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(Aug 2, 2011 8:27 AM CDT) Bad: Getting arrested on suspicion of DUI. Worse: Getting arrested on suspicion of DUI at 10:30 in the morning. That's what happened yesterday to Samantha Ronson, DJ and Lindsay Lohan ex extraordinaire. Ronson was pulled over on her way home from Las Vegas, where she DJed Sunday night, when cops spotted her speeding in her black Porsche at 10:30am. Sources tell TMZ she didn't do well on her field sobriety test, then refused to take a breathalyzer and was arrested. At the station, she allegedly was found to be over the legal limit. Radar notes that she was released from jail last night.
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(Aug 5, 2008 3:49 PM CDT) An international crew of hackers who reportedly stole more than 40 million credit and debit card numbers from nine US companies were indicted today in what Attorney General Michael Mukasey is calling the single largest and most complex identity theft case that's ever charged in this country. The ring grabbed hundreds of millions of dollars, officials told the Boston Globe. The 11 accused hackers found and broke into unprotected wireless networks used by businesses including OfficeMax, Barnes & Noble and Boston Market, then set up a program that would record financial information. They then sold the card numbers or emptied the accounts of cash through ATMs. The defendants hail from the US, Ukraine, Belarus, China and Estonia.
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(Apr 10, 2020 12:45 AM CDT) UFC 249 was canceled Thursday after ESPN and parent company Disney stopped UFC President Dana White's plan to keep fighting amid the coronavirus pandemic, the AP reports. After defiantly vowing for weeks--amid mixed public opinion--to maintain a regular schedule of fights while the rest of the sports world halted, White confirmed the decision to cease competition in a text to the AP. I was ready to go on Saturday, but Disney and ESPN asked me to step down, White wrote. I love and respect my partnership with them so I postponed the event. UFC 249 was scheduled for April 18 on ESPN Plus pay-per-view, and White planned to follow it with regular fight cards from Tachi Palace Hotel & Casino on tribal land in California's Central Valley. In an interview on ESPN, White said he got a call from the highest level you can go at Disney and the highest level of ESPN asking him to cancel the shows. The UFC moved to ESPN in 2019 with a reported $1.5 billion deal. The network issued a statement: ESPN has been in constant contact with the UFC regarding UFC 249. Nobody wants to see sports return more than we do, but we didn't feel this was the right time for a variety of reasons. ESPN expressed its concerns to the UFC and they understood. While the UFC won't have fights in the upcoming weeks, White said he is still pursuing his plan to build an octagon and everything else necessary to telecast small fight shows on an unidentified private island. White had planned to use the so-called Fight Island in upcoming months for non-American fighters who couldn't get into the US. (Click for more on White's plan.)
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(Apr 5, 2013 2:14 AM CDT) At least 41 people have been killed after a building collapsed near Mumbai, the AP reports. More than 50 have been injured, and more could be trapped. At least 11 children were dead, officials said, with more than 20 people missing amid rescue efforts. The seven-story building was in the midst of illegal construction, the BBC reports, with four floors already occupied. The casualties were mostly construction workers who'd been staying in the building, said an official. The building collapsed like a pack of cards within three to four seconds, said a witness. The disaster occurred as workers attempted to build an eighth floor, the AP notes. Building collapses are frequent in India thanks to weak materials and procedures, reports the BBC. High rises have been increasing in step with population increases, but they're often built without necessary safeguards and licenses. In this case, a witness said, they made an eight-story building [out] of what was supposed to be a four-story building. Police intend to arrest the builders.
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(Aug 7, 2013 11:59 AM CDT) Another multimillion-dollar heist is in the news, but this one involves a private home. Police in ritzy Rancho Sante Fe near San Diego say thieves made off with $5 million worth of art and jewelry from the estate, reports the Union-Tribune and Fox 5 San Diego. The loot includes a Monet print, a Picasso print, several other paintings, gold and diamond jewelry, and pricey sculptures. Police are keeping an eye out for the items to be surface on the black market, but so far no luck.
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(Nov 9, 2009 3:28 PM) Retirement is great medicine, new research shows. A study of French workers for 7 years before and after they punched the time clock for the last time indicates health increases dramatically after retirement. Reports of poor health drop from 19.2% in the year before retirement to 14.3% the year after--that's the same level as 8 years before, leading researchers to conclude retirees feel 8 years younger. Work puts an extra burden on the health of older workers, a study author tells HealthDay News, and the effects of this extra burden are largely relieved by retirement. Bully for Europe, but can we expect the same effects in the US? As I understand it, the researcher continues, a substantial number of Americans have to take up a new, and often less-qualified and more stressful job, after formal retirement to make ends meet. So no.
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(Apr 3, 2013 2:19 PM CDT) President Obama will return 5% of his salary every month as a gesture of support for federal workers soon to be hit with unpaid furloughs, reports the New York Times. Given his $400,000 salary, the move amounts to about $16,600 through the end of the year. A White House official says the percentage is on par with cuts that non-defense federal agencies are facing under the sequester. Defense chief Chuck Hagel made a similar move yesterday.
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(Sep 30, 2011 12:30 PM CDT) With a current 92% rating at Rotten Tomatoes, 50/50 gets praise for its blend of comedy and drama about a young man diagnosed with cancer.
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(May 23, 2019 6:40 PM CDT) With more than a dozen farmers at his side, President Trump announced a $16 billion aid package to compensate farmers for their losses in the trade war with China. This support for farmers will be paid for by the billions of dollars the Treasury takes in from China, he said. That's not the way it works, the Washington Post points out: China does not pay the tariffs; importers do. Some importers then pass the cost on to American consumers. The administration had announced $12 billion in emergency measures in July. The relief announced Thursday will be distributed to farmers in three installments, with the first payment in July or August, the others in November and January 2020, if the tariffs are still in place. Randy Spronk, a hog farmer and past president of the National Pork Producers Council who attended the White House meeting, said farmers realize the aid will not make up for their losses in a trade war. But it makes enough of a difference to keep a lot of farmers so they can survive, Spronk said, per the Post. The aid for farmers will ultimately come from taxpayers, said one expert, ABC reports. Do the Chinese pay some of the tariff? Yes, probably in specific cases, he said. Do they pay most of it? No, the consumer pays most of it ultimately. The American Farm Bureau and the National Farmers Union said that they appreciate the help, but that farmers would prefer to have a long-term trade deal with China. (Trump backed away from tariffs on allies.)
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(Dec 30, 2016 12:00 PM) Victims of slavery can be British, the BBC asserts, reporting on the story of a woman who says she was held captive for 13 years by a taxi driver she met as a teen. The tale is laid out in the memoir Secret Slave, penned by an author going by the pseudonym Anna Ruston, and it begins in 1987, when she says she was 15 and taken from a town in Midlands by a driver she calls Malik to meet his mom for a cup of tea, the Times of London reports. That meeting, she says, resulted in her imprisonment, complete with sexual and physical abuse at the hands of Malik and other family members, until she was 28, at which point she escaped after slipping a note to someone during a medical appointment. She says she gave birth to four kids during her captivity, all shuffled off to various couples. The memoir's publishing firm provided a letter from Ruston's psychiatrist to the Times to confirm parts of her story. Ruston says there were a few instances when rescue was near but still so far, including one time when cops raided Malik's house looking for drugs--they apparently believed his story that Ruston was sick and in a locked room to keep kids in the house out--and whenever she had to seek medical attention for herself or one of her four children. There were always three or four people with me, so I couldn't see an escape, she says. I never answered the doctors. I just nodded or shook my head. Even though she's now safe, she still doesn't feel like it, which is why she says she hasn't filed formal charges against Malik with police (she fears he'll go after her). But a UK anti-slavery commissioner says charges could still happen even without Ruston providing further info. Sometimes there are ways of collating evidence without a victim, he says. (A woman escaped her dad's London cult after 30 years.)
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(Aug 3, 2014 10:12 AM CDT) Michael Johns, the Australian singer who appeared on the seventh season of American Idol, has died at the age of 35, reports the Hollywood Reporter. Johns was voted off the show in what the AP calls an eighth-round stunner in 2008, having never finished in the show's bottom three; Simon Cowell called him a white soul singer. Johns' family lamented their lost wonderful husband, son, brother, uncle, and friend; Fox, meanwhile, saluted him as an incredible talent who will truly be missed. The cause of death is believed to be a blood clot in his ankle, notes the Reporter.
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(Sep 6, 2017 9:20 AM CDT) More than 100 aftershocks have rattled southeastern Idaho since a 5.3 magnitude quake hit near the town of Soda Springs late last week, and experts say they could continue for another week or so. The 5.3 quake hit about 6pm Saturday, the AP reports. There were no reports of injuries or damage, though officials say 17,000 people reported feeling the 5.3 quake from as far away as Salt Lake City. By noon on Tuesday, more than 102 additional earthquakes had been recorded in the region by the US Geological Survey, all at magnitudes of 4.5 or less. They'll likely taper off by the end of next week, says John Bellini, a USGS geophysicist. They can go on for days or weeks, and they'll get smaller in size and frequency. Lee Liberty, a Boise State University geosciences professor, says Idaho experiences earthquakes of a magnitude 5 or above on average about every five years, based on news reports and other records dating back to 1872. They don't happen like clockwork, however, he notes. This is the largest event since 1983, Liberty says, referring to Idaho's biggest recorded quake, a 6.9 temblor. So it has been a generation, but historically we expect them more frequently than we've been seeing them. Two schoolchildren were killed in that quake when a brick storefront collapsed. Aftershocks in that event continued for more than a year--one reaching a magnitude of 5.8--and the mountains and neighboring valley shifted nearly 14 feet apart in some places.
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(Jul 25, 2019 10:45 AM CDT) A wealthy businesswoman who became known as the Love Mother in China for adopting more than 100 children has a new label now: convicted fraudster. The BBC reports that 54-year-old Li Yanxia (aka Li Lijuan) was sentenced to 20 years in prison in Hebei province after being found guilty of extortion, forgery, and disturbing social order, in addition to fraud. Li's story became famous in China more than a decade ago when she started adopting kids at a rapid pace, saying she was inspired to help children after supposedly getting her own son back from the clutches of traffickers. She adopted so many kids that she eventually opened up an orphanage she called Love Village, with 118 children in her care at one point in 2017. Her lovefest soon began to unravel. The Chinese government started getting tips on Li, who reportedly had built much of her fortune on iron mining investments and company ownership, and an investigation soon uncovered illegal activities going back to 2011. Per the Global Times, the Wu'an court found that Li had abused the orphanage's influence and committed fraud ... among other crimes, to obtain vast economic benefit. Among the allegations: that she'd made some of her adopted kids run under trucks on construction sites so they couldn't do their work; she then blackmailed those construction companies. Li's boyfriend and 14 other accomplices have also been convicted. A lawyer for Li, who was also hit with a $388,000 fine in addition to her jail sentence, tells local media she's likely to appeal.
