a contract assassin with the government and if he had a license to kill, he would kill people, the affidavit states. Converse, who was taken to a hospital for an evaluation, has been charged with making terroristic threats against a public servant and resisting arrest, KENS5 reports.

(Oct 14, 2013 10:16 AM CDT) A pretty incredible tale of survival out of northern California, where a deer hunter lost in the Mendocino National Forest survived for 19 days. The most incredible parts: temperatures fell as low as 25 degrees; Gene Penaflor was at one point temporarily unconscious after falling down a steep slope; he's also 72 years old. Penaflor had set out with a fellow hunter on Sept. 24. They used what CNN terms a common hunting strategy where you split up to track an animal on two sides; Penaflor was a no-show at their meet-up lunch spot. Two days later, a search party set out, but after four days, it was scuttled by a storm. Though they set out again, it was a hunter who heard the man's calls for help and phoned authorities. Penaflor was roughly three miles from where he went missing, notes NBC Bay Area. The hunter and his group sprang to action, making a rough stretcher from tree branches and their coats. They were able to carry Penaflor for several hours to rescuers and a helicopter. He recounts how he survived--eating lizards, frogs, and squirrels; foraging for algae; using a garbage bag and packing grass and dead leaves around him to stay warm, reports KGO. His family, of course, is thrilled to have him home. Says son Jeremy, He's good. He's hanging in there. He looks like nothing changed except he grew a beard.

(Nov 3, 2010 2:23 AM CDT) A young girl with a giant voice who won an open audition for a role in the Broadway production of The Lion King has died of leukemia at the age of 11. Shannon Tavarez spent seven months performing in the show before she was diagnosed in April. Thousands of people, including rapper 50 Cent, volunteered to donate bone marrow to help in her battle for health, but no match for the 6th-grader was ever found, ABC News reports. Her mixed Hispanic and African-American background made it harder to find a match. Tavarez competed against thousands of hopefuls to win the role of Young Nala. She was fearless, as a performer and as a young woman, the production stage manager for The Lion King tells the New York Times. She was never intimidated and she was constantly happy. After she was diagnosed, all she talked about was when she could come back.

(Nov 24, 2010 4:08 AM) Good news for the British: They'll be getting an extra day off to celebrate the royal wedding next year. The bad news: That extra day off will cost the country $7.9 billion, according to calculations by the Telegraph. Business groups expect the day off to result in $9.48 billion in lost productivity, which will be offset by some $1.6 billion in extra spending by tourists and in sales of memorabilia. The extra day comes the week after Easter, giving employees a 3-day work week. Employers fear many workers might call in sick for the entire week. There will be a real temptation to not bother going into work that week. It could see many businesses just shut down, says the chief of Britain's Federation of Small Businesses. There is a real risk we are turning into France when we just put down tools for weeks at a time. Click here to see how much the wedding itself is expected to cost.

(Oct 31, 2018 10:10 AM CDT) Izaia Bullock's dismissal Tuesday from the Rutgers University football team is surely the least of the linebacker's concerns. It came hours after the 22-year-old junior from Linden, NJ, was charged with two counts of first-degree attempted murder and two counts of first-degree conspiracy to commit murder, making him the ninth current or former Rutgers football player to be arrested since the summer, reports NJ.com. Police determined Bullock initiated a plot to murder the family members of an acquaintance on Monday, per a release. The two intended victims, unaffiliated with the university, were ultimately uninjured, a prosecutor's rep says. Bullock graduated in 2014 from Linden High School, where he played linebacker and running back, per NJ.com. He then attended a private program meant to help recruit athletes to NCAA football programs before making the Rutgers team with a walk-on tryout in September 2017. ESPN reports the Scarlet Knight played at least one game this year but didn't register any statistics. His case follows the August arrests of eight other Rutgers football players charged in connection with alleged credit card fraud. While announcing his dismissal Tuesday, the university said Bullock would face disciplinary proceedings. (A nurse allegedly plotted to kill the wife of an unfaithful doctor.)

