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(Sep 7, 2011 7:28 AM CDT) Downward mobility is rampant in the US, with a third of Americans who grew up in the middle class falling out of it as adults, according to a new Pew Study (pdf). A middle-class upbringing does not guarantee the same status over the course of a lifetime, the report reads. Those who weren't married, hadn't gotten a college degree, or used drugs were especially likely to fall down the income ladder, the Washington Post observes. The report focused on people who were 39-44 years old between 2004 and 2006, meaning it doesn't take into account any post-financial crisis hardships. It defined middle-class as between the 30th and 70th percentile in income distribution. Looking along race and gender lines, researchers found that black men were twice as likely as white to be downwardly mobile, with nearly 40% falling. There was no similar gap between white and Hispanic men, or between women of different races.

(Sep 5, 2011 3:50 AM CDT) Two Mexicans face a possible 30 years in prison for terror tweets, marking what could become the biggest penalty ever for a Twitter message. A math tutor and radio commentator have been charged with terrorism and sabotage after they tweeted rumors about gunmen attacking a school. Panicked parents who raced to the school were involved in 26 car accidents. The tutor repeatedly tweeted rumors he had heard, and it was picked up and retweeted by the radio commentator to her followers. How can they possibly do this to me, for re-tweeting a message? I mean, it's 140 characters. It's not logical, she said through her attorney. Her Facebook site now features a mangled Twitter bluebird labeled Twitterrorista. Many in Mexico believe the possible punishment is far too harsh. Amnesty International blames the fallout from the tweets not on the two charged but on the atmosphere of crime and panic in the nation battling a mammoth drug war and lawlessness, notes AP. There is such a lack of public safety that the public is inclined to believe unconfirmed acts of violence, said one media expert. The government doesn't make clear what is happening.

(May 22, 2013 5:04 PM CDT) That the US killed American citizens in drone strikes isn't exactly news, but today marks the first time the White House is officially acknowledging it, reports the Washington Post. One day before President Obama gives a speech related to US drone strategy, attorney general Eric Holder sent a letter to Congress acknowledging that the US has killed four Americans in such strikes. That includes the highly publicized killing of US-born cleric Anwar al-Awlaki in Yemen in 2011. He was the only one of the four directly targeted, and Holder said the move was justified because Awlaki had planned--and was continuing to plan--specific attacks on the US. In particular, Holder cited the failed plot to blow up an airliner on Christmas Eve in 2009. (You can read the letter via the New York Times. The other three were Samir Khan, who was killed in the Awlaki attack; Awlaki's 16-year-old son, who was killed in a subsequent strike on another target; and Jude Kennan Mohammad, a native of Florida who later lived in North Carolina. Mohammad was apparently killed in Pakistan in 2011, and his death had been the subject of unconfirmed rumors since, reports the Times. He had been on the FBI's Most Wanted List for his links to terror groups, reports NBC News.

(Apr 14, 2014 7:35 PM CDT) For the first time, US doctors have found a fully vaccinated person who transmitted measles to other people, Science reports. Now dubbed Measles Mary, the 22-year-old theater worker in New York City had been released without quarantine because she was fully vaccinated. Then four people she'd interacted with got sick--including, oddly enough, two who had been vaccinated and two who showed signs of earlier measles exposure, which should have protected them. In Measles Mary's case, her vaccine-given immunity had apparently declined. We all have natural IgM antibodies that protect us from microbial invasions, if imperfectly; a full vaccination or case of the measles should buttress that with stronger IgG antibodies. But an investigation found that Mary's IgG antibodies had lost their power to fight off measles. The prospect of waning measles immunity is unnerving as the disease makes a comeback in major US cities, Science notes. There were only 189 reported cases last year, reports The Week, but even a low failure rate could devastate a large high school, according to a vaccination expert. Still, he said, the worst failures occur when people refuse the vaccine in the first place.

(Oct 9, 2015 5:59 AM CDT) An overnight shooting at Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff has left one student dead and three others wounded. A freshman is in custody, and the school tweeted that the situation is stabilized, with no lockdown in effect. Authorities say the shooting took place as a confrontation between two groups of students turned physical, reports NBC News. It took place in a parking lot near a dormitory central to the university's Greek life, and the first calls to police came in about 1:20am, reports the AP. The student accused of pulling a gun during the melee and opening fire has been identified as 18-year-old Steven Jones. I was studying for an exam so I looked out the window and see two people running, and that's when I realized they weren't fireworks they were actually gunshots, says one student. The university's police chief notes that carrying a gun on campus is illegal. The shooting comes on the same day that President Obama will visit Roseburg, Oregon, the site of a college shooting last week that left 10 people dead.

(Oct 24, 2017 3:07 AM CDT) Within the next three decades, floods that used to strike the New York City area only once every 500 years could occur every five years, according to a new study released just days before the fifth anniversary of Superstorm Sandy. The study, performed by researchers at several universities and published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, primarily blames the predicted change on sea-level rise caused by global warming. This is kind of a warning, says Andra Garner, a Rutgers University scientist and study co-author. How are we going to protect our coastal infrastructure? The researchers based their analysis on models that factored in predictions for sea level rise and possible changes in the path of future hurricanes.

(Apr 22, 2011 9:17 AM CDT) A 16-month-old girl who plummeted from a fourth-story balcony at an Econo Lodge in Orlando was caught midair by a bystander--a British tourist who saw her dangling from a railing, the BBC reports. Doctors say baby Jah-Nea Myles is doing fine, though she was taken to a hospital after the Wednesday night incident. She's perfectly fine. Not a scratch on her body, says her mother, who says she had left Jah-Nea in a friend's care. Having gone to the bathroom around 9pm, the friend heard screams and noticed the balcony door was open. Dashing out, she spotted the baby in the arms of Helen Beard. I'm thanking the Lord above right now for saving my child's life, says Helena Myles. I'm also thanking that lady because she was an angel sent from heaven.

(Oct 15, 2009 7:13 AM CDT) Goldman Sachs is even more golden than we'd thought. The top firm on Wall Street posted a record third-quarter profit of $3.19 billion, a billion dollars higher than expected, thanks to returns on advising on takeovers and more aggressive investing. That quarterly result more than triples the $845 million it posted this time last year. As for the big question of compensation, the bank said $5.35 billion was going to salaries and the year-end bonus pool, up from last year. Their biggest challenge and the thing that seems to get the most press is how much they put aside for comp expense, one financial analyst tells Bloomberg. A year ago we were talking about whether they would survive and now they just have too much damn money.

(Jun 24, 2009 11:47 AM CDT) President Obama will toss the ceremonial first pitch at the All-Star Game on July 14, Major League Baseball announced yesterday. He'll be the fourth president to do so, following John F. Kennedy, Richard Nixon, and Gerald Ford, and the seventh to attend the game. He's also got some first-pitch experience; he did the honors for his beloved Chicago White Sox during the 2005 playoffs. The game is scheduled for St. Louis, where Cardinals manager Tony La Russa says he's happy to host a sitting president for the second time in recent years (George W. Bush threw the first pitch of the team's 2004 season). It's exciting, La Russa said. The only thing is, he's pulling for the American League.

(Apr 16, 2014 2:14 AM CDT) At least four people are confirmed dead and nearly 300 are missing after a passenger ferry carrying 476 people--including more than 300 high school students and their teachers--sank off South Korea's coast this morning, reports Yonhap. Divers, helicopters, and dozens of boats scrambled to pluck people from the water after the boat sent a distress call and sank while on its way to the island of Jeju, reports the AP, in what it calls a frantic, hours-long rescue by dozens of ships and helicopters. Yonhap reports that fears are now mounting that many of the missing are trapped inside; it took divers hours to get into the ship, but the first three areas they searched were free of bodies. The water temp is reportedly about 54 degrees Fahrenheit, cold enough for hypothermia to start to set in within about 90 minutes. Survivors described terrifying scenes inside the ferry after it apparently hit something and began to tilt severely, trapping people inside as water rushed in. One surviving passenger tells CNN that he tried to save others but there were some he couldn't get to in time. I stayed till the last to rescue people at the hall, he says. But the water was coming in so fast (that) some didn't make it out. Rescue teams were able to pull some survivors through windows before it submerged. Saying she was truly devastated, President Park Geun-hye spurred rescuers on. There is not much time left before sunset, she said. Please make the best efforts to rescue even one more person.

(Aug 21, 2017 6:17 PM CDT) Italian officials say one person has died and seven people are unaccounted for after an earthquake struck the resort island of Ischia late Monday, the AP reports. Giovanni Vittozzi of the carabinieri's civil protection department tells Italy's Sky TG24 that several buildings in Ischia's Casamicciola town have collapsed. He says one woman was killed and seven people are unaccounted for. He says the Rizzoli hospital has been evacuated, except for patients on respirators. Different seismological agencies are reporting significantly different magnitudes for the earthquake. Italy's national vulcanology department gave a preliminary magnitude of 3.6. But the US Geological Survey put the magnitude at 4.3, while the European-Mediterranean Seismological Center had it at 4.5. All of them gave the epicenter just off Ischia at a depth of 6 miles. While such variances are common, some Italian officials are complaining that the Italian agency's initially low 3.6 magnitude underestimated the power of the quake.

(Oct 5, 2008 7:00 PM CDT) Hurricane Ike knocked at least a half million gallons of crude oil into the Gulf of Mexico and nearby waterways, according to an AP analysis of environmental reports. Worst hit were oil platforms near the coast of Louisiana, but about half of the spill occurred at a facility on Goat Island, Texas. More than 50 platforms were destroyed in all and 32 others took damage. That's nowhere near the environmental wound struck by Hurricane Katrina, which spilled about 9 million gallons of oil. But Ike's spill could still fill most of an Olympic-sized swimming pool. Humans aren't the only ones suffering, either: Migrating birds that stop off on the Texas coast are in for a surprise, because their favorite trees and plants are gone. It is going to cause wildlife to suffer for awhile, one bird expert said.

(Mar 2, 2013 2:05 PM) Kevin Bacon's wife says she knew it all along. Actress Kyra Sedgwick and her Hollywood-star husband were filmed for the PBS show Finding Your Roots, which traces family backgrounds, and learned that they're actually cousins--albeit ninth cousins, the Independent reports. Sedgwick looked mortified at first: See, she said. I knew it! I knew it! I knew it! I knew it! I knew it! But she calmed down, saying that as long as we're not first cousins, it's fine. Host Henry Louis Gates Jr also told Bacon that he is 13th cousins twice removed from Brad Pitt and 12th cousins three times removed from President Obama. No kidding, said Bacon. I knew I wasn't getting enough respect. Bacon confessed that initially he didn't like the Six Degrees game that linked him to nearly all famous actors: I wasn't in the headspace to take it as flattery, he said. I kind of felt like it was a joke at my expense, you know. But he now considers the linking a beautiful concept. ... It's fun to be at the forefront of that idea.

