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(Oct 26, 2020 3:06 PM CDT) Has anyone seen Fungie? A dolphin that has resided in Ireland's Dingle Bay for nearly four decades has up and vanished, and residents aren't just missing him for sentimental reasons (though there's that, too)--Fungie had become a vital part of the local economy. Euronews reports that the bottlenose dolphin, who showed up in the bay's waters in 1983 and is believed to be in his mid-40s, has spurred a thriving sightseeing industry, with a dozen or so companies offering boat tours for a chance to spot him. He also holds the Guinness record for the oldest solitary dolphin in the world, per the Telegraph. Fishermen usually have Fungie sightings every few hours, but he disappeared completely last week. Kevin Flannery, the director of a nearby aquarium, says Fungie was last spotted frolicking with some humpback whales and that it's possible Fungie simply took off with them, or perhaps left Dingle Bay in search of a different environment, per Euronews. Or, Flannery notes, because the life span of dolphins in the wild is only about 50 years, there could be a more somber reason that Fungie is gone. Per the Clare Echo, a dead dolphin that washed ashore at the Trump International Golf Links resort, a couple of hours away in Doonbeg, is not Fungie. A search effort is now underway to track him down, and Dingle Bay locals are still hoping there will be a happy ending. We're all feeling really sad, one woman who's lived in the area her whole life tells Sky News, via the Telegraph. We've been sharing this body of water for 30 years. I grew up swimming with him.

(Nov 19, 2020 5:45 PM) The days without an arrest turned into months and then years after someone killed Christopher Alvin Dailey in 1995. While never closed, the Alabama case went cold without new evidence. Then the phone rang at the Decatur Police Department. Johnny Dwight Whited called investigators saying he wanted to confess to the slaying, authorities said Thursday. Whited, 53, of Trinity, was charged with murder after providing details that matched evidence and information collected after Dailey's death, police said in a statement. Court records don't include a defense attorney on the murder charge, the AP reports, but Whited already was awaiting trial on a methamphetamine charge, with his trial scheduled for May. Whited's lawyer in the drug case, Griff Belser, said he was unaware of the arrest in the slaying until it was announced by police. He has not mentioned anything about this other matter to me, Belser said.

(Feb 12, 2019 9:50 AM) More than three decades after police fruitlessly searched a Las Vegas swap meet for a missing 3-year-old, his mother has been charged with murder. Amy Fleming, 60, was arrested in Florida on Jan. 29 and is being extradited to Nevada to face a charge that she killed her son before setting out for the swap meet with the boy's stepfather, Lee Luster, on Aug. 2, 1986. We believe they were at the swap meet as a diversion and [Francillon Pierre] was already deceased, an investigator said at a Monday news conference, noting neighbors hadn't seen the boy for weeks prior to that event, per the South Florida Sun Sentinel. Eight months earlier, a babysitter had found 30 to 40 welts on Francillon's neck and back, reports the Las Vegas Review-Journal. Fleming and Luster, who moved to Florida in 1987, were found guilty of felony child abuse and sentenced to probation. We definitely believe that child abuse could have played a factor in this homicide, the investigator said. At this point, evidence points to [Fleming], but the investigation is ongoing, an officer added, per the Sun Sentinel. Fleming initially claimed Francillon vanished while the family was shopping for a bicycle. She later implicated his father, who was cleared as a suspect; he then lived in Haiti. Police say new witnesses and evidence have emerged since 2017, when officers learned someone tried to apply for a fraudulent birth certificate in Francillon's name. KTNV describes an attempt at identity theft from overseas. Officers also reference torn-up letters sent between Fleming and Luster while they were jailed. In one, Fleming allegedly wrote, What happened was totally unintentional, I'm sorry. Police haven't said how they believe Francillon died; no body was ever found.

(Mar 3, 2020 7:01 PM) A man who survived being shot in the face during a white supremacist's deadly 2012 attack on a Sikh temple near Milwaukee has died of complications stemming from his injuries, the AP reports. Baba Punjab Singh died Monday, bringing the victim death toll in the temple attack to seven and making it the worst mass shooting in Wisconsin since 2005. White supremacist Wade Michael Page burst into the Sikh temple on Aug. 5, 2012, and shot 10 people, killing six and wounding four, including Singh. Page killed himself during a firefight with a police officer in the temple parking lot. I think, collectively as a community, (Singh's death) reopens a lot of wounds that might have scabbed over, said Pardeep Kaleka, whose father, temple president Satwant Singh Kaleka, was killed in the shooting. But we express condolences to his family and just hope that they over the next couple weeks can have some closure.

(Dec 3, 2018 7:17 AM) What started with a protest against rising fuel taxes has become the most sustained unrest the country has dealt with since the Paris uprising in May 1968--and authorities have decided to talk to the protesters instead of declaring a state of emergency. President Emanuel Macron instructed Prime Minister Edouard Philippe to hold emergency talks after he returned from the G-20 summit Sunday and toured the damage in Paris, the Guardian reports. More than 130 people were injured and more than 400 arrested during Saturday's unrest, in which cars were burned, stores looted, and the Arc de Triomphe tagged with graffiti, the AP reports. Macron was booed by crowd members as he toured the damages caused by the anti-government gilets jaunes, protesters who wore the bright yellow vests French motorists are required to keep in their cars in case of emergency, France24 reports. There were also injuries and arrests in demonstrations in other French cities Saturday. The government says Philippe will announce new measures this week. He is holding talks with other political leaders Monday and is expected to meet protest leaders on Tuesday, followed by a debate in the National Assembly on Wednesday. Socialist leader Olivier Faure urged the government to defuse protests by dropping the fuel tax hikes and restoring a recently dropped wealth tax.

(Jan 13, 2020 4:41 PM) In another what-is-it-with-millennials moment, they've been found to be drinking less wine than their elders. Consumption fell last year in the US for the first time since 1994, a 0.9% drop, the Wall Street Journal reports. An industry researcher said baby boomers had driven the good years. Millennials are just not embracing wine with open arms compared to previous generations, said Brandy Rand of IWSR. With the rise in low and no-alcohol products and general consumer trends toward health and wellness, wine is in a tough place. That generation instead is reaching for cocktails, hard seltzers and nonalcoholic beer, for starters. One forecast for 2019 had predicted this, per Wine Enthusiast Magazine. Saying that millennials weren't drinking up as the industry had expected, the shift was attributed to a host of factors, including their limited financial capacity, a preference for premium spirits and craft beers, delayed careers, negative health messaging regarding alcohol and the legalization of cannabis. Or millennials might just have better taste. Sales of wine by value climbed 1.1% last year from 2018. That's because bottles selling for $10 or less are falling in popularity, while sales of the more expensive stuff are rising.