(Dec 9, 2015 5:43 AM) If you've counted your planes recently and found yourself three Boeing 747s down, you may be just the person that authorities at Kuala Lumpur International Airport want to speak to. The jets have been parked at the Malaysian airport for more than a year, and the airport operator, which has been unable to trace the owner, has now taken out newspaper ads warning that they could be sold to cover parking fees and other expenses unless somebody claims them soon, CNN reports. If you fail to collect the aircraft within 14 days of the date of this notice, we reserve the right to sell or otherwise dispose of the aircraft, the ads state. We placed out the advertisements because we want to remove ambiguity over ownership of the planes, the airport's general manager tells the AP. We want the owners to step forward and we want the planes to be out of our airport bay. The airport operator says placing an ad to find an untraceable owner is a step undertaken by airport operators all over the world when faced with such a situation, Bloomberg reports. The three 747-200Fs, which have the call signs TF-ARN, TF-ARH, and TF-ARM, once belonged to the leasing company Air Atlanta Icelandic, CNN reports, but the Icelandic firm says it sold them years ago and they're believed to have changed owners a few times since. (China has rolled out its state-produced answer to Boeing jets.)

(Jul 17, 2020 4:05 PM CDT) Another 14,780 new coronavirus cases Friday put Texas among the hardest-hit states in the nation. Along with California, Florida, and New York, Texas now has more than 300,000 confirmed cases, NBC News reports. The Friday total was a one-day record for Texas. In anticipation of the death toll climbing, funeral homes are stocking up on body bags, and FEMA has dispatched 14 more refrigerated trucks--making 22 altogether. A report for the White House Coronavirus Task Force lists 123 Texas counties in the red zone, per KXAS, meaning they have more than 100 cases per 100,000 people. Stricter safety measures could follow as a result. The number of coronavirus cases and the number of positive tests for the most recent weekly period in Texas were twice the national average. Texas education officials told schools Friday they don't have to require students to attend classes in person for the first four weeks of the school year if they don't want to. Another four-week waiver would be available after that, per the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. The state teachers union said that's not enough. Irrelevant deadlines are not what educators and students need, its president said. Educators, students and their parents need assurance that school buildings will not be reopened until it is safe to do so. Houston and Dallas schools already had decided to delay reopening for in-person classes. A Return to Learn survey of parents reported finding that 83% want their children to return in person; the difference was much closer to an even split in Arlington and Fort Worth. An online petition to allow students to stay away until it's safe to return had more than 90,000 signatures.

(Jan 28, 2013 6:00 PM) Congress is sending a $50.5 billion emergency relief measure for Superstorm Sandy victims to President Obama for his signature. The Senate today cleared the bill, 62-36. Northeast lawmakers say the money is desperately needed to help recovery efforts from the one of the region's worst storms. The House passed the bill two weeks ago. The measure is aimed primarily at helping residents and businesses as well as state and local governments rebuild from the Oct. 29 storm. It passed despite opposition from fiscal conservatives worried about adding to deficits. Sandy roared up the East Coast and has been blamed for more than 130 deaths and billions of dollars in residential and business property damage. The biggest chunk of money is $16 billion for Housing and Urban Development Department community development block grants. Of that, about $12 billion will be shared among Sandy victims as well as those from other federally declared disasters in 2011-2013. Obama has said he will sign the bill.

(Mar 5, 2008 3:57 PM) Crude oil rose to a record $104.52 a barrel today after OPEC decided to hold production steady. The oil market is currently stable, said Saudi Arabia's oil minister. There is no need to increase even one barrel of oil. The cartel blamed sky-high prices on tremendous speculation, the Wall Street Journal reports. Oil futures were up $5 on the day. President Bush yesterday called for production increases to help stave off recession in the US; OPEC's president said mismanagement of the US economy is more responsible for higher prices than a lack of demand. But, the Journal reports, OPEC might reduce output if the US economy stalls badly enough to temper demand, especially if oil-hungry developing nations are pulled downward.

(Apr 1, 2014 8:18 PM CDT) A powerful magnitude-8.2 earthquake struck off Chile's northern coast tonight, and officials ordered an evacuation of coastal areas before an expected tsunami; waves measuring almost 6.5 feet already were striking cities on the coast, and authorities said a tsunami was expected to come ashore later. There were no immediate reports of injuries or damage from the tremor, which also shook buildings in parts of nearby Peru and Bolivia, and local TV images showed residents evacuating calmly. The US Geological Survey said the quake struck 61 miles northwest of Iquique at 8:46pm, hitting a region that has been rocked by numerous quakes over the past two weeks. US officials say they've found no imminent threat of a tsunami along the coasts of Hawaii, Alaska, California, Oregon, or Washington. Paul Whitmore, the director of the National Weather Service's West Coast and Alaska Tsunami Warning Center, says the greatest potential threat is to Hawaii, but analysts aren't yet issuing a watch or warning. The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center says if tsunami waves are generated, the earliest they'd hit Hawaii is 3:24am Hawaii Standard Time.