(Mar 13, 2012 5:37 PM CDT) FDA officials still aren't sure what has caused a wave of disease in 600 US dogs, but pet owners' complaints over Chinese-made chicken jerky dog treats may provide a clue. Some 13 of 22 key complaints point to Waggin' Train or Canyon Creek treats, both from Nestle Purina, while three more complaints refer to Milo's Kitchen Home-Style Dog Treats from Del Monte, MSNBC finds. But so far, no specific products have been recalled because a definitive cause has not been determined, says an FDA rep. In November, the FDA released a warning about jerky treats; the agency continues to investigate treat samples and vets' records of dogs with liver disease, kidney failure, and Fanconi syndrome. While the FDA isn't certain about the cause, some pet owners have little doubt. Several petitions, including one with 3,400 signatures, are urging a recall of Chinese-made jerky treats. Meanwhile, Ohio Democrats Sen. Sherrod Brown and Rep. Dennis Kucinich have written to the FDA seeking an intensified probe. For its part, Nestle Purina says its treats are safe to feed as directed.

(Jun 11, 2009 7:08 AM CDT) Cristiano Ronaldo is now the highest-paid soccer star in the world, after the Portuguese winger was traded from Manchester United to Real Madrid for a record-breaking $131 million. It's Real's second eye-watering acquisition; on Monday, the club signed Brazilian forward Kaka from AC Milan for $92 million. As the Times of London reports, the two new players mark a splashy entrance for Florentino Perez, the Spanish billionaire who took over the club last week.

(Apr 1, 2020 7:21 AM CDT) Though it may seem the US missed its chance to get ahead of the coronavirus, one prominent name sees glimmers of hope. In a Washington Post op-ed, Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates notes that the choices we and our leaders make now will have an enormous impact on how soon case numbers start to go down, how long the economy remains shut down, and how many Americans will have to bury a loved one. First, Gates points out, there's no current consistent approach for getting people to stay home. The country's leaders need to be clear: Shutdown anywhere means shutdown everywhere, he writes, adding any confusion about this point will only extend the economic pain, raise the odds that the virus will return, and cause more deaths. Second, Gates notes, our testing efforts--both in number of tests available and in how they're administered--need improvement. Self-test swabs that don't expose health care workers, as well as better prioritization on who gets the tests, are just two areas Gates is pushing for. The third bullet point, per Gates: a data-based approach to developing treatments and a vaccine. He notes that although scientists are working as fast as they can to develop both, leaders can help by not stoking rumors or panic buying. Gates says we may very well be able to achieve a vaccine in less than 18 months, but in combination with that, we have to ensure we have enough doses for everyone, and enough facilities to manufacture them. In short, though things look dire and we still have a long way to go ... I still believe that if we make the right decisions now, informed by science, data, and the experience of medical professionals, we can save lives and get the country back to work, Gates writes. More from him here.

(Jan 29, 2013 4:21 PM) The first woman scheduled to be executed in the US since 2010 won a reprieve today, mere hours before she was scheduled to be taken to the Texas death chamber. A state district judge rescheduled Kimberly McCarthy's punishment for April 3 so lawyers could have more time to pursue an appeal focused on whether her predominantly white jury was improperly selected on the basis of race. McCarthy is black. McCarthy was sentenced to death for the 1997 robbery, beating, and fatal stabbing of her 71-year-old neighbor, Dorothy Booth. Investigators say Booth agreed to give McCarthy a cup of sugar before she was attacked with a butcher knife at her home. The killing was one of three linked to McCarthy, a former nursing home therapist who had been addicted to crack cocaine. McCarthy would have been the 13th woman executed in the US since the Supreme Court allowed capital punishment to resume in 1976. In that same period, more than 1,300 male inmates have been executed nationwide.

(Dec 29, 2014 7:30 AM) ISIS has killed 1,878 people in Syria--most of them civilians--over the six-month period since it proclaimed a caliphate in parts of Iraq and Syria in late June, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. Among the victims: four children, eight women, members of an opposing Sunni Muslim tribe, soldiers of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, insurgents fighting against Assad, foreign activists and journalists, and even about 120 of its own fighters. Although Reuters says it hasn't been able to independently confirm the British organization's numbers, it notes the publicized stonings and beheadings that ISIS has conducted for what it sees as offenses against Islam, ranging from adultery and homosexuality to blasphemy and stealing. By the monitor's count, 1,175 civilians have been beheaded, stoned, or shot; about 930 of those civilians were part of the Shaitat, a Sunni Muslim tribe that fought ISIS in eastern Syria. A mass grave containing 230 Shaitat bodies was said to have been discovered in mid-December, Al Arabiya reports. But the tally may even be on the low side, Al Arabiya notes: The observatory references hundreds of missing and detainees inside the IS jails, loss of communication with about a thousand men of al-Shaitaat tribe, [and] ... dozens of Kurds who have still been missing since ... September 16. (A recent ISIS execution video is said to have major differences from past videos.)

(Sep 20, 2019 7:40 AM CDT) This is not a nice way to die. That was all Neil Parker could think as he dragged himself along the ground on Australia's Mount Nebo after getting injured during a weekend hike. Luckily, the 54-year-old lived to tell the tale of his two-day ordeal, which began Sunday with plans to take a three-hour trek on the mountain outside of Brisbane and be back by lunch, USA Today reports. Instead, everything that could go wrong did. About halfway into his hike, Parker slipped and fell 20 feet down a waterfall, bouncing off a ledge before landing in a deep gully, breaking his left wrist and leaving his left leg clean snapped in half, he tells the Washington Post. He pulled out his phone to call for help, but there was no signal--and as he tried to put it back in his bag, he dropped it in the water. He hadn't told anyone where he was going and now had no communication: a worst-case scenario. But Parker didn't give up. He set his leg in a splint made out of walking poles and bandages and started a painful crawl. I had to carry my leg, and legs are very heavy when they're not connected to anything, he said. Parker did have snacks and pain meds, and he drank water from a creek; the weather also cooperated. When he didn't show up for work Monday, his boss called his family. A rescue helicopter found Parker Tuesday. He attributes his training as a Brisbane Bushwalkers Club guide as being a big part of his survival, though the club's leader tells CNN that the very capable and competent Parker flouted club guidelines by exploring the mountain solo. Normally, we recommend walking with a minimum of four people, he notes. Parker is just grateful to be alive. I'm pretty confident that I'll get back out there, he says, per the Post. It is my nature to be adventurous.

(Jun 29, 2020 12:50 PM CDT) I know it doesn't make any sense, says Chicago detective Brendan Deenihan, per KMOV. He's referring to the fatal shooting of two teenagers who asked their suspected shooter how tall he was. Victims Charles Riley, 16, and Jesean Francis, 17, were in a store buying candy when they encountered suspect Laroy Battle, 19, reports ABC News. Police say Battle is 6-3 or 6-4, and the teens commented on his height. There was no altercation, says Deenihan. There was nothing that would have set off Battle to be angry at these kids. ... They literally just asked him how tall he was. The two victims walked out of the store with a third teen, and police say Battle began following them before opening fire. The third teen escaped. Multiple security cameras picked up Battle, who was quickly identified after police made the images public. Authorities arrested him in a motel and say he had cut off his hair in an apparent attempt to alter his appearance. Battle faces two counts of first-degree murder in the June 20 killings. (Over the weekend, three children were fatally shot in the city.)

(Nov 23, 2017 2:32 AM) US and Japanese ships and aircraft were searching in the Philippine Sea on Thursday for three sailors missing since a US Navy aircraft crashed a day earlier, the AP reports. Eight people were rescued about 40 minutes after the crash of the C-2 Greyhound transport aircraft Wednesday afternoon, the Navy said. They were taken aboard the USS Ronald Reagan aircraft carrier and were in good condition. The C-2A twin-propeller plane came down about 500 nautical miles southeast of Okinawa as it was bringing passengers and cargo from Japan to the aircraft carrier, the Navy said in a statement. The cause wasn't clear but the crash would be investigated, the Navy said.

(Apr 11, 2020 9:30 AM CDT) The six-foot distance rule might not be enough after all. A new study out of China suggests we could all step back an extra seven feet to avoid coronavirus droplets that hang in the air for hours, AFP reports. Led by researchers from the Academy of Military Medical Sciences in Beijing, the team tested air and surface samples at a COVID-19 ward and an ICU unit at a Wuhan hospital. Among their findings: Virus droplets spread by so-called aerosolization were mostly near and downstream patients up to 13 feet away, while some were also upstream, up to eight feet away. The researchers say they found most of the virus contamination on floors, likely due to the force of gravity. High concentrations also existed on door knobs, garbage cans, computer mice, and bed rails. Furthermore, half of the samples from the soles of the ICU medical staff shoes tested positive, they write. On the upside, no hospital staff members were infected, indicating that appropriate precautions could effectively prevent infection. Then, this bomb: Our findings suggest that home isolation of persons with suspected COVID-19 might not be a good control strategy due to high contamination levels in the environment.

(May 6, 2019 4:44 PM CDT) Three family members sleeping in their trailer home were killed and a girl was seriously injured after a suspected drunk driver plowed his pickup truck into the home, police said Monday. The California Highway Patrol said Ismael Huazo-Jardinez was driving at a high rate of speed when his truck crashed into the trailer Saturday night in the agricultural community of Knights Landing near Sacramento, the AP reports. A 38-year-old man, a 34-year-old woman and a 10-year-old boy were killed. An 11-year-old girl was flown to a hospital with major injuries, KCRA-TV reported .

(Jul 18, 2017 6:29 PM CDT) President Trump had a previously unreported and undisclosed meeting with Vladimir Putin during the G-20 summit, White House officials confirmed Tuesday. The only other person present for the conversation was the Russian president's translator, the Hill reports. According to the Washington Post, Trump had his first face-to-face meeting with Putin during the summit July 7; later that same day he attended a couples-only dinner with other world leaders. Halfway through the meal, Trump left his seat and took one next to Putin. Their hour-long conversation was held just outside listening distance of other diners. Ian Bremmer of the think tank Eurasia Group says other leaders have said they were bemused, nonplussed, befuddled by the private conversation. The meeting was not disclosed to reporters traveling with Trump, and Reuters reports the White House isn't giving details about what was discussed during Trump's second meeting with Putin. National Security Council spokesperson Michael Anton tells CNN he can't say what was discussed as no staff were present. He says the dinner was attended by only leaders, spouses, and translators. Other White House officials say the only version of the meeting they have is Trump's own. Bremmer says Trump breached national security protocol by not having his own translator present for the conversation with Putin. Trump reportedly only brought a Japanese translator to the dinner to facilitate conversation with Japanese President Shinzo Abe.