(Dec 25, 2018 10:41 AM) Ross, Rachel, Chandler, Monica, Joey, and Phoebe haven't been up to new adventures since 2004, but their older ones are still making a ton of money for the cast. In an interesting look at the show's money-making prowess, Marketplace reports that each cast member makes $20 million per year thanks to syndication. That's good news for David Schwimmer, Jennifer Aniston, Matthew Perry, Courteney Cox, Matt LeBlanc, and Lisa Kudrow, who formed what Marketplace calls a mini-union after the second season and insisted they all be paid the same. They might even make more in the near future, now that the show will remain on Netflix through 2019, notes Business Insider. (Perry says he can't remember season three.

(Apr 26, 2018 12:04 PM CDT) Mass graves that authorities say could contain more than 2,000 bodies have been discovered in Rwanda nearly a quarter-century after the country's genocide, and further graves are being sought nearby. The new discovery is being called the most significant in a long time in this East African nation that is still recovering from the 1994 killings of more than 800,000 ethnic Tutsi and moderate ethnic Hutus. Some Rwandans are shocked and dismayed that residents of the community outside the capital, Kigali, where the mass graves were found kept quiet about them for so many years. Between 2,000 and 3,000 people are thought to be buried in the graves based on the number of area residents who went missing during the genocide, Rashid Rwigamba, an official with the genocide survivors' organization Ibuka, tells the AP.

(Oct 23, 2018 5:55 AM CDT) A Northern California judge on Monday upheld a jury's verdict that found Monsanto's weed killer caused a groundskeeper's cancer, but she slashed the amount of money to be paid from $289 million to $78 million. In denying Monsanto's request for a new trial, San Francisco Superior Court Judge Suzanne Bolanos cut the jury's punitive damages from $250 million to $39 million, per the AP, which is the same amount the jury awarded Dewayne Johnson for other damages. The jury awarded punitive damages--designed to punish companies that juries determine have purposely misbehaved and to deter others--after it found the agribusiness had purposely ignored warnings and evidence that its popular Roundup product causes cancer, including Johnson's lymphoma. Johnson's suit is among hundreds alleging Roundup caused cancer, but the first one to go to trial.

(Mar 7, 2018 6:51 PM) Forensic anthropology was not well developed in the early 20th century, the study states. So University of Tennessee professor emeritus Richard Jantz used modern quantitative techniques, including a computer program that estimates sex, ancestry, and stature from bone measurements, to analyze the bones. Well, technically he only analyzed the measurements of the bones, as the actual bones were lost sometime after 1940. He also compared the measurements to a photo of Earhart and some of her surviving clothing. Jantz found the bones are closer to Earhart than they are to 99% of people included in a sample. If the bones do not belong to Amelia Earhart, then they are from someone very similar to her, the study states. Jantz concludes Earhart likely died as a castaway on Nikumaroro. (One man is adamant the aviator was executed at a prison on Saipan.)

(Nov 19, 2018 12:35 AM) A man who disappeared on the last day of his 2008 murder trial has been captured in Mexico and returned to Texas, authorities say. Hidalgo County prosecutors said in a news release that 35-year-old Oscar Davila Rodriguez was returned to the US last week. The statement didn't include details about how or where he was captured. The tireless work of dedicated law enforcement on both sides of the border ensured that justice was served, the district attorney said. Rodriguez was free on $100,000 bond during his murder trial in the 2005 killing of his 19-year-old ex-girlfriend, Nydia Maldonado, the AP reports. Authorities say he broke into her home in McAllen, stabbed her multiple times and strangled her.

(Apr 30, 2018 10:40 AM CDT) When Dick Troy got the news last September, I almost buckled my knees, he tells the CBC, noting the eerie feeling that overtook him. What he was told over the phone by a US reporter: that wreckage from a plane and a parachute harness with the words Lt. (P) Troy had washed ashore in Jacksonville, Fla.--artifacts of the plane crash that took the life of his 29-year-old brother, Royal Canadian Navy pilot Barry Troy, in 1958. Per CTV News, Barry's jet disappeared during a training exercise off the coast of Florida on a foggy February day that year; neither the plane nor his remains were ever found. The only remnants the US Navy recovered were a log book, a helmet, and some pieces of metal. For months, even years, I kept expecting we would hear he was on a desert island or something and he was fine, says Barry's sister, Sandra Berry. Dick Troy tells the CBC his family didn't hear much after the initial reports, and his parents died without ever getting any closure on their son. What brought these new artifacts to the surface: Hurricane Irma, which pounded the Sunshine State last September. They'll now be put on display at Nova Scotia's Shearwater Aviation Museum, except for a small metal piece of the wing of Barry Troy's jet. We're going to bring it and bury it in with my mom and dad, Berry tells CTV. So part of him will be with them. (Veteran crabbers, vanished like dust in the wind. )

(Oct 12, 2020 7:30 PM CDT) In 2005, a tourist took a few ancient artifacts that didn't actually belong to her back home to Canada. Things haven't always gone well for her in the intervening years. She had breast cancer twice, she said, the last time resulting in a double mastectomy. Her family has had financial problems. So she decided Pompeii can have the stuff back, the Guardian reports. The Archaeological Park of Pompeii received a package containing two mosaic tiles, parts of an amphora and a piece of a ceramic wall--and a letter. Please, take them back, they bring bad luck, it said. Saying that she was young and dumb when she stole the items, per CNN, the woman wrote, I wanted to have a piece of history that couldn't be bought. The package contained another return, stones also swiped in 2005 by a Canadian couple. We took them without thinking of the pain and suffering these poor souls experienced during the eruption of Vesuvius and their terrible death, their letter said. We are sorry, please forgive us for making this terrible choice. Mount Vesuvius erupted in 79 AD, burying the residents of Pompeii, and recent research confirms that it was an awful death. The Archaeological Park says returns and confessions aren't unusual; they have their own museum space there. We're good people, the Canadian woman wrote, and I don't want to pass this curse on to my family or children.

