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(Jul 2, 2010 8:25 AM CDT) How badly are home builders hurting? Here's a hint: Habitat for Humanity has cracked the top 10 list of US builders for the first time. The nonprofit, which relies largely on volunteers to build homes for low-income people, ranked 8th in the Builder magazine list, ahead of some of the biggest names in the business, reports the Wall Street Journal. We're a lot less tied to the market as a whole, says a Habitat official. We've been able to keep chugging along at a pretty solid pace. Habitat closed on about 5,300 houses (new and rehabbed) last year. That's down 3%, but it's nothing compared to Ryland's 30% plunge in closings and Hovnanian's 50% drop.
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(Feb 1, 2019 12:34 AM) A convicted murderer called The Animal, who was executed by the state of Texas in 1999, has been identified via DNA as the person who killed a young woman in Portland, Oregon, nearly 40 years ago. Anna Marie Hlavka, 20, was killed in an apartment on July 24, 1979. Authorities said Thursday her killer, Jerry McFadden, was identified using the same technology that led to an arrest last year in California in the Golden State Killer case, the AP reports. Hlavka was sexually assaulted and strangled with an electric cord. Retired detectives submitted evidence to the state crime lab in 2009 for forensic testing, the Portland Police Bureau says.
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(Sep 30, 2011 7:35 AM CDT) Apparently, Halloween is more than just a holiday--it's an economic stimulus package. Americans plan to spend a whopping $6.9 billion on costumes, decorations, and entertainment related to October 31, according to the National Retail Federation--and that's more than double 2005's number from the same survey, $3.3 billion. And it's not a fluke: Halloween spending dropped by $1 billion to $4.8 billion in 2009, but was back up to $5.8 billion by last year, Time reports. Of this year's planned expenditures, about $2.5 billion will go to costumes for people, $2 billion to candy, $2 billion to decorations, and more than $300 million to costumes for pets. Despite the fact that we spend much more on Christmas and other end-of-the-year holidays ($447 billion was last year's projection), that number is not growing nearly as quickly. Perhaps Halloween spending is up because, during troubled financial times, we want to escape: During the last recession, romance novel sales were up, notes Time. During the Depression, musicals were quite popular.
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(Feb 19, 2014 1:30 AM) The first North-South Korea reunions in three years are in tentative motion, with South Koreans set to tomorrow meet relatives they haven't seen in six decades. With so much time elapsed, it's no wonder that the average age of the 82 South Koreans who will be the first to cross into North Korea tomorrow is 84; 14 are confined to a wheelchair. One 91-year-old traveled 90 miles by ambulance to get to the eastern port of Sokcho, where they're undergoing orientation on what to expect in the North. Another chosen participant, 83, had to give up his spot today over health issues. The AFP reports 58 family members traveled with them to provide physical and emotional support. They may need it. The AP describes an intensely anxious moment for those waiting to board the buses that will take them to North Korea's Diamond Mountain, as fears persist that the North could still cancel the reunions--hundreds are planned between Thursday and Tuesday--as it has threatened. Kim Se-rin, 84, last saw his sister 63 years ago, and has long envisioned how he will greet her: I will first hug her and tell her that I thank her for having lived so long. Then, I will ask her when our father and mom passed away and when our sister and brother died.
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(Feb 13, 2015 8:34 AM) A Texas man was sentenced to two life sentences Wednesday for drunk driving. If that seems harsh, consider that Bobby Gene Martin, 64, racked up 10 DWI charges between 1981 and 2014, reports the Montgomery County Police Reporter. In the latest incident, Martin crashed his mom's pickup truck on Aug. 2, then reportedly asked a wrecker driver for a ride home so he wouldn't get another DWI. The driver refused, and responding officers found Martin in water up to his waist in a nearby drainage ditch, the Courier reports. His blood alcohol level was 0.217. Martin then threatened to kill not only the deputy that arrested him, but also his wife, his children, his mom, Montgomery County Assistant District Attorney Kyle Crowl said. Once at the local jail, Martin kept up the death threats, hurling them, along with racial slurs, at the jailer, per Crowl. The jury took one hour to convict Martin and spent three hours deliberating his sentence after learning of his earlier crimes. As a habitual offender, he faced 25 years to life. After notching his eighth drunk-driving conviction in 1999, Martin was sentenced to 15 years in prison, the Houston Chronicle reports. After being released, he was jailed once again for a year after a 2009 DWI arrest. It is amazing he hasn't killed anyone yet, said Crowl, who painted this metaphor for the jury: The latest charges were the icing on a cake that [Martin] had been baking his whole life. Martin's life sentences will be served concurrently; he'll be eligible for parole at age 80. (A man with nine drunk-driving convictions blamed ... fish.)
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(May 22, 2020 7:29 AM CDT) David and Emily Schantz couldn't take being cooped up inside during the pandemic last weekend, so they did what many families are doing these days: They packed the kids into the car for a drive. Per WTVR, Emily Schantz was the one behind the wheel Saturday in Goochland County, Virginia, when the vehicle in front of them suddenly swerved around something in the road. Schantz didn't have time to veer out of the way. So they ran over the bag, Maj. Scott Moser of the Caroline County Sheriff's Office tells CNN. Not wanting to leave what they thought was garbage in the road, the Schantzes picked up that bag and threw it into the back of their pickup truck then drove on. They also retrieved a second bag spotted in a nearby ditch. The Schantzes then returned to their home in Caroline County, where they planned to throw out the bags with their own trash. That's when they discovered that what was inside the bags wasn't garbage at all. Moser says that while they initially thought the bags' contents included a bunch of mail, it turned out to be a whole lot of cash instead: plastic baggies ... addressed with something that said 'cash vault,' Emily Schantz tells WTVR. The AP reports that the family contacted the Caroline County Sheriff's Office, and deputies who counted the money determined there was close to $1 million between the two bags. Investigators think the money belonged to the USPS and was on its way to being deposited at the bank, though they're still trying to figure out how the cash ended up in the road. They saved someone a lot of money and set a wonderful example for everyone else, Moser says, per the AP. Schantz shrugs off their good deed, telling WTVR, It didn't belong to us. (An upstate New York couple found $10,000 in a shopping cart.)
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(Nov 22, 2016 11:45 AM) Conning the elderly for financial gain is nothing new, but a scheme dubbed the fake love scam has officials on high alert. Authorities near Chicago say 92-year-old Aloysius Mack lost much of his life savings to a woman who first approached him at a McDonald's and eventually tricked him into marrying her, reports CBS Chicago. When all was said and done, the woman had convinced Mack to buy her a $40,000 van and an $80,000 now-shuttered laundromat, and he changed his will so she'd inherit his $260,000 home. I think she was stalking me, says Mack, who has been diagnosed with dementia. In another case reported by the Cook County public guardian, a 79-year-old woman with severe dementia married her caretaker and spent, wired, mailed or gifted more than $65,000 to him. Financials cons that target the elderly are so common that Barron's calls it a silent epidemic, and it may only get worse as baby boomers age. In San Diego, officials have been on the hunt for three men scamming elderly Spanish speakers--a 73-year-old woman was lured into helping them collect lottery money and ultimately threatened before she withdrew $1,800 from her bank account, reports the San Diego Tribune. Authorities say the trio is behind at least five similar scams in the area, and possibly more that remain unreported. In the case of marriage for money, the damage can be longer-lasting. Mack's attorneys are trying to annul his marriage and get his money back. (The elderly are also targeted on dating sites.)
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(Dec 19, 2008 3:18 AM) The FBI agent who helped bring down Richard Nixon has died at his California home at the age of 95, the New York Times reports. W. Mark Felt was Deep Throat --the anonymous source who supplied crucial leads to Washington Post reporter Bob Woodward about White House abuses of power, setting in motion the Watergate scandal that led to Nixon's resignation. Felt, who was the second-in-command at the FBI at the time, was infuriated by what he saw as efforts by Nixon to use the bureau for political purposes, and rejected orders not to investigate the White House-ordered 1972 break-in at Democratic National Committee headquarters. He set up covert meetings with Woodward using tactics he had learned rooting out Nazi spies in the US during WWII. Felt decided to unmask himself in 2005 after over 30 years of secrecy.
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(Jan 16, 2011 12:19 AM) There she is, Miss America: Teresa Scanlan can't legally vote, the AP notes, but the 17-year-old Nebraskan won enough to take the crown home to the Cornhusker state for the first time. I want to be there making sure that I stand up for what's right, stand up for integrity and honesty, Teresa said after her win. She adds that she'll register to vote as an independent after she turns 18 next month. Teresa told judges that in the case of WikiLeaks, security came before the public's right to know. The recent high school grad plans to eventually go to law school, and is eying a career in law or politics. Attorneys and politicians are looked down on and have terrible reputations for being greedy and power hungry and I really think it's important for people who have their heart and mind in the right place get into those powerful positions, Teresa said. She's the youngest Miss America since the pageant implemented age limits in 1938.
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(Jun 28, 2017 6:00 PM CDT) What has Lindsay Lohan been up to other than plotting her acting comeback? For $2.99 a month, you can find out. The erstwhile child star is launching a subscription lifestyle site promising a behind-the-scenes look at her exclusive world, according to the Hollywood Reporter. Lohan announced the move on Instagram, promising she will be posting a lot to her Preemium site. The site itself promises subscribers will learn all of Lohan's secrets and breaking news before anyone else, including access to personal diaries, video updates, exclusive personal photos, fashion and beauty tutorials, shopping guides, behind the scenes content, my favorite products and much more. Per THR, the Preemium site so far includes nine posts, mostly selfies or pictures of Lohan and one 30-second iPhone video of her posing for photos. The first post also includes some inside information from Lohan: I am in a period of renewal and that's why I deleted all my posts from Instagram. Now you can follow me here on Preemium. THR calls the whole thing a bit sad, while LAist notes that the site's name is presumably meant to conjure an air of exclusivity, but ... instead makes us picture the nervous setting of a NICU. Preemium, a new site, so far only offers the Lohan subscription but is promising to add four more stars fans can follow soon.