(Dec 2, 2012 6:12 AM) Taliban suicide bombers attacked a joint US-Afghan air base in eastern Afghanistan early today, detonating explosives at the gate and sparking a gunbattle that lasted at least two hours with American helicopters firing down at militants before the attackers were defeated. The attackers and at least five Afghans were killed, officials said. A Taliban spokesman claimed responsibility. It was the largest clash at the Jalalabad air base since February, when a suicide car bombing at the gate killed nine Afghans. Two vehicles packed with explosives barreled toward the base's main gate around 6am local time. The first vehicle blew up at the gate, said a provincial police spokesman. Guards started shooting at the second vehicle before it too exploded, he added. Two Afghan students were caught up in the attack and killed, as were three other Afghans working at the base. Nine attackers took part in the assault in total, three of whom were killed in the suicide blasts and another six gunmen who died in the ensuing fighting that lasted a few hours. The final assessment of what happened this morning is not yet complete, but initial reports indicate there were three suicide bombers, said a military coalition spokesman.

(Oct 8, 2015 9:02 AM CDT) When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you. That's the Bible passage Clara Gantt read out loud as she was interviewed by WIS about an ordeal she won't soon forget. The South Carolina woman was heading to church near Blythewood in the pouring rain around 6am Sunday when a hidden sheet of floodwater swept her car into the current. She immediately called 911 (no one answered, she says), then her family. As she waited for help, all sorts of thoughts went through her head. I said, 'Dear Lord, are you taking me home right now?' she tells the station. Her grandson, Travis Catchings, finally got to the scene where his grandmother's car had floated: a churchyard. That's when Gantt says divine intervention kicked in. With a harness and rope, Catchings managed to push the car door open despite the rushing water. It was the hardest thing I've ever done in my life, he says, per NBC News. Right in front of Gantt's car was a giant red cross, and that's what the two clung to for the frightening five hours until rescuers came. Catchings even called his wife from their perch, thinking it was the last time he'd speak to her. It was the hardest phone call I've ever made, he tells WIS. I just told her that I loved her. Gantt, who suffered a broken ankle and hypothermia, doesn't think the cross was an accident. Jesus is my savior, she says. This story is not about me, it's about what he did to save me. And he set my feet on higher ground. At least 17 people have died in the South Carolina floods, including two pulled from a submerged vehicle Wednesday night, per the Weather Channel.

(Dec 9, 2011 4:43 PM) Ouch. Rick Perry gave an interview to the Des Moines Register today in which he criticized activist judges on the Supreme Court, but he suffered an awkward silence as he struggled to come up with the name of Sonia Sotomayor. In fact, the best he could do was Montemayor before a reporter helped him out. Later, he apparently forgot that the court had nine justices: I trust those independent school districts to make those decisions better than eight unelected and frankly unaccountable judges, he said. Think Progress quickly put up both videos, which recall his oops moment on the Energy Department.

(Dec 15, 2015 2:59 PM) If any of the old-timers at your holiday gatherings this year complain about how basketball players have gotten soft and the fouls aren't as hard as they used to be, tell them to blame the game's inventor. A newly discovered audio recording of James Naismith--thought to be the only one in existence--has him discussing the first ever basketball game, which took place in 1891 in Massachusetts, the Kansas City Star reports. It apparently didn't go well. The boys began tackling. Kicking and punching in the clinches, SBNation quotes the audio recording. They ended up in a free-for-all in the middle of the gym floor. According to Naismith's recollection, one player was knocked out and another suffered a dislocated shoulder. There were multiple black eyes to go around. The results led Naismith to develop more rules because he was afraid they'd kill each other. But in the end, We had a fine, clean sport. The recording--which comes from a January 1939 edition of the radio program We the People--was discovered by a University of Kansas professor while researching a book on Naismith and religion, the Star reports. It was found in the archives of a local radio station.

(Nov 7, 2013 2:44 AM) Nine men were shot, at least three of them fatally, in the latest multiple shooting in violence-plagued Detroit, the AP reports. Witnesses said they heard 30 to 40 shots fired as a barbershop on the city's east side was sprayed with bullets, the Detroit Free Press reports. Al's Barbershop was known for gambling, but police, who are looking for at least two suspects and two cars, don't know the motive for the shooting. I can't even imagine what would cause this type of violence, the city's police chief says. Detroit's new mayor-elect has vowed to reduce the troubled city's crime rate.

(Aug 10, 2010 9:13 AM CDT) Five people are thought to be dead in a plane that went down in rural Alaska last night with former Sen. Ted Stevens believed to be aboard, reports the AP. The NTSB reports that there are four survivors, but it's not known if the senator is among them. Former NASA administrator Sean O'Keefe was also reported aboard the plane; his fate is also unknown. Five good Samaritans were on the scene helping survivors as rescue crews struggled to reach the crash scene, which was first reported at 7pm yesterday. An Alaska National Guard spokesman said the Guard was called to the area in southwest Alaska after a passing aircraft saw the downed plane, but severe weather has hampered search and rescue efforts.

(Nov 2, 2018 2:41 AM CDT) More than 16 years after arguing that George W. Bush should add Cuba, Syria, and Libya to Iran, Iraq, and North Korea in the Axis of Evil, John Bolton has coined a new term. In a policy speech at a conference in Miami, the national security adviser dubbed Cuba, Nicaragua, and Venezuela the Troika of Tyranny in the western hemisphere, the Hill reports. In Cuba, Venezuela, and Nicaragua, we see the perils of poisonous ideologies left unchecked, and the dangers of domination and suppression, Bolton said. He referred to the leaders of the three countries as the Three Stooges of socialism, who are true believers, but they worship a false god. Bolton jabbed at the previous administration's policies, saying the Trump administration is concerned with sanctions, not selfies. Under this administration, we will no longer appease dictators and despots near our shores in this hemisphere, said Bolton. We will not reward firing squads, torturers, and murderers. He praised the election of right-wing leaders in Latin America, including Jair Bolsonaro in Brazil. Bolton announced new sanctions on Venezuela and Cuba, including a ban on American citizens trading in Venezuelan gold, and said Nicaragua would feel the full weight of America's robust sanctions until it allows free and fair elections to take place, the Guardian reports. (A source says President Trump discussed an invasion of Venezuela last year.)

(May 31, 2017 4:23 AM CDT) Police in Liverpool are investigating a suspected triple murder at the former home of one of the city's most famous sons. A 30-year-old man was arrested Tuesday night after a woman and two young children were found dead in an apartment on Falkner Street, where John Lennon lived with first wife Cynthia after they were married in 1962, the Guardian reports. Nearby homes were evacuated amid reports of a gas leak at the ground-floor property, reports the Liverpool Echo. The suspect, 30, was hospitalized after falling ill. Police say they believe this was a domestic incident and they're not seeking any other suspects. Neighbors say the apartment in the Toxteth district was a regular stop for Beatles fans touring the city.

(Jan 24, 2020 11:13 AM) Two people died after a massive explosion Friday leveled a Houston warehouse, damaging nearby buildings and homes and rousing people from their sleep miles away, authorities say. The explosion happened about 4:30am inside a building at Watson Grinding and Manufacturing, which makes valves and provides thermal-spray coatings for equipment, authorities say. The building was reduced to burning rubble and debris, and some surrounding buildings suffered heavy damage to parts of their walls and roofs, per the AP. Police Chief Art Acevedo confirmed the deaths Friday, noting authorities don't believe the explosion was intentional, though a criminal investigation is underway. Acevedo asked nearby residents to search their homes and neighborhoods for any debris--including body parts--and to contact police if they find anything.

(Oct 4, 2013 6:16 AM CDT) A deer-hunting trip in northeastern Oregon turned into a tragedy when a 14-year-old boy killed two others at the cabin where the group was staying, authorities said. The boy then accidentally shot and wounded himself. The shootings occurred at a remote cabin in the Blue Mountains, though many unanswered questions remained. Authorities would not say whether they think the shooting of the two men was an accident or intentional, or whether the shooting occurred inside or outside the cabin. It was also unclear whether the boy was related to others in the hunting party. The teenager had fled after shooting the men, but then apparently accidentally shot himself in the leg and returned to the cabin for help, say police. Another member of the group held the boy at gunpoint, forced him to get on the floor, then taped him to a chair. The boy and the two victims--ages 43 and 64--were from the Baker City area, about 25 miles east of Granite, the sheriff's office said. Their names were not released.

(Apr 5, 2010 10:37 AM CDT) Under fire for recent flaps over RNC spending, Chairman Michael Steele has hired a new special assistant for finance --and possibly walked into another gaffe. Neil S. Alpert, the 31-year-old wunderkind whose new job it will be to help raise money and find new funds, according to a spokesman, has done that before, for a DC baseball PAC. Problem is, according to a ruling, he also spent that money surreptitiously, to the tune of $70,000. Alpert was ordered by the city to repay the money, which it says he spent on rent, restaurants, and parking, and to fork over a $4,000 fine. He paid the latter, Politics Daily reports, but he never came up with the $70,000 that board members say was intended to give opportunities to inner-city youth. His expenses were beyond excessive. They were grandiose, says one. Another interested party had this to say of Alpert's new gig with Steele: They both deserve each other.

(Oct 18, 2016 6:52 AM CDT) Eight people were killed and at least 40 were wounded in Chicago shootings this weekend, creating a disturbing new statistic overall: 1,000 more people shot in the city in 2016 compared with the same time last year, the Chicago Tribune reports. By this time last year, there were 2,441 victims of gun violence, while this year's numbers have come in at (and perhaps even surpassed) 3,475. Homicide figures in the same time period jumped by nearly 200, from 409 to 595. CBS Chicago details each of the shootings that took place over the weekend, including a mass shooting Friday in which gunfire broke out from a passing car, killing one and wounding six. (Donald Trump says he wants to use stop-and-frisk only in Chicago.

(Jul 22, 2010 11:02 AM CDT) Time Warner is more than happy to install Mark Williams' cable: For the low-low price of $12,000. The cable company justifies the cost using the long driveway clause in its contract with the town of Lee, Mass., Failure Magazine reports, because Williams' house is a half-mile from its nearest customer, and 300 feet from the nearest utility poll. The town is furious, saying Time Warner is violating its contract to provide cable services for all its residents. A portion of the costs of extending cable plant to very sparsely populated areas is borne by the residents of the area who wish to receive the service, said a company spokesman. Otherwise, the cost of providing service to these areas is borne by our other customers, who receive no benefit from that construction. But the town isn't convinced; it's giving Time Warner 30 days to change its mind, or face a fine.

(Mar 21, 2015 12:56 PM CDT) A major technical glitch in Oregon's crime victim notification system triggered thousands of false notices yesterday evening about the release of inmates, including one on a notorious killer. KGW-TV reported that inmate Ward Weaver III was the subject of an erroneous alert. Corrections officials, however, confirmed that Weaver--convicted of aggravated murder in 2004 for the deaths of two young Oregon girls--remains locked up. A spokeswoman told KTVZ-TV that there were about 8,000 erroneous notifications that inmates were being released. Routine system maintenance appears to have triggered numerous notifications to victims in error, the Corrections Department said in a statement. The problem occurred in Oregon's Victim Information and Notification Everyday (VINE) system. The state said service contractor Appriss was working on repairs and planned to alert everyone who received bad information. Oregon launched the statewide VINE service in 2001, becoming the 11th state to adopt it, the Corrections Department said. In addition to inmates in state Corrections Department facilities, it monitors offenders held in county jails, Oregon Youth Authority facilities, and individuals on community supervision.