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(Feb 6, 2009 8:05 AM) Nonfarm payrolls plunged 598,000 in January, the Labor Department announced today, bringing the total job losses to 3.6 million since the recession began in December 2007. The drop was significantly worse than analysts anticipated, and the worst since December 1974, the Wall Street Journal reports. The jobless rate jumped to 7.6% for the month, a 16-year high. Included in the report were revisions showing that the US lost about 3 million jobs last year, up from the 2.6 million previously estimated.
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(May 15, 2013 8:53 AM CDT) The latest crazy headline to come out of Justin Bieber's world tour: Thieves broke into a South African stadium early Monday and stole $330,000 from the safe, which had quite a bit of cash in it thanks to a weekend Bieber concert, Time reports. Police think that's why the thieves went for it, and they also believe it was an inside job. Spin calls the crime a massive Ocean's 11-type heist, because the suspects used ropes and chisels to get into the safe room and were likely chiseling for several days, South Africa's Eyewitness News reports. (This comes, of course, after headlines involving Bieber's monkey, Anne Frank, and marijuana, among other things.
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(Mar 20, 2019 7:25 AM CDT) Someone just paid $1.4 million for a pigeon--but not just any pigeon. Armando is the best Belgian long-distance pigeon of all time, according to auction house Pipa, which oversaw a bidding war between two buyers from China, where pigeon racing is popular among the wealthy. The previous record price for a racing pigeon was roughly $427,000, per the BBC. But this pigeon has a race record that has never been matched by any other pigeon, Pipa founder Nikolaas Gyselbrecht tells the Press Association. In [soccer] terms you have Messi and Ronaldo--it's that level. Still, the online auction price may seem high considering Armando, who turns 5 this year, is now in retirement. Per the BBC, it's likely the pigeon's new owner will breed him--he has about five years left in that department--and then race his offspring. As Time reports, bird owners can win plenty of their money back by betting on the correct winged competitor, with prizes in the tens of thousands of dollars. (The sale moves this pigeon down a peg.)
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(Jun 8, 2017 12:11 AM CDT) NASA chose 12 new astronauts Wednesday from its biggest pool of applicants ever, hand-picking seven men and five women who could one day fly aboard the nation's next generation of spacecraft. The astronaut class of 2017 includes doctors, scientists, engineers, pilots, and military officers from Anchorage to Miami and points in between. They've worked in submarines, emergency rooms, university lecture halls, jet cockpits, and battleships. They range in age from 29 to 42, and they typically have led the pack, the AP reports. It makes me personally feel very inadequate when you read what these folks have done, said NASA's acting administrator, Robert Lightfoot. Vice President Mike Pence welcomed the group during a ceremony at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston. He offered President Trump's congratulations and noted that the president is firmly committed to NASA's noble mission, leading America in space. Under Trump, America will lead in space once again, and the world will marvel, Pence said. More than 18,300 people threw their hats into the space ring during a brief application period 18 months ago. That's more than double the previous record of 8,000 set in 1978, when the space shuttles were close to launching. The 12 selected Wednesday, who now begin two years of training, will join 44 astronauts already in the NASA corps. NASA has more on the 12 here.
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(Oct 27, 2011 6:57 AM CDT) The Republican nomination race is already kinda like a reality show, according to some, so this should come as little surprise: Pastor Terry Jones is joining the fray. Jones, better known for his affinity for pairing Korans and matches, announced his 2012 plans yesterday, ABC Action News reports. His platform includes deporting all illegal immigrants, lowering corporate taxes, and bringing all military home until America is financially stable. Please financially support us as we continue our stand against radical Islam, says a press release (Jones will need some serious cash to compete in the GOP's burgeoning ad war). Jones tells WOKV he is running because the current candidates are being dishonest, and he confirms he will run as a Republican. Interested? Find out more on his website, Stand Up America Now, which features his full seven-point platform.
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(Apr 6, 2010 5:00 AM CDT) Baghdad's top military spokesman is blaming al-Qaeda in Iraq for a series of massive explosions at apartment buildings across Baghdad that killed at least 34 people. Maj. Gen. Qassim al-Moussawi, a spokesman for Baghdad's operations command center, told state-owned TV after the blasts today, we are in a state of war with the remains of al-Qaeda. He said terrorists are trying to disrupt security and the political process in Iraq, where parties are struggling to form a new government after the March 7 election produced no clear winner. Today's attack was the fourth with multiple casualties in Iraq in five days.
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(Sep 8, 2014 12:08 AM CDT) About 100 Yosemite National Park visitors were evacuated by helicopter yesterday when a wildfire that started weeks ago in the park's backcountry grew unexpectedly to at least 700 acres, officials say. Some of the evacuees included hikers who had climbed the park's iconic Half Dome peak, rising nearly 5,000 feet above Yosemite Valley, while others had to be airlifted from campgrounds and hiking trails in the area, a park spokeswoman says. Firefighters had monitored and controlled the lightning-sparked fire that started several weeks ago, the spokeswoman says, but strong winds and high temperatures ignited a spot fire yesterday and it rapidly grew.
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(Aug 3, 2014 6:00 AM CDT) A United Nations school sheltering displaced people in the southern Gaza Strip was hit today by what appeared to be an Israeli airstrike, as the military struck the Hamas-ruled territory despite signaling a possible scaling back of its 27-day offensive.Gaza health official Ashraf al-Kidra said at least 10 people were killed and 35 wounded after the strike near a boys' school in the town of Rafah. Robert Turner, the director of operations for the UN Palestinian refugee agency in Gaza, said preliminary findings indicated the blast was the result of an Israeli airstrike near the school, which had been providing shelter for some 3,000 people. He said at least one UN staffer appeared to be dead. Further, Turner told ITV that it was impossible that Israel hit the school by mistake, as we inform Israeli Defense Force daily of all our sites and shelters. Witnesses said the attack happened while people were waiting in line for food supplies. The Israeli military had no immediate comment. In a chaotic scene inside the compound of the UN school, several bodies, among them children, were strewn across the ground in puddles of blood. Bloody footprints stained the ground where people had rushed the wounded into ambulances. Some of the wounded, among them children with bloody head bandages, were transported to the Kuwaiti hospital in Rafah and others were treated in what seemed to be a makeshift clinic underneath a tent. Several dead bodies, wrapped in white cloth, were lined up on the floor.
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(May 17, 2012 2:56 PM CDT) The endless guessing is over: Facebook shares will go at $38 apiece tomorrow, putting the total valuation at $104 billion, the highest ever for US company at its IPO, reports the Wall Street Journal. That's on the high end of the site's predicted pricing, even after it hiked the price range this week. Investors reportedly opposed the site's efforts to push the pricing even higher, an insider tells the Journal. At $38 per share, the site is set to raise $18.4 billion, behind only Visa's $19.65 billion in 2008.
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(Nov 17, 2018 5:30 AM) Argentina's navy announced early Saturday that searchers found the missing submarine ARA San Juan deep in the Atlantic a year after it disappeared with 44 crewmen aboard. The vessel was detected 2,625 feet deep in waters off the Valdes Peninsula in Argentine Patagonia, the statement said. The navy said a positive identification had been made by a remote-operated submersible from the American ship Ocean Infinity, which was hired for the latest search for the missing vessel, per the AP. The discovery was announced just two days after families of the missing sailors held a commemoration one year after the sub disappeared on Nov. 15, 2017. The San Juan was returning to its base in Mar del Plata when contact was lost. Argentina had given up hope of finding survivors after an intense search aided by 18 countries, but the navy had continued searching for the vessel.
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(Jan 25, 2010 8:09 PM) The latest detail to trickle out about initiatives President Obama plans to serve up in Wednesday's State of the Union address is one aimed at cutting the $1.4 trillion federal budget deficit. Obama will announce a 3-year freeze on $447 billion in spending, a measure that could save $250 billion in the next decade. About 17% of the budget will be affected, the Wall Street Journal reports, with much discretionary spending untouched, including defense and entitlement programs like Social Security.
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(Dec 10, 2012 6:35 PM) Researchers have discovered 19 more grave shafts at an infamous Florida reform school where boys--most of them black--suffered and sometimes died under brutal conditions, NBC News reports. That brings the total to at least 50 at The Arthur G. Dozier School for Boys in Marianna, and all of them are in an area that was segregated for black boys. I didn't realize going in how much of a story of civil rights it was, said a professor at the University of South Florida, which conducted the study. Florida claimed it closed the school last year over budgetary concerns, but lawsuits and investigations have alleged beatings, forced labor, sexual abuse, and murder since it opened in 1900. One writer who survived the school dubbed it a concentration camp for little boys, and maintained that a devil was hiding behind every tree. Records show that at least 96 boys and two adults died there between 1914 and 1973, but student records after 1960 remain closed due to privacy laws--so the school's true death count is unknown, and each grave shaft may hold more than one body. What's more, a hidden whites-only cemetery still hasn't been found.
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(Aug 9, 2010 4:56 AM CDT) A 25-year-old Dutch woman has admitted she gave birth to four babies, then put them in suitcases that she stored in her parents' house. The woman was arrested after a neighbor contacted police because he thought it was strange she had some suspicious pregnancies, CNN reports. The woman had told her neighbors she just kept gaining and losing lots of weight. Dutch authorities are conducting forensic tests to determine the cause of the newborns' deaths, and when they occurred.
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(Sep 9, 2019 3:23 PM CDT) Fifty US states and territories, led by Texas, on Monday announced an investigation into Google's potential monopolistic behavior. The announcement closely followed one from a separate group of states Friday that disclosed an investigation into Facebook's market dominance. The two probes widen the antitrust scrutiny of big tech companies beyond sweeping federal and congressional investigations and enforcement action by European regulators, the AP reports. Nebraska attorney general Doug Peterson, a Republican, said at a press conference held in Washington that 50 attorneys general joining together sends a strong message to Google. California and Alabama are not part of the investigation, although it does include the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico.
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(Nov 2, 2020 2:45 AM) Nikki McKibbin, the third-place finalist from the first season of American Idol, died Sunday at age 42. The love of my life Nikki Sadler suffered an aneurysm on Wednesday, her husband Craig Sadler posted on Facebook on Saturday. She would already be gone, but she's an organ donor and has been kept on life support to make that possible. That shouldn't be a surprise to us. Even at the end she is still giving. He said she would be taken to the operating room in the wee hours of Sunday to give her final gift that will save the lives of strangers. The show itself, the host and a judge, season one runner-up Justin Guarini, and other 2002 contestants were among those sharing tributes. McKibbin went on to appear on reality shows including Fear Factor and Battle of the Network Reality Stars, Us reports. In 2008, she participated in Celebrity Rehab With Dr. Drew, where she was treated for cocaine and alcohol addiction, and TMZ reports she later moved into a sober living house for a stint on Celebrity Rehab spin-off Sober House on VH1. She returned to Celebrity Rehab to celebrate three years of sobriety. She released her debut album in 2007 and an EP five years later that was recorded with the band Love Stricken Demise. The AV Club reports that in the wake of her first album, which was delayed due to her record company wanting her to do a country album rather than rock, she toured with a metal band and appeared on Christmas compilations. People reports that in 2014, she supported her then 15-year-old son as he competed on Idol; he made it to Hollywood but was then cut.