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(Jun 23, 2010 10:00 AM CDT) Wow: It wasn't just loose talk. CNN today named Eliot Spitzer and Kathleen Parker co-hosts of a nightly news and events discussion program at 8pm, replacing Campbell Brown's ratings-starved show. In the CNN press release, shared by Business Insider, Parker, the Pulitzer Prize-winning right-wing columnist, lavished praise on her new partner, calling the disgraced governor-turned-blogger one of the nation's most brilliant, fearless and original thinkers. For his part, Spitzer calls Parker an extraordinary intellect whose sharp observations and wit are certain to resonate with viewers. What will happen when they stop scratching each other's backs? It can't possibly be boring, she predicts.
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(May 19, 2016 4:26 PM CDT) The CDC wants Americans to know the risks when they hop in the pool this summer--and they're not talking about those embarrassing air bubbles that escape your swimsuit sometimes. According to a report released Thursday, more than 84,000 routine inspections of more than 48,500 pools, hot tubs, and water parks in 2013 across five states turned up at least one violation 79% of the time. Approximately 12% of the time, the violation was serious enough to close the pool. The most common violations were problems with the pool's pH level, safety equipment, and concentration of disinfectants, the Los Angeles Times reports. According to the Washington Post, the problems were worst with kiddie pools, which had to be closed following approximately 20% of their inspections. These violations can have serious health repercussions. Between 3,000 and 5,000 people had to be treated for issues related to pool chemicals between 2003 and 2012, according to the CDC. There were approximately 650 outbreaks of infections or diseases related to pools reported to the CDC between 1978 and 2012. The findings of this report underscore the need to improve the operation and maintenance of US public aquatic facilities to prevent illness and injury, the Times quotes Thursday's report. The CDC recommends pool users bring their own test strips to measure a pool's pH and disinfectant levels before swimming. No one should get sick or hurt when visiting a public pool, hot tub, or water playground, ABC News quotes a CDC statement as saying.
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(Dec 31, 2010 12:23 PM) Chubby babies are adorable, sure, but a new study shows that overweight or obese babies (researchers shy away from attaching the label to kids so young) are likely to stay that way--and a huge number of infants fall into those categories. Almost 32% of babies are obese or overweight by nine months, and that number rises to 34% by two years, LiveScience reports. The study looked at the weight of 7,500 children born in 2001 over time. Children who were normal weight at nine months had a 75% chance of remaining at normal weight by two years--but kids in the at-risk category (similar to overweight for adults) had just a 50% chance of transitioning to normal weight by two years; more than 28% actually moved up to the obese category (defined as those in the 95th percentile of weight) by that time. For obese nine-month-olds, the situation was even more sobering: Just 37.6% achieved normal weight by two years, while 18% moved to at-risk, and 43.9% stayed obese. Click to see how you can halt childhood obesity before birth.
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(Jul 8, 2012 1:16 PM CDT) The Amazing Spider-Man had a pretty decent six-day run, pulling in $65 million over the weekend to notch a $140 million total domestically, notes the Hollywood Reporter. That gives Spidey a $341.2 million tally worldwide, but the AP notes that it still lags behind the previous incarnation of the franchise. Ted captured the No. 2 spot, with $32.5 million for the weekend, while Oliver Stone's The Savages opened at No. 4 with $16.2 million. Katy Perry: Part of Me languished with $7.2 million.
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(Sep 26, 2011 10:58 AM CDT) The Boeing 787 Dreamliner is finally taking off--just three years behind schedule. Yesterday, the much-anticipated jet was officially delivered to its first customer, Japan's All Nippon Airways. With a ceremony planned for today in Everett, Wash., reporters are getting a look at the nifty features that set the jetliner apart, including the biggest windows in the industry, the Wall Street Journal reports. A carbon fiber design reduces fuel costs by 20%, Reuters notes. The windows sport high-tech electronic shades, manipulated with the touch of a button, which allow passengers to see outside even on the darkest setting. The Dreamliner also features moist air and lower cabin pressure, helping cut down on dry throats. And the ANA version of the jet features luxury restrooms that include multi-setting bidets and the aforementioned window. The Dreamliner's regular domestic flights will start in November in Japan. Click through the gallery for more images of the Dreamliner.
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(Jan 4, 2016 8:53 AM) It's a bleak start to the new year on Wall Street Monday morning: The Dow fell more than 360 points at the open after China's stock market suffered a huge plunge of its own. Chinese stocks fell 7%, spooking US investors worried about a global slowdown, reports the Wall Street Journal. The Nasdaq and S&P 500 were down similar percentages. The rout in China is placing pressure on markets more globally, although it remains to be seen how long the hit to market sentiment will persist, says a note at Investec, per MarketWatch.
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(Jun 25, 2012 5:41 PM CDT) Google is jumping into the tablet market with the Nexus 7, a 7-inch tablet that starts at $199 and runs on a new Android operating system, Gizmodo Australia reports. One caveat: The following is based on a leaked training document that could prove to be an elaborate fake, the website admits. That aside, the Asus-made tablet will have 1280 x 800 resolution, a front-facing camera, and a 1.3Ghz quad-core Tegra 3 processor. The price: $199 for the 8GB model and $249 for the 16GB model. Details on the new OS are scarce so far, but it's called Jelly Bean. Market analysis is already coming in, with experts saying the low-priced tablet could compete with both the high-end iPad and lower-end Kindle Fire and Barnes & Noble Nook, ComputerWorld reports. A low-priced, high-quality device could also jump-start the Android tablet market, which has been weak to date, says one. And if Google is subsidizing each tablet with hundreds of dollars, as some analysts say, profits could come from apps and advertising.
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(Apr 3, 2009 1:34 PM CDT) At least 13 people have been confirmed dead in the hostage standoff in Binghamton, NY, the Binghamton Press & Sun-Bulletin reports. Police removed two men in handcuffs from the downtown building, but it remains unclear whether the seige at the American Civic Center is over. Police said more than 40 hostages were in the building this morning. Earlier, police described at least one shooter, armed with a high-powered rifle, as an Asian male in his 20s. At one point, police said 15 hostages were in a closet and another 26 in a boiler room. The center helps immigrants and refugees with all manners of assimilation, and it was giving a citizenship test today.
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(Feb 6, 2015 9:18 AM) Those darn freighters: Ecuador has again declared a state of emergency in the protected Galapagos Islands after a cargo ship carrying 13,000 gallons of fuel ran aground last week. No fuel was spilled, and about 85% of it has since been removed. There is no kind of environmental damage, Galapagos' governor tells the Wall Street Journal. The greatest danger has passed. However, the 180-day state of emergency will make accessible the funds needed to remove the freighter Floreana from Naufragio Bay (fitting translation: Shipwreck Bay) as the ship houses other pollutants that a scientist warns could threaten the bay's great biological diversity. The scientist says the very large colonies of sea lions and invertebrate species from the coast could be affected were the ship to break up, though material has been placed around the ship that's intended to house any fuel that could leak. Officials say it should take about 15 days to refloat and remove the freighter. The state of emergency, which promises necessary and timely measures to protect the ecosystem, instructs Galapagos National Park to provide technical and logistical assistance and execute action plans and measures necessary to reduce the direct environmental impact of the wreck, EFE reports, per Fox News. (In happier news, the Galapagos' giant tortoise population is booming.)
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(Apr 27, 2016 9:25 AM CDT) Venezuela just cut its workweek once again, and not because someone has been reading Timothy Ferriss. Earlier this month, President Nicolas Maduro gave Fridays off to the public sector to minimize power usage in the ongoing energy crisis. Now, VP Aristobulo Isturiz has announced those same workers--numbering about 2 million--should take Wednesdays and Thursdays off, too, effectively creating a two-day workweek, the BBC reports. There will be no work in the public sector on Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays, except for fundamental and necessary tasks, Isturiz proclaimed on national TV (though Forbes wonders why anyone in the bureaucracy [is] doing anything at all that is not a 'fundamental and necessary task' ). Maduro--who said Tuesday that the revised workweek would last at least two weeks, per Reuters--has blamed the energy problems on erratic weather caused by El Nino, including a drought. We are requesting international help, technical and financial aid to help revert the situation, he said, per the BBC. We are managing the situation in the best possible way while we wait for the rains to return. Opposition members, though, blame mismanagement and corruption, CNN notes, and the New York Times reports an electoral panel has started the process to allow Maduro to be removed from office. Maduro says that 'we in government don't stop working for a second.' Of course. Except for Wednesdays, Thursdays, Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays! an opposition newspaper columnist wrote. Venezuelans are enduring ever-increasing blackouts, spoiled food, problems getting running water, and uncomfortable temperatures. We can't go on living like this, a man tells CNN. We Venezuelan people deserve much better. And a shop owner started to cry when asked how difficult things have been, replying, This life is killing us.
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(Apr 23, 2019 2:48 PM CDT) It was a very happy Easter for 1,600 Kansans, all of whom had their medical debt paid off by a Wichita church. Pathway Church paid off $2.2 million in debt, KAKE reports. It explained why on Facebook Monday: This Easter, we sent a special piece of mail to all 1,600 Kansans who fell into a hardship category determined by RIP Medical Debt. We let them know that in Jesus' name, their medical debt had been forgiven, it reads. Jesus did the same thing on the cross when He declared 'it is finished.' The debt of our sins, that we could not pay, had been forgiven! As KWCH explains, the church worked with the RIP Medical Debt charity, which purchases medical debt for pennies on the dollar. That means every dollar can pay off $100 of medical debt. To pay off the debt, the church used some of the money it would typically use to promote its Easter services, and sent the letters about the debt payoff to the 1,600 recipients instead of a typical piece of mail simply inviting them to attend the Easter services. We may never meet you, but as an act of kindness in the name of Jesus Christ, your debt has been forgiven, the letters read. The church says any negative impact the debt had on a person's credit history was also erased with the debt payoff. (Another awesome story involving the charity here.)