(Dec 20, 2015 12:14 PM) I don't want to talk about it, is the reaction one might expect of someone who's unexpectedly found himself with $750,000 less on his hands, and this is indeed the sentiment of New York Knicks forward Derrick Williams. Williams was out celebrating a team victory with friends early Saturday, reports the New York Post, when he met up with two women in the Meatpacking District. The 24-year-old invited them back to his place in Tribeca to continue the party, and party they did--according to Williams and law enforcement, the women danced right out the baller's door with a Louis Vuitton suitcase crammed with some three-quarters of a million dollars in jewelry. The Post notes that there may be a trend of women preying on bling-laden guys at clubs in the Big Apple, and Deadspin adds that Williams has been anything but shy about his shiny, pricey objects on social media. Says Williams, it's still up in the air.

(Sep 20, 2015 3:50 PM CDT) A new wildfire in Northern California has killed one person and destroyed or damaged 10 homes in Monterey County, a week after two other blazes killed five people and destroyed at least 1,400 homes, fire officials said today. The blaze burning about 2 miles north of the community of Jamesburg quickly grew to 1,200-acres after starting yesterday afternoon, the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection says. The person who died has not been identified. Farther north, two wildfires have destroyed 1,400 homes and continue to threaten thousands more, fire officials say. Damage assessment teams have counted 888 homes burned in Lake County, many of them in the town of Middletown, California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection spokesman Daniel Berlant says. He says teams are getting access to affected areas as firefighters make progress but that the count is far from over. The fire, which killed at least three people and charred 117 square miles, was 53% contained. Another 6,400 homes remain under threat. Another 535 homes were destroyed by a separate blaze that killed at least two people and that has burned 110 square miles in the Sierra Nevada foothills, about 170 miles southeast. That blaze was 70% contained today but continued to threaten thousands of structures.

(Dec 17, 2018 3:39 AM) A Colorado woman is still missing after an intensive search of her fiance's property that involved 75 officers from different law enforcement agencies, authorities say. Kelsey Berreth, a 29-year-old flight instructor from Woodland Park, has not been seen since Thanksgiving and authorities have described her disappearance as suspicious, NBC News reports. Authorities say the scores of officials spent two days searching the 35-acre property of fiance Patrick Frazee, who is the father of Berreth's 1-year-old daughter. Also, police say an anonymous donor has offered a $25,000 reward for information leading to Berreth's whereabouts, per the AP. In regard to the search, the Woodland Park Police Department says a backhoe and dogs were used to be as thorough as possible. Frazee has declined to meet face-to-face with investigators, though his attorney, Jeremy Loew, says he is cooperating with investigators and has provided his cellphone and DNA samples, the Colorado Springs Gazette reports. Berreth was reported missing by her mother on Dec. 2. Three days after she was last seen at a Safeway on Nov. 22, her cellphone pinged to around 800 miles away in Idaho. A text message sent to her employer from her phone said she wouldn't be at work the following week. Authorities haven't disclosed the contents of another message sent to Frazee.

(Nov 6, 2018 3:57 PM) Amid widespread reports of problems at polling places, the Election Protection headquarters of the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law tell ABC News that as of 11:30am Eastern time Tuesday, their voter help hotline had received about 10,000 calls in recent weeks. The organization has 20 call centers, which can be reached by calling 866-OUR-VOTE or texting Our Vote to 97779, and thousands of lawyers answering phones. We've had twice as many calls so far than we had in 2014, says a call center manager. Issues have ranged from malfunctioning voting machines to voter registration problems to ID requirement questions to suspicious mailers. (Google's top Election Day search term isn't in English.

(Jul 27, 2016 1:16 PM CDT) Donald Trump had one of his most buzzworthy news conferences yet on Wednesday, fielding questions on Israel, immigration, and the recent police shooting deaths of two black men to Florida's algae problem. But the most colorful parts, per the Miami Herald, came when Trump tried to tie together Hillary Clinton's email issues, hacked DNC emails released Friday by WikiLeaks, and Russia, which the Clinton camp says was behind the DNC hack to bolster Trump (an assessment experts have said looks likely, per Politico). Russia, if you're listening, I hope you're able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing, Trump said, posting a similar tweet a short time later. I think you will probably be rewarded mightily by our press. When an NBC reporter prodded Trump on whether he was asking the US' one-time biggest foe to hack Clinton, Trump replied, That's up to the president before telling her to be quiet, per the New York Times. Some on Twitter asked if Trump's request--which the Times called an extraordinary moment --amounted to treason, and reaction from Clinton's side was swift. This has to be the first time that a major presidential candidate has actively encouraged a foreign power to conduct espionage against his political opponent, adviser Jake Sullivan says. That's not hyperbole, those are just the facts. This has gone from being a matter of curiosity, and a matter of politics, to being a national security issue. VP nominee Mike Pence helped Trump double down, adding that Democrats are hyperfocusing on the source rather than the basic fact that they've been exposed as a party that rigs elections. Politico lists other Trump lines from the presser, including remarks about sleazeball and pervert Anthony Weiner, noting, I don't know who Putin is. He said one nice thing about me. ... I never met Putin.

(Apr 6, 2010 2:32 AM CDT) An investment firm that claims it saved celebrity photographer Annie Leibovitz from financial ruin is now suing her for failure to pay the company $800,000 in service and finder fees. Brunswick Capital Partners wasn't paid after finding a private equity group to advance a $40 million loan to bail out the strapped Vanity Fair photog, according to court documents filed in Manhattan. Leibovitz, 60, nearly lost all of her art and the rest of her holdings last year after violating the terms of a $24 million loan, reports Reuters.

(Apr 22, 2011 3:22 PM CDT) Two New York City residents hailed a cab at LaGuardia last weekend and asked the driver to go 3,000 miles west. He complied, and the three are expected to arrive in Los Angeles this weekend. Investment banker John Belitsky is picking up the $5,000 tab for the epic ride with buddy Dan Wuebben, reports the New York Post. It's actually not a bad deal. If cabbie Mohammed Alam kept the meter running for the journey, the fare would be closer to $17,000, notes WHDH-TV. Whatever it costs, you can't buy this, said Belitsky. The trio made it to Vegas yesterday. When they get to LA, Alam will turn around and drive home with another friend, but Belitsky and Wuebben might fly back.

(Aug 23, 2018 6:59 PM CDT) When German drugmaker Bayer acquired agribusiness Monsanto for $66 billion in June, the deal came with more than 5,000 lawsuits centered on claims that the latter's glyphosate-based weedkillers, such as Roundup, cause cancer. As of the end of July, the number of lawsuits was about 8,000, Reuters reports. In a Thursday conference call Bayer CEO Werner Baumann said, These numbers may rise or fall over time, but our view is that the number is not indicative of the merits of the plaintiff's cases --even after a recent $289 million jury award to California groundskeeper dying of cancer allegedly connected to his use of glyphosate. Baumann said the company will appeal that decision, which he called wrong and inconsistent with the robust science-based conclusions of regulators and health authorities worldwide, according to Bloomberg. Still, since the Aug. 10 verdict in California, Bayer shares have reportedly lost more than 10%. And analysts say that the glyphosate cases could cost the company some $5 billion. Nonetheless, the herbicide is still in demand, Liam Condon of Bayer's agriculture unit tells Bloomberg, saying, Demand for glyphosate depends on the growing conditions, and not a jury decision in California. Following the verdict, however, some California cities say they will no longer use glyphosate products. The cities of Benicia and Novato are going glyphosate-free, KGO-TV reports. The same goes for Santa Rosa, according to the Press Democrat. (Traces of glyphosate have been found in breakfast cereals)

(Sep 4, 2018 7:00 AM CDT) Tuesday is the first day of Senate Judiciary Committee hearings on Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh--but only those who were able to review 42,000 pages of documents overnight will be fully prepared, according to Sen. Chuck Schumer. The Senate minority leader blasted the absurd process Monday night after lawyer Bill Burck released the documents, which relate to Kavanaugh's service in the George W. Bush White House, the Washington Post reports. Not a single senator will be able to review these records before tomorrow, tweeted the Democrat. Republicans know this has been the least transparent SCOTUS process in history and the hearings should be delayed until we can fully review Judge Kavanaugh's records, Schumer said. The judiciary committee, however, tweeted within hours of the release of the documents that staff for the Republican majority had completed their review of each and every one of these documents. The first day of the hearings will feature opening statements from senators and Kavanaugh, with questioning expected to start Wednesday, the AP reports. According to the latest Politico poll, support for Kavanaugh falls along party lines, with 37% saying he should be confirmed, 29% against, and 34% undecided. (The White House had blocked the release of 100,000 pages of Kavanaugh documents.)

(Apr 16, 2018 1:54 PM CDT) It may be a fresh week for Scott Pruitt, but it's not one void of uncomfortable headlines. ABC News reports a government watchdog has determined the EPA violated section 710 of the Financial Services and General Government Appropriations Act when it spent $43,000 on a secure phone booth for Pruitt's office. The Government Accountability Office explains that because the cost was in excess of $5,000, the EPA was required to alert Congress. Presidential appointees may make improvements to their offices up to that limit without telling Congress, and the GAO struck down the EPA's argument, reports the Washington Post: that the nearly $25,000 spent on the booth and the $18,000 in installation costs shouldn't be classified as redecoration and therefore shouldn't be beholden to that limit. Because EPA did not comply with the notification requirement, the funds were not legally available at the time EPA incurred the obligation, the GAO found and reported in a letter to the Senate Democrats who had asked for the spending review, per the AP. The GAO says the EPA is legally required to report its violation to Congress and to President Trump, and a rep for the agency says it will get Congress the necessary information this week. The GAO did not pass any judgment on whether the booth was a justified expense; EPA's failure to make the necessary notification is the only subject of this opinion, per the letter.