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(Aug 19, 2010 7:41 AM CDT) Only 10% of the oil that spewed from the Deepwater Horizon well has been actually removed from the ocean, a leading oceanographer will tell Congress today. Ian MacDonald's testimony throws cold water on a cheerful federal report earlier this month that declared 75% of the oil had either been cleaned up or broken down. MacDonald also says the government is taking a decidedly optimistic view on how fast the rest will biodegrade. MacDonald's findings are based in part on satellite imagery. He'll also cite Gulf oxygen levels, which aren't consistent with rapid oil degradation, according to the Wall Street Journal. The head of the NOAA brushed off the testimony, saying, We stand by the calculations we released. But evidence is mounting that much of the oil is still out there, either suspended below the surface or in the seabed.
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(Oct 15, 2012 10:36 AM CDT) Brad Pitt's latest gig: selling perfume. The actor and his full-on Legends of the Fall hair appear in a new campaign for Chanel No. 5, making him the first male to endorse the iconic fragrance since its launch in 1921. Vanity Fair notes that Chanel is subtly circling back to its gender-twisting origins; the founding couturiere cleverly revolutionized women's fashion by raiding her boyfriends' closets for such comfortable haberdashery staples as boaters, cardigans, tweeds, and jerseys. But we'd simply like to draw your attention to the crazy pretentious ad, in which a deadly serious Pitt intones, It's not a journey. Every journey ends, but we go on. The world turns, and we turn with it. Plans disappear, dreams take over, but wherever I go, there you are. My luck, my fate, my fortune. Chanel No. 5: inevitable.
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(Sep 9, 2012 6:50 AM CDT) Hustler publisher Larry Flynt is ready to cough up a cool $1 million for an up close and personal look at something lusted after by Democrats everywhere: Namely, Mitt Romney's tax returns. Flynt is offering the reward to anyone who can dig up new evidence of the GOP candidate's unreleased tax returns and/or details of his offshore assets, bank accounts, and business partnerships, reports CNN. Political observers are torn over whether Flynt's offer is more about keeping the Romney tax issue, or just Hustler, in the headlines. Flynt ran ads in today's Washington Post, and they'll be in USA Today on Tuesday. His offer comes just days after hackers said they had dug up Romney's old tax returns and would release them unless he paid up $1 million. Flynt offered $1 million for evidence of a Rick Perry affair last year and in the past has offered rewards for catching other politicians with their pants down.
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(Feb 23, 2009 1:45 AM) Fearing further losses, Citigroup is negotiating with the government to convert part of the public's $45 billion investment in Citi from preferred to common stock, which could give the US up to 40% of the bank at no additional cost. Such a move would boost the bank's capital portfolio while diluting the value of stock held by other Citigroup shareholders, reports the Wall Street Journal. It would also hand the government major new influence over the multinational. It's not clear whether the potential deal--the biggest since taxpayers scooped up 80% of AIG last fall--amounts to nationalization. If Citigroup succeeds, other banks may also request public ownership arrangements. The Obama administration, which has denied interest in nationalizing troubled banks, hasn't weighed in on the plan yet. Citigroup shares hit an 18-year low last week.
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(Apr 14, 2009 2:10 PM CDT) Strunk and White's classic writing guide, The Elements of Style, has some harmless things to say about style, Geoffrey Pullum writes in the Chronicle of Higher Education, but its assault on grammar is unforgivable. The toxic mix of purism, atavism, and personal eccentricity is not underpinned by a proper grounding in English grammar, Pullum writes of the book, 50 this month. Though Pullum takes exception to some of Strunk and White's pronouncements, particularly about passive clauses, the real problem is how poorly the book is written. Its contempt for its own grammatical dictates seems almost willful, as if the authors were flaunting the fact that the rules don't apply to them. The book does not deserve an anniversary fete: Strunk and White are just wrong about the facts of English syntax.
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(Nov 3, 2020 7:20 PM) As results from Florida roll in, a confusing number in an Orange County precinct is getting attention. In Precinct 538, turnout topped 103% Tuesday, with more than 780 votes cast in a precinct that had 754 registered voters on the Oct. 6 registration deadline, the Orlando Sentinel reports. County election officials explained that the turnout number was correct because some voters had updated their addresses after the registration deadline, placing them in the precinct, reports Fox. It's not a glitch! tweeted the Orange County Supervisor of Elections office. If you're already registered to vote in Florida, there's no deadline for updating your address.
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(Oct 22, 2012 5:42 PM CDT) Apparently lecherous classmates aren't the only ones passing around people's sexted photos. A British Internet watchdog has found that 88% of suggestive or sexy pics and videos that people upload of themselves end up on porn websites, the Guardian reports. A 4-week study by the Internet Watch Foundation found that of 12,224 such uploads, 10,776 later ended up on parasite websites. Once there, of course, they're far beyond the person's control. The study includes sad, personal messages from people whose lives were affected by having their sexy material hit the 'Net. I came to regret posting photographs of myself naively on the internet and tried to forget about it, writes one. I was eventually admitted for severe depression and was treated for a suicide attempt. Experts advise parents and teachers to communicate with kids about the dangers of sexting, but one analyst notes that young people tend to do it anyway.
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(Jan 20, 2017 12:30 PM) Shia LaBeouf, actor and performance art fan, has a new project, and it will presumably last for the next four years. At hewillnotdivide.us, LaBeouf is livestreaming people standing outside New York's Museum of the Moving Image. On an exterior wall of the museum, the words HE WILL NOT DIVIDE US are painted and a webcam is mounted, Vulture reports. The accompanying website invites members of the public to read those words out loud to the camera, repeating the phrase as many times, and for as long as they wish. It notes that the participatory performance will be livestreamed for four years, or the duration of the presidency. As of this writing, Will Smith's son, Jaden, was standing in front of the camera repeating the words, and has been doing so since Vulture published its article at 9am ET. LaBeouf is apparently not the only one getting in on the 4-year-long livestream action; see here.
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(Jul 19, 2013 9:23 AM CDT) A young girl is dead after an innocent sleepover turned into a nightmare in Oakland on Wednesday night. Alaysha Carradine, 8, was shot and killed at a friend's apartment when a gunman rang the doorbell then proceeded to fire through the door, the San Francisco Chronicle reports. Alaysha's friend, 7, her friend's brother, 4, and grandmother were all injured in the attack, which has so far left family members and police with more questions than answers. It was like it was a bomb, an explosion, just going off so quick, said the children's uncle, the only one left unscathed in the attack; he says he doesn't believe he was the target. Alaysha's stepfather questioned whether the shooter fired at the wrong address, and remembers Alaysha, nicknamed Ladybug, as a breath of fresh air, one of the most smart, fun-loving, spunky kids you'd ever meet. With the gunman on the loose and no clue as to motive, police are looking for tips from the public, the San Jose Mercury News reports.
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(Nov 13, 2020 9:20 AM) Thieves set up a roadblock of tires, parked a fake police car beside it, then smashed down the door of the Eyewitness War Museum in the Netherlands, from which they took $1.5 million in World War II memorabilia in just five minutes, per the New York Times. It was done with military precision, museum director Wim Seelen tells the Times, which reports police were delayed by the roadblock and arrived only after the thieves--close to a dozen people--had escaped on Aug. 4. They appear to have been after Nazi memorabilia specifically. Nine mannequins decked out in Nazi uniforms, including one worn by Adolf Hitler's personal chef, were among the items seized in the 2am raid--one of a spate of robberies targeting Nazi uniforms this year. On Nov. 3, thieves snagged three mannequins in Nazi outfits from the German Museum North Schleswig in Denmark. The previous month, thieves stole 23 mannequins in SS uniforms from the Oorlogsmuseum in the Netherlands while the owner was sleeping in a nearby room, per ArtNet News and the National Post. And in March, thieves made off with SS uniforms from the Frosty Camp Museum in Denmark. None of the robberies have been solved and it's unknown if they're connected. One theory is that they were ordered by Eastern European collectors. German World War II memorabilia is rare as so much of it was destroyed after the war, Jan de Jonge of the Oorlogsmuseum tells the CBC. And prices have skyrocketed in recent years. A stolen rifle used by Nazi paratroopers is worth more than $175,000, up from $60,000 a decade ago, while an SS uniform could fetch as much as $35,000 today. Museums are now taking precautions, installing extra security and removing uniforms from view.
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(Sep 15, 2015 3:20 PM CDT) US stocks are closing solidly higher ahead of the start of a crucial Federal Reserve policy meeting. The Dow Jones industrial average gained 228 points, or 1.4%, to 16,599 today. The Standard & Poor's 500 index climbed 25 points, or 1.3%, to 1,978. The Nasdaq composite rose 54 points, or 1.1%, to 4,860. Industrial stocks rose more than the rest of the market. General Electric gained 2%. Bond prices fell. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note rose to 2.28%. Opinions are split over whether the Fed will raise its benchmark interest rate for the first time in almost a decade. Many are speculating that the Fed will hold off and keep borrowing costs cheap. The Fed winds up its two-day meeting on Thursday.
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(Mar 18, 2009 12:26 PM CDT) Bernard Madoff's longtime accountant has been arrested and charged with securities fraud in the $64 billion Ponzi scheme, the New York Post reports. David Friehling, 49, is accused of helping Madoff dupe his investors and the Securities and Exchange Commission by filing fake audits. Friehling allegedly received $186,000 annually for signing off on the shoddy bookkeeping; he faces 105 years in prison.
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(Dec 29, 2015 8:38 AM) Dining in NYC can be expensive, and it's a given that on New Year's Eve, Times Square eateries will be profiting even more from the reveling crowds. That includes the Great White Way's local chain restaurants, set to charge their usual exorbitant prices for the night's celebratory fare, the New York Post reports. The Times Square Olive Garden, for instance, will offer a buffet meal with open bar and a DJ for $400 per person (it only offers a limited view of the famous Waterford crystal ball). While the Post reports the buffet won't feature Olive Garden's trademark breadsticks, the company confirms to Newser that they will indeed be served. Whew. A couple's VIP table at Ruby Tuesday will set a dining duo back $1,699, per the Post, which points out that Bubba Gump Shrimp on Broadway is similarly pricey at $799 a head. TGI Friday's, Applebee's, Buffalo Wild Wings, and plenty of other venues are also opening their doors to noshers with a penchant for what's essentially high-priced pub grub. Take your pick of parties at the Times Square website.