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(Nov 16, 2012 1:43 AM) The struggling US Postal Service has posted a record loss of $15.9 billion for the fiscal year ending Sept. 30. The agency defaulted this year on $11.1 billion in health benefits for retirees, and it's suffering as first-class mail, its top source of revenue, falls off, the Wall Street Journal reports. The USPS could run out of cash in a year if lawmakers don't do something, officials say. (But it thinks it will have enough cash to make it til next fall thanks to record volumes of election-theme material and an expected 20% revenue bump due to holiday shipping. If Congress fails to act, there could be postal slowdowns or shutdowns that would have catastrophic consequences --not just for the Postal Service itself, but for businesses that depend on it, says the head of an advocacy group.
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(Jul 25, 2020 12:00 PM CDT) Peter Green, the dexterous blues guitarist who led the first incarnation of Fleetwood Mac in a career shortened by psychedelic drugs and mental illness, has died at 73, the AP reports. A law firm representing his family, Swan Turton, announced the death in a statement Saturday. It said he died peacefully in his sleep this weekend. A further statement will be issued in the coming days. Green, to some listeners, was the best of the British blues guitarists of the 1960s. B.B. King once said Green has the sweetest tone I ever heard. He was the only one who gave me the cold sweats. Green also made a mark as a composer with Albatross, and as a songwriter with Oh Well and Black Magic Woman. He crashed out of the band in 1971.
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(Jun 9, 2020 6:22 AM CDT) Monday may have presented voters with what could become a major theme of the 2020 race between President Trump and Joe Biden. The president met with and praised police, while the former vice president met with the family of George Floyd. As the Los Angeles Times sees it, Trump looks intent on pushing a law-and-order message while portraying Biden and Democrats as radicals who would abolish police departments. We won't be defunding our police, Trump said, per the Guardian, referring to the push to redirect money from police departments. There won't be dismantling of our police. Biden, meanwhile, met for an hour in private with members of the Floyd family in Houston. He listened, heard their pain and shared in their woe, said family attorney Benjamin Crump. That compassion meant the world to this grieving family. However, the contrast isn't so simple. Biden also pushed back against the idea of defunding the police, a phrase with multiple meanings. He did, though, call for reform. No, I don't support defunding the police, he told CBS News. I support conditioning federal aid to police based on whether or not they meet certain basic standards of decency and honorableness. A spokesman said that Biden not only opposes cuts in police funding, he thinks increases might be necessary for improvements. In short, he has begun walking a cautious line between the moderate and more drastic demands for overhauling police departments, per the New York Times. The story adds that this is familiar ground for Biden: All throughout his long political career, he has carefully balanced the passions of activists with the sensibilities of the political center.
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(Mar 21, 2014 2:06 AM CDT) The situation is even bleaker than it might seem for the 3.8 million Americans classed as long-term unemployed, a new study finds. Only 11% of the long-term unemployed in any given month had found work a year later, according to research from three Princeton University economists, and they are far more likely to drop out of the workforce permanently than to return to full-time employment, the Los Angeles Times reports. The outlook for the long-term unemployed has failed to improve despite short-term unemployment levels returning to pre-recession averages, the AP finds. The researchers, including Alan Krueger, President Obama's former chief economic adviser, also found that even among the long-term unemployed who found jobs, more than a third ended up jobless within a year, the Washington Post notes. The researchers called for aggressive measures to fix the job market, including designing effective interventions to prevent the long-term unemployed from receding into the margins of the labor market or withdrawing from the labor force altogether, reports the Wall Street Journal.
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(Oct 11, 2014 7:20 AM CDT) Authorities in a remote village in Tanzania have made 23 arrests after seven people were hacked to death or burned alive because they were believed to be witches, reports the Telegraph. The victims were both men and women in the western village of Murufiti, with five of them older than 60. One of the accused ringleaders in the attack is a local traditional healer, or witch doctor. They were attacked and burnt to death by a mob of villagers who accused them of engaging in witchcraft, says a police official. Belief in witchcraft is widespread in the country, reports the BBC, which says that an estimated 500 suspected witches are killed per year.
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(Sep 18, 2020 4:23 AM CDT) A lower league soccer team in Germany worried about coronavirus infection socially distanced themselves from each other, the opposing team's players--and apparently the ball. Ripdorf lost 37-0 on Sept. 13 after their request to have the game against local rivals SV Holdenstedt II was rejected, the BBC reports. They said they felt the game was unsafe because Holdenstedt players came into contact in a game less than 14 days ago with somebody who tested positive for COVID-19. Ripdorf fielded only seven players--the minimum number allowed--instead of the usual 11. They would have faced a fine of 200 Euros, around $240, if they had refused to play. We tried to postpone the match. But Holdenstedt wanted to play, Ripdorf co-chair Patrick Ristow tells ESPN. We are thankful those seven players volunteered, otherwise the club would have faced a EUR200 fine for abandoning the match, he says. That's a lot of money for us, especially amid the pandemic. He says that during the game, Ripdorf players stood on the pitch but did not go into direct duels and kept their distance from Holdenstedt players at all times. Their opponents scored at a rate of a goal every two minutes. There was no reason not to play this game, Holdenstedt coach Florian Schierwater said afterward.
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(Oct 11, 2017 11:50 AM CDT) The Japan labor standard office has determined that the suicide of a 23-year-old man who worked at Tokyo's new Olympic stadium construction site stemmed from overwork, and therefore his family was eligible for government compensation, the AP reports. Hiroshi Kawahito, a lawyer representing the victim's family, said on Tuesday that the victim, in charge of quality control of materials at the stadium site, recorded 190 hours of overtime in one month before killing himself in March, according to Japan's NHK public television. The worker was less than a year on the job. The amount of overtime was way over 80 hours, a threshold for karoshi, or death from overwork. Labor officials in Tokyo found that the victim, who was not identified by name, also recorded 160 hours of overtime in January.
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(Mar 9, 2018 9:20 AM) Hundreds of families received troubling news this week after an unprecedented malfunction at a Cleveland egg-freezing facility. Although the staff at University Hospitals Fertility Center hasn't yet figured out exactly how it happened, what's known is that the temperature in one section of a long-term storage tank filled with liquid nitrogen rose to unacceptable levels, meaning it's now unclear whether the 2,100 or so eggs and embryos kept there (some since the '80s, per the Washington Post) are still viable, says Patricia DePompei, president of two UH hospitals. It's only clear if an egg or embryo is damaged after it's been thawed and implanted. Obviously the situation that occurred here is devastating for the families involved, and it's devastating for ... our staff, DePompei tells NBC News. About 700 patients were affected, per the Cleveland Plain Dealer. DePompei notes the temperature spike took place sometime between Saturday afternoon, when staff left for the day, and early Sunday. The site where the egg- and embryo-holding tanks are stored features an alarm system, and the alarm was said to be going off when staff arrived Sunday morning. University Hospitals says it won't destroy the eggs and embryos, though whether patients will get their money back isn't yet clear. Per a University Hospitals statement cited by News 5 Cleveland, the facility has initiated contact with all of our patients, and a call center has been set up so patients can set up meetings with doctors. An American Society for Reproductive Medicine rep says nothing like this has ever happened at a US fertility clinic.
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(Apr 10, 2020 12:27 PM CDT) It starts with a few people letting loose with some tentative yelps. Then neighbors emerge from their homes and join, forming a roiling chorus of howls and screams that pierces the twilight to end another day's monotonous forced isolation. From California to Colorado to Georgia and New York, Americans are taking a moment each night at 8pm to howl in a quickly spreading ritual that has become a wrenching response of a society cut off from one another by the coronavirus pandemic, per the AP. They howl to thank the nation's health care workers and first responders for their selfless sacrifices, much like the balcony applause and singing in Italy and Spain. Others do it to reduce their pain, isolation and frustration. Some have other reasons, such as to show support for the homeless. In Colorado, Gov. Jared Polis has encouraged residents to participate. There's something very Western about howling that's resonating in Colorado, says Brice Maiurro, who formed the Facebook group Go Outside and Howl at 8pm with his partner Shelsea Ochoa as Colorado's shelter-in-place order went into effect last month. The group has nearly half a million members from all 50 US states and 99 countries. We wanted to do this mostly because people are feeling isolated right now, says Ochoa. I think it hit on something others needed. Why howling? In California, friends and family of Ochoa's would howl at sunset; in Brazil, where she lived recently, residents would cheer at sunset. Poets like Maiurro would howl at the moon during back-alley poetry readings in Boulder. There's no wrong way to do it, she says. When people look back on this and with so many sad stories, hopefully they'll also remember this as one of the good things.
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(Oct 30, 2008 5:30 PM CDT) A study from a right-wing media watchdog says coverage of Sarah Palin on the big three TV networks has been overwhelmingly negative, Politico reports. NBC, CBS, and ABC broadcast 69 stories on Palin between September 29 and October 12, of which the Culture and Media Institute considered 37 negative, 30 neutral, and two positive. That adds up to a negative-positive ratio of 18-1. If the polls are accurate, the networks have successfully created a caricature of Sarah Palin that ignores her all-American appeal, intelligence, and accomplishments, a CMI spokesman says.