(Sep 10, 2018 6:22 AM CDT) Les Moonves is departing CBS as sexual harassment allegations continue to pile up--but he won't exactly be leaving empty-handed. The New York Times, citing sources familiar with the settlement agreement, reports that the longtime chief executive could receive more than $120 million under his agreement with the network, even after around $20 million is deducted from the severance deal and donated to organizations supporting equality in the workplace and the #MeToo movement. The network is also reshaping its board of directors, with six new members, including three women. But even with the new slate of directors and the hefty donation, CBS is likely to face a backlash if Moonves walks away with a massive sum, reports CNN, which notes that a CEO of Moonves' stature could usually expect a gargantuan severance package. CBS says the $20 million donation will happen immediately, but Moonves' compensation will depend upon the result of the ongoing independent investigation into the sexual harassment allegations against him, reports Variety. Chief operating officer Joe Ianniello has been named interim CEO.

(Jan 14, 2019 1:14 PM) Winter is coming, and now we know precisely when. On Sunday night HBO premiered a new 90-second teaser for Game of Thrones' eighth and final season, and if that wasn't exciting enough for GoT fans, it ended with a date: April 14. That's when the first of the final six episodes will air, Variety reports. As for that teaser, it features three of the surviving Stark children reuniting in the crypts of Winterfell--but Bran is conspicuously absent. Many viewers are talking about why, and some have a wild theory involving Bran being the Night King. See Mashable for more on that. (Or see video of another memorable meeting coming up on season 8.

(Nov 2, 2018 1:52 PM CDT) The longest-serving member of the House is trailing his Democrat challenger by one point, according to new poll numbers released by Alaska Survey Research. The Hill reports that 48% of likely Alaska voters say they will cast ballots for Republican Don Young, who has served since 1973, while 49% say they will support Democrat Alyse Galvin in her bid for the state's sole House seat; 3% are undecided. As the longest-serving member of the House, the 85-year-old Young was given the ceremonial role of Dean of the House of Representatives last year, per Talk Media News, which notes that Alaska is one of the most reliably (Republican) states in the nation and has two Republican senators. Galvin, 53, is a newcomer to politics. The Alaska Survey Research poll, which surveyed 500 likely voters late last month and has a margin of error of plus or minus 4.4 percentage points, also found that 44% of respondents have a negative impression of Young and 12% are neutral; 17% have a negative impression of Galvin, while 21% are neutral and 22% aren't sure who she is. (Across the US, something special is happening with early voting.)

(Feb 18, 2019 11:00 AM) The ecstatic sailor shown kissing a woman in Times Square celebrating the end of World War II has died, the AP reports. George Mendonsa died two days before his 96th birthday. Mendonsa's daughter, Sharon Molleur, told the Providence Journal Mendonsa fell and had a seizure Sunday at the assisted living facility in Middletown, RI, where he lived with his wife of 70 years. Mendonsa was shown kissing Greta Zimmer Friedman, a dental assistant in a nurse's uniform, on Aug. 14, 1945. Known as V-J Day, it was the day Japan surrendered to the United States. The photo by Alfred Eisenstaedt became one of the most famous photographs of the 20th century. It was years before Mendonsa and Friedman were confirmed to be the couple. In recent years, Friedman's side of the story made headlines, causing its apparently romantic nature to be reassessed, Smithsonian Magazine reports: It wasn't a romantic event. It was just an event of 'thank god the war is over,' Friedman once said. It wasn't my choice to be kissed. The guy just came over and grabbed! ... I felt that he was very strong. He was just holding me tight. I'm not sure about the kiss... it was just somebody celebrating. She told the Library of Congress Mendonsa was actually with the woman who would become his wife at the time. (Friedman died in 2016 at the age of 92.)

(Jul 16, 2018 4:43 PM CDT) The discovery of the wreckage of a small aircraft in the remote woods of Michigan has likely solved a mystery two decades in the making. Per the Detroit News, NTSB officials were dispatched to an area outside St. Ignace on Michigan's Upper Peninsula last week after employees in a national forest found a crashed Piper Cherokee 235. The plane is believed to be the one that Mark and Janet Davies were in when they took off from Drummond Island in Lake Huron in 1997 and were never seen or heard from again. The husband and wife were headed to the town of Howell 300 miles south when radar showed Mark, the pilot, made a sudden turn north then disappeared in foggy weather. A search party fanned out in search of the plane but no sign of it was seen until Wednesday, when a surveyor came upon the crash site. The plane was officially ruled lost and its occupants presumed dead. Janet's brother, Michael Smith, said he didn't think that this revelation would ever come. Pretty much everyone had given up hope, he told WPBN. Now, he says, the family can have closure. Smith will reportedly be giving authorities a sample of his DNA in order to verify the identity of his sister's remains. Smith said a small ceremony is being planned to commemorate the long-awaited ending to his sister's story.

(May 11, 2018 2:20 AM CDT) A tragic day in Australia: Police say four children and three adults were found dead from gunshot wounds Friday in what is believed to be the country's deadliest mass shooting since 1996. Western Australia state Police Commissioner Chris Dawson told reporters the horrific incident happened at a rural property in the village of Osmington, near the tourist town of Margaret River, the AP reports. He said all seven people killed resided at the property, which police rushed to early Friday after receiving a phone call from somebody Dawson described as a male person connected to the property. Two firearms were located at the scene and at this point in time there are no concerns about wider public safety, police said in a statement.

(Jul 25, 2018 8:58 AM CDT) Till death do us part may have sounded good to Tini Owens in 1978, but the British woman changed her mind on that timeline years ago and has been vying to end what she calls a loveless, deteriorated marriage. But the UK's Supreme Court has dealt her a harsh blow, unanimously ruling that just because she's unhappy in the union doesn't mean she can end it, the Guardian reports. The 68-year-old has been mulling a divorce from 80-year-old husband Hugh Owens since 2012, claiming he has behaved unreasonably, but he refuses to agree to the split, saying that any issues in their marriage are because she had an affair or is simply bored. Per the BBC, UK law decrees a divorce can only be granted without a spouse's OK in cases of adultery, desertion, or unreasonable behavior ; if those aren't the case, a divorce will be granted only after the spouses live apart for five years. That means Tini Owens, who moved out of their shared home in February 2015, will have to wait until 2020 to sever all legal ties, unless Hugh Owens changes his mind. A family court judge turned down her divorce request in 2016, a decision that an appeals court panel agreed with last year. The Supreme Court judges say their decision was made with reluctance--one said she agreed to the ruling with no enthusiasm whatsoever --but that it's up to Parliament to change the law to allow no-fault divorces so people can get out of wretchedly unhappy marriages. Tini Owens' lawyer says she's devastated by the ruling and cannot move forward with her life. The Owenses have two adult children. (A Mississippi woman fled to Washington state to get her divorce.)