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(Apr 11, 2016 8:00 AM CDT) Last year, Donald Trump's campaign gave the AP a 93-page list it claimed documented $102 million that he's donated to charity over the past five years. The AP didn't print the list--though it published a story deeming Trump's philanthropy elusive --but it's since handed the doc over to the Washington Post, which upon further analysis of entries often written in cryptic internal shorthand finds no gifts were out of Trump's own pocket. Instead, donations included major land-conservation deals and lots of giveaways, including free rounds of golf offered by his courses during charity auctions and raffles. And many of the gifts come from not Trump himself, but from the Donald J. Trump Foundation, which is mainly funded by others (including the WWE's McMahon family) and to which Trump hasn't written a check since 2008, per public tax filings. He's using [the foundation] as a kind of checkbook, with other people's money, a faculty member at Indiana University's School of Philanthropy says. It's not wrong. It's not unique. But it's poor philanthropy. Trump's philanthropic predilections tend toward a particular group, and not all of them charities: namely, Trump's business and political interests and even the occasional celebrity (Serena Williams scored a free framed photo of him and a free plane ride to Florida). While Bill Gates has been vanquishing malaria, for example, Trump's been sending funds to conservatives who could help his GOP standing. Allen Weisselberg, CFO of the Trump Organization, tells the Post that while the items on the list don't include personal cash donations, the list isn't comprehensive and Trump has pulled out his own wallet, though he prefers to be discreet about it. We want to keep them quiet, Weisselberg says. He doesn't want other charities to see it. Then it becomes like a feeding frenzy. Others also say he lives up to his Grateful Millionaire nickname, doing things no one ever hears about--including reportedly paying off the mortgage for a couple who helped him when his limo broke down. (A fake front page imagines a Trump presidency in the Boston Globe.)
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(May 20, 2012 7:04 AM CDT) Hours of protest marches by up to 1,000 anti-NATO demonstrators and clashes with police in Chicago's Loop led to about 18 arrests last night, but no serious damage or injuries, reports the AP. Protesters tested police barriers as they tried to make their way north of the Chicago River to the upscale downtown area where most of the 60 NATO heads of state and VIPs are staying. But the demonstrators were unable to pass by the authorities and eventually the marches petered out, with most dispersing by 11pm, reports the Chicago Tribune. If anything else happens, the plan is to go in and get the people who create the violent acts, take them out of the crowd, and arrest them, said the Chicago police superintendent. We're not going to charge the crowd wholesale--that's the bottom line. Some protesters shouted against the arrest of three men yesterday on terror charges, but overall most demonstrators were peaceful. Still, protesters were gearing up for a much larger showing today. I'm pretty impressed with what we did, but I'm not looking forward to waking up and doing it again tomorrow, said one protester. But when I wake up tomorrow I think I'll feel differently.
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(Dec 6, 2012 5:59 PM) Looking for a cozy getaway for two with guaranteed solitude? Startup space venture Golden Spike has just the thing, but it will set you back a total of $1.5 billion. The company run by former NASA execs plans to offer two-person trips to the moon by 2020, reports Nature and the Washington Post. Two seats, 750 each, says CEO Alan Stern. The trick is 40 years old. We know how to do this. The price tag might be exorbitant, but the company thinks some corporations or even foreign countries might sign on. If that happens and trips become routine, the price would come down. Golden Spike doesn't make its own rockets, notes Eric Hand of Nature, making it more like an airline company rather than an aircraft manufacturer. It would have to contract with other companies, possibly SpaceX. Space.com has more on the logistics of Golden Spike's travel plan.
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(Mar 6, 2010 1:12 PM) Mahmoud Ahmadinejad maintains the Holocaust is fictional, and he apparently feels the same way about the official version of the 9/11 attacks. The September 11 incident was a big fabrication as a pretext for the campaign against terrorism and a prelude for staging an invasion against Afghanistan, the Iranian president said today during a meeting with his intelligence ministry. Without elaborating, he also called the destruction of the World Trade Center a complicated intelligence scenario and act, reports Reuters. Ahmadinejad has made statements of this nature in the past, but today's seem to go the furthest in buying into conspiracy theories. Fringe elements in the Middle East say American and Israeli intelligence operatives carried out the attacks, notes the New York Times.
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(Oct 3, 2013 5:55 PM CDT) Kind of a risky way to pay people, isn't it? Alleged drug dealers ran into trouble last weekend by throwing more than $1 million from a low-flying plane in Bolivia, the BBC reports. Police saw the whole thing, arrested three Bolivian nationals on the ground, and grabbed the bag packed with US dollars. Interior Minister Carlos Romero said the money would have funded a new cocaine production center or money-laundering business, reports the Latin Times. Those in the plane got away scot-free, but Romero called the seizure a major blow to Bolivian drug traffickers. The country remains one of the world's top three cocaine producers, behind only Peru and Colombia, as Bolivia's drug gangs exploit a growing market in neighboring Brazil. But the trafficking has drawn attention: Just last week Bolivian police shot down a plane and confiscated 690 pounds of cocaine being sent off to Brazil, reports the Latin American Herald Tribune.
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(Jan 19, 2009 5:50 AM) Scientists have discovered a mutant gene carried by 1% of the population which almost guarantees heart disease in later life, reports the BBC. Some 60 million people have the genetic time bomb, including 4% of the total population of India. The gene increases the risk of heart disease sevenfold, according to a study in the journal Nature Genetics. The gene creates an abnormal protein that affects the heart muscle later in life when the body has a more difficult time coping with it. The combination of big effects and high frequency is surprising, said one of the study's authors of the mutation. He believes it may be possible to one day treat the mutation by finding a way to postpone its effects.
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(Aug 26, 2011 1:36 AM CDT) At least 53 people were killed yesterday when gunmen burst into a casino in Monterrey and started a fire that trapped gamblers inside. Survivors say the Casino Royale gunmen sprayed gasoline and ordered people to get out, but panicked gamblers fled further inside the building, the Wall Street Journal reports. Authorities commandeered backhoes from a nearby construction site to break into the casino's walls to rescue victims inside. Many of the victims were women and elderly people. This is a night of sadness for Mexico, a federal security official said in a televised address. These unspeakable acts of terror will not go unpunished. The state's attorney general says drug cartels, which often extort money from casinos and other businesses, appear to have been behind the attack, the deadliest in Monterrey since drug violence in the northern city exploded more than a year ago.
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(Apr 22, 2011 10:45 AM CDT) Charlie Sheen stirred up another controversy while in Washington, DC, on Tuesday night: He somehow managed to snag a police escort so he could book it at 80mph to his show, for which he was running almost an hour late. The Washington Post looks into the matter, but no one will say exactly how such a thing was arranged or who paid for it. A police spokesperson says it's under investigation. Griped one DC council member, Citizens of the District don't want to see their police force used to escort private citizens and that Charlie Sheen, of all people, is getting a personal escort. Meanwhile, as Sheen himself told us, he's not bipolar, he's bi-winning. But that doesn't mean he doesn't care about those who are bipolar: He is donating $5,880 to the Calgary-based Organization for Bipolar Affective Disorders, the New York Daily News reports. That amount matches the amount his fans donated during an odd and somewhat controversial charity march Sheen staged in support of the group last week in Toronto, during which he sported a hat that said, I'M NOT BIPOLAR. A rep for the group calls the hat insulting, but says, We're happy to receive the funds. (Click to read what Sheen announced he'd do if he was elected president.)
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(Jul 4, 2014 4:16 AM CDT) A new setback for the Pentagon's costliest weapons program: The military's entire fleet of 97 F-35 fighter jets has been grounded while the military probes a runway fire on one of the jets last month, reports CNN. Additional inspections of F-35 engines have been ordered, and return to flight will be determined based on inspection results and analysis of engineering data, a Pentagon official says. Officials in Australia and South Korea say they haven't changed their plans to buy scores of the single-engine fighters, Reuters reports. The F-35 program, which has cost the military almost $400 billion, was grounded last year when a cracked engine blade was discovered.
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(Sep 23, 2018 9:01 AM CDT) Comcast has emerged as the top bidder for European broadcaster Sky after a rare auction held by British regulators. After three rounds of secret bidding on Friday and Saturday, Comcast offered what the Wall Street Journal calls the stratospheric price of $22.58 per share for Sky, the equivalent of nearly $39 billion. Rival 21st Century Fox offered $20.47 per share. In a statement, Sky recommended that shareholders accept Comcast's offer and sell their shares immediately, reports the AP. Comcast said it hoped to complete the takeover by the end of October. Sky is a wonderful company with a great platform, tremendous brand and accomplished management team, Comcast Chairman and CEO Brian Roberts said in a statement. This acquisition will allow us to quickly, efficiently and meaningfully increase our customer base and expand internationally.
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(Mar 4, 2012 2:01 PM) The tree-loving furry thing in Dr. Seuss' The Lorax helped set a 2012 box office record by opening with $70.7 million this weekend, trouncing The Vow's $41 million open last month, the Los Angeles Times reports. Raunchy party flick Project X took second place with a solid $20.8 million debut. Filling out the top five were holdovers Act of Valor ($13.7 million), Safe House ($7.2 million), and Tyler Perry's Good Deeds ($7 million). Also, The Artist made its best showing so far with $3.9 million after winning the Best Picture Oscar last Sunday.
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(Jul 22, 2017 9:37 AM CDT) A Long Beach, Calif., man has filed a lawsuit after he was denied a $5 million Scratchers ticket prize on a technical measure: his teenage son bought the ticket. Per the Daily Bulletin, Ward Thomas' suit filed Friday against the California Lottery Commission alleges breach of contract among other complaints. Thomas says he sent his 16-year-old son Benjamin into a Mobil gas station to exchange and cash out 12 winning tickets in October, reports ABC 7. The father and son took home $230 along with five $20 Scratchers tickets, which they played when they returned home. One of those tickets yielded a $5 million prize, which he says he validated that night at a 7-Eleven and later again at a Santa Ana lottery office. Ward says that after submitting his claim, the lottery commission confirmed the winning, but come December, denied his claim for the cash prize because his son was not of legal age (18) to purchase the ticket. The suit claims that workers at the gas station, also a defendant, never said Benjamin was too young to buy the tickets and failed to enforce this rule. It also accuses the commission of false advertising since there were no signs at the store stating age requirements. The California Lottery Commission and Mobil station did not comment on the pending litigation.
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(Oct 14, 2017 9:23 AM CDT) President Trump's move to axe a major ObamaCare subsidy has been taken to court--and it's probably going to be there for years to come, analysts say. The Democratic attorneys general of 18 states and Washington, DC filed a lawsuit in federal court on Friday, the day after the White House said it plans to end cost-sharing reduction payments to insurers, which subsidize insurance that lower-income Americans buy through ObamaCare exchanges, reports Reuters. Health Insurance stocks, which have gone through the roof during the ObamaCare years, plunged yesterday after I ended their Dems windfall! Trump boasted in a tweet early Saturday. Insurance companies are also expected to challenge the move. Trump says he wants to dismantle ObamaCare step by step. Attorney General Jeff Sessions says the federal government won't make the next payment to insurers, which is due Wednesday. The states that filed suit Friday want the federal court to order the government to make the payment, though analysts say the chances of getting an injunction are slim. Forcing an administration to continue making payments when the president believes there is no appropriation, and when Congress believes there's no appropriation, would be a pretty extreme move by the court--even if it was a temporary measure, Nicholas Bagley, a professor at the University of Michigan Law School, tells Politico.