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(Jan 23, 2008 9:09 AM) President Bush and top administration officials made hundreds of false statements--932, to be exact--about the national security threat from Iraq following 9/11, report two nonprofit journalism organizations. In the two years after the attacks, Bush and top officials stated at least 532 times that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction, was trying to make or get them, or was linked to al-Qaeda, the study found. The statements were part of an orchestrated campaign that effectively galvanized public opinion and led the nation to war under decidedly false pretenses, conclude authors of the study posted yesterday on the website of the Center for Public Integrity, which worked with the Fund for Independence in Journalism. Researchers examined public statements, government reports, books, articles, and interviews after 9/11.
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(Dec 10, 2008 7:53 AM) Insurance giant AIG, already the recipient of a $150 billion government bailout to cover soured credit-default swaps, now admits it owes some $10 billion more for speculative trades it made with its own money, reports the Wall Street Journal. Those deals aren't covered by the bailout, leaving the struggling insurer looking for ways to cover its losses. AIG's financial-products unit, says the Journal, bet on speculative investments related to pools of derivatives linked to mortgage assets and corporate debt. The gambles--which have fallen in value the past few weeks--haven't been explicitly detailed before. The Federal Reserve has no immediate plans to help AIG pay off those debts.
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(Dec 18, 2010 8:46 AM) Sanofi-Aventis will most likely not be making an appearance on the best places to work list: The world's fourth largest drugmaker had a brutal and inhumane method of laying off 1,700 employees, says one of the canned: via conference call. The Huffington Post reports that on Nov. 30, Sanofi-Aventis employees got an email wishing them a happy Thanksgiving and instructing them to check their email again on Dec. 2. That day, employees received a second email with the phone number of a conference line, a call-in code, and a scheduled call-in time later that morning: 8am or 8:30am. You know how this is going to end... The 1,700 employees who phoned in at 8:30am were told to stop working immediately, that they would be paid through the end of the year, and that they would receive a modest severance package. They were not allowed to ask questions. A director of media relations for the company admits the method wasn't ideal, but says that given the scope and scale of the reductions, there was no other way to share this news quickly and consistently. Click for more.
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(Jul 15, 2020 8:26 AM CDT) Joe Biden released a $2 trillion plan Tuesday to boost investment in clean energy and stop all climate-damaging emissions from US power plants by 2035, arguing that dramatic action is needed to tackle climate change and revive the economy. In remarks near his home in Wilmington, Del., the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee sought to reframe the politics of climate change, rebuffing arguments from President Trump and his Republican allies that Democratic plans to invest in clean energy would cost jobs. When Donald Trump thinks about climate change, the only word he can muster is 'hoax,' Biden told reporters, per the AP. When I think about climate change, what I think of is jobs. Biden would spend $2 trillion over four years to promote his energy proposals, a significant acceleration of the $1.7 trillion over 10 years he proposed spending in his climate plan during the primary.
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(Dec 8, 2020 9:30 AM) Maggie Keenan may have been the first person to get inoculated in the UK as the nation rolled out its mass vaccination initiative on Tuesday, but it's the second person in line who's now making more headlines than the 90-year-old grandmother. Reuters reports that William Shakespeare, an 81-year-old from Warwickshire, also got his shot at University Hospital in Coventry, which is just 20 miles or so from Stratford-Upon-Avon, where the more famous Shakespeare was born. The modern-day Shakespeare's inoculation has spurred what the Washington Post calls an inevitable flurry of puns. The Metro newspaper, for example, captioned a social media post about Shakespeare's vaccination the taming of the flu, while someone deemed Keenan Patient 1A, then asked if Shakespeare was Patient 2B or not 2B? WhatsOnStage has gathered some more, including a riff on one of the most famous Shakespearean lines of all: In fair corona, where we lay our scene.
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(Apr 2, 2012 11:45 AM CDT) After garnering 86 million views and counting, Invisible Children's activist video sensation has spawned a sequel. Kony 2012, Part II comes out tomorrow, NPR reports. The sequel is set to offer a more thorough investigation of Joseph Kony's Lord's Resistance Army; the first piece was criticized for what some considered a simplistic take. Meanwhile, director Jason Russell is on the road to recovery after a mental breakdown, says Invisible Children's director of ideology, adding that doctors expect the process to take months.
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(Jan 13, 2017 1:25 PM) Novelist and filmmaker William Peter Blatty, who conjured a tale of demonic possession and gave millions the fright of their lives with the best-selling novel and Oscar-winning movie The Exorcist, has died at the age of 89, the AP reports. Blatty died Thursday at a hospital in Bethesda, Md., of multiple myeloma, per his widow, Julie Alicia Blatty. Inspired by an incident in a Washington suburb that Blatty had read about while in college, The Exorcist was published in 1971, followed two years later by the film of the same name. Blatty's story of a 12-year-old girl inhabited by a satanic force spent more than a year on the New York Times fiction best-seller list and eventually sold more than 10 million copies. It reached a far wider audience through the film, written by Blatty and starring Linda Blair. RIP William Peter Blatty, who wrote the great horror novel of our time, Stephen King tweeted Friday. The son of Lebanese immigrants, Blatty was born in New York City and was a scholarship student at the Jesuit high school Brooklyn Preparatory, graduating as valedictorian. He attended Georgetown and earned a master's in English lit from George Washington University. He took many detours during his career journey, selling vacuum cleaners, driving a beer truck, and auditioning for a role in Cecil B. DeMille's The Ten Commandments (he alleged he was turned down because his eyes were blue). By the end of the '60s, in a state of financial desperation he finally got around to a novel he'd been thinking about for years, remembering a Washington Post report from the late 1940s in which a 14-year-old boy from Maryland was reportedly possessed. When I heard about this case and read the details, that seemed so compelling, he said. Blatty was married four times and had eight children.
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(Jun 10, 2009 1:15 PM CDT) Today marks the start of Moammar Gadhafi's first visit to Italy since he took over Libya in 1969--and the trip promises to be as colorful as it is historic, notes Richard Owen in the Times of London. That's thanks in part to his 300-member entourage and his plan to meet with 700 Italian women in the upper echelons of politics, industry, and culture. Libya holds that Gadhafi is an emancipator of women, noting an increased proportion of female workers in the country since he took power. The trip comes amid increasing contact between Gadhafi's country and Italy, which controlled Libya until 1943 and killed or imprisoned thousands; Italian PM Silvio Berlusconi offered an apology and nearly $5 billion last year in hopes of lucrative contracts.
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(May 13, 2009 3:24 PM CDT) Europe has squandered two decades of potential cooperation since the Berlin Wall fell, Mikhail Gorbachev says. At a Moscow event sponsored by his foundation, the former Soviet leader criticized Western leaders who viewed the 1989 event as their victory over Eastern Europe, rather than an opportunity for common good, Reuters reports. We have wasted the last 20 years, Gorbachev, 78, said. We have not done everything we should have done. It's a great pity. He dismissed the notion that Russia's current leaders have imperialist intentions: Russia doesn't want to go to war with anyone. Unpopular for allowing the Soviet collapse, Gorbachev has little political sway today--but says he plans to form a new party to challenge United Russia's electoral monopoly.
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(Jul 12, 2012 3:24 AM CDT) They may have gathered a little moss, but they're still around: The Rolling Stones played their first gig 50 years ago today at London's Marquee Club, notes the Hollywood Reporter. Their first hit, a cover of Chuck Berry's Come On, came a year later. To celebrate the rare rock milestone, the band gathered in front of the Marquee for their first group photo since 2008. They plan to attend a photo exhibition dedicated to their careers today, when the book Rolling Stones 50 will also be released. But will they tour again? There's things in the works; I think it's definitely happening, Keith Richards tells the BBC. But when? I can't say yet. We're playing around with the idea and had a couple of rehearsals, he says, adding that he wants the band to keep going for as long as possible. There might be life in the old dog yet, he says. We'll die gracefully, elegantly wasted. Click here to read about another '60s classic turning 50 this year.
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(Mar 30, 2013 9:33 AM CDT) Rescuers digging for victims of a massive landslide at a gold mining site in mountainous Tibet found one body this morning, a day after 83 workers were buried in the disaster, Chinese state media reported. The fate of the other victims was unknown. The workers were buried when about 2.6 million cubic yards of mud, rock, and debris swept through the mine in Gyama village. They were believed to be sleeping in their tents at the time. The disaster has spotlighted the extensive mining activities on the Tibetan plateau and sparked questions about whether mining activities have been excessive and destroyed the region's fragile ecosystem. Criticisms, however, only flashed through China's social media today before they were scrubbed off or blocked from public view by censors. State media reports say the mudslide was caused by a natural disaster, without giving specifics.
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(Oct 6, 2015 11:26 AM CDT) A former UN General Assembly president was arrested Tuesday and charged with accepting over $1 million in bribes and a trip to New Orleans from a billionaire Chinese real estate mogul and other businesspeople to pave the way for lucrative investments. John Ashe, the UN ambassador from Antigua and Barbuda who served in the largely ceremonial post from September 2013 to September 2014, faces conspiracy- and bribery-related charges along with five others, including Francis Lorenzo, a deputy UN ambassador from the Dominican Republic. Others charged in a criminal complaint unsealed in federal court: Chinese billionaire Ng Lap Seng, arrested two weeks ago with his chief assistant, Jeff C. Yin, a US citizen whose bail was revoked last week after investigators said he lied post-arrest. Two others allegedly involved with Ng and who aided the scheme were arrested, per prosecutors: Sheri Yan and Heidi Park, both naturalized US citizens living in China. According to court papers, Ashe used his UN positions to introduce a document supporting a multibillion-dollar UN-sponsored conference center that Ng hoped to build as his legacy in Macau, where he lived. Prosecutors said the center would function as a satellite operation for the world body. The scheme unfolded from 2011 through 2014 and included Ashe's tenure as GA head, prosecutors said. Authorities said in return for bribes, Ashe used his UN authority to promote Ng's interests and helped Ng meet government officials from Antigua who could help with investments. Prosecutors said bribe money funded first-class airfare for Ashe, his wife, and two kids to New Orleans, where they stayed in an $850-a-night hotel room. Other money, they said, was used for a $30,000 basketball court at his home in Dobbs Ferry, NY. He opened two bank accounts to receive the funds, then underreported his income by more than $1.2 million, officials said.