(Nov 4, 2016 3:16 PM CDT) The stock market gave up an early gain and ended slightly lower, extending a losing streak for the Standard & Poor's 500 index to a ninth day, the longest losing streak in 36 years, the AP reports. While the losing streak for the market barometer has been long, it hasn't been deep. The losses over that time amount to just 3.1%. Investors have been pulling back in recent days as the US presidential race appears to tighten. The Dow Jones industrial average slipped 42 points, or 0.2%, to 17,888. The S&P 500 fell 3 points, or 0.2%, to 2,085. The Nasdaq composite declined 12 points, or 0.2%, to 5,046.

(Mar 2, 2017 9:03 AM) McDonald's says it's lost 500 million customer transactions in the US since 2012 and plans to use deals to help win people back. The world's biggest burger chain said Wednesday during its investor day in Chicago that much of that business was lost after it did away with its Dollar Menu, the AP reports. It noted an upside was that the majority of those customer visits were lost to other major fast-food chains, rather than to newer rivals. Those are the easiest customers to get back, said CEO Steve Easterbrook, who took over in March 2015 and has been working to revive the company's image. McDonald's outlined its plans after recording its fourth straight year of declining guest counts at established US locations in 2016, despite fanfare over the rollout of an all-day breakfast menu. The company also trimmed its domestic store base for the second year in a row. To get more customers in the door, McDonald's said it will also more aggressively market coffee and pastries and offer mobile order-and-pay by the end of the year. Easterbrook also noted the huge potential of delivery and that 75% of the population in the company's top five markets--including the US--is within three miles of a McDonald's. McDonald's is being pressured not just from other fast-food giants like Burger King and Taco Bell, but from newer rivals that largely emphasize freshness and taste, as well as the availability of food at convenience stores like 7-Eleven and supermarkets. McDonald's, meanwhile, has touted the changes it's making to improve its core menu, such as cooking its Chicken McNuggets without artificial preservatives. In the near future, the company plans to launch a limited-time offer in April for $1 sodas of any size, which may offer a quick fix to bring customers in.

(Feb 23, 2017 9:21 AM) On Feb. 23, 1987, Karl Baden set his 35mm camera on a tripod, stood in front of it with a neutral expression, and snapped a selfie. He's done the same thing every day since except one--he blames a dumb moment of forgetfulness on Oct. 15, 1991--resulting in nearly 11,000 photos. Over the years, the Boston College photography professor has used the same camera and lighting and has avoided growing a beard or mustache as a way to keep his photos constant, yet they show the remarkable progression of a 34-year-old into a 64-year-old man. Baden's face has become more lined and his hair more grey since beginning the Every Day project. But the most dramatic transformation occurs in photos from 2001, reports the AP. In these photos, Baden is thinner, a result of chemotherapy treatment for prostate cancer. Baden has regained weight with his cancer in remission, but his sparse eyebrows are a lasting sign; Baden says they never quite grew back after treatment. The owner of an art gallery where Baden's photos have been displayed says they show the need to immortalize oneself. But they're also so relatable because we're all in same boat. We're all going to die. Until death knocks on his door, though, Baden will keep taking selfies, he told Boston Magazine in 2014. And while there's no chance his will become duck-faced portraits, per Metro, the man dubbed the father of the selfie does credit the selfie craze with lifting his project from obscurity. (Selfies might be good for you.)

(Jun 29, 2017 12:47 PM CDT) Nearly 30 years after a California mother disappeared--her body has never been found--police got a break in the case. About six months ago, we got a couple contacts from people who really wanted to get some things off their chest, Det. Jacob Blass of the Fremont Police Department tells KGO. Sheri Muhleman sent her 5-year-old daughter to school on the morning of Feb. 27, 1989. The San Francisco Examiner reports Muhleman was last seen that same morning by her boyfriend, Michael Abraham, and Abraham's sister while packing up her stuff at Abraham's home. Apparently Abraham didn't trust Muhleman to take care of their daughter or his house while he was away in a work furlough program. On Wednesday, the case was reopened based on new statements and reviews of old evidence. Blass says it's not that unusual for new information in a cold case to surface decades later. He says people who are sick or realize they're getting older finally decide to come forward. Blass says the new information has made it clear Muhleman's disappearance was very much a homicide. Fremont police are now actively investigating the case and looking for anyone with information regarding Muhleman's disappearance, CBS San Francisco reports. Police say even things that once seemed unimportant could now be important in the case.

(Apr 24, 2017 1:48 PM CDT) It was a story made famous for younger generations via the 1994 Ralph Fiennes movie Quiz Show, and now one of the central characters in the 1950s scandal is gone. The New York Times reports that Albert Freedman, once a producer on NBC's popular Twenty-One program, died on April 11 in Greenbrae, Calif., at the age of 95, a victim of heart failure, his stepson Todd Dworman confirmed. Freedman joined the show's staff in 1956 and immediately set out to find a contestant who could take down the reigning champion, Herbert Stempel, who kept on winning, causing ratings to flag. Freedman found Charles Van Doren, a Columbia University instructor, and the Hollywood Reporter notes that Van Doren not only sent Stempel home in December 1956, but kept going until March 1957, ultimately taking home nearly $130,000. Where Freedman came in: He gave Van Doren answers to questions, as detailed by Van Doren in a 2008 New Yorker article (Freedman said in a 2000 interview with the Archive of American Television he only provided areas Van Doren should concentrate on.) A probe by a congressional subcommittee uncovered cheating on other game shows as well. Twenty-One was canceled, Freedman was arrested and indicted for perjury for lying to a grand jury about his role in the scandal (the perjury charges were later dropped), and he lost his job and eventually moved to London, where he started writing for Penthouse's Euro version. He also earned a doctorate in the early '80s and went on to lecture human sexuality and women's rights. Freedman is survived by his second wife, Nancy; a daughter and a son; and three stepchildren.