(Nov 26, 2018 10:45 AM) A San Diego businessman is donating $1 million in the wake of Northern California's devastating Camp Fire--but he's doing so in an unconventional way. Bob Wilson, 89, plans to pass out $1,000 checks on Tuesday to each of the 980 students and 105 staff members from Paradise High School. Much of the town of Paradise was destroyed in the blaze, the high school was closed, and evacuated students scattered, their lives upended. Wilson was heartbroken when thinking back on his own idyllic high school days and realizing Paradise High students are missing out on making those same memories, he tells NBC Los Angeles. Wilson plans to travel more than 500 miles to the other end of his state to personally deliver the checks, the Los Angeles Times reports. There will be an assembly somewhere in Chico, though it's not yet clear exactly where they'll gather, the Paradise Post reports. I thought about, 'OK, do you go to the Red Cross? How do you do this?' Wilson says, per the Times. Then I thought, 'No, it's too slow, too bureaucratic. What I want to do is I want to give every one of those kids $1,000.' He says he doesn't care what they do with the money, he just wants to lift their spirits. (In California last week, an example of what Thanksgiving's about. )

(Aug 20, 2012 8:46 AM CDT) General Motors and Isuzu are recalling more than 258,000 SUVs after getting reports of 28 fires apparently caused by short-circuits in the cars' power windows and door locks. The recall covers many vehicle makes from the 2006 and 2007 model years, including the Chevy TrailBlazer, GMC Envoy, Buick Rainier, Isuzu Ascender, and Saab 97-X, the AP reports. Though there haven't been reports of injuries, the blazes have been fairly dramatic. The fire burned the entire driver's side of the vehicle, a portion of the front passenger seat, and the roof, explained one woman whose car caught fire in her driveway. The danger exists primarily in states that use salts and other chemicals to clear their roads of ice. Those chemicals can get inside the driver's door, corroding the circuits and ultimately causing them to short out and catch fire, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Take your car back to the dealer, and it'll replace the switches free of charge.

(Dec 18, 2019 10:25 AM) Rain Dove has long denied being the one who leaked the text messages in which Asia Argento appears to admit to having had sex in 2013, when she was 37, with a then-17-year-old Jimmy Bennett. Now, Dove has put out a confessional video titled Exposing Myself: Sharing Lies & Secrets, in which the LGBTQ activist takes part in a purge of the times I've lied, stolen, cheated, manipulated, and created darkness. Among those lies, admits Dove (who goes by they/them pronouns) in the hourlong video, is that they actually did sell Argento's texts to TMZ, for $10,000. I asked for advice from my closest friends, some of which are very powerful and wonderful people and very connected in the industry, and they said just do it, Dove said, adding they used the money to pay off individuals to help keep their secret, to donate to groups that fight sexual assault, and to pay rent. Dove had previously admitted to reporting the texts to police but not to being the one who leaked them. Dove tells NBC News they accepted the money in case they needed to retain legal counsel to fend off any potential libel lawsuits, and that they only went to TMZ because Dove's reports to law enforcement were initially unsuccessful. In the video, Dove also cops to some other lies, including that they were a former firefighter--a Colorado fire official says Dove was a wildfire prevention officer, a role that doesn't involve coming into contact with actual fire--and that they'd attended UC Berkeley.

(Jul 5, 2012 8:38 AM CDT) Nearly 300,000 computers could be knocked off the Internet Monday, when the FBI shuts down a temporary system that's been running since last year. The problem started when hackers took control of more than 570,000 computers worldwide in an online ad scam, the AP reports. When dealing with the virus, known as DNS Changer, the FBI realized that dismantling the malicious servers that were controlling the infected computers would actually cause the victims to lose Internet service entirely. So the FBI instead installed two clean servers to take over for the malicious servers, but those will be shut down at 12:01am Monday. They were costing tens of thousands of dollars to run, the Telegraph notes. The FBI also set up a website where people can quickly check to see if their computer is affected by the malware, but even though it only takes a moment, more than 277,000 are still estimated to be infected, including 64,000 US customers and 50 of the Fortune 500 companies. Repeated warnings have been sent by Internet service providers and even posted on Facebook and Google. Anyone who doesn't fix the problem by Monday will need to contact their ISP for help getting rid of the virus and getting back online. See if you're infected here.

(Nov 22, 2016 3:16 PM) The Dow Jones industrial average is closing above 19,000 for the first time as a post-election rally drives indexes further into record territory, the AP reports. Tuesday's gain marked the sixth record high close for the index of 30 blue chip stocks since the presidential election two weeks ago. Discount store chains led the way higher after strong earnings. Burlington Stores surged 16% and Dollar Tree gained 8%. Health care companies slumped, however, after weak earnings from medical device maker Medtronic. The Dow rose 67 points, or 0.3%, to 19,023. Other indexes also closed at records. The Standard & Poor's 500 index rose 4 points, or 0.2%, to 2,202. The Nasdaq added 17 points, or 0.3%, to 5,386.

(Dec 8, 2009 7:29 PM) An estimated 20,000 law-enforcement officials from the US and Canada today joined families and friends of the four cops gunned down last week at cafe in Washington state. Some 2,100 cars made a four-hour procession through Lakewood and Tacoma to a service at the Tacoma Dome. We had to show our support, not just for the department but for the families, one officer from New York told the News Tribune. Everything those officers were doing, we've all done and continue to do. A lot of us work nights. We drink coffee just to stay awake. Now you have to keep any eye open all the time. Both eyes really.

(Jun 13, 2012 3:24 AM CDT) A hoax call about a yacht explosion earlier this week risked the lives of rescuers, diverted resources, and cost taxpayers at least $330,000, Coast Guard officials revealed. We have 21 souls on board, 20 in the water right now. I have three deceased on board, nine injured because of the explosion, the hoaxster said in a call that investigators now believe came from land in southern New York or northern New Jersey, the Wall Street Journal reports. The caller was more convincing than ordinary pranksters, according to officials. The Coast Guard and at least five other agencies took part in an extensive search for victims, and a burn unit at a New Jersey hospital called in 50 staffers. Audio of the call has been released, and a $3,000 reward is being offered for information leading to the arrest of the caller, who could face up to 10 years in prison if convicted of making a false distress call, which is a federal felony. Investigators say the caller's voice is similar to that of a person who falsely reported a sinking fishing vessel at this time last year.

(Jul 1, 2014 8:51 AM CDT) Brutal work schedules and stressful lifestyles have put China in the midst of what Bloomberg calls an epidemic: China Youth Daily has reported that some 600,000 people die every year due to overwork, while China Radio International has put the figure at 1,600 a day. Bloomberg zeroes in on the story of Li Jianhua, a banking regulator who always put the cause of the party and the people first, according to his boss. He began working for the government in 1985, traveling and toiling even when he was ill; he skipped a recommended hospital visit because he didn't have time. This month, he died in the midst of overnight work at age 48. His bosses applauded his efforts in a statement, calling him a model for party members and cadres of the China Banking Regulatory Commission and urging others to be like him, always firm in ideals and beliefs, the broader interest, loyal to the cause of the party and the people, unremitting struggle, sacrificing everything. His case mirrors those of other white-collar workers in a culture that puts community first, says an expert. In China, notes another: Any job worth doing is worth doing excessively. Japan has grappled with similar issues, but the country's affluenza (has) led to questioning ... of norms and values. China, on the other hand, is still a rising economy, and people are still buying into that hardworking ethos. Click for the full piece.

(Mar 27, 2009 6:28 AM CDT) Polar bears, whose Arctic habitat is thawing out, have become the symbols of climate change, but they're also prime targets for hunters in Canada, where trophy-hungry sportsmen cough up as much as $35,000 to bag a bear, the Independent reports. This is probably the toughest hunt you can ever do, said one Canadian guide who leads the wealthy hunters hailing from places as far away as Poland. Indigenous communities are allotted a killing quota and often sell their tags to foreigners, who keep only the hide. Unlike the US, Canada, home to 60% of the world's 22,000 polar bears, allows outsiders to conduct the trophy hunts. But with two-thirds of the polar bear population projected to be lost by 2050, the practice could prove unsustainable. Nations are now debating new hunting rules.

(Aug 12, 2010 1:31 PM CDT) The forensic magic of CSI aside, the US is buried under an embarrassing avalanche of unprocessed rape kits, Marie Claire reports in a lengthy look at the consequences. The issue got attention in 2003, when untested kits from more than 500,000 criminal cases were found in labs around the country, but the evidence backlog remains at 180,000, Congress estimates. What other crimes would be disregarded like this? asked the director of a rape clinic. How could you close a case and never open the evidence? The issue gets even scarier when you consider that most rapes are perpetrated by serial rapists, a UMass psychology professor said. So while victims wait--often years--for their samples to be tested and the DNA results matched, perpetrators are out there victimizing other women. But there are hopeful signs. One New York rep is asking Congress for more money for testing, and both Illinois and New York have committed to quick testing, with promising results. New York City now has a 70% arrest rate--three times the national average.

(Aug 10, 2014 5:29 PM CDT) Today brought word from officials that militants in Iraq killed some 500 members of the Yazidi minority community, but much better news is also emerging: With tens of thousands of Yazidis trapped on a mountain by militants, about 20,000 of them have managed to flee within the past 24 hours, the Guardian reports. With help from Syrian Kurdish rebels and US airstrikes, the refugees traveled over a mountain range into Syria before arriving in Iraqi Kurdistan, the paper explains. They were greeted with supplies from Kurdish officials. But CNN reports via an Iraqi official that there were previously up to 60,000 Yazidis stuck on Mount Sinjar, leaving tens of thousands still trapped.

(Jun 26, 2009 2:23 PM CDT) Vijay Singh is sticking by embattled buddy and alleged swindler R. Allen Stanford. The star golfer, who's been sporting the Stanford Companies logo even though he no longer gets paid to do so, offered to put up $500,000 of the billionaire's bail, reports CNBC. He was denied the honor because he is not a US citizen. Vijay's opinion is that Stanford has yet to be proven guilty and until then has chosen to act supportively, a rep for the golfer said. Even without Singh's help, Stanford managed to scrape up some cash for a $2 million bond and a $100,000 deposit, though a Houston judge today stayed his release until at least Monday after prosecutors filed a motion that Stanford might flee, the Chronicle adds.

(Feb 8, 2012 12:53 PM) The company that built the stage ahead of last summer's deadly Indiana State Fair collapse showed plain indifference to safety standards, according to the state Labor Department. Mid-America Sound Corp. has been cited with three major safety violations in connection with the Aug. 13 collapse that killed seven and left 58 injured. The evidence demonstrated that the Mid-America Sound Corp. was aware of the appropriate requirements and demonstrated a plain indifference to complying with those requirements, an official told reporters at the release of an Indiana Occupational Safety and Health Administration report on the collapse. The department issued a $63,000 fine against the company. It is also citing the Indiana State Fair Commission, which officials say failed to conduct proper safety evaluations of its concert venues, and a stagehands union for safety regulation violations. The official noted that the OSHA report investigated workplace violations but was not aimed at determining what caused the collapse. Click for more on the tragedy.

(Oct 2, 2015 8:10 AM CDT) Robert Samuel is a professional time-killer. As the founder and CEO of Same Ole Line Dudes (or SOLD) in New York, he'll keep your place in line to ensure you get your hands on iPhones, the latest Air Jordans, or the hottest Broadway tix in town. SOLD has even helped New Yorkers with brunch waitlists, sample sales, and passports. And because he's paid for his time--$25 for the first hour, and $10 for every half-hour thereafter--long lines are likely a lot more welcome to him than they are to the rest of us. In fact, Samuel recently made nearly $1,000 when he spent 48 hours at the very head of the line for the iPhone 6, reports Salon, which calls the business part of the Uber-ization of everything. Since starting SOLD after getting laid off in 2012, Samuel now has 15 employees. He says he makes up to $1,000 a week, though the New York Times notes that because his business is cyclical, he currently also has a full-time job as a security guard. The line-waiting doesn't always sound pleasant. SOLD employee Adonis Porch tells Salon he's had to wait in hot weather, freezing weather, rain, sleet, and snow. Samuel says that while his customers can be superwealthy, most are just everyday people for whom time is a real commodity, reports CNBC. Moms hire me because they can't wait in lines in the mornings. They have to take the kids off to school. Though in that wealthy vein, the Times recounts the time a group from the Middle East had nine SOLD workers wait in line for Cronuts. Whatever he's doing, his advice: The rule is always respect the order of things. First come first served. (This line stretched more than a mile last November.)