(Feb 28, 2008 5:49 PM) Today's after-hours bad news from the credit-crunch front comes from insurer AIG, which reported a fourth-quarter loss of $5.29 billion after taking an $11 billion writedown on mortgage-related insurance contracts, the Wall Street Journal reports. The loss amounts to $2.08 per share; American International Group turned a profit of $1.31 in the fourth quarter of 2006. The loss seems certain to tap into investor anger over the downward spiral that accompanied Martin Sullivan's ascension to CEO in 2005. People are just so frustrated with management, one analyst tells Bloomberg, with the price of the stock and with their performance. Sullivan called the 2007 results clearly unsatisfactory but predicted that continuing uncertainty will take a toll on AIG.

(Feb 27, 2008 5:01 AM) The European Commission fined Microsoft today a record $1.35 billion for failing to comply with its 2004 antitrust ruling. The EU's executive branch said that the company continued to charge unreasonable prices to developers building programs for Windows despite both the earlier ruling and a court verdict last September. The fine is the largest ever for a single company, dwarfing the $613 million penalty the commission imposed on Microsoft in 2004. Microsoft was the first company in 50 years of EU competition policy that the commission has had to fine for failure to comply with an antitrust decision, said Neelie Kroes, the European competition commissioner. She added that the commission could have imposed double what it did, but decided $1.35 billion was a reasonable response to a series of quite unreasonable actions.

(Mar 13, 2008 7:31 AM CDT) Carlyle Capital announced overnight that it is defaulting on $16.6 billion in debt, and its creditors are likely to take possession of its remaining assets. The latest casualty of the credit catastrophe is a major embarrassment for Carlyle Group, the private equity firm whose executives own 15% of the fund, reports the Wall Street Journal. Carlyle's fall demonstrates how the world's biggest banks are now playing hardball with their best clients. Carlyle's troubles came from borrowing too much money--an astronomical 32 times what it managed. Last week the fund was forced to plead with Deutsche Bank, JP Morgan, Chase and other lenders to hold off on margin calls. But the protestations fell on deaf ears, and the banks began selling off the fund's assets. This morning in Amsterdam, where its shares trade, Carlyle Capital's shares were in free fall, dropping 70% to trade at 83C/ a share.

(Jul 31, 2019 4:13 PM CDT) There are the usual problems associated with binge drinking--and then there's an additional set of problems associated with binge drinking as you age. And that second set of problems is something we need to be concerned with, say researchers involved in a new study that found an estimated 10.6% of people over age 65 reported binge drinking in the prior 30 days. That's defined as five or more drinks in one sitting for men, or four or more for women. As lead study author Dr. Benjamin Han explains to NBC News, a person's body becomes more sensitive to alcohol the older they get. They still think they can drink the same way, but the risks increase quite a bit, he says. Researchers say more studies are needed, but rates of binge drinking among older adults may be rising; Time notes the rate of binge drinking among older adults was 7% in 2006. Binge drinking can make certain chronic health issues, including hypertension, heart disease, and diabetes, worse, and may put people at risk for other chronic conditions including cancer, dementia, and liver disease. It can also cause people to forget to take medications and can put them at risk for falls. The fall risk is increased if they are also using cannabis, and the study found cannabis use was higher among subjects who reported binge drinking--not to mention the fact that falls are the leading cause of broken bones, trauma, and deaths among older adults even when alcohol and cannabis use are not considered. The study, published Wednesday in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, analyzed data on nearly 11,000 people over age 65 who participated in the National Survey on Drug Use and Health between 2015 and 2017. We focus so much on young people and their risky drinking, says senior author Joseph Palamar. But this research reminds us that we also have to keep an eye on the older population.