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(Jul 7, 2012 1:45 PM CDT) Stampeding bulls gored an elderly man and injured five others in Pamplona today during the San Fermin festival's first bull run, AFP reports. A 73-year-old local man took a horn to the leg, but wasn't seriously hurt, and a runner was knocked down on the final stretch and dragged by his red neckerchief for about 30 yards. Other injuries included a Japanese man with a hurt back and an Australian with a bruised knee, the regional government said. It is something you have to experience and feel, said a banker from Saragossa who came with two friends. It's a new experience, something that is impossible to forget. People come from around the world every year to don the neckerchiefs and white trousers and run feverishly from 1,200-pound bulls in eight races; some 200 or 300 are usually hurt, about 3% seriously. Three years ago, a bull fatally gored a 27-year-old Spaniard, penetrating his lungs, heart, and neck before the horrified crowd.
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(Dec 17, 2015 2:33 PM) A Texas man who may or may not have purchased a $1 million car for the express purpose of driving it into a lagoon was sentenced to more than a year in prison Tuesday, KTRE reports. According to the Houston Chronicle, Andy House--who owns a salvage yard for exotic cars--bought the 2006 Bugatti Veyron in October 2009. The following month, he drove it into the Gulf Bay lagoon. After crashing his expensive ride, House left the engine running, which totaled the car by sucking a bunch of salt water into the engine, KTRE reports. According to Jalopnik, House originally said he was distracted by a low-flying pelican before later claiming he was reaching for his cellphone when he crashed. KTRE reports House had insured the Bugatti for $2.2 million prior to sinking it in the lagoon, and received an insurance settlement of $600,000. (Now we're no insurance experts, but this seems like a bad deal for House.) Unfortunately for House, the crash was filmed and put on YouTube by someone who was just attempting to admire his fancy car. Evidence later showed in court proved he purposefully drove the Bugatti into Gulf Bay, according to Jalopnik. And the Chronicle reports House pleaded guilty to insurance fraud. According to Jalopnik, House got off surprisingly easy, as he had faced up to 20 years in prison for the crime. However, he's got to pay back that settlement. (After the crash, a tow-truck driver was surprised at how calm House was.)
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(Apr 4, 2016 7:16 AM CDT) An Indiana 8th-grader's refusal to complete a school project as assigned is making headlines. The unnamed girl was asked to calculate her body mass index and give the definition for BMI, which is found by multiplying one's weight by 703 and dividing by squared height in inches. But instead of providing the number, she countered with a two-page essay. A proud family friend posted photographs of her work on Facebook on March 30. The self-described bigger girl opens up about her own body image struggles, which recently involved trying to wrap Ace bandages around my stomach so I'd look skinnier. Her concerned parents took her to her doctor, a man who went to college for eight years studying children's health [and] told me my height and weight are right on track. She concludes by writing that her BMI is not only none of your concern but is also beautiful, as is her body. She also argues that BMI is an outdated index that has absolutely no way of discriminating [between] fat and muscle. Indeed, a study published in Nature in March finds that almost half of people considered overweight through this measure actually have a healthy cardiometabolic profile calculated using such factors as blood pressure, cholesterol, and blood sugar, while about a third of the normal BMI people had unhealthy profiles. But a CDC study to be presented Friday argues in favor of the measure's usefulness; it found that an infant's BMI at 6 to 18 months can predict those who are prone to obesity in early childhood. (This professional runner also inspired with her honesty about her own body, in this case post-pregnancy.)
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(Jun 10, 2015 4:03 PM CDT) When Mary Smith was 11, her dad died at the age of 45 of a heart attack. Her mom was receiving help for mental illness, so her older first cousin, Muriel Clayton, who had four young girls of her own, welcomed Smith permanently into her own home after Smith was shuffled around for a while among other relatives. Now, more than 60 years later, the unofficial mother-daughter duo have made it official: The 76-year-old Smith was adopted yesterday in a Dallas courtroom by her 92-year-old surrogate mom, and the scene as described by the Dallas Morning News was an emotional one. I feel very happy, Smith said. She has been Mom for a long time, and now it's official, with Clayton adding, This is what I have wanted to do for a long, long time, and now it has come to pass. There was a compelling and thoughtful reason it took so long to seal the deal: respect for Mary's biological mother, who lived to the age of 73 but spent much of her life in mental institutions. I couldn't have done that to her [while she was still alive], Clayton tells the Morning News. She was a dear, dear person. Clayton popped the question to Smith on Mother's Day this year, she tells WFAA: I said, 'I have been thinking about adopting you, how do you feel about that?' And her little face just lit up! Her daughter's reply: 'Little face' ... isn't that sweet? Clayton sums up the adoption with a touching analogy. I have worked jigsaw puzzles, and my life had been a beautiful picture, she tells WFAA. But one piece was missing, and that was Mary. And now I've got that piece in place. (This adopted Ohio woman found her birth mother ... at work.)
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(Jan 30, 2012 5:44 PM) New York police arrested a Bronx woman today for embezzling more than $1 million from the Archdiocese of New York, the New York Daily News reports. Prosecutors say the plain-looking Anita Collins, 67, spent lavishly at Bloomingdale's, Barney's, and Brooks Brothers during her nine-year stint at the archdiocese. She finally confessed when confronted at work last month about a missing $10,000. But she continued to lie about the other $1,063,000 she had taken, said Assistant DA Amy Justiniano. She held herself out to be a religious woman going to church every day, Justiniano said. Yet, behind their backs she would lie and steal. Lucky for Collins--who had twice pleaded guilty in larceny cases and served probation--she was hired before the archdiocese began doing employee background checks in 2003. Then she allegedly siphoned out the money by writing duplicate checks in small amounts and cashing them with phony names. She entered no plea today and was held on $750,000 bail.
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(Feb 8, 2011 10:22 AM) Fahrenheit 9/11 cemented Michael Moore's reputation as a high-profile documentary filmmaker--but he claims he didn't get enough money for the 2004 movie, and now he's suing Harvey and Bob Weinstein over it. In the suit, Moore seeks at least $2.7 million and accuses the Weinsteins of using financial deception and bogus accounting methods to divert money that should have gone to Moore (who, in an unusually generous deal, was to receive 50% of the profits). The Weinsteins' lawyer--who notes Moore was paid $19.8 million for the film, which grossed $222 million worldwide--calls the whole thing rubbish, the Los Angeles Times reports. But Moore's attorney notes in a statement that This is the first time Michael Moore has ever sued anyone in his 20-year career as a filmmaker. That should be some indication about how serious this is.
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(Aug 16, 2010 2:57 AM CDT) In an unprecedented feat for a still-developing country, China has become the world's second-largest economy after edging ahead of Japan. Second-quarter GDP figures show China's output at $1.339 trillion, well ahead of Japan's $1.288 trillion. Because China is already in the habit of outperforming Japan in the later months of the year, an edge in the second quarter is a strong sign Beijing will finish 2010 ahead of Tokyo. The shift represents a milestone for the global economy, an economist told the Wall Street Journal. China is already far ahead of Japan in purchasing power, but its output per person remains about a tenth of Japan's. But China's economic rise is adding to tensions with its regional trading partners. There are very real limits to China's ability to translate its economic strength into soft power, a regional observer said, citing recent diplomatic rows with Vietnam, South Korea, and Australia. China always seems to overreach or under-deliver.
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(Apr 14, 2015 3:55 AM CDT) A notebook that sheds light on how British mathematician Alan Turing helped invent modern computing--and win World War II--was sold for just over $1 million at an auction in New York yesterday. The 56-page handwritten notebook dates from 1942, when Turing was helping crack Nazi Germany's Enigma code and turn the tide of the war, reports Reuters. Bonhams auction house, which sold an Enigma machine for $269,000 at the same auction, says a portion of the proceeds will go to charity and adds that the sale is a wonderful result and a fitting testament to Alan Turing's impact and legacy, the Telegraph reports. The auction house says Turing's notes show how he was working on logic and the foundations of mathematics with the aim of creating a universal language for a universal computing machine. Turing, who reportedly committed suicide in 1954, left the notebook to friend and fellow mathematician Robin Gandy, who used the blank pages for a dream journal and some deeply personal messages, the Financial Times reports. It seems a suitable disguise to write in between these notes of Alan's on notation, but possibly a little sinister; a dead father figure, some of whose thoughts I most completely inherited, wrote Gandy, who died in 1995. (In 2013, Queen Elizabeth II pardoned Turing for a 1952 homosexuality conviction.)
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(Oct 28, 2009 9:02 AM CDT) Australian authorities are warning people to stay out of the water around Stradbroke Island near Brisbane unless they want to risk meeting a great white shark big enough to bite another great white nearly in half. Experts who examined the remains of the other shark believe its rival must be around 20 feet long, judging from the huge size of the bites. Whatever attacked and took chunks out of this big shark must be massive, one surfer told Brisbane's Courier-Mail. I've heard about the big one that's lurking out there somewhere. We're all being very, very cautious.
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(Dec 18, 2009 8:07 AM) A suicide car bomber detonated his explosives near a mosque inside a police compound in northwestern Pakistan today, killing 10 people and injuring 28 in the latest attack by suspected Taliban militants. Most of the victims were police leaving the mosque after Friday prayers. Elsewhere, a suspected US drone fired three missiles at a house in North Waziristan, killing three militants and injuring two others. It was the third such strike in North Waziristan in the past 24 hours.
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(Nov 6, 2012 2:25 PM) The latest gossip out of Silicon Valley: Microsoft is developing a new, 7-inch gaming tablet known as the Xbox Surface, insiders tell The Verge. The device, still in the testing stages, will contain hardware designed specifically for games, though some basic tablet and Windows features may be incorporated. Fueling the rumors is the fact that Microsoft recently limited employee access to its Xbox buildings; The Verge speculates that's so the company can run testing for the tablet. If it all turns out to be true, expect to see the Xbox Surface show up before the next Xbox console debuts.