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(Jan 21, 2016 6:19 PM) A former police officer accused of raping more than a dozen women while on patrol will spend the rest of his life behind bars after being sentenced to 263 years in prison on Thursday, NBC News reports. Daniel Holtzclaw, 29, was charged in 2014 and found guilty on 18 of 36 counts last month. According to CNN, Holtzclaw found his victims--ranging in age from 17 to 57--in one of the poorest neighborhoods in Oklahoma City and targeted them for their histories with drugs or prostitution, believing that would protect him from accusations. During the trial, 13 women--all black--testified that Holtzclaw threatened to arrest them if they didn't have sex with him, NBC reports. According to the BBC, they felt their lives were in danger. Holtzclaw's attorney had petitioned for a new trial on Wednesday, claiming his client didn't get a fair trial due to evidence being withheld from the defense, NBC reports. That request was denied by the judge when Holtzclaw was sentenced. During the trial, Holtzclaw's attorney claimed his client was trying to help the victims, according to the BBC.
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(Oct 30, 2008 6:40 AM CDT) A series of coordinated blasts tore through India's volatile northeast today, killing at least 48 people, wounding more than 300 and setting police on a frantic search for any unexploded bombs, officials said.The largest bomb exploded near the office of the Assam state's top official, leaving bodies and mangled cars and motorcycles strewn across the road. It was not immediately clear who was responsible for the blasts that went off within minutes of each other, but the region is plagued by dozens of militant separatist groups. Five blasts hit the state capital, Gauhati, killing 25, while 11 were killed in Kokrajhar district and 12 more died in the town of Barpeta. Later, dozens of people angry over the blasts took to the streets of Gauhati, stoning vehicles and torching at least two fire engines. Police imposed a curfew on the city and shut down roads leading in and out of the area.
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(May 20, 2016 7:18 AM CDT) At most weddings, it would probably be considered impolite, or at the very least unusual, if the majority of guests began to lick themselves. But it was neither impolite nor unusual in the case of the 1,100 guests at a Canadian couple's destination wedding in California. Dominic Husson and Louise Veronneau of Montreal on Tuesday exchanged vows at California's Cat House on the Kings, a no-kill no-cage cat sanctuary, in what KSEE describes as the purr-fect wedding day. We are both animal lovers, and it shows, Husson says. She's a great person, and that's why I wanted to marry her. In 2012, Veronneau visited the sanctuary and put it on her bucket list as a place to return to some day, reports KFSN. (Husson hadn't visited previous to the wedding.) I feel in love, Veronneau says. I feel in love with the work [they're] doing for the cats and the rescuing. Cat House on the Kings has been a permanent home for more than 24,000 cats and 7,000 dogs since it was first established 24 years ago, reports the CBC. The couple is the first to marry at the sanctuary, and founder Lynea Lattanzio admitted to pre-wedding jitters. But the cats and the couple got along well, and not a single across-the-aisle jab was reported to be traded. (Speaking of unusual weddings, check out why this woman decided at her wedding to marry the groom's brother instead.)
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(Dec 18, 2015 10:28 AM) Congress on Friday sent President Obama a bipartisan but deficit draining year-end budget package that boosts federal agency spending and awards tax cuts to both families and a sweeping array of business interests. A 65-33 Senate vote on the measure was the last act that shipped the measure, combining $1.14 trillion in new spending in 2016 and $680 billion in tax cuts over the coming decade, to Obama. It had earlier swept through the House on a pair of decisive votes Thursday and Friday, marking a peaceful end to a yearlong struggle over the budget, taxes, and Republican efforts to derail his regulatory agenda. Obama will sign the measure, which includes many of the spending increases he fought for all year and is largely cleansed of GOP attempts to block his moves on the environment, financial regulation, and consumer protection. Republicans won increases for the military and an end to a ban on exporting US oil, as well as permanent tax cuts for business investment. Republicans were evenly split with 27 of them voting in favor and 26 against the bill. Presidential contender Marco Rubio was absent. Only six Democrats and Independent Bernie Sanders, another presidential hopeful, voted against the measure.
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(Mar 25, 2016 3:01 PM CDT) Authorities say a baby seal made it 4 miles from the water to the front yard of a home in the San Francisco Bay Area, the AP reports. Rescuers nicknamed the seal Ozzie after she was found Thursday on Osgood Road in Fremont. The female northern fur seal had no visible signs of injury and was taken to the Marine Mammal Center in Sausalito. The 9-month-old seal has been rescued before. Center staff members say the pup was found malnourished last November at New Brighton State Beach in Capitola. She was treated and released earlier this month in Bodega Bay, which is about 100 miles northwest from where the animal was found this week in Fremont. They say the seal should have headed north to Alaska but lost her way and headed south.
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(Aug 24, 2017 7:30 PM CDT) A New York City couple who met on a bus 13 years ago have now gotten married on one. Random passengers and 50 guests joined Kara Mullins and Osvaldo OJ Jimenez for their wedding on an M14 bus on Sunday, the AP reports. Jimenez told Mullins, I'm glad I found my way to you. Mullins told her groom, I love you, and I can't wait to spend the rest of my life with you. A video of the ceremony aired on TV station NY1. Jimenez first spotted his future bride 13 years ago on an M14, a Manhattan local crosstown bus. He tells NY1 that when he suggested getting married on the same bus she replied, Heck, yeah, let's do it. A friend performed the ceremony as a Universal Life minister.
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(Dec 17, 2014 4:11 PM) It took an all-white jury in South Carolina all of 10 minutes to convict 14-year-old George Stinney in the murder of two white girls in 1944, and the black teen was executed in the electric chair three months later. Today, a state judge exonerated him, reports WLTX. Judge Carmen Mullen said it was all but certain that police officers coerced the youth into confessing that he fatally beat 11-year-old Betty Binnicker and 7-year-old Mary Emma Thames in the town of Alcolu. Mullen called it a truly unfortunate episode in our history, reports the Guardian. In vacating Stinney's conviction, Mullen wrote that she wasn't ruling on his guilt or innocence but on the unfairness of his prosecution and trial. At a hearing in January on the case, Stinney's sister testified that he could not have killed the girls because he was with her that day. She and two other siblings were nonetheless run out of town after their brother's arrest, reports Reuters. Writes Mullen: I can think of no greater injustice than a violation of one's constitutional rights, which has been proven to me in this case by a preponderance of the evidence standard.
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(Jul 15, 2014 9:55 AM CDT) Before that next family vacation to a Disney theme park, consider this: Since 2006, at least 35 Disney employees have been arrested and accused of crimes involving children and sex. Those include sex crimes involving children, attempting to meet minors for sex, and possessing child pornography, a CNN investigation reveals. None of the cases involved minors who were actually visiting the theme parks, but two of the child porn cases took place on Disney property. The network's six-month investigation (which appears to have been focused on Florida theme parks) also found that five Universal Studios employees and two SeaWorld employees have also been arrested on similar accusations. Of the cases, 32 employees have been convicted, and the rest are pending. CNN has details of many of the cases, including a man who worked at Disney's Toy Story ride who allegedly arranged to meet someone he thought was a 14-year-old girl (but was actually an undercover detective), a gift shop worker who downloaded videos of child porn, and a character actor and tour guide-in-training who allegedly sent nude photos to someone he thought was a 13-year-old boy. Wherever you find children, you'll find sexual predators that want to be there, says a local sheriff. Disney says it has extensive measures in place to keep kids safe, and notes that the 35 employees in question represent one one-hundredth of 1% of the 300,000 people we have employed during this time period.
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(Dec 29, 2017 12:42 PM) Now witness the firepower of this fully armed and operational film franchise. Disney bought Lucasfilm for a staggering $4.06 billion in 2012. Now the Hollywood Reporter notes that after just three films, Disney has already recouped that massive sum. Star Wars: The Last Jedi, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, and Star Wars: The Force Awakens have together surpassed $4.06 billion in global ticket sales as the most recent entry, The Last Jedi, exceeded $934 million on Thursday. There are, of course, a few asterisks to add: Disney spent millions making the films and raked in other millions merchandising the films, etc. Regardless, the quick payoff of its purchase of Lucasfilm is one of the reasons Disney is the most successful film studio in America. The other reasons: Marvel and Pixar.
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(Apr 15, 2018 12:11 PM CDT) Facebook's CEO may have earned a paltry $1 salary last year, but he still doesn't come cheap. The world's biggest social media network increased spending on Mark Zuckerberg's security by 50% in 2017, paying over $7.3 million to keep him safe, the Guardian reports. The money was needed due to specific threats to his safety arising directly as a result of his position as our founder, chairman, and CEO, Facebook told US regulators. The company also dished out more than $1.5 million on his private jets last year, bringing Zuckerberg's overall plane-and-security price to $20 million since 2015. The real reason for all that cost is likely the CEO's traveling to every US state he hadn't seen before--30 in all--as a personal challenge last year, CNET reports.