(Nov 24, 2016 9:22 AM) All that's left of the dodo bird is a smattering of bones--a nearly complete set of which has just sold for $431,000 at auction. This extremely rare version is one of the most complete with about 95% of bones present, reports the BBC. Only a portion of the skull and a set of claws are lacking, reports CNN. The skeleton--believed to be the first sold since 1914--was actually pieced together over four decades by a collector, which isn't atypical. There are only twelve close to complete dodo skeletons in the world, all in the possession of museums, and all but one are composites, says Erroll Fuller of Summers Place Auctions in the UK. Found on Mauritius in the 16th century, the dodo disappeared by the late 1600s at the hands of humans and newly introduced dogs and monkey, Fuller says. Most of the bones that make up existing dodos were taken from Mauritius in the 19th century, but the island has since banned their export. That's one reason people were so interested in the skeleton. But the dodo also represents extinction and how fast man can influence the environment, says Fuller. Whether we're actually learning the lesson, I don't think I'd like to say, he adds, per CBS News. The BBC spoke to the unnamed collector who pieced together the bird, whose initial purchase was a foot bone in the 1970s. He didn't imagine it would lead to full skeleton. I finally found myself looking at a dodo in my workshop, something so extraordinary that I hadn't really imagined it would happen, he says. (Dodos were pretty smart.)

(Nov 3, 2016 7:43 AM CDT) Not since 1948--and not again till Nov. 25, 2034--has there been such a celestial happening, and it's one that ScienceAlert says is the one astronomical event you have to see this year. It's kind of a super supermoon, and many can first catch it Sunday night. As CNN explains, a supermoon occurs when the full moon coincides with its perigee (when it swings closest to Earth during its orbit), lending the moon up to 30% more brightness and the appearance of being up to 14% bigger. But on Nov. 14, the moon will boast even more superb timing and attain ultimate fullness within two hours or so of perigee--what NASA dubs an extra-super moon. The moon will reach that peak fullness during the morning rush hour on Nov. 14 (8:52am EST, to be exact), so those in the eastern US hoping to catch a glimpse will have their best shot either the evening of Nov. 13 or at night on Nov. 14. Left Coasters can wake up early on Nov. 14 to catch it at 5:52am local time. The next regular supermoon after that is set for Dec. 14. (Last year's supermoon eclipse spurred talk of the apocalypse.)

(Apr 25, 2017 2:04 PM CDT) A nearly 500-pound bell has been returned to Colorado State University after being stolen a century ago. And it's got quite the tale to tell. The story of the bell really blew our minds, the president of Associated Students of CSU tells the Denver Post. The university got the bell in 1910--it was built in 1894--and installed it in Old Main, the oldest building on campus. Students would ring the bell for the start of classes and after football victories. The bell's clapper was stolen--possibly by neighbors tired of students clanging it throughout the night--and resourceful students resorted to ringing it by sledgehammer, the Coloradoan reports. The bell itself was stolen by an unknown group of students in 1919 and buried at a nearby farm. By the 1970s--the Rocky Mountain Collegian reports--Old Main had burned down during student protests, the bell had been dug up and relocated to an unknown fraternity, and most people had forgotten it even existed. At some point the bell was mysteriously moved out of Colorado. Last year, the executive director of the CSU alumni association received a call from a lawyer asking if the university would be interested in getting the bell back. She said yes, and the bell materialized outside her house while she was taking her kids to basketball practice. Whoever had the bell apparently thought the opening of a new CSU football stadium was the right time to return it. The restored bell will be installed at the university's new alumni center and ring once again next year. (Under a Monticello restroom, a hidden piece of history.)

(Feb 26, 2017 9:03 AM) A divorce is a hard and pricey thing to get in Mississippi, though that doesn't necessarily stop people--one recent study found that the state's divorce rate is seventh highest in the country. What sets it--and South Dakota--apart from the rest of the country is that without a true no-fault divorce law, if one spouse doesn't want the divorce, it can be just about impossible to end a marriage. So reports USA Today in a lengthy feature on the state of divorce in Mississippi. It made my skin crawl, says Elizabeth Freels, one of several people the paper profiled, after learning about her state's divorce laws when she tried to leave her husband of seven years in 2001. Her husband vowed that if he couldn't have her, No one will. Freels was stuck. I said, 'Are you kidding me?' ... Even in Saudi Arabia you can get a divorce if you want one. Here, you're at the mercy of another person. Without the money to go through a lengthy court battle, Freels continued to live with her husband until 2005, when she moved their three kids to another town and filed for divorce, even though she knew her unemployed husband wouldn't pay child support. She was still in divorce limbo when their youngest child left for college in 2015, so Freels left behind friends and a good job for Washington state, where she quickly got the divorce she wanted. USA Today also interviewed a woman who fled an abusive husband, but because it's not considered cruel and inhuman treatment, she can't divorce him without his approval, which he refuses to grant. If someone's not living with their husband, if they are afraid of them, I'm sorry, that's not a marriage anymore, she says. That's a piece of paper that is causing 21st century slavery. Read the full USA Today article.

(Nov 1, 2017 8:49 AM CDT) The toddler in the extra-large T-shirt was sitting between sliding glass doors at Amarillo Airport when a security guard found her late one night in September 1977, clasping a bottle of spoiled juice. Faded bruises signaled a troubled past, one from which the blonde, brown-eyed girl, aged 16 to 18 months, had been abandoned. Dubbed Jane Doe 927, the toddler was adopted by a loving family and rechristened Shelley Schooley. Her past would remain a mystery for four decades. Now the Amarillo Globe-News reports a DNA test could unlock those secrets. That is, if the mother of two decides to take it. Until now, Schooley says, she never wanted to pursue her missing link. In a 2015 YouTube video, Schooley explains, It's never mattered to me. I have my family and I wouldn't trade them for anything. Meanwhile in 1998, a woman named Pattie Whitaker posted on a genealogy forum that she will not give up searching for her niece, Bonnie Lee Webster, who disappeared in 1977. The 18-month-old was apparently abandoned by Whitaker's late sister, who never explained what happened to the child. Genealogy sleuth Rona Randall saw the post and found an old newspaper photo of Jane Doe 927--a perfect match to baby Bonnie. Last month, Randall found Schooley and put her in touch with Whitaker. Schooley tells the Globe-News she can't justify the expense of the DNA test with two sons to raise. But, she adds, she may do it if the truth provides closure for Whitaker, her probable aunt. That would be the only thing I feel I have to offer, she says. (Parents held out hope their missing daughter was still alive. She wasn't.)