(Dec 31, 2019 10:35 AM) A 20-year-old is facing charges after he allegedly attacked a Picasso painting hanging on the wall of London's Tate Modern. Picasso's Bust of a Woman, valued at $26.5 million, is being assessed for damage after it was reportedly ripped on Saturday, per the BBC. A museum spokesperson gave no details on the condition of the 1944 painting of Picasso's lover Dora Maar--depicting the French photographer in green garb and a hat, per the New York Post--saying only that it was with our conservation team for expert assessment while the museum remains open. Shakeel Massey of North London indicated he'd deny a charge of criminal damage at a Monday court hearing where bail was denied, per the BBC. A pretrial hearing is set for Jan. 30.

(Feb 29, 2020 9:30 AM) Imagine having all your medical debt paid off, out of the blue. Now imagine a church paying off $46.5 million in said debt for over 45,000 families. That's pretty much the story as Crossroads Church in Cincinnati works with RIP Medical Debt to eliminate debts for residents of Indiana, Kentucky, Ohio, and Tennessee, Fox 4 News reports. I want to give us an opportunity to multiply our impact, senior pastor Brian Tome said in a Nov. 23 sermon as he went public with the plan. They'll get a letter that says, 'Congratulations, your debt has been paid because someone loves you and there is a God that has not forgotten about you.' Tome explained that every dollar raised by the congregation would translate into $100 in medical debt wiped off the boards, per Cincinnati.com. RIP Medical Debt, a nonprofit in New York state, plays a huge role by buying debt portfolios for a slim percentage of their initial value. That's possible because unpaid bills are often put together and sold to bill collectors for pennies on the dollar--but RIP Medical Debt forgives the debt instead of collecting it. Eligible debtors have to be making less than twice the federal poverty level (roughly $25,000 per year for one person or $52,000 for a small family), have higher debts than assets, and debts amounting to 5% or more of their yearly income. The lucky debtors are expected to receive the good news this week in bright yellow envelopes. Meanwhile, as USA Today reported last year, the US spends more on public health care than any country in the world.

(May 8, 2019 1:14 AM CDT) President Trump was losing staggering amounts of money during the years he was building a reputation as a business genius, reports the New York Times, which says it has obtained printouts of Trump's tax transcripts from 1985 to 1994. During the years in question, Trump's core businesses, including hotels and casinos, lost a total of $1.17 billion and he posted bigger losses than almost any other individual American taxpayer, according to the transcripts. The Times reports that according to the annual IRS sampling of high-income earners, Trump posted losses of more than $250 million in 1990 and 1991, more than double those of any other taxpayer listed--and because of the losses, Trump only paid income tax in two of the 10 years in question. Trump has blamed his business losses on the recession that started in 1990, though the figures show that he was already losing a lot of money by 1987, when The Art of the Deal was published, the Times notes. The newspaper says it did not obtain Trump's actual tax returns, but obtained printouts of the official IRS tax transcripts from someone who had legal access to them. Trump lawyer Charles Harder tells the Times that the information is highly inaccurate, though the newspaper says similar transcripts for Trump's father, Fred Trump, match his tax returns. The Times notes that Trump was able to keep up his billionaire lifestyle despite the losses because most of the money belonged not to him, but to banks and investors--and because he secretly leaned on his father's wealth to continue living like a winner. (Treasury Secretary Stephen Mnuchin has told Democrats he won't provide them with Trump's more recent tax returns.)

(Jul 18, 2019 6:45 PM CDT) About 10,000 live-in child care workers from around the world will share in a class-action settlement in a case that challenged whether they should be treated as employees entitled to minimum wage or members of the family learning about the US while helping out at home. US District Judge Christine Arguello gave final approval to the $65.5 million deal Thursday in Denver, the AP reports, saying payments to au pairs who filed claims by the May deadline would average $3,500 each. About 160,000 au pairs who came to the US to work from 2009 to late 2018 under J-1 visas were identified as having the potential to receive money under the deal announced in January. The settlement requires that 15 agencies authorized by the State Department to connect au pairs with families notify both parties going forward that au pairs can negotiate to be paid more than the minimum $195.75 a week required by the department. That pay is based on the federal minimum wage of $7.25 for 45 hours of work minus a 40 percent deduction for room and board.