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(Nov 6, 2011 8:20 AM) Rebekah Brooks may have quit News Corp in disgrace at the height of the phone hacking scandal, but the less-than-harsh terms of her severance package are again grabbing headlines. The loyal lieutenant, as the Guardian calls her, landed a $2.7 million severance, along with two years of a chauffer-driven limo and posh offices in London. The renewed interest in Brooks' deal comes as Murdoch son James is set to make a second appearance this week before a Parliament committee investigating the scandal. It is remarkably curious that such an generous package is given to Ms Brooks when others have been cut loose, says one MP. It is almost as if she hasn't really left the company. I am sure Mr Murdoch will want to explain the decision to his shareholders.
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(May 21, 2018 3:33 PM CDT) Last September, a 15-year-old tossed fireworks on a hot day in the forest and inadvertently set off a massive wildfire that burned 48,000 acres in Oregon. Now he's learned the price he must pay, and it's incredible: a grand total of $36,631,687.10 to various entities, including the US Forest Service, reports the Hood River News. The teen's attorney argued that the penalty amounts to cruel and unusual punishment, but the judge in the case took a few days to assess things and decided that the punishment is warranted, reports KGW.com. The judge ordered the Hood River Juvenile Department to set up a payment schedule, though he added one caveat to the ruling that might eventually give the kid a break. The court can grant a full or partial satisfaction of the restitution judgment after 10 years if certain conditions are met--mainly, if the teen doesn't get into any more trouble and faithfully makes what payments he can over the next decade. At that point, another judge will reassess and could decide that the debt is paid, even if it's nowhere near $37 million. On top of the financial penalty, the Vancouver, Wash., teen must complete about 2,000 hours of community service. He pleaded guilty earlier this year and wrote a letter of apology for his careless action that apparently did little to mitigate the sentence. The fire burned through the Columbia River Gorge and Mt. Hood National Forest, and a group of hikers required rescue. (A witness says she saw the teen throw a smoke bomb into a ravine.)
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(Apr 6, 2020 8:30 PM CDT) Fresh off the train and only 18 years old, Al Kaline ran into an immediate roadblock trying to join the Detroit Tigers. Called up to the majors, he couldn't get past the security guards at Briggs Stadium. I finally convinced them I was the guy who just signed a bonus contract for the enormous sum of $15,000. That was a lot back then, Kaline recalled in a 1999 documentary. His anonymity was short-lived. Kaline, the Hall of Fame outfielder who played his entire 22-season career for Detroit, died Monday at his home in Michigan. Mr. Tiger --as he was known--was 85. No cause of death was given, the AP reports. There's a reason why he was Mr. Tiger, said Dave Dombrowski, a former team president. First-class person, he was humble, he always played hard. He's the type of guy that everybody could latch onto.
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(Aug 10, 2015 2:15 PM CDT) For those who've been wondering why such a big deal has been made about Hillary Clinton's private email server, this could add some context. A senior US intelligence official, as well as a top-secret NSA document from 2014, indicates that China has been reading the private emails of many top US administration officials for more than five years--and that this high-level snooping is still going on, NBC News reports. The senior official tells NBC that government email accounts weren't among those infiltrated, but the NSA briefing shows that private emails sent through Gmail and other providers were hacked, with targets including all top national security and trade officials, per the official. The email surveillance--first given the code name Dancing Panda, then Legion Amethyst --was first discovered in April 2010, the briefing notes, though neither the anonymous official nor the NSA document provide the names or ranks of those whose emails were taken. And Dancing Panda/Legion Amethyst wasn't the only hacking operation going on during this time: The NSA briefing says that scheme was just one of more than 30 intrusion sets set off by China and IDed by the NSA and other agencies last year, a wide-scale initiative that ended up causing more than 600 successful hack attacks, NBC notes. There's been no comment yet from the NSA. (The American public doesn't seem too upset about these Chinese hacking reports.)
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(Sep 30, 2009 9:01 PM CDT) Comcast is near a $35 billion deal to acquire NBC Universal, which encompasses the network, a movie studio, cable channels and more, sources tell the Wrap. Bankers from the cable giant and General Electric, NBCU's parent company, met Tuesday after Comcast decided to think bigger than a pursuit of the 20% share being unloaded by shareholder Vivendi.
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(Oct 20, 2020 12:17 PM CDT) The Federal Emergency Management Agency received 45 Russian ventilators on April 1, shortly after President Trump asked Russian President Vladimir Putin for help dealing with the coronavirus pandemic. As BuzzFeed reports, they were part of a lopsided aid deal between the countries that would ultimately see Russia delivering a little more than $1 million worth of supplies to the US in April, followed by the US sending about $5.6 million to Russia over the following two months. But the Aventa-M ventilators ended up in the trash. Not only were the models made by a subsidiary of Rostec, a Russian state-owned company under US sanctions, but they weren't of the correct electrical voltage for US hospitals and were suspected of causing fires that killed six people in Russian hospitals, as Reuters reported at the time. After Trump touted the very nice delivery, the ventilators ended up sitting unused in storage facilities in New York and New Jersey, per BuzzFeed. By then, Russia's health care regulator had suspended their use after the fires, reports the Moscow Times. It reauthorized the Aventa-M units in July, deciding they hadn't caused the fires, but FEMA didn't use its stock. The agency tells BuzzFeed that the 45 units were disposed of following strict hazardous waste disposal regulatory guidelines. This has further rankled Democrats upset over the unbalanced arrangement that saw the US deliver 200 ventilators to Russia in June, per BuzzFeed. Unlike other ventilators, the Russian models were delivered without emergency FDA approval, raising concerns about shortcuts taken by the Trump administration, Reuters reported.
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(Jun 14, 2016 4:27 PM CDT) Three people are dead from vicious attacks in India's Gujarat state, and police have detained 18 suspects: lions from an animal sanctuary, the BBC reports. The arrested lions have been gathered from the forests of Gir National Park over the past two months and are now being held in individual cages while their paw prints and excrement are examined and their behavior scrutinized to find the killer (or killers). Man-eating lions usually get aggressive at the sight of a human being, a wildlife expert tells the BBC. And authorities think they're getting closer to closing the case. We think we have pinpointed the guilty lion, but we are still awaiting the results of nine more animals, the state's lead forest official says. All of the animals in question are male, and they're all Asiatic lions, an endangered species that counts just 400 total living in the wild in Gujarat, the Washington Post reports. The sanctuary at Gir National Park can only hold 270 of them, meaning some have wandered outside of the park. The country's Supreme Court has even ordered Gujarat to move some of the lions elsewhere--not only to help ease the park's crowding situation, but also to make sure the species isn't all in one place should disease or some other disaster strike. Gujarat state has yet to relocate the lions. Six people have recently been attacked near the sanctuary, and once the killer is determined, a life sentence is in order: He'll remain caged in a zoo, while the other 17 lions will be released back into the Gir wild. (A lion that wandered away from a Kenyan national park became agitated by car horns.)
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(Jan 13, 2015 12:49 PM) There's waking up hungry and there's, well, this. A British cafe has introduced the queen of all breakfasts, a 59-item spread that packs in 7,778 calories. The Corner Cafe's Monster Mega Breakfast comes across as slightly redundant: It contains eggs and omelets, fried potatoes (four portions) and hash browns, and both toast and fried bread. Plus bacon, sausages, mushrooms, chips, onion rings, black pudding, tomatoes, and beans. The meal costs about $22.50 and has a time limit attached: Those attempting to polish it off have an hour to do so if they want to win a place on the wall of champions, a breakfast coupon, and a key ring. They'll be helped (or hindered?) along the way with one of two drinks: their choice of a milkshake or energy drink, reports the Bristol Post. A manager of the Portishead cafe tells the Post that since being launched earlier this month, five people have ordered it and none have finished. Quirky side note: No one under 18 is allowed to order it. The cafe's Facebook page has photos of those who have made the attempt, along with a message to those who have accused it of being wasteful. Its post begins, We are just a little family run business who can't save the entire world from famine and starvation! Could the 8,000-calorie breakfast be the start of a trend? The Bear Grills cafe in Congleton, England, made a splash a few months ago with the launch of its own 8,000-calorie meal, the 7-pound Hibernator. Sweet tooths may prefer its version, which includes four waffles. More on it here.
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(Nov 7, 2016 3:26 AM) Janet Reno, the first woman to serve as US attorney general and the epicenter of several political storms during the Clinton administration, including the seizure of Elian Gonzalez, died early Monday. She was 78. Reno died from complications of Parkinson's disease, her goddaughter Gabrielle D'Alemberte tells the AP. Reno, a former Miami prosecutor who famously told reporters I don't do spin, served nearly eight years as attorney general under President Bill Clinton, the longest stint in a century. One of the administration's most recognizable and polarizing figures, Reno faced criticism early in her tenure for the deadly raid on the Branch Davidian compound at Waco, Texas. After Waco, Reno figured into some of the controversies and scandals that marked the Clinton administration, including Whitewater, Filegate, bungling at the FBI laboratory, Monica Lewinsky, alleged Chinese nuclear spying, and questionable campaign financing in the 1996 Clinton-Gore re-election. In the spring of 2000, Reno enraged her hometown's Cuban-American community when she authorized the armed seizure of 5-year-old Elian. The boy was taken from the Little Havana home of his Miami relatives so he could be returned to his father in Cuba. After leaving Washington, Reno returned to Florida and made an unsuccessful run for governor in 2002.
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(May 25, 2008 4:00 PM CDT) A Marine who endured burns on 97% of his body with good humor and hope has died during routine surgery, USA Today reports. Hit by a roadside bomb in Iraq, Sgt. Merlin German walked, talked, and even danced during his 3-year recovery. Undergoing more than 100 surgeries, he became a symbol of resilience and started a charity for burned kids called Merlin's Miracles. Early on, he thought, 'This is ridiculous. Why am I doing this? Why am I working so hard? ' said Lt. Col. Evan Renz, German's friend and surgeon. But every month or so, he'd say, 'I've licked it.' He was amazingly positive overall. He never complained. He'd just dig in and do it.