(Aug 19, 2009 3:10 PM CDT) Markets ended higher today after a dismal start, buoyed by an ascendant energy sector, the Wall Street Journal reports. The seesaw comes as no surprise to one strategist: This market is highly vulnerable to get pushed around right now. That's a factor of light volume. The Dow, once down 50, finished up 61.22 at 9,279.16. The S&P 500 rose 6.79 to 996.46. And the Nasdaq tacked on 13.32, to 1,969.24.

(Jan 23, 2012 9:28 AM) Newt Gingrich might just be on his way to another primary win. The latest InsiderAdvantage/Majority Opinion Research poll has Gingrich leading Romney 34.4% to 25.6% in Florida, followed by Ron Paul (13.1%) and Rick Santorum (10.7%). The poll has Gingrich leading Romney among every age and race category, but his lead is most pronounced among young people--Romney got an astonishing 0.0% of 18- to 29-year-olds. The poll could, of course, be an outlier, the Weekly Standard points out, noting that RealClearPolitics' average for the race, which incorporates the InsiderAdvantage figures, has Romney on top 36.7% to 26%. Public Policy Polling tweeted last night that the race was neck and neck, later elaborating: 2 more people picked Mitt than Newt out of about 600 people we polled tonight...that's how close we're talking.

(Oct 29, 2008 3:19 PM CDT) Volatility ruled Wall Street today as investors waffled in their response to the expected Fed rate cut, MarketWatch reports. Though the session's final hour saw the Dow rocket to a 250-point gain in light trading, that evaporated and the Dow closed down 74.16 at 8,990.96. The Nasdaq, however, finished up 7.74 at 1,657.21, while the S&P 500 lost 10.42 to close at 930.09. We're due for a slowdown in the volatility, one fund manager told the Wall Street Journal, but who knows when that will actually come? The central banks of China and Norway also reduced interest rates, with the Bank of England, Bank of Japan and others expected to follow suit next week.

(Nov 12, 2008 3:30 PM) Stocks plunged again today as another wave of poor earning reports soured investor sentiment, the Wall Street Journal reports. Henry Paulson's announcement of yet another new direction for the federal bailout failed to inspire confidence as the Dow closed down 411.30 points at 8,283. The Nasdaq lost 81.69 points to close at 1,499, while the S&P 500 lost 46.65 points to settle at 852. Recent bad news from Best Buy, Macy's, Starbucks, and Circuit City all demonstrate the troubles of operating a consumer-dependent business in the current climate. But some of the stock market's recent declines may be driven by another factor, notes one market researcher: forced stock sales by hedge funds compelled to raise cash to fill redemption requests by clients.

(Apr 16, 2009 3:20 PM CDT) Investors looked past bad news on home construction to signs of economic stabilization and drove broad advances in stocks today, the Wall Street Journal reports. HP rose 5.3% on reports that it's the top computer seller. Nokia rocketed 11.5% on signs the cell-phone market was picking up again. The Dow closed up 95.81 at 8,125.43. The Nasdaq rose 43.64, to 1,670.44, and the S&P 500 gained 13.24, settling at 865.30.

(Mar 24, 2009 3:11 PM CDT) Stocks fell today as some took profits after yesterday's impressive rally, and utilities, energy firms and financials gave back some gains, the Wall Street Journal reports. Despite falling 115.57 to close at 7,660.29, the Dow has climbed in seven of the past 10 sessions, and remains around 20% higher than its bear-market low. The Nasdaq fell 37.78, to 1,517.99, and the S&P 500 lost 16.67 to settle at 806.25.

(Sep 19, 2013 12:23 PM CDT) Eleven more years of drunken arm wrestling, whale shooting, and crazy fish stories? Maybe. Vladimir Putin says he just might run for president of Russia again when this, his third term, is up in 2018. Putin made the comment during what RIA Novosti calls a playful exchange with a former French prime minister at a recent forum: Putin asked Francois Fillon whether he would run for president in France; Fillon refused to answer unless Putin answered first; Putin responded with I don't exclude [the possibility]. The AP notes that if he does indeed serve four terms, Putin--who has also served as prime minister, don't forget--will have been Russia's longest-serving leader since Josef Stalin.

(Sep 22, 2010 11:26 AM CDT) Kenneth Kratz was already in trouble for allegedly sexting one of his clients: Now that two more women have come forward, the prominent Wisconsin DA is in even hotter water. Maria Ruskiewicz claims she met Kratz in 2008 to see about getting a drug-conviction pardon, and he quickly started sending her text messages implying he wanted a sexual relationship in return. Another woman also came forward last week claiming Kratz invited her to an autopsy-- provided I act as his girlfriend and would wear high heels and a skirt. Ruskiewicz, who was pardoned last month, came forward after hearing about victim Stephanie Van Groll. He abuses his power, not only with women, but with women in certain situations who are extremely vulnerable to his authority, she tells the AP. Though Kratz has rejected calls to resign, he went on medical leave Monday and says he will stay on it indefinitely. Click here to read about Van Groll's claims, or here for a list of Kratz's text messages to her.

(Nov 7, 2010 11:12 AM) Gene Robinson, the openly gay Episcopalian whose election to bishop reverberated through the religious world, will take early retirement in 2013, reports the Boston Globe. The last seven years have taken their toll on me, my family, and you, Robinson told an annual convention of the Episcopal Diocese of New Hampshire, adding, this decision comes after much prayer and discernment about what God wants for us. Death threats, and the now-worldwide controversy surrounding your election of me as bishop, have been a constant strain, not just on me, but on my beloved husband, Mark, who has faithfully stood with me every minute of the last seven years. Robinson added that he would not be a lame-duck bishop over the next two years, and pledged to be fully engaged.

(Feb 14, 2014 6:04 AM) The last time Oscar Pistorius tweeted was Feb. 12, 2013, two days before he shot and killed girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp in what he maintains was a tragic accident in which he mistook her for an intruder. Today brought a new tweet: A few words from my heart on oscarpistorius.com. There, the double-amputee Olympian posted a brief statement. It reads in part: No words can adequately capture my feelings about the devastating accident that consumes me with sorrow. The loss of Reeva and the complete trauma of that day, I will carry with me for the rest of my life. Meanwhile, Steenkamp's parents, Barry and June, released a statement of their own. All we are looking for is closure and to know that our daughter did not suffer on that tragic Valentine's Day, they said, per the Guardian. Steenkamp's uncle noted a private family gathering would be held today in Cape Town to mark the anniversary. We will release balloons in her memory, he told the AFP. They will be red and white, her favorite colors. Steenkamp's parents also said a foundation, possibly focusing on women's abuse issues, would be set up in their daughter's honor once Pistorius' murder trial is over. It begins March 3.

(Dec 17, 2010 11:35 AM) When retiring Congressman Patrick Kennedy leaves DC in the next week or two, it marks the end of an American milestone, notes the Boston Globe. No Kennedy will be in the House, the Senate, or the White House for the first time since 1947--the year a not-yet-30 JFK became a Massachusetts congressman. Kennedy-philes have hope, however, because at least four family members--including RFK Jr. and Teddy's widow, Vicki--could conceivably gain office before long. As for Patrick: I feel liberated to try to live a life as foreign to me as anything--a life outside of politics,'' he tells the Globe. I'm actually for the first time in my life venturing out on my own. This is unfamiliar territory.''

(Oct 17, 2012 8:43 AM CDT) US builders started construction on single-family homes and apartments in September at the fastest pace since July 2008, a further indication that the housing recovery is strengthening. The Commerce Department says builders broke ground at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 872,000 in September. That's an increase of 15% from the August level. Applications for building permits, a good sign of future construction, jumped nearly 12% to an annual rate of 894,000, also the highest since July 2008. The strength in September came from both single-family construction, which rose 11%, and apartments, which increased 25.1%. Construction activity is now 82.5% higher than the recession low hit in April 2009, although activity is still below healthy levels.

(Nov 17, 2009 4:44 AM) During last night's Daily Show analysis of Khaled Sheikh Mohammed's upcoming trial, Jon Stewart pointed out Rudy Giuliani's blatant flip-flopping on the issue between 2006 and now. Though 2006 Giuliani believed that America is dedicated to the rule of law and We are a free society, we have respect for peoples' rights, 2009 Giuliani says that This seems to be an over-concern with the rights of terrorists. I guess Giuliani from 2006 is saying that the rule of law is something either you have or you don't, Stewart concludes. You can't cover up the lack of rule of law with some thin strands of principle that you pull almost comically over giant, barren areas of... That was a bald joke. Watch the video above.

(Dec 3, 2012 7:23 AM) Get ready for one of Twitter's newer handles, @Pontifex, which belongs to none other than one Pope Benedict XVI. The pontiff doesn't plan on using it until Dec. 12, the Vatican revealed today, but come next Wednesday, he'll begin tweeting in six languages. His first tweets will take a Q&A format, with the Qs being questions about faith, reports the AP. It won't be Benedict's first foray into the 140-character world, as he sent a tweet last year announcing the launch of a Vatican news portal. A rep says the pontiff will tweet as often as he wants, and he'll likely reach a sizable crowd: His tweetless account already claims 47,000 followers.

(Apr 14, 2009 8:32 AM CDT) Mel Gibson filed a response to his wife's divorce papers yesterday, People reports, giving their official date of separation as Aug. 26, 2006--less than a month after his infamous Malibu DUI. The Gibsons attended church together four days before Robyn signed the divorce papers, but Mel was alone on Easter Sunday, and was overheard confiding the divorce news to parishioners. They'll do this amicably, a source says of the couple, both age 53 and married 28 years. There's a lot of mutual respect and they've worked hard on their marriage and worked hard on their separation. They'll handle the divorce in the same respectful way.