(Dec 6, 2016 5:43 PM) In 1899, a Leipzig University marine biologist named Carl Chun came across a see-through sea blob in the southern Atlantic, and its existence hasn't been confirmed since--until now. Live Science reports on the Bathochordaeus charon invertebrate (what it describes as a psychedelic Slinky ), recently spotted off the California coast by a remotely operated vehicle under the supervision of a scientist named, appropriately enough, Rob Sherlock. The larvacean, known as B. charon for short, was first noted in the Marine Biodiversity Records journal in August. Larvaceans in general are usually tiny (think millimeters), but larger versions like B. charon--named after the mythical Hades ferryman who leads souls across the River Styx--boast bodies up to 4 inches long and an unusual feeding filter: The creature passes food through a mucus house that keeps out larger particles that would clog the inner workings and funnels smaller particles to the larvacean's feeding tube. The mysterious creature had been elusive since Chun's original spotting, but many believed he had simply seen an already known entity known as Bathochordaeus stygius, and other specimens collected sporadically over the years seemed to back that theory up. Sherlock says his team had no clue that the ROV had come across this stuff of legends when they first encountered it in the waters of Monterey Bay, but when they examined it more carefully, they knew they had made quite a find--and it did prove to be a B. charon, not a B. stygius, based on physical characteristics and genetic material, per Weather.com. It felt like Chun had finally been vindicated after years of doubt, Sherlock tells Live Science. (Other weird sea blobs washed up on California beaches last year.)

(Oct 9, 2017 7:03 PM CDT) On Thursday a 29-year-old Missouri man was charged with two counts of first-degree murder in the deaths of two women who disappeared nearly a decade apart, People reports. According to a probable cause statement, authorities say Kylr Yust admitted to choking Kara Kopetsky to death in 2007 after she said she wanted to end their relationship. In that same statement, Yust is said to have confessed to killing Jessica Runions in a similar fashion after leaving a party with her in September 2016. Yust has been in jail since September 2016 on charges that he burned Runions' car, per CBS News. Yust has long been a suspect in both cases. A month before she disappeared, Kopetsky filed a protection order against him, claiming he had kidnapped her and choked her during their relationship. And Yust was the last person ever seen with Runions before she disappeared. Runions was 21 years old when she vanished, Kopetsky just 17. Yust was released from prison last February after serving time on drug charges. He has also been convicted of assault, theft, and animal cruelty after stomping a kitten and tossing it into a river. He is currently being held on $1 million bond.

(Nov 19, 2017 2:02 PM) Many of us have misplaced our car in a parking garage at some point or another, convinced for a frightening moment that it's gone for good. Likely very few of us, however, have given up that car for stolen, only to have it come back to us decades later. But that's what happened to a man in Germany this week, the Independent reports. Twenty years ago, the unnamed man reported his car stolen to police in the German city of Frankfurt, and last week the police found it at last--in the garage of an old industrial building that was due to be demolished. Unable to go ahead with the demolition with the car inside the building, the people who found it reported the car to the police; they tracked down the owner, who is now 76. Apparently the man had forgotten where he parked the car back in 1997 and assumed it had been stolen. After getting the call from the police, the man was driven to the site by his daughter, but unfortunately when he arrived he found the car dysfunctional. Despite the reunion, it was decided that the car needed to be scrapped. (This teen went to a Metallica concert and lost his car for days.)

(Mar 23, 2017 2:14 PM CDT) Nearly 50 years after a 3-year-old girl disappeared from an Australian beach, police may have finally cracked the case. In January 1970, Cheryl Grimmer visited Fairy Meadow beach in Wollongong with her mother and three young brothers, the BBC reports. As the visit wound down, the children went to shower off. Cheryl never returned from the girls' changing room. Her brother, Ricki Grimmer, says she was only gone for a few minutes. It's something I still live with every day, he says. A massive search for Cheryl proved fruitless, and her body has never been found. Her parents both died without knowing what happened to her, and her brothers didn't want the same thing to happen to them, according to ABC. Then, on Wednesday, police made an arrest. The unnamed 63-year-old suspect was a person of interest during the original investigation. Police, who revisited the case last year, say new clues--including three witnesses who saw a teen loitering in the area of Cheryl's disappearance--allowed them to confirm some details of the original investigation and make the arrest. The suspect was a 16-year-old student at a reform school in 1970, the Illawarra Mercury reports. Police say he spoke about Cheryl's disappearance at the time. He's now charged with her abduction and murder. I'm not going to get into the specifics ... but I can say that they are quite horrific, one detective tells the BBC. Cheryl's brother, Stephen Grimmer, tells the Sydney Morning Herald the arrest has been unreal and really emotional. (A 1984 newspaper clip led police to missing sisters.)

(Aug 2, 2017 5:21 PM CDT) Noura Jackson, then 18, was the one who called 911 to report that her mother had been stabbed in an apparent break-in at her Memphis home in 2005. Jennifer Jackson, 39, did not survive the attack, and prosecutorial attention ultimately turned to Noura, who said she had returned home from a night out to find her mother bleeding on the floor. After three and a half years in jail awaiting trial, Noura was tried by Amy Weirich, then a rising star in the prosecutor's office and today the district attorney, per an extensive New York Times look at the case. Weirich painted a picture of a teenager rebelling against her mother's rules and after her mother's $1.5 million estate. She was found guilty in 2009, but there was more to the story--leading one prosecutor-turned-judge to tell the Times he would not have sought to indict Jackson in the first place. Five days after her conviction, the assistant prosecutor filed a critical piece of evidence he said he'd forgotten to submit to the defense. It was a handwritten note that called into question testimony that played a crucial role in getting Jackson convicted. Based on that and other problems with the trial, the Tennessee Supreme Court overturned the conviction in 2014, but Weirich planned to re-try the case. Months went by during which a judge refused to grant Jackson a bond hearing, and then Jackson was offered a plea deal for a reduced sentence. The Department of Corrections said she had enough credit for time served to be released the same day, so she took the plea. But the department was wrong, and Jackson spent more than a year in prison. The Times' full piece, which also looks at other problems with Weirich's office, is worth a read.