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(May 28, 2016 6:37 AM CDT) Argentina's last dictator and 14 other former military officials were sentenced to prison for human rights crimes on Friday, marking the first time a court has ruled that Operation Condor was a criminal conspiracy to kidnap and forcibly disappear people across international borders. The covert operation was launched in the 1970s by six South American dictatorships that used their secret police networks in a coordinated effort to track down their opponents abroad and eliminate them. Many leftist dissidents had sought refuge in neighboring countries and elsewhere. An Argentine federal court sentenced former junta leader Reynaldo Bignone, 88, to 20 years in prison for being part of an illicit association, kidnapping, and abusing his powers in the forced disappearance of more than 100 people, the AP reports. The ex-general, who ruled in 1982-1983, is already serving life sentences for multiple human rights violations during the 1976-1983 dictatorship. In the landmark trial, 14 other former military officials received prison sentences of eight to 25 years for criminal association, kidnapping, and torture. They include Uruguayan army colonel, Manuel Cordero Piacentini, who allegedly tortured prisoners inside Automotores Orletti, the Buenos Aires repair shop where many captured leftists were interrogated under orders from their home countries. The victims included Maria Claudia Irureta Goyena, the daughter-in-law of Argentine poet Juan Gelman, who was pregnant when she was kidnapped and held for months inside Automotores Orletti before an Argentine air force plane took her to Uruguay. She gave birth there, and then was disappeared. Decades passed before her daughter, Macarena Gelman, discovered her own true identity.
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(Mar 11, 2014 3:45 PM CDT) Astronaut Bill Pogue has died at age 84, and Space.com notes that he earned his spot in history by serving for nearly 3 months aboard the Skylab space station in the early 1970s. That stint aboard the earth-orbiting outpost earned him and his two crewmates the distinction of the longest human spaceflight up to that point. But the New York Times notes that Pogue and friends earned another distinction as well--they became the first astronauts to stage what amounted to a strike while in space. About halfway through the mission, the crew got fed up with the constant, mundane chores that ground control had them doing, and staged their job action. While NASA officials at Cape Canaveral chalked it up to possible depression, Pogue explained later that he and his crewmates simply wanted more time to enjoy the view and reflect, reports the Times. The two sides reached a compromise, making the last half of the mission more suitable for studying the Sun, the Earth below, and ourselves, Pogue wrote in his autobiography.
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(Apr 13, 2019 10:05 AM CDT) Democrats responded Saturday to President Trump's tweet of a 9/11 video that included an attack on Rep. Ilhan Omar, the Washington Post reports. The video shows New York's twin towers burning and includes bits of Omar's comments that have drawn criticism, especially some people did something on 9/11. WE WILL NEVER FORGET! Trump tweeted Friday. Washington's partisan divide quickly cracked open a little further: GOP Rep. Dan Crenshaw called Omar's words unbelievable, per CBS News, while Nancy Pelosi said the memory of 9/11 was sacred ground, and criticized Trump for using the painful images of 9/11 for a political attack. Bernie Sanders praised Omar, one of the first two Muslim women elected to Congress, tweeting that she won't back down to Trump's racism and hate, and neither will we. Omar made the 9/11 remark in a speech about Islamophobia at the Council on American-Islamic Relations, a week after 50 Muslims were killed in attacks on two New Zealand mosques. For far too long we have lived with the discomfort of being a second-class citizen and, frankly, I'm tired of it, and every single Muslim in this country should be tired of it, Omar said. CAIR was founded after 9/11 because they recognized that some people did something and that all of us were starting to lose access to our civil liberties. So you can't just say that today someone is looking at me strange and that I am trying to make myself look pleasant. You have to say that this person is looking at me strange, I am not comfortable with it, and I am going to talk to them and ask them why. Because that is the right you have.
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(May 25, 2020 7:21 AM CDT) If starting your Monday off giving an interview in the middle of a pandemic seemed too easy for Jacinda Ardern, fate decided to throw in a little natural disaster: As Mashable reports, the New Zealand PM was speaking live from the parliament building in Wellington when a 5.9-magnitude earthquake hit--and she didn't miss a beat. Quite a decent shake here, but if you see things moving behind me, the Beehive moves more than most, Ardern said, referring to the parliament building. After the shaking stopped, she assured her interviewer we're fine. I'm not under any hanging lights, I look like I'm in a structurally sound place. Per the Guardian, she later told reporters her first thought was, are you serious?
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(May 10, 2008 9:39 PM CDT) Tornadoes ripped through nation's heartland today, killing at least 19 people in Oklahoma and Missouri and leaving a wide swath of destruction, AP reports. Seven people were killed in the small mining town of Picher, Okla., and another 12 were killed in southwest Missouri, officials said. Oklahoma rescuers were working to free people trapped in their wrecked homes. Tornadoes also struck Arkansas, but no deaths have been reported.
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(Aug 25, 2015 4:27 AM CDT) The financial world looks less chaotic today than it did on what's being called Black Monday: Chinese stocks had another rough day, but European markets stabilized and American stock futures rose, reports the Wall Street Journal. The Shanghai Index closed down 7.6% and Japan's Nikkei dropped 4%, but a host of other markets (the Stoxx Europe 600, Germany's DAX, and France's CAC) were up more than 2% this morning. Meanwhile, China further tried to ease turmoil with new stimulus measures, reports CNN. It cut its main lending and deposit rates by 0.25% and made it easier for banks to lend money. Stock futures for the Dow and the S&P 500 were up more than 3%, suggesting a higher opening this morning, reports TheStreet. Still, don't expect a sudden end to the volatility. The US stock market is in a mode of uncertainty, at best, DoubleLine Capital's co-founder Jeffrey Gundlach tells Reuters. You don't correct all of this in three days. Yesterday's global sell-off was triggered by the sharp drop in Chinese stocks, but experts say there was little change in economic fundamentals to justify such a massive global slide. There was no clear catalyst for the global stock meltdown. The lack of clarity makes it difficult to assess what is needed to stem the rout, says Bernard Aw of IG Markets in a report. (The CEO of Starbucks has told workers to be nice to worried investors.)
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(Feb 6, 2012 12:04 AM) A powerful 6.8-magnitude earthquake shook the central Philippines today, killing at least 42 people and triggering a local tsunami alert. Houses were buried, windows were shattered, and walls were cracked by the shaker, causing panicked residents to flee their homes, schools, offices, and stores. The quake struck in a narrow strait just off Negros Island, triggering landslides. At least 29 people were missing in the city of Guihulngan, where some 30 houses were buried, reports AP. Their situation is bad because if you are covered by landslide for one hour, two hours, how can you breathe? asked the local mayor. We hope for the best, that there are still survivors. Nearly 45 aftershocks have already been recorded, keeping people from returning to their homes.
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(Apr 9, 2015 10:30 AM CDT) When Duke University researchers asked subjects to reveal a) if they've ever exhibited impulsive angry behavior, and b) if they have easy access to a gun, 8.9% of them copped to such anger management issues and a gun in their home, while 1.5% of them admitted to the aforementioned anger and packing heat when they left the house, CBS News reports. The study published in Behavioral Sciences & the Law notes that only about 4% of US gun violence is caused by those with more serious mental illness--the kinds that should prevent those individuals from legally acquiring firearms. There is a potentially much larger group of individuals in our society who struggle with pathological impulsive and destructive anger that would not normally turn up as serious mental illness on a background check, says study author Jeff Swanson. The most volatile people are slipping through the cracks, he adds, per Mother Jones. The subjects who admitted to being short-fused had only rarely been hospitalized--just 10% of them fell under that category--but they were at a greater risk of experiencing personality disorders, anxiety, PTSD, and substance abuse, CBS notes. That's why the researchers in this study don't think coming up with better ways to ID more serious mental illness is the panacea for the country's problem with gun violence. Instead, per CBS, they suggest implementing more stringent review of gun purchasers' misdemeanor records to check for lower-priority outbursts that could still serve as red flags. The NRA couldn't be reached for comment, per CBS. (Ample stories on gun violence exist to examine.)
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(Feb 8, 2011 6:40 AM) Griping about high taxes? Not so fast: Federal tax bills are at historic lows this year, and for the third consecutive year, families and businesses will pay less than they did under George W Bush. The government's take--as a share of the national economy--is its lowest since 1950, the AP reports. And we have the weak economy and an increasing number of tax breaks to thank for the fact that income tax payments will be almost 13% lower than they were in 2008. While income tax rates are unchanged, new deductions, credits, and exemptions are added to the tax code each year, and this year, that means families with two dependent children earning up to $50,000 can avoid paying federal income taxes entirely, while lower-income families can actually make money. That's bad news for the federal budget deficit, which is expected to reach a record $1.5 trillion this year. However, the scenario will soon change: Tax increases are expected in the next few years, and state taxes are already on the rise.
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(Nov 7, 2019 3:03 PM) Stocks are ending higher on Wall Street following hopes that China and the US are getting closer to a trade deal, the AP reports. The Dow Jones industrials and the S&P 500 ended at record highs again Thursday, but they would have been even higher if not for a late-afternoon report saying a proposed rollback of tariffs was facing stiff opposition in the White House. Technology companies led the way higher. Qualcomm soared 6.3% after turning in strong quarterly results. Gold prices fell as traders embraced riskier assets. The S&P 500 rose 8 points, or 0.3%, to 3,085. The Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed 182 points, or 0.7%, to 27,674. The Nasdaq added 23 points, or 0.3%, to 8,434.