(Sep 20, 2016 6:14 PM CDT) What is believed to be the world's oldest library is set to reopen to the public in the coming months, and the architect behind its restoration can't wait to share its magical aura, the Guardian reports. One of the startling aspects about restoring a building this old is that you never know what's behind a wall, Aziza Chaouni tells the National. You could scrape it and find a painting, take out the painting and find a door. One such door at Morocco's Khizanat al-Qarawiyyin library--founded in 859--is made of iron and has four locks, the keys for which were held by four separate people. The ancient library was committed to protecting its most valuable works. That spirit of protection continues on in the restoration of Khizanat al-Qarawiyyin. Chaouni and her team have added underground canals and temperature controls to keep unwanted moisture from the ancient texts, some of which date back to the 600s. They've also added a machine to keep the works just moist enough to prevent cracking. Of the 4,000 or so books the restoration is protecting, the most valuable is a copy of the Koran written on camel skin from the ninth century, Bustle reports. The library is scheduled to reopen by 2017--five years after the restoration project began. Chaouni hopes it will be embraced by the people like a second home. (Researchers made a fantastically exciting Koran discovery at a library last year.)

(Sep 16, 2014 2:45 PM CDT) A little sleuthing and a little luck has resulted in a Tennessee woman getting back a Bible she lost in 1972. But as the Tennessean explains, it wasn't just any Bible to Deborah Savely. Her dad had given it to her as a girl a decade previously, and he died the year before she lost it. Savely carried it with her as a freshman to Volunteer State Community College in Gallatin and says she read from it every day--until the day it apparently slipped out of her backpack and went missing. Daddy died in October of 1971, she tells jrn.com. I started at Vol State as a student in September of 1972. So, this was all I had of Daddy. The keepsake remained lost until a retired staffer at the college was cleaning out her basement last month and found it in a box, one she had filled with debris while cleaning up the campus after a powerful tornado in 2006. How it ended up in there is a mystery, but Betty Gibson noticed the Bible's inscription and enlisted the help of other staffers at the school. After a long search, they located Savely in Lebanon, Tenn., and she returned to the school with her 87-year-old mother last week to retrieve the book. My Daddy's infused in that Bible, says Savely. Whenever I lay my hand on the page, I can feel that big old hand of his come over mine.

(Jan 31, 2015 5:15 PM) A fire took hold at a Brooklyn warehouse at 6:20 this morning, and as of late afternoon, the seven-alarm blaze is still going strong, the New York Times reports. Smoke can be seen from outside the city. Some 200 firefighters have been at the scene; none have been injured in the lengthy effort. But the contents of the warehouse--loads of New York City records--might not have fared so well. The company in charge of the facility, CitiStorage, hosts some four million boxes of records on hospitals, courts, and children's services in two warehouses, the New York Daily News reports. To make matters worse, the firefighters are dealing with terrible cold. They're extremely, extremely exposed, says the department chief. The cold can be painful; it's going to hurt you. The conditions are as bad for the firefighters as they are good for the fire, he tells the Times. Teams will likely be needed in the area for weeks. The fire comes after an earlier small blaze at the same building, which firefighters were able to put out quickly. The causes of both fires are under investigation, the Times notes.

(May 24, 2011 1:57 PM CDT) Oprah Winfrey's TV tenure can be summed up in a single word: miraculous, writes Mary Elizabeth Williams at Salon. Winfrey's entire empire is built on the idea that miracles--not just good fortune or persistence or community but honest-to-God miracles--are within our reach every day, she notes. And those miracles can range from amaaaaazing pants to the sister you never knew you had. Sure, she's manipulative; her show's formulaic and self-aggrandizing. She could make Bono think, 'Now there's somebody with a messiah complex.' But we still need Oprah, because she traffics in just one commodity: happiness. That's how she remains relevant, even when daytime talk shows are fading. Life hands us wars and floods and sick children. Oprah hands us car keys and money for schools and stories about people who are trying to do good in the world, Williams writes. Those aren't crazy dreams that seemed interesting in 1986; they're what get us the hell out of bed in the morning. Click for the full column.

(Jul 12, 2013 5:47 PM CDT) A zombie mayor would make for one hell of a headline (not to mention a movie), but the newly elected leader of a small town in Mexico isn't dead in real life--just on paper. According to Mexican newspaper Reforma, Lenin Carballido faked his own death in 2010 due to police charges for allegedly participating in a gang rape, the AP and Washington Post report. He successfully obtained an official coroner's certificate, and the charges were dropped. Carballido then resurrected himself this year to run for local government in San Agustin Amatengo, Oaxaca. The Oaxaca state prosecutors' office says the statute of limitations has not run out on the crime he was originally charged with, and it plans to revive the case and arrest him. The state attorney general's office will investigate and bring charges, even if the suspect is recognized by electoral authorities as a municipal authority, it says, per the AP. Carballido's party, the Democratic Revolutionary Party, says it wasn't aware their candidate was legally dead. He fooled the prosecutors' office, he fooled the office of records, he fooled electoral officials, says the PRD's state leader. If all this is true, he cannot take office as mayor.

(Nov 18, 2010 9:02 AM) And, they're off! General Motors stock jumped from the initial IPO price of $33 per share to $35.80 after GM Chief Executive Dan Akerson rang the opening bell this morning, returning the icon of American manufacturing to life as a publicly traded company. The Dow Jones industrial average rose nearly 120 points in early morning trading, reports the AP. The Wall Street Journal notes that investors and analysts will be following today's IPO carefully: If shares pop more than the typical 10% to 20%, GM and the US may have charged too little. Click here for more on how much GM is expected to pay back, and what the IPO will do to the government's stake.

(Apr 18, 2009 8:47 AM CDT) Susan Boyle and Britain's Got Talent judge Piers Morgan were reunited (remotely) on Larry King's show last night, where Morgan predicted a worldwide chart-topping CD within the year for the woman he called a Rocky Balboa. Morgan also apologized to the 48-year-old Scottish singer-- We thought you were going to be a bit of a joke act, to be honest with you --and asked her to out dinner, which Boyle promptly accepted. Boyle sang a bit of Celine Dion's My Heart Will Go On for King, earning an Amazing. That was just absolutely stunning, from Morgan. To sing that with no musical backing is unbelievable. You have the voice of an angel, Susan. Meanwhile an earlier recording of the jazzy blues ballad Cry Me a River, performed by Boyle in 1999 for a local charity CD, has already topped a million hits on YouTube.

(Mar 12, 2013 8:12 AM CDT) A Ukrainian journalist who was kidnapped in Syria on Oct. 9, reportedly by rebels, managed to escape yesterday, she tells RIA Novosti. I took a terrible risk, as I had to walk across an area leading on to minefields, Ankhar Kochneva says. I walked and walked, and the first person I met was the one I needed. I met normal people who helped me to get to the army's side. She says she was held by the Free Syrian Army for a $50 million ransom. I thought they would have killed me eventually and would say that it was the army who did it, she notes, per CNN. So I made a decision to escape. The kidnappers' living conditions are poor and my conditions were even worse, she recounts, adding that she expects to undergo lengthy medical treatment as a result of her captivity. She describes losing 66 pounds and being kept in a room with a broken window all winter. Kochneva voiced support for the regime against the rebels, CNN notes. Everyone shouts that Syria is doing something wrong, but I'm sorry, what should it do? What would, for example, Germany do if someone would destroy its railway, kidnap its people, and ask money for them, kill them? ... The world has gone blind.

(Nov 12, 2012 12:46 PM) YouTube channels are facing a reckoning: As it seeks to make the site more television-like, Google is launching a second round of investments in YouTube channels--but only 30% to 40% are likely to get a new installment of cash, an exec tells Advertising Age. At the moment, YouTube has 160 channels. But a year after beginning the funding process, the site now has a clearer sense of which ones are on the road to success. The new funding will be based on viewership hours, as opposed to number of views or how much cash a channel is generating, Fast Company notes. Our biggest objective was to kick-start the ecosystem, to bring in great creators, to deepen our relationships with advertisers and to grow viewership, says content exec Jamie Byrne, who's helming the process. If channels don't get funding, it's not the end: They can stick around, and YouTube bosses are hoping content makers will keep at it, AllThingsD reports. Channels that do get funding are looking at similar figures to those in the first round of investment: between $1 million and $5 million. It's a tough gig for the channel's producers, notes Ad Age: Before they start selling their own ads, they have to pay back YouTube's investment.

(Oct 8, 2013 2:07 AM CDT) New York police have made a breakthrough in a case that horrified the city in the summer of 1991. Thanks to a tip and DNA evidence, they've identified and brought in for questioning the mother of the dead little girl who became known as Baby Hope, the New York Times reports. Highway workers found the toddler tied up in a plastic bag inside a cooler in Washington Heights. The girl, believed to have been between 3 and 5 years old, had been starved, sexually abused, beaten, and strangled, but was never reported missing. We have been able to identify the mother of Baby Hope as a result of, in my judgement, outstanding detective work, Ray Kelly said. The mother has been cooperating. Police haven't arrested her and wouldn't identify her, though sources said she was originally from Mexico and had lived in Queens. After interviewing her, police at last know the girl's name, though they haven't released that, either. The breakthrough follows a fresh push this summer to solve the case, in which police offered a $12,000 reward for information. A woman responded, saying she may have spoken to Baby Hope's sister. (Another recent cold case breakthrough: Police say an elderly couple killed their spouses and children decades ago.)

(Apr 30, 2016 9:36 AM CDT) An Indiana University student who is a poet and a performer has been named the Indianapolis 500's first official poet since the early 20th century. Adam Henze of Bloomington beat out more than 200 others who submitted Indy 500-themed poems for the contest co-sponsored by Indiana Humanities, reports the AP. The competition revives an Indy 500 tradition from the 1920s, when an official poem was included in the race day program. Henze is an educator and a doctoral candidate at IU. He receives a $1,000 cash prize and two tickets to the 100th running of the race on May 29. His poem, titled For Those Who Love Fast, Loud Things, will appear in the official race program. Henze also will read his winning poem at the Speedway during qualification weekend.

(Apr 9, 2008 10:37 AM CDT) Slowing sales, rising inflation, and skyrocketing energy costs have small-business owners cutting back on hiring and tightening their spending as they brace for a continuing economic slowdown, USA Today reports. A National Federation of Independent Business survey puts small-business confidence last month at its lowest quarterly point since 1980. The survey said 33% more business owners reported declines in sales growth. We're seeing recession readings, said an NFIB economist. But, he added, few firms reported being affected by the credit crisis, and many are poised to spend if the economy reignites late this year. There is, he said, a fundamental trust in the economy.

(Jul 19, 2010 12:34 PM CDT) What has putting up a paywall done for the folks at the Times? Driven away most of their readers, predictably. Only 150,000 signed up for Times+ accounts, and only 15,000 of them actually agreed to pay when their free trial ran out, according to an unconfirmed report on Beehive City, written by former Times media correspondent Dan Sabbagh. This figure, apparently, is considered disappointing, he writes. And with good reason. Based on those figures only 12% of the Times pre-paywall readership was even willing to sign up for the free trial, according to PaidContent, and only 10% of that group actually decided to pay, meaning a slim 1.2% of original readers have agreed to pony up. Even during the free month, visits fell 58%; they were down by 67% once the paywall went up--which might actually be better-than-expected. It also has 12,500 iPad customers, which is a pretty nice number given the relatively low number of iPad owners.