(Jun 16, 2017 11:40 AM CDT) The year 2018 will mark the first time since 1976 that you won't see the McDonald's logo plastered across Olympic venues, reports USA Today. That's because McDonald's has negotiated an early end to its corporate sponsorship agreement with the International Olympic Committee, which was scheduled to run through the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. Effective immediately, McDonald's is no longer one of the IOC's top sponsors, though it signed an eight-year sponsorship extension in 2012, per the AP. The company is believed to have paid about $25 million per year to call itself the Olympics food retail sponsor, reports Reuters. It's not cutting ties completely, however. Under the change announced Friday, McDonald's will keep domestic marketing rights in South Korea for the 2018 Pyeongchang Olympics, per a release. It will also keep restaurants in the Olympic Park and Olympic Village in 2018. Last year, McDonald's announced it would review its Olympic sponsorship deal, citing a new advertising rule that allowed non-official sponsors to benefit. In a statement, the company says it will focus on different priorities ... as part of our global growth plan. The BBC notes Budweiser, Hilton, and AT&T have also ended Olympic partnerships recently.

(Jun 21, 2017 12:24 AM CDT) The severity of America's opioid epidemic was captured in a dire government report published Tuesday. According to the report, released by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, the rate of opioid-related emergency room visits nearly doubled between 2005 and 2014, increasing a whopping 99%. The report also found the rate of opioid-related inpatient hospital stays increased 64% during that time. All told, American hospitals reported 1.27 million opioid-related visits in 2014, about 3,500 per day. The report also states that women have closed the gender gap when it comes to opioid-related hospital visits. In 2005 the rate of male inpatient stays was considerably higher than the rate for women, but by 2014 the rate was the same, though men are still more likely to be treated in hospital emergency departments for opioid-related issues. Though the opioid epidemic is a countrywide problem, the AHRQ report finds that the problem is considerably worse in certain states. Maryland ranked at the top of the list of states for emergency visits in 2014, while Massachusetts saw the most inpatient stays. The Washington Post reports that Maryland is already suffering high rates of heroin and prescription-opioid overdoses. The number of opioid-related deaths in the state has nearly quadrupled since 2010 and the governor declared a state of emergency earlier this year. That increase can be blamed partially on the spread of fentanyl, a powerful synthetic opioid. One expert tells the Huffington Post the AHRQ data comes as no surprise, noting that overdose deaths are just the tip of the iceberg in the US. (In 2016 drug overdoses became the leading cause of death for people under 50 in America.)

(Oct 18, 2017 10:49 AM CDT) Mindy Cohn has been keeping a secret for a long time, the Facts of Life star tells People: She was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2012. She launched what she calls a siege on the disease, getting a double mastectomy, chemotherapy, and radiation. I've always been an optimist, she says. But the cancer metastasized. It kept spreading and coming back. I kept waiting for the other shoe to drop, and then it would. And then I'd wait for another shoe to drop, and it would. I was frustrated and enraged. Finally, after recuperating on her friends' New York farm, she's cancer-free and has returned to Hollywood: I'm so ready to get back to working.

(Mar 10, 2017 8:09 PM) He once weighed almost 1,000 pounds, ate nearly 20,000 calories a day, and had become a laughingstock in his native UK. Today Paul Mason, once the heaviest man in the world, is a new man, and Justin Heckert reports on his amazing transformation for GQ. It was seven years ago this winter when Man Mountain (what the British media called Mason) decided he didn't want to die and that he wanted more out of life than being stuck on a 10-foot mattress. And so he chanced the surgery that had a 50% risk of leading to his death if certain complications (a heart attack, organ failure, a blood clot) developed. His doctor, bariatric surgeon Shaw Somers, even asked Mason if he was willing to put his life on the line to lose weight, a question to which Mason responded with a weepy yes. Mason wasn't always overweight as a youth, though he was always tall: He reached nearly 6 feet at just 9 years old. A strict dad who made him consume huge plates of food, sexual abuse at the hands of an aunt, and a love affair that suddenly ended when was in his 20s led him further into the snacking spiral, and as the years went by, the weight piled on--in one six-month stretch, he put on 150 pounds. I let all my dignity go; I just didn't care, he says. His gastric bypass surgery and the lifestyle changes he made afterward dropped him down to just under 300 pounds, but Heckert notes Mason's new life full of wonder was still defined by all his old burdens, including medical issues, a lack of money, and a tough time finding a partner. People want the wonderful story where he does something with his life, a plastic surgeon who's worked with Mason says. We're hoping he does. Read about Mason's struggle at GQ. (The world's heaviest woman just dropped 200 pounds.)

(Mar 22, 2017 9:18 AM CDT) A fall off an LA pier led to the unraveling of a mystery that's been haunting Kayannette Gabrielle's family for over a decade. People tells the story of the California woman, originally from Colorado, who disappeared from the lives of her grown kids in April 2006. At first Brett, Colette, and Jared Hanlon speculated their mom had traveled to Australia, but she never came back--not even for the funeral of her own mother. Even the private investigator they hired came up empty. We had no luck, Brett says--until Feb. 28 of this year, when he got a phone call from the LA County Sheriff's Department. Are you sitting down? was the text Brett sent next to Colette, per the Denver Post, revealing the news that Gabrielle, who'd apparently been suffering from severe memory loss, was alive and homeless in Santa Barbara, where she'd been living for several years as Mary Roberts. Gabrielle's fall led to her being treated at a hospital, then placed in a shelter, where a few weeks ago she suddenly remembered her name. Cops ran that name, found her driver's license, and contacted her kids, whom she started to remember as their names were mentioned and their pictures shown. Although Gabrielle hadn't exhibited signs of memory loss before she vanished, she told Colette and others she'd been attacked in an Oregon park and her memory deteriorated after that. The family had an emotional reunion in early March in Santa Barbara, and now Gabrielle's kids are trying to help her recover lost memories. The more we talk to her, the more things pop into her head, Colette tells the Post. (The family of a man with dementia may have dumped him in England.)

(Dec 5, 2017 7:21 AM) The last time a senior UN official stepped foot in North Korea was in October 2011. That changed Tuesday, with United Nations undersecretary-general for Political Affairs Jeffrey Feltman's visit to the country. The BBC reports Pyongyang proffered the invitation in September but confirmation of the visit didn't come until last week. Feltman, who is not slated to meet with Kim Jong Un, will meet with foreign minister Ri Yong Ho (who infamously called President Trump a barking dog ) to discuss issues of mutual interest and concern. That ostensibly includes North Korea's nuclear weapons program. The Wall Street Journal reports the UN Security Council has had no discussion regarding Feltman's visit, but the paper quotes a council diplomat as saying, The trip is more of a way to try to do some help and to test the waters. Feltman, the former US ambassador to Lebanon, per Quartz, and the highest ranking American in the UN, made a pit stop in Beijing along the way, no doubt interested to hear what, if anything, came out of China's latest talks with the North Korean regime, per the BBC. The Guardian reports a UN rep added that Feltman will also meet with the United Nations country team and members of the diplomatic corps, as well as visit UN project sites --six agencies and 50 UN staffers are present in the country, where they provide food, agricultural, and health aid. His visit concludes Friday, and comes as the US and South Korea are in the midst of Vigilant Ace.