(Jan 2, 2020 10:40 AM) It may seem surprising in a year filled with gloomy headlines about the 737 Max, but the number of deaths in major air crashes around the globe fell by more than half in 2019, according to a report by an aviation consulting firm. The To70 consultancy said 257 people died in eight fatal accidents in 2019, compared to 534 deaths in 13 fatal accidents in 2018, per the AP. The worst crash of 2019 involved an Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 737 Max plane that crashed March 10, killing 157 people. The report said the fatal accident rate for large planes in commercial air transport fell to 0.18 fatal accidents per million flights in 2019 from 0.30 fatal accidents per million flights in 2018. That means there was one fatal accident for every 5.58 million flights.

(Oct 27, 2020 11:05 AM CDT) A surveillance startup boasting clients including Juul Labs, Red Lobster, and the city of Memphis has come under fire over claims that its own facial recognition system was used to harass female employees. Motherboard and the Verge are out with reports on the behavior at the Silicon Valley headquarters of Verkada, which is fitted with the company's own security cameras. According to Motherboard, a sales director accessed the cameras to take photos of female employees, which he shared with other employees on the chat service Slack in August 2019. The photos were accompanied by sexually explicit jokes, per IPVM, which first reported on the incident. One photo showing an employee with her mouth wide open was accompanied by a joke about squirting, per Motherboard, which notes Verkada was valued at $1.6 billion in January. In February, CEO Filip Kaliszan announced the employee who posted the images and nine others who were involved in the chat could leave the company or have their stocks reduced. All chose to stay, but at least one employee who was not involved in the incident left. I didn't feel comfortable, the person tells Motherboard, noting the men involved continued to be celebrated and remained in leadership positions. At least two of the men are part of a group of senior sales staff who played high school football together, per Motherboard. Sources tell IPVM that the company appeared to favor this group and those within the same circle. But Kaliszan defended his response on Friday, saying he imposed the largest financial penalty in our company's history on the instigator and had individual disciplinary discussions with each of the other participants, per the Verge.

(Mar 23, 2019 9:10 AM CDT) Survivors may still be picking up the pieces after the natural disasters that have swept across the country over the past couple of years, and now they have a new issue to contend with: the possibility of identity theft thanks to what the Federal Emergency Management Agency is calling a major privacy incident. BuzzFeed reports on findings by the Department of Homeland Security's Office of Inspector General, released Friday, that indicate personal data on 2.3 million disaster survivors, including banking details, was shared by FEMA with a housing contractor. FEMA is now doing damage control, saying it used aggressive measures to remedy the problem once it was discovered. A DHS official tells the Washington Post it may have been up to 2.5 million people affected. FEMA is no longer sharing unnecessary data with the contractor and has conducted a detailed review of the contractor's information system, a statement from the agency reads, adding that to date, FEMA has found no indicators to suggest survivor data has been compromised. The data sharing affected people who used FEMA's Transitional Sheltering Assistance program, including those hit by the 2017 California wildfires and hurricanes Irma, Harvey, and Maria that same year. FEMA had to give the unnamed contractor certain info on applicants so it could determine who was eligible for the program, but the agency apparently overreached by providing extra, unnecessary info. By sharing individuals' data with the contractor, FEMA breached both a federal privacy mandate and DHS policy, the IG report notes.

(Aug 24, 2017 2:02 AM CDT) Somebody who bought a Powerball ticket in Massachusetts has scored the biggest solo jackpot in American history. But state lottery officials have a major correction: It turns out, the winning ticket for $759 million was sold at a store in Chicopee, not Watertown as originally announced, reports the AP. Human error, plain and simple, says the state lottery's executive director, Michael Sweeney. The store in Watertown did sell a ticket worth $1 million, perhaps playing a role in the confusion, but the much bigger winner picked up the lucky ticket at the Pride Station & Store across the state. The numbers that won a jackpot were 6, 7, 16, 23, 26 and the Powerball was 4. The only bigger lottery jackpot in US history was 2016's $1.6 billion prize, but that was split three ways. The store owner in Chicopee will get $50,000 for selling the winning ticket, reports CBS Boston. The store owner in Watertown will have to settle for $10,000 for selling the $1 million ticket. Of note: The $758.7 million is the figure for the annuity option, which is paid over 29 years. If the winner wants it all now, he or she will receive $443.3 million, minus more than 30% to cover state and federal taxes.