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(Mar 7, 2016 8:47 AM) Seven people have been arrested and police are investigating dozens more after a woman in India was burned alive, apparently in retaliation for ditching an arranged marriage and eloping eight years ago, the Times of India reports. Rama Kunwar, 30, who has a 3-year-old daughter with the man she ran off with, had apparently hoped that her family had forgiven her for the unsanctioned marriage and returned to visit her in-laws in Dungarpur--but her brothers were said to have caught wind she was in town, burst into her in-laws' home, and dragged her into the street, where they proceeded to pour gas on her and set her ablaze in front of frightened villagers, a local official tells AFP. She cried for help, but no one came to rescue her, he says. The official adds that the suspects immediately set up a funeral pyre to get rid of evidence, but Kunwar's mother-in-law reportedly called the cops, who came to put out the fire and salvage some clues. Police arrested one of Kunwar's brothers and six other suspects (AFP suggests some of her cousins may have been involved), while a case has been lodged against 35 more persons, a police rep tells the Times. Honor killings are a long-held tradition in India, especially in rural areas, carried out by relatives or village elders when families feel their standing in the country's caste system has been insulted or threatened. The government has been trying to fight the custom, with India's Supreme Court ruling in 2011 that those convicted of honor killings should get the death penalty. (A woman in Turkey switched things around in her honor killing. )
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(Apr 29, 2014 7:12 AM CDT) Six people were rushed to the hospital this morning after a man opened fire at a FedEx warehouse in Kennesaw, Ga. Three of those patients are in critical condition, with two in surgery and one on advanced life support, a doctor tells the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. One other patient is in stable condition, while two others are being released. The suspected shooter, a package handler at the warehouse, has been found dead of an apparently self-inflicted gunshot wound. More than 100 officers from various departments responded to the call, which came just before 6am. The facility is currently on lockdown while they search for secondary devices. The suspect was dressed all in black with a camouflage vest, and had bullets strapped to his chest like Rambo, clerk Liza Aiken told reporters at WGCL and WXIA. She heard him drop a foot-long knife before he began shooting, and then ran. She said she didn't know what his motive was, but mentioned that last week he had flashed a laser scanner into her eyes, and that he'd been reprimanded for it after Aiken complained to management. To me he just seemed like an immature boy.
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(Jan 20, 2015 10:07 AM) The Telegraph calls it one of the strangest cases of deja vu ever recorded in medical history : A 23-year-old British man can't lead a normal life because he feels he's trapped in a time loop, as he describes it. When his episodes first started in 2007, just after he started university, his deja vu sometimes lasted just a few minutes at a time. But those episodes got worse, and by 2010, he was no longer able to watch TV, listen to the radio, or read because of persistent feelings of having encountered the content before. He also dropped out of school. His case was written up last month in the Journal of Medical Case Reports, and the report notes that unlike many patients (such as those with dementia) who experience chronic deja vu, this man is fully aware of the false nature of his and had no memory problems. He's also not subject to any of the neurological conditions (like temporal lobe epilepsy) typically associated with deja vu. Rather than simply the unsettling feelings of familiarity which are normally associated with deja vu, our subject complained that it felt like he was actually retrieving previous experiences from memory, not just finding them familiar, says report author Dr. Christine Wells. Wells believes this could be the first-ever case of anxiety causing persistent deja vu: The man had a history of anxiety, particularly in regards to contamination (he's a frequent hand washer) and that anxiety got worse when he started university. Perhaps anxiety caused mistimed neuronal firing in the brain, which causes more deja vu and in turn brings about more anxiety, Wells tells the Telegraph. However, the report also notes that after the deja vu started, the man took LSD once, and from then on the deja vu was fairly continuous. (Read about another highly unusual medical case.)
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(Sep 10, 2018 10:35 AM CDT) With just one blast, miners in Western Australia unearthed two large quartz rocks containing gold estimated to be worth about $11 million, bringing the cache to the surface over four days. Australian miners often extract just 2g of gold per ton of rock--an expert says the gold particles are often too small to be seen by the naked eye--but in this case, Canadian mining company RNC Minerals says 2,200g per ton was extracted, the BBC reports. You might go your whole life and you'll never see anything like it. It's definitely a once-in-a-lifetime discovery, a geologist tells Australia's ABC News. The largest rocks will be auctioned as collector's items, according to the RNC Minerals CEO. The biggest one weighs between 200 and 210 pounds and contains more than 2,300 ounces of gold for a worth of about $3 million; the next biggest weighs 139 pounds and contains 1,600 ounces of gold for a worth of around $2 million. The miner credited with discovering the gold describes it as the mother lode, telling ABC he's never before seen anything like it: I nearly fell over looking at it. The Beta Hunt mine, near Kalgoorlie, had primarily been a nickel mining operation, but RNC found traces of gold in June and then targeted the gold vein 1,600 feet underground; the gold was extracted from an area just 10 feet wide and 10 feet high. This sort of bonanza zone is incredibly unique, the geologist notes.
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(Feb 23, 2010 1:15 PM) Jayson Williams was sentenced to 5 years in prison today for accidentally shooting and killing a limousine driver in 2002. The 42-year-old former New Jersey Net, who must serve a minimum of 18 months, tearfully apologized to the family of Costas Gus Christofi. I pray that today brings you some comfort, he said. But the prosecutor urged the judge to be harsh on Williams, reading a scathing letter from Christofi's sister. The letter complained that Williams has been partying around since his original 2004 trial resulted in a hung jury. Jayson Williams has been treated like a king, she wrote. He's a danger to society and should not be walking the streets. Williams was to be retried this year, but he pleaded guilty on Jan. 11. Less than a week earlier, he had been charged with DUI, which could earn him another year in jail.
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(Sep 16, 2009 11:31 AM CDT) Jay-Z and the Beatles lit up the charts this week, Billboard reports. Jay-Z's The Blueprint 3 sold 476,000 copies, easily capturing the top spot for the week, and giving the rapper his 11th No. 1 album. That nabs him the record, previously held by Elvis, for the solo act with the most No. 1s ever. The Beatles, meanwhile, sold a whopping 626,000 albums this week, a huge leap from just 21,000 the week before. The monster of a week nearly doubled the Fab Four's sales for the year, bringing their 2009 total to 1,261,000. Since SoundScan's sales tracking began in 1991, the Beatles have never sold less than a million albums in a year. Their best-selling individual album last week was the Abbey Road reissue, which, with 89,000 copies, came in third, behind Blueprint 3 and Miley Cyrus' The Time of Our Lives.
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(Apr 28, 2010 11:08 AM CDT) Republicans are convinced that the road to a takeover of the House is lined with white picket fences. Suburbia is the key to the 2010 elections, strategists from both parties tell the Wall Street Journal. An influx of minorities and the college educated--both groups that lean left--has shaded many suburban areas blue in the past few elections, but Republicans think that unease over health care and the national debt could turn the tide. Virginia's 11th, for example, used to be reliably Republican, but in the past election, Barack Obama took it by 21 points. Now, it's seen as a bellwether. If Republicans can win back this seat, we will win back the House, said the district's former Republican rep. Both parties agree it's essential to win over the lawn-mowing crowd; half the country now lives in suburbs, up from a third in 1980.
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(Feb 24, 2016 1:18 AM) It's a huge blow for Johnson & Johnson, and a huge win for the family of a woman who blamed the company's products for her ovarian cancer. In St. Louis on Monday, a jury awarded $72 million to the family of Alabama's Jacqueline Fox: $10 million in actual damages and $62 million--$1 million for every year that she lived--in punitive damages, Courthouse News reports. Fox, who died in October but testified in a video deposition, said she used the company's talc-based Baby Powder and Shower to Shower products for feminine hygiene for 35 years. The family's lawyers said the company covered up evidence the products could cause cancer and the jury agreed, finding Johnson & Johnson liable for fraud, negligence, and conspiracy, reports Reuters. The evidence included internal memos that lawyers argued showed that Johnson & Johnson was aware of the link between talc and ovarian cancer for more than 30 years but covered it up. Fox's son, Marvin Salter, became the plaintiff after her death. He tells the St. Louis Post-Dispatch that Johnson & Johnson was a company name he had trusted. My reaction was disbelief, he says. How can a company have known about this relationship between talc and ovarian cancer since the 1970s and not disclosed it? Fox's case was the first to go to court, but there are around 1,200 similar ones in Missouri and New Jersey. The company says the safety of cosmetic talc is supported by decades of scientific evidence and it plans to appeal the ruling. (Another alleged cancer risk: This laminate flooring from China.)
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(Mar 30, 2008 12:39 PM CDT) Photojournalist Dith Pran, whose saga was re-created in the film The Killing Fields, has died of pancreatic cancer at 65, the New York Times reports. The Cambodian native became the Khmer Rouge's most vocal opponent after escaping in 1979, having worked in labor camps and survived on a spoonful of rice a day. He moved to New York, where he began working for the Times and against the Cambodian genocide. I'm a one-person crusade, he once said. Dith worked as an assistant to Sydney Schanberg in Cambodia, where he saved the Times correspondent from execution. Schanberg, who won a Pulitzer for his Cambodia work, returned to the US, but Dith didn't make it out. He eventually escaped into Thailand, and Schanberg helped him reunite Stateside with his family.
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(Jul 23, 2020 4:22 PM CDT) Fifteen years is a long time between fights. And then there's the fact that Mike Tyson is 54 now. But the former undisputed heavyweight champ is returning to the ring because I can do it, ESPN reports. Just because we are 54, it doesn't mean that we have to start a new career and our lives are totally over, Tyson said. Not when you feel as beautiful as I do, and I'm sure that other people feel the same way. He'll take on someone close to his own age: Roy Jones Jr., 51. They plan an eight-round exhibition on Sept. 12 in Carson, California, to be shown on Triller and pay-per-view. Tyson, whose last fight was a loss to Kevin McBride, said he's not worried about himself: I never took that many punches. And he's not worried about Jones, who last fought in February 2018, a victory by decision. We're both accomplished fighters, we know how to take care of ourselves, Tyson said. The boxers will not wear headgear, said the head of the California State Athletic Commission, but they'll wear larger gloves than usual. This isn't a situation where they're going out there to try to take each other's heads off, he said, per Yahoo Sports. They're just going to be in there moving around the ring and letting fans see these legends. Jones said the fight wasn't his idea. I've been trying to enjoy retirement, but people don't seem to want to let me retire, he said. We always wanted to see it, Jones added of a bout with Tyson, but I would've preferred it back then.
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(Nov 1, 2011 1:04 PM CDT) Want to avoid death? Get happy. A new study finds that subjects who reported feeling the most happy were 35% less likely to die than those who reported feeling the least happy, according to USA Today. Interestingly, the researchers didn't ask participants to recall past feelings of happiness; rather, they asked the 3,853 subjects to rate their feelings at 7am, 7:30am, 7pm, and 7:30pm on one particular day. In many ways, this is a better approach to understanding how people actually feel than asking them general questions about how happy they are, says a co-author. Five years later, they noted how many of the subjects--aged 52-79 initially--had died, while controlling for other factors not related to happiness. Though the results don't actually prove that happiness leads directly to better survival, says the co-author, one professor calls the association the study uncovered pretty amazing. ... If we can get people to be happier, would that extend the lifespan? We don't know that yet. The study also found that people were generally less happy upon waking, and most happy at 7pm. Click for more on studies that have shown a link between longevity and optimism or even just smiling.