(Apr 21, 2017 1:04 AM CDT) After 12 years and hundreds of hours of legal battles, the state of Arkansas has successfully taken a man's life. Ledell Lee, a convicted murderer who'd been on death row for more than 20 years, was executed late Thursday after the US Supreme Court decided not to intervene, CNN reports. Prison officials say the 51-year-old inmate, who denied killing 26-year-old Debra Reese in 1993, requested Holy Communion as his last meal and declined to make a final statement. Neil Gorsuch voted with the majority in the Supreme Court's 5-4 decision to allow the execution to proceed, reports the New York Times. Lee, whose death warrant expired at midnight, took 12 minutes to die and was pronounced dead at 11:56pm. Arkansas had planned to execute eight inmates before the end of April, but court decisions spared the first three men and put the execution of a fourth in doubt, the AP reports. The ACLU and the Innocence Project had called for post-conviction DNA testing in the case of Lee, who was also convicted of two rapes and suspected of a second murder. In the attack Lee was executed for, Reese was sexually assaulted before being hit 36 times with a tire-thumping tool that her husband, a truck driver, had given her to protect herself with when he was on the road. Her son, Joseph Lucky, was 6 years old when she was killed. At Lee's final clemency hearing, Lucky called him the embodiment of evil, THV11 reports.

(Sep 12, 2017 12:25 PM CDT) A 60-year-old man who pleaded guilty in the killing of two young sisters from Maryland was sentenced Tuesday to 48 years in prison, more than four decades after the girls vanished during a trip to a local shopping mall, the AP reports. Lloyd Lee Welch Jr. entered his plea in a Virginia court Tuesday and was sentenced soon after to two 48-year terms to run concurrently. The first-degree felony murder charges had carried the possibility of a death sentence. Welch, who's already serving a long prison term in Delaware for sexually molesting a 10-year-old girl, also received a 12-year sentence in two unrelated sexual assault cases in Virginia. He had been scheduled to go on trial Tuesday, but his trial request was withdrawn last week. Welch is accused of snatching 12-year-old Sheila Lyon and 10-year-old Katherine Lyon in March 1975. When the girls disappeared, Welch was an 18-year-old former worker at a traveling carnival. Authorities believe he burned the girls' bodies on a remote mountain in Virginia where his family owned land. They were never recovered. The Lyon sisters' disappearance shattered the sense of security in Kensington, Md., rattling parents to the point where they no longer let their children play outside. Cold-case detectives began focusing on Welch in 2013 after they noticed a composite sketch that resembled a 1977 mugshot of Welch in a burglary. In interviews with police beginning in 2013, Welch acknowledged he was at the mall that day and said he believed the girls had been abducted, raped, and burned up. He was charged in their deaths two years ago.

(Oct 17, 2017 12:18 AM CDT) The remnants of Hurricane Ophelia slammed into Ireland with wind gusts of up to 80mph on Monday, killing at least three people, grounding planes, shutting schools, and causing widespread power outages. Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar urged people to stay indoors until the storm passed. Tens of thousands of homes were without power and the military was placed on standby. Hurricane-force gusts were reported 30 years to the day after a weather event dubbed the Great Storm of 1987 battered southern England, the AP reports. It is a very dangerous storm, Varadkar said. The last time there was a storm this severe, 11 lives were lost, he added, referring to Hurricane Debbie, which hit Ireland in 1961.

(Dec 18, 2016 4:12 PM) It's a chilling and partially inaudible 911 call, and one of only a few clues: In the wee hours of Aug. 9, 2013, Brandon Lawson ran out of gas. The Houston Chronicle reports he was along Highway 277 near Bronte, Texas, and he started walking north. Then, at 1:20am, came the 911 call, the last time Lawson was ever heard from. NBC DFW has portions of the transcript: Yes I'm in the middle of a field (inaudible) pushed some guys over, right here going towards Abilene, on both sides. My truck ran out of gas, there's one car here, the guy's chasing (inaudible) to the woods, please hurry! The dispatcher asks if an ambulance is needed. The last thing the 26-year-old father of four says: No I need the cops. A website set up about the disappearance explains Lawson had left his San Angelo home minutes before midnight and later called his brother asking for gas. His truck--keys and phone removed--was found undamaged. As father Brad Lawson puts it to NBC DFW, His cell phone battery dies so he had no flashlight, it's rocky cactus terrain out there, if he had fell down or something we would have found him in a search. But there's been no sign of him. In a press release issued in 2014, the president of LostNMissing, a nonprofit helping Lawson's family, said we also believe there is a second voice on the 911 tape and if that proves to be correct, that person has knowledge as to what has happened. Law enforcement has never confirmed this. Anyone with information is urged to call Crime Stoppers at (325) 658-HELP. (The search continues for a young Michigan woman who vanished.)

(Oct 15, 2017 12:05 PM CDT) McDonald's has an unusual problem in India: It recently severed ties with a partner that helped bring the Golden Arches to the nation, but now that company refuses to stop selling McDonald's food under the McDonald's name. In all, about 170 restaurants have gone rogue, in the words of the Wall Street Journal. Back in August, McDonald's canceled its franchise agreement with Connaught Plaza Restaurants, which operates 40% of McDonald's outlets in India. But rather than close up shop, the restaurants are operating as usual. McDonald's has been pressuring suppliers to cut off deliveries with mixed success, and Connaught Plaza's managing director, who brought the chain to India in 1996, hopes to keep the food flowing for as long as possible. I cannot allow a large organization, this [multinational] monster, whatever you want to call it, to truly belittle our contributions, says Vikram Bakshi. McDonald's, meanwhile, accuses Connaught Plaza of various contractual issues, including a failure to pay royalties. Bakshi's legal battles with McDonald's actually stretch as far back as 2008, and this latest round is expected to drag out in the courts as well. India has a growing middle class, and that theoretically makes the country a great market for McDonald's, notes the Economist. But it adds that this recent trouble illustrates multinationals' worst fears about India, from the instability built into the joint-venture model to the ease of stymieing legal judgments. In the meantime, the Maharaja Macs continue to be served at the non-McDonald's McDonald's.