(Jun 12, 2008 8:11 AM CDT) Today's marijuana is the strongest crop since the heyday of Cheech and Chong, a new study finds. University researchers who analyzed seized samples dating back to the '70s found the level of active ingredient THC hit an average of 9.6% last year, up almost 1% from the year before and more than double the 4% recorded for 1983, the AP reports. The rise in potency, attributed to new growing techniques, has health officials worried. The director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse, which funded the study, warned that the stronger weed could trigger changes in the brain leading to addiction and mental illness. A professor who serves as an adviser to a pro-marijuana group said that the danger was overstated, as users tend to adjust to stronger marijuana by smoking less of it.

(Jul 2, 2016 10:20 AM CDT) Apple is being sued by a subsidiary of China's broadcasting regulator over a propaganda film more than 20 years old, the AP reports. A Beijing court says the case has been brought by a production center that alleges that Apple has infringed its exclusive online rights to broadcast a film that depicts Chinese fighting against Japanese soldiers in northern China in the early 1930s. The plaintiff is also suing the developer and operator of the Youku HD app available on Apple's App Store that it says enabled users to watch the film and caused it huge economic losses, according to the Beijing Haidian District People's Court. The court says it has accepted the case brought by Movie Satellite Channel Program Production Center that comes under the State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film, and Television. The plaintiff alleges that Apple has infringed its exclusive online rights to broadcast Xuebo dixiao, which loosely translates as Bloody Fight with the Fierce Enemy and was first shown in 1994. The production center is also suing Heyi Information and Technology (Beijing) Company Ltd., which developed and operated the Youku HD app, the court said in an online statement Thursday. The app is sold by Youku.com, according to information on Apple's iTunes site. The Youku site is one of China's best known movie and TV program streaming sites and is owned by Youku Tudou Inc. The plaintiff wants the two companies to immediately stop broadcasting the film and is seeking compensation of $7,500 plus its reasonable expenditure of $3,000 in attempting to stop the infringement of its rights, the court said.

(Feb 3, 2014 9:28 AM) Families split by the Koreas' North-South divide could soon be reunited for the first time since the Korean War's 1953 end, though uncertainty remains. The North today agreed to talks aimed at planning the reunions, which the South has proposed run from Feb. 17 to 22, the New York Times reports. Seoul wanted to hold the planning talks last Wednesday, but the North gave no reply for a week; the two sides have now settled on this Wednesday. Such reunions have occurred 18 times previously, beginning in 1985, bringing together 22,000 Koreans. That came to an end in 2010, and the AFP reports an urgency to their potential kick-start: Most of the relatives who would be reunited are quite old, and many have died. Indeed, the South held a lottery to select 100 participants in August, and two are now dead. One potential sticking point, however, is planned US-South Korean military exercises. Pyongyang says the exercises are aimed at a future invasion of the North and wants them canceled, but the South intends to hold them later this month. Some 73,000 South Koreans are on a waiting list to visit with relatives they haven't seen in six decades; half of those on the list are older than 80, the Times notes.

(Feb 13, 2015 8:49 AM) Bill and Kirsten Bresnan are off to an early Valentine's Day start--they've been sharing holiday-themed cards since Feb. 1. But that's not even close to the whole story. Bill has penned a love note to his wife nearly every day since 1974. Bresnan tells the Asbury Park Press that Kris was initially a student of his in a six-week prep class for the Series 7 exam; when they started commuting on the same Long Island Railroad train, he began by jotting notes to her on napkins. It grew from there to, by today's count, 10,000 letters, organized chronologically in some 25 boxes. The couple, who say they've never had a fight in all those years and prefer to talk it out instead of argue, call the collection their love diary. The signature of each letter bears an infinity sign. Some of the notes are short and sweet-- Thank you for being you and loving me, scribbled on a postcard in December 1989--but sometimes Bill goes big, reports ABC News. In the 50 days leading up to Kris' 50th birthday, for instance, he sent a series of 50 special cards. But in the end, Bill says, the key is to focus on and treasure each other, not phones and other distractions; he says dinner each night is eaten by candlelight, with romantic music as a backdrop. As for this Valentine's Day, We'll probably have a nice dinner, a special bottle of wine, and a piece of chocolate, he says. We're past the craving for jewelry and expensive nonsense. We just enjoy simply being together. As for his letter-writing habit, he expresses a single qualm to CBS New York: As I get older, my biggest fear is the day I forget to give it to her. (One couple's love letters from WWI were recently uncovered.)

(Apr 16, 2016 1:20 PM CDT) An incredibly rare and valuable stamp stolen right out of its exhibition frame at a 1955 convention resurfaced this month in New York and has promptly rocked the philatelic world. Inverted Jenny stamps are considered the most famous in America: A printing accident in 1918 produced a single sheet of 100 of the stamps, each featuring an upside-down Curtiss JN-4H biplane, NPR explains. In 1955, someone swiped a block of four from the collection of Ethel Stewart McCoy, whose father was a Dow Jones founder. It is one of the most notorious crimes in philatelic history, Scott English, administrator of the American Philatelic Research Library, tells the AP. The stamp was submitted this month to New York auction house Spink USA by an unnamed man in his 20s who hails from the UK and says he inherited it from his grandfather; it's unclear if he knew it was stolen. A press release from Spink USA states that the inverted Jenny was determined to be position 76 in the pane of 100 subjects --the one in the bottom right of the block of four stolen. Identification took some sleuthing: In a long-ago attempt to disguise it, the stamp had been reperforated at right and most of the gum was removed, so the pencil position numbers written on the gummed side had been lost. Positions 75 and 65 turned up in 1958 and 1982, respectively, and the new discovery leaves only one of the four stolen stamps unaccounted for. (In 2014, a dealer offered a $50,000 reward for the missing inverted Jennies.) The American Philatelic Research Library at the American Philatelic Society was given rights to the stamps by McCoy, who died in 1980, and is working with the auction house to take possession of the stamp. (By one measure, this stamp is the most expensive thing ever sold.)

(Jul 21, 2012 9:26 AM CDT) Thirteen years after the Columbine High School shootings, gun laws remain little-different in Colorado, reports the New York Times, as James Holmes over the past two months was able to legally buy an assault rifle, a shotgun, and two handguns. Colorado has enacted a few minor restrictions on guns since 1999--it's harder to carry concealed weapons, there are regulations on selling firearms at gun shows, and it's illegal to make straw man purchases for people who could not legally buy guns otherwise--but the state mostly prohibits local governments from restricting gun rights. Experts are, unsurprisingly, divided whether this latest example of gun violence will change anything. The Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence and New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg have called for tighter gun controls. But just as Columbine and the shooting of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords caused few major changes, many think this latest tragedy will also do little to shake up the status quo. I think very little will happen because our political leaders are so afraid of the gun lobby, one advocate, whose son died in the Columbine shooting, told the Wall Street Journal.

(May 14, 2012 3:21 PM CDT) Brian McNamee has testified that he first injected Roger Clemens with steroids when they were with the Toronto Blue Jays in 1998. McNamee said today he injected Clemens in the buttocks in Clemens' apartment at the pitcher's request. McNamee is the chief witness for the prosecution in the perjury trial of the seven-time Cy Young Award winner. He is the only person who will testify with firsthand knowledge of Clemens using performance-enhancing drugs. McNamee, wearing a tan suit and speaking softly in a thick New York accent, says he saved items that he used while injecting Clemens with performance-enhancing drugs, including gauze, tissues, syringes, cotton balls and needles. Prosecutors say they have evidence that some of the materials tested positive for the drugs as well as Clemens' DNA. Clemens' lawyers have said they will contend that the items saved by McNamee have been tainted because they were stored so haphazardly. They refer to the collection as a hodgepodge of garbage. Clemens' team won a few small victories today, over how much of McNamee's checkered past it could present to jurors in an attempt to diminish his credibility.

(Dec 23, 2013 9:04 AM) A month before she died of ovarian cancer in September 2011, Brenda Schmitz wrote down a few wishes for her family--her husband, her four boys, and the special woman she hoped they would find. They weren't to be read until after her husband had remarried. This year, a friend fulfilled a promise to Schmitz by sending the letter to Des Moines radio station Star 102.5, which, for the past two decades, has granted Christmas wishes. When you are in receipt of this letter, I will already have lost my battle to ovarian cancer, Schmitz wrote. I have a wish for David and the boys and the woman and her family if she has kids also. (New wife Jane does indeed have two.) I want them to know I love them very much and they always feel safe in a world of pain. She asked for pampering for Jane, who deserves it for being a step-mother to all those boys ... I love you whoever you are. For the family, she wished for a magical trip, and for her treatment team she asked for a night out full of drinks, food and fun. The station, with sponsors' backing, is sending the family to Disney World, where Jane will get a massage. Meanwhile, her treatment team will receive three food drops from a caterer. David Schmitz had heard he was getting a wish granted, but he didn't know who it was from until it was read out live on Thursday, with him in the studio, the Des Moines Register reports. It's not surprising, 'cause the last year and a half she's shown so many signs that she's there, David says. Read her letter in full here.

(May 9, 2012 6:00 AM CDT) Humanity has tossed a lot of plastic into the Pacific Ocean in the last 40 years. The level of small plastic pieces in the so-called Great Pacific Garbage Patch has increased 100-fold over that span, the Scripps Institution of Oceanography found in a new study. We did not expect to find this, one researcher tells the BBC. To find such a clear pattern and such a large increase was very surprising. Leave plastic in the ocean long enough and it'll break down into small easy-to-swallow pieces--an earlier study indicated that 9% of fish have plastic in their stomachs. There's another environmental consequence, too: Marine insects called Halobates sericeus, or sea skaters, have been using the plastic as a place to lay eggs, so their population is exploding in the region and could impact plankton and fish eggs, which they feed on. The Great Pacific Garbage Patch is a Texas-sized area, born from ocean currents that conspire to assemble trash and detritus, MSNBC explains.

(Sep 13, 2013 7:09 AM CDT) In 1972, more than two dozen South Korean fisherman were kidnapped by the North while sailing the Yellow Sea. Forty-one years later, Chun Wook-pyo, 68, has made it back home, South Korea today confirmed. He's the only crewman from those two boats to have escaped, says a rep for the Seoul-based Abductees' Family Union, per the Daily Mail. And he's one of thousands of fishermen believed to have been taken by the North across decades, though Pyongyang denies it. Some 450 have never returned home, reports the New York Times. The escape, first reported last month, is rare; the Times reports that eight fisherman are previously said to have made it back since 2000. And the ordeal doesn't necessarily end upon reaching home: According to the Mail, South Korean officials are typically suspicious of escapees like Chun, fearing they could have been indoctrinated by the North and set free as a spy. They may also be concerned that the person claiming to be Chun could in fact be a North Korean agent. Chun was reportedly questioned for two weeks upon his arrival in the South before rejoining his family. While very few additional details were given, the rep tells Bloomberg that Chun worked as a truck driver in North Korea. (In other North Korea news, white steam has been spotted at a reactor there; what that means here.)