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(Dec 16, 2017 11:58 AM) A NBA player's body was found in a field in Memphis, Tennessee, more than seven years ago. On Friday, authorities arrested his ex-wife in connection with his murder. Fox 13 reports Sherra Wright was arrested Friday at her home in California on suspicion of first-degree murder. She's also accused of attempted first-degree murder for what authorities say was an earlier attempt to kill her husband, Lorenzen Wright, according to the Commercial Appeal. On July 19, 2010, Lorenzen Wright's cellphone called 911 from a field in Memphis. The call was cut short by gunshots, and Wright's body--shot at least five times--was found in the field nine days later. He was 34 when he died. Memphis Police say its gang unit received information about Wright's death in May or June of this year. In November, the FBI found what is believed to be the murder weapon in a lake in Mississippi. We followed the evidence and the evidence led us to Billy Turner and Sherra Wright, Major Darren Goods says. Turner was arrested Dec. 5 and faces the same charges as Wright. It's been reported Turner and Sherra Wright attended the same church, but their exact relationship is unclear. Lorenzen Wright's mother says she believes Sherra Wright killed her son for money, including a $1 million life insurance policy. Lorenzen Wright was drafted by the Los Angeles Clippers in 1996 and played for five teams before the end of his career in 2009, the Washington Post reports.
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(Jun 27, 2011 5:56 PM CDT) No, it's not a pool toy. Researchers have discovered a new species of inflatable shark, along with more than 300 other previously unknown varieties of creatures dwelling in the Philippines. Among the finds: the shrimp-eating shark that fills itself with water to inflate and scare off predators; dozens of new insects, spiders, and armored corals; and more than 50 brightly colored sea slugs, reports LiveScience. Researchers from the California Academy of Sciences, the University of the Philippines, and the National Museum of the Philippines made the finds on a treacherous 42-day expedition this past spring to Luzon Island. They discovered a treasure trove of strange species including a sea star that feeds only on sunken driftwood and corals that protect themselves by sprouting large, spiky plates. Check out a photo gallery of some of the creatures here.
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(Jan 18, 2019 1:45 PM) It may have surprised people to learn that Prince Philip himself was behind the wheel when his vehicle crashed into another in England, given that a) he's a prince and b) he's 97. But Philip appears ready to get behind the wheel as quickly as possible. Both TMZ and the Telegraph report that a black Land Rover similar to the one he flipped Thursday was delivered to the royal estate in Norfolk. Philip went to the hospital on Friday for a precautionary check-up and emerged with no reports of serious injuries, reports the Guardian. His Land Rover collided with a Kia carrying two women and a 9-month old baby, and none of those three were seriously injured, either. Police continue to investigate. We are aware of the public interest in this case, says a police spokesman, but as with any other investigation, it would be inappropriate to speculate on the causes of the collision until an investigation is carried out. Witness Roy Warne tells the BBC that he helped free the baby from the wreck, then the prince. I saw a car, a black Rover, come out from a side road and it rolled and ended up on the other side of the road, he says. I saw it careering, tumbling across the road and ending up on the other side. Both drivers were given breath tests for alcohol and passed.
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(May 16, 2019 2:41 AM CDT) I don't think anyone has ever called 911 because they were offended by a joke, says Florida comedy club owner Brien Spina. Well, apart from on Sunday, when an audience member called 911 over remarks comedian Ahmed Ahmed made at Spina's Off The Hook club in Naples, Fla., the night before. The caller said Ahmed asked the audience how many Middle Eastern people were there, and a whole bunch of people raised their hand, WBBH reports. The caller said Ahmed then said: That's great, we could organize our own terrorist organization. And I don't think that was right, the caller said. And that really bothered me. Police turned up and spoke to the owner, but the cops were even like 'WTF?' Ahmed tweeted, attaching video of the encounter. The 911 call can be heard here. Ahmed says police were super professional and very kind. Ahmed--whose family moved to the US from Egypt when he was a month old--says the caller must have misheard the joke. What I said was, 'Are there any Middle Eastern people here tonight?' he tells the Naples Daily News. He says after a few people clapped, he said: That's great, there's a handful of us here tonight. But hey, it only takes one of us ... to tell a joke. It only takes one Middle Eastern person to tell a joke, no, but seriously, lock the doors. Ahmed--who has been invited back to the comedy club for another show next week--says to show there are no hard feelings, he'll give the caller two free tickets and a big old jolly American hug. I'll buy him a shot, he says. Terrorists don't buy people shots ... of tequila that is.
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(Oct 26, 2016 8:03 AM CDT) Women may now be equal with men in terms of their drinking, but it could take another 170 years for them to achieve pay parity, Reuters reports. The World Economic Forum said Tuesday that even though last year's guesstimate put gender paycheck equality at around the year 2133, that date has now been pushed back to 2186. Forward movement on this front has slowed down dramatically, or even reversed, in countries around the world, leading the gap back to where it was in 2008, per the Swiss organization's annual Global Gender Gap Report. When it comes to average annual earnings worldwide, women take home $10,778 to men's $19,873 paycheck, even though the report notes that women put in around 50 minutes more of work each day than men. Women are also still less likely to achieve senior positions in the workplace, the Guardian notes. Iceland and Finland are at the top of the 144-nation survey based on progress in economic opportunity, education, and other metrics, while Yemen and Pakistan bring up the rear; the US comes in at No. 45. Not that women should be resigned to cashing in smaller paychecks than their male counterparts for nearly two more centuries. These forecasts are not foregone conclusions, says WEF executive committee member Saadia Zahidi, per Reuters, noting they're just a current progress indicator and should serve as a wake-up call to remedy the problem. Ensuring the healthy development and appropriate use of half of the world's total talent pool has a vast bearing on the growth, competitiveness, and future readiness of economies and businesses worldwide, the WEF report notes. (Massachusetts passed the country's strongest equal pay law over the summer.)
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(Mar 28, 2010 6:51 PM CDT) Nolan Smith scored a career-high 29 points and top-seeded Duke used a big run late in the game to beat Baylor, 78-71, today in Houston. Duke, the lone No. 1 seed remaining in the tournament, will play in the national semis for the first time since 2004, against East Regional champion West Virginia. The Blue Devils have won 11 of their last 12 regional finals under coach Mike Krzyzewski, but haven't won a national title since 2001. Jon Scheyer added 20 points to help Duke offset a horrendous game from Kyle Singler, who was 0 for 10 from the field, the first time in his college career he failed to hit a field goal. LaceDarius Dunn had 22 points and Ekpe Udoh 18 for the Bears, who played Duke tough for 35 minutes before finally wilting under the pressure of the ACC champions. Baylor hasn't been to a Final Four since 1950.
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(Dec 20, 2011 7:42 AM) President Obama's job-approval numbers remain poor, but at 49% they have rebounded to their strongest point since March, showing substantial improvements from young voters, seniors, and independents in a new Washington Post-ABC News poll. Since September, Obama's approval rating has risen by 9 percentage points among Democrats, to reach 82%, and 8 points among Republications, now hitting 19%. But the demographic where Obama has seen the biggest improvement in recent months? Conservatives, where approval of Obama has climbed 13 percentage points and now sits at 32%. In fact, moderates were the only group where Obama has lost support since September, declining 2 percentage points to 51%. On the key issue of protecting the middle class, Obama has seen a major surge over the past month, and now tops the GOP by a margin of 50% to 35%. Congressional Republicans, on the other hand, continue to take a drubbing, now down to 20% approval from 34% in March. Democrats fare little better, with just 27% support. Click for further breakdown of the poll.
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(Oct 22, 2010 2:44 AM CDT) Getting fired from NPR is working out pretty well for Juan Williams. Fox News has offered the analyst a new three-year, $2 million contract, the Los Angeles Times reports. Williams--canned for telling Fox's O'Reilly Factor that people in Muslim garb on planes make him nervous--will have an expanded role at the Fox network and will write a column for FoxNews.com. Williams, who was already a Fox News contributor, stands by his remarks. Juan has been a staunch defender of liberal viewpoints since his tenure began at Fox News in 1997, Fox chief executive Roger Ailes said, adding a not-too-subtle dig at NPR: He's an honest man whose freedom of speech is protected by Fox News on a daily basis. Conservatives including Sarah Palin, Newt Gingrich, and Mike Huckabee have attacked NPR over the controversy, with Gingrich saying the government should pull its funding of NPR. Williams is furious about the firing. He called it a chilling assault on free speech and said that NPR's actions were worse than Richard Nixon's treatment of the press. For more on that, click here.
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(May 17, 2011 10:13 AM CDT) As if having to get up in the morning, five mornings a week, wasn't burdensome enough on the teenage soul, it just got worse. One Iowa high school is upping the annoying ante, notes Sam Biddle at Gizmodo, by introducing automated wakeup calls. Chronically late kids will get a chirpy call at the godawful hour of 6:30am, telling them, Good morning from Marshalltown High School. It's time to get up and enjoy the day. Added bonus: The message tells students when their first-period class starts. We suppose there's always silent mode.
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(Mar 20, 2012 1:40 PM CDT) A 7.4-magnitude earthquake hit central and southern Mexico today, collapsing at least 60 homes near the epicenter and a pedestrian bridge in the capital where people fled shaking office buildings in fear. One of the strongest to shake Mexico since the deadly 1985 temblor that killed thousands in Mexico City, today's earthquake sent fear and panic across the region, especially after a less powerful, magnitude-5.1 aftershock was felt in the capital and several other aftershocks around the borders of Oaxaca and Guerrero near the epicenter. But hours after the shaking at noon local time, there were still no reports of death or serious injury Police radio operator Marcos Marroquin said there were preliminary reports of 60 houses damaged in the municipality but only a report of a broken arm. In Mexico City, frightened workers and residents poured into the streets of the capital. Telephone service was down in the city, and some neighborhoods were without power, according to Mexico City Mayor Marcelo Ebrard. President Obama's oldest daughter, Malia, was reported and safe while on vacation with a school group in Oaxaca.
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(Aug 17, 2015 9:28 AM CDT) The area around a Thai shrine visited by thousands of Buddhists each day is now the site of appalling carnage after at least one bomb went off in the heart of Bangkok today around 7pm local time. The BBC and Telegraph report body parts littered the ground near the Erawan Shrine, where at least 12 people were killed--foreign tourists possibly among them--and 78 were injured. All I can say now is there has been an explosion in central Bangkok involving a motorcycle bomb, a police rep tells Reuters. Another adds, There could be another explosion, so we have blocked off the crime scene and are asking bystanders to move back. A BBC correspondent says burnt motorbikes were seen near the blast site. No person or group has yet claimed responsibility for the attack, though the country's defense minister claims the perpetrators intended to destroy the economy and tourism because the incident occurred in the heart of the tourism district. Police say they were searching for two or three other bombs; the Bangkok Post reports via Twitter that police have safely detonated at least one other bomb in the Ratchaprasong area, which also includes three shopping malls and a five-star hotel. The Telegraph reports two small blasts near the entrance of one of those malls left one person hurt back in February. In 2012, several explosions in Bangkok injured five in what police say was an attempt by Iranians to assassinate Israeli diplomats.
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(Feb 23, 2016 3:44 PM) Dr. Alan Kenny is offering a fellow doctor a $267,000 annual salary, three months of vacation, and a half-share of his New Zealand practice, the Guardian reports. And with 6,000 patients, his business in rural Tokoroa is booming, to the point where Kenny can't take time off. But no one wants the job--he hasn't received an application in four months. The problem: No one wants to ply their craft in the middle of nowhere, where social life is limited, the WiFi stinks, and, as he says to the New Zealand Herald, people perceive jobs to be dead-end ventures. The Telegraph describes Tokoroa as the city that almost was, with an unemployment rate of 22% and where going to the market in your PJs is secretly accepted. Kenny's typical day does sound like a grind. He tells the Herald that on a recent workday he punched in from 8:30am until 6pm without lunch, seeing 43 patients (recommended amount: no more than 25 daily). This problem affects not only him, but other rural practices: According to the CEO of a support network for GPs, most rural positions are filled by international med graduates who stay only a short time, with vacancies taking up to three years to fill; Kenny himself was recruited from the UK, but stuck around for 30 years. The only other New Zealander at his six-doctor practice over the past two years has been his own daughter. Still, Kenny says he's offering almost double what GPs make in other parts of the country, and considering the town has a median income of around $11,500 a year and offers inexpensive housing, he's still hoping for a taker. (Being a professional mermaid pays well, too.)
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(Jul 8, 2010 9:46 AM CDT) Passage of California's Proposition 19, the ballot initiative to legalize marijuana, would cause the price of the choicest pot to plunge to $38 an ounce, the Rand Corp. estimates. Grateful stoners might also enjoy the irony that they could end up paying the government more for their weed than they pay to growers; taxes as high as $50 an ounce have been discussed as one of the drivers for legalization. That would put the grand total in the neighborhood of $88 an ounce, an 80% drop from a current high of about $450, notes the Los Angeles Times. The Rand report, the work of five prominent drug policy experts, found it impossible to estimate the tax benefits, but it noted legalization in California would cause the price of pot to drop across the nation, stimulate marijuana tourism in the Golden State, and disrupt smuggling from Mexico. Oh, and consumption would surely rise--maybe 50%, maybe 100%. And that, one legalization enthusiast notes, would just return the level of consumption to where it was in the late '70s.
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(Nov 16, 2015 1:40 PM) Moira Smith, the only female NYPD officer who was killed in the 9/11 attacks, was posthumously named Glamour's Woman of the Year in 2001. Fourteen years later, the magazine named Caitlyn Jenner one of its women of the year--and Smith's angry widower doesn't want the two to share the same honor. He tells the New York Post he took the award down from a shelf in his home and FedExed it to Glamour, along with a note to the magazine's editor. I was shocked and saddened to learn that Glamour has just named Bruce Jenner 'Woman of the Year,' he wrote. I find it insulting to Moira Smith's memory, and the memory of other heroic women who have earned this award, he wrote, per PIX11. Was there no woman in America, or the rest of the world, more deserving than this man? At a time when we have women in the armed forces fighting and dying for our country, heroic doctors fighting deadly diseases, women police and firefighters putting their lives on the line for total strangers, brave women overcoming life threatening diseases ... the list of possibilities goes on ... is this the best you could do? A Glamour spokesperson tells the Post it stands by the decision to honor Jenner.
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(Sep 24, 2014 8:24 AM CDT) Like to keep your iPhone in your pocket? Well, you may not want to do so if you just bought a shiny new iPhone 6 or 6 Plus, because the phones can easily get bent. Users are posting pictures and videos of how easily the phones bend in what is being called Bendgate. (The issue is reminiscent of the iPhone 4's Antennagate. ) NBC News notes that it's not clear whether the problem is widespread or whether a small but vocal minority is turning it into a bigger deal than it really is, and Apple has not yet commented. Cult of Mac sarcastically points out that every other smartphone ever made of metal will also bend when pressure is applied, and specifically recalls the same problem with the iPhone 5, the Samsung Galaxy S4, the HTC EVO, and many others. TechCrunch is on the same page, noting that other Apple products have had similar issues, and though the thinner, larger construction of the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus could make them more apt to bend, all we've seen so far are early reports from a few people. But, as NBC notes, this is the first time the bending issue has become an epidemic. (In better iPhone news, some are saying the new Apple Pay could be revolutionary.)
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(Mar 5, 2014 1:01 PM) Runners in a San Jose race Sunday willingly added a few seconds to their time in order to thank a veteran, in a spontaneous and touching display that's garnered more than a little attention. The 408K Race is an 8-kilometer race benefiting the Pat Tillman Foundation, which helps military vets. WWII veteran Joe Bell stood on the sidelines, in full military uniform, cheering on the runners ... and then one of them diverted from the course so he could shake the 95-year-old's hand. Others followed, and a stream of people thanked Bell for his service, Mashable reports. How the now-viral video came about was a lucky accident: San Jose Mercury News reporter Julia Prodis Sulek lives two houses down from Bell, and shot the 45-second video on her iPhone after noticing runners initially waving to and even saluting Bell. They began to pile up, she writes. For a moment, I worried Joe might get knocked over. Bell later told her, I never got recognition in my life. The first runner to shake Bell's hand has since been identified as Erik Wittreich, himself a vet: a former Green Beret who served in Iraq and Afghanistan.
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(May 2, 2008 4:27 AM CDT) In another of a troubling series of earthquakes to hit the US, a 6.5 magnitude shaker has struck Alaska, Reuters reports. The quake hit a sparsely inhabited section of the Aleutian island chain, and so far there have been no reports of injuries. The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said the earthquake was not large enough to pose a tsunami risk. A spasm of quakes have rattled California and Nevada in recent weeks.
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(Jun 26, 2016 1:15 PM CDT) 50 Cent has managed to find a new brand of legal trouble, this one related to his pottymouth: It seems that Fiddy, real name Curtis Jackson, was performing Saturday at the St. Kitts Music Festival, when he dropped a motherf---in' as he performed P.I.M.P. in front of some 40,000 fans, reports TMZ. That was sufficient to get him and a member of his entourage charged with using profanity in public, which, yes, is illegal on the Caribbean island, notes Rolling Stone. It's not the first time: Both sites note that DMZ got arrested for cursing in 2003; it set him back a $376 fine. Both Jackson and his aide are out on bail, notes the AP, but they have to stick around until Monday when the courts are open.
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(Nov 21, 2019 12:01 AM) As he moves toward a presidential announcement, New York billionaire Michael Bloomberg is rolling out plans to spend an estimated $15 million to $20 million on a voter registration drive designed to weaken President Trump's reelection chances in five battleground states. News of the large investment, confirmed by Bloomberg's team on Wednesday, comes less than a week after the former New York City mayor unveiled a $100 million online advertising campaign attacking Trump in four general election swing states. The new effort will target 500,000 voters from traditionally underrepresented groups that typically lean Democratic, including African-Americans, Latinos, Asians, young voters, and those living in some rural communities, the AP reports.
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(May 5, 2017 2:59 PM CDT) Is an 18-year prison sentence too harsh for having 18 grams of marijuana? The Louisiana Supreme Court's chief justice thinks so, and she says it's outrageous that her colleagues upheld the punishment. In her dissenting opinion Wednesday, Chief Justice Bernette Johnson said it's ridiculous that a lengthy prison sentence for such a small amount of marijuana would be allowed to stand, the AP reports. A jury convicted Gary D. Howard of marijuana possession with intent to distribute. A Caddo Parish judge sentenced him as a habitual offender in 2014. Howard's previous convictions include possession of firearm by a convicted felon in 2008. The state Supreme Court's majority ruled there was evidence that Howard packaged the marijuana for distribution, not his personal use.
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(Jul 21, 2009 2:41 AM CDT) The Boston Globe's biggest union has ended a four-month battle with the New York Times company and voted to accept $10 million in pay and benefit cuts, the Boston Herald reports. Union members--who have been living with a 23% pay cut since rejecting an 8.3% decrease last month--approved a 5.9% wage slice by a wide margin. The deal also includes 8 unpaid work days, a pension freeze and no health insurance for retirees.
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(Mar 25, 2020 11:50 AM CDT) An interesting finding out of Wuhan: A small six-day study in February of Chinese COVID-19 patients who were hospitalized and on ventilators found that their lungs benefited from them lying facedown. In a research letter published in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, the researchers share the details of how 12 patients with severe COVID-19 infection-related acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS)--67% to 85% of ICU patients with the coronavirus develop ARDS, per the letter--who were on mechanical ventilation and receiving positive pressure fared. It's a very high-risk group, with the letter stating that an observational study for 52 patients with ARDS found a 61.5% mortality rate. The doctors measured how the patients' lungs responded to pressure (called lung recruitability) and found that patients who had at least one session of being positioned facedown experienced increased lung recruitability, per a press release. Those who didn't had poor lung recruitability. It is only a small number of patients, but our study shows that ... the lung improves when the patient is in the prone position, says Dr. Chun Pan. CNN flags some other data being released on COVID-19 patients: The mortality rate for men seems to be higher. Per CNN's analysis of publicly available data, for every 10 female cases in Italy there were 14 male cases, but for every 10 women who have died there, 24 men have died. It lists stats for five more countries here.
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(Sep 30, 2009 12:49 PM CDT) Accidents caused by distracted drivers killed at least 5,800 and injured another 515,000 last year, according to data pulled from police reports and presented today to Transportation Department conference on the issue. The actual figures may be significantly higher, say Transportation officials, since distraction is often hard to identify as a cause of a crash. Congress is considering laws that would limit what drivers can do behind the wheel, Reuters reports. A ban on text-messaging has widespread support, but a cell phone ban is more controversial. While overall accidents fell last year, distracted driving was a growing cause, implicated in 16% of cases, up from 11% in 2004. Roughly 6% of drivers used their phones while driving in 2007, and another 1% texted on some other device.
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(May 9, 2018 7:58 AM CDT) American prisoners Kim Dong Chul, Kim Hak-song, and Kim Sang Duk are once again free men and on their way home following their release Wednesday from North Korea. I am pleased to inform you that Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is in the air and on his way back from North Korea with the 3 wonderful gentlemen that everyone is looking so forward to meeting. They seem to be in good health, Trump tweeted early Wednesday. Trump later tweeted that the plane would be touching down stateside at 2am Thursday, and I will be there to greet them. CNN notes that Kim Dong Chul has been imprisoned since before Trump's election.
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