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(Sep 4, 2020 1:30 AM CDT) One of the first COVID-19 patients in the US, Michael Flor of Seattle spent 62 days in the hospital and two weeks in a rehab facility--then returned home to a $1.1 million medical bill. There were thousands of charges on the 181-page bill, he tells KOMO News. An earlier story from ABC 13 explains that he was charged $9,700 for each day in the ICU and $80,000 for 29 days on a ventilator, for instance. Fortunately, Medicare, supplemental insurance, and Congressional funding to help hospitals with coronavirus costs kicked in, and he only had to pay about $3,000. Even so, Flor's story highlights the shell shock that could come for many coronavirus patients. The news station says one national survey of healthcare claims found the average charge of a COVID hospitalization for someone without insurance is around $73,000; with insurance, it's around $38,000. The full cost of COVID hospitalizations for this year in the US is expected to be $17 billion, and one actuary studying that cost and its consequences says it will end up increasing taxes and insurance premiums: What happens with the entire system is that COVID-19 is going to be expensive. But, she notes, the true cost may not be known for quite some time, as the long-term effects of the disease are still being uncovered. As for Flor, the Seattle Times highlights his full story here.
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(Jul 16, 2008 8:00 AM CDT) Air China plans to buy 45 Boeing 777 and 737 aircraft, reports the AP, a purchase the airline says will increase its capacity by about 35% and help reinforce Beijing's status as a transportation hub. The list price for the planes--one of China's biggest airliner purchases--is $6.3 billion, but the final price is expected to be lower. Air travel in China is forecast to grow by 9% annually in coming years, driven by a boom that saw the country's economy grow by 10.6% in the first quarter. Air China's first-quarter profits jumped 147%, boosted by the travel boom and the rise of the yuan. Boeing has not confirmed the deal.
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(Oct 10, 2010 10:04 AM CDT) The US has in 2010 added 613,000 jobs as of September--a not-so-bad average of 68,111 per month. But at that rate, it will be 2020 before the US regains the 8.36 million total jobs lost in the Great Recession. That would break the post-WWII record of 47 months to gain back lost jobs set in the 2001 recession, reports Investor Business Daily. IBD also adds, a bit apocolyptically, that we are likely to enter the next recession before we hit 2020. Read the full article.
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(May 14, 2008 2:55 AM CDT) MySpace has been awarded $234 million from spammers in what's believed to be the largest such judgment ever, AP reports. A federal court ordered two notorious spammers to pay damages for sending hundreds of thousands of messages to MySpace members. The social networking site hailed the award as a landmark. MySpace has zero tolerance for those who attempt to act illegally on our site, said the company's chief security officer. It's our job to send a message to stop them.
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(Mar 4, 2017 1:05 PM) A 7-year-old bowler in Canada just learned a tough lesson about rules, or pants, or ... something. After Grayson Powell bowled a terrific game and prepared to collect a gold medal with two teammates, he was told he was disqualified for wearing pants that weren't black enough. So reports the CBC, which photographed Grayson's outfit and, sure enough, his black jeans are faded to a gray. If this is what sport is about when it comes to kids ... shame on them, said his angry father, Todd Powell. This odd controversy, however, was just getting started. In a long rebuttal, Gord Davis, provincial head of Youth Bowling Canada, insisted the organization did nothing wrong and is not to blame for how this went down. The black jeans dress code has been in place for decades, he said, and rules are rules. The boy's dad smelled a rat. He accused Davis of disqualifying his son's team so the second- and third-place teams, which bowl at lanes owned by Davis, could take higher honors. Davis fired back that Powell was full aware of the dress code and sent his kid anyway. He pressed: What parent would do this? As the Guardian reports, one of Powell's complaints is that his son was disqualified only after bowling a 171-point game that propelled his Riverdale team to the title in the Newfoundland city of St. John's. After the story made headlines in Canada, an odd-sounding compromise was reached. The disqualification stands, but the kids get their gold medals. In the future, however, all rules must be followed no matter what, wrote Davis on Facebook. (This girl's leggings and tunic got her in trouble at school.)
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(Jan 4, 2017 9:09 AM) Think happier, healthier lives are worth any amount of money? The Swedes aren't so sure. Two years after adopting a six-hour workday, the Swedish city of Gothenburg says it will end the experiment over cost concerns, though it appeared to make workers happier and more productive. Indeed, in the first 18 months, 68 nurses at a Gothenburg care home for seniors with dementia who switched from eight- to six-hour workdays but kept the same salary reported feeling more fulfilled, less tired, and took 6% fewer sick days than nurses working 40 hours per week at a hospital, reports Inverse. Patients also reported improved care, while social activities at the facility increased by 80%. But all that came at a cost, reports Bloomberg: Gothenburg had to pay $1.3 million to hire 17 additional staff to fill out the workday. Instead of teams of four working eight-hour shifts together, teams of five were scheduled in overlapping shifts. And the expense wasn't worth the benefit. I personally believe in shorter working hours as a long-term solution but it's far too expensive to carry out a general shortening of working hours within a reasonable time frame, says a local politician. He adds officials are looking for other areas in which we can make work-time innovations, even if those aren't transitions to six-hour work days, though six-hour workday experiments are still taking place in other parts of the country, per Business Insider. (This country's workers can now ignore work emails at home.)
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(Jul 6, 2015 6:00 PM CDT) All it took was the sight of a dollar bill to make Peter Bilello cry. The story goes back 50 years to when the Italian native, now 86, visited his mother back in Italy, ABC News reports. My mother, she knew this girl, he says. And my mother says, 'Why don't you get married.' Sure enough, Bilello and a 23-year-old woman named Grace tied the knot just 40 days later. They moved to Connecticut in 1964, had two kids, four grandkids, and were inseparable, Bilello says. Their bond only grew tighter when she was diagnosed with cancer in 2001: Me and my wife were together all the time, he says. Doctors, hospitals. I was with my wife all the time. And it made a lot of difference... for sick people to have support of the family. Chemotherapy, radiation, and surgery seemed to work, but her cancer returned three years later. For fun, Bilello had each of them sign a dollar bill in their own name-- Peter B. and Grace B. --and he kept the bills in his wallet. The bills remained there until he went shopping five years ago, and spent them by mistake: I came home and told my wife... 'Grace, I made a big mistake today, says the Connecticut resident. I'm never going to see [the dollars again].' Grace died of breast cancer last year, not long after their 50th wedding anniversary, WJBF reports. Then it happened: Out for lunch a few weeks ago, Bilello and his granddaughter received the Grace B. bill as change. I said, 'Oh my god, Ashley, look.' We started to cry, he says. We were so happy to get the dollar back. I never thought I'd get that dollar back.
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(Apr 26, 2011 10:00 AM CDT) States' pension and health care funds had a disastrous year in 2009, saving a whopping $1.26 trillion less than they'll need to pay the retirement benefits they've promised to their workers, according to a new study from the Pew Center on the States. Part of the problem is that market losses related to the financial crisis savaged funds across the country, but states also just aren't contributing enough to their funds to deal with their aging workforces, the Washington Post explains. The $1.26 trillion figure may even prove to be optimistic; Pew went along with states' assumptions that their pension funds would return roughly 8% a year. When calculated using the standards that private firms are required to use, the shortfall balloons to $1.8 trillion. Rising markets should improve things, however, and some union leaders say the problem is being overstated. These funds are not only persevering, but are well on their way to recovery, says one union leader.
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(Jul 7, 2017 6:05 AM CDT) The Illinois House voted to override Gov. Bruce Rauner's vetoes of a budget package, giving the state its first spending blueprint in more than two years and ending the nation's longest fiscal stalemate since at least the Great Depression, the AP reports. Thursday's action eases some financial woes, but it's fueled by a permanent 32% increase in the income tax rate, raising $5 billion more annually, and it reduces spending by more than $2 billion. Illinois is staring down a $6.2 billion annual deficit and $14.7 billion in past-due bills. Lawmakers, culminating two straight weeks of a special session that began ahead of the July 1 start of the fiscal year, approved the bill to raise taxes by a 71-42 vote. A plan to spend $36 billion in the fiscal year that began July 1 was approved 74-37; an override requires 71 votes. The income tax increase means individuals will pay 4.95% instead of 3.75%; the corporate rate jumps to 7% from 5.25%. The standoff, which GOP Rep. David Harris called immoral, had had statewide effects, with road construction work shut down and public universities cut to the bone. Today, Republicans and Democrats stood together to enact a bipartisan, balanced budget and end a destructive, 736-day impasse, said Democratic House Speaker Michael Madigan, who had to call upon previously reluctant Democrats to keep the veto-override supermajority intact. Rauner had rejected the budget plan because he saw no indication the Democratic-controlled Legislature would send him the structural changes he has demanded, including a statewide property-tax freeze. The vote to override is another step in Illinois' never-ending tragic trail of tax hikes, Rauner said in a statement.
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(Aug 6, 2010 1:22 AM CDT) A young French tourist is lucky his last word wasn't merde. The traveler, 18, is being treated for wrist, ankle, and neck injuries after surviving a 75-foot fall from the south rim of the Grand Canyon, AP reports. Park ranger paramedics rappelled down to the man and strapped him to a gurney that was lifted out by helicopter. Rangers believe he slipped while taking photos from very near the rim, something they strongly recommend visitors avoid doing.
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(Aug 6, 2010 2:41 PM CDT) Amy Poehler gave birth to a son this morning, adding a second child to the Parks and Recreation star's family with fellow actor Will Arnett, People reports. Abel James Arnett came into the world weighing 7 lbs, 13 oz. Amy, Will, Abel and Archie are all healthy and resting comfortably, a rep for the family said.
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(Apr 25, 2016 10:46 AM CDT) The week of April 15-21 was a record-breaking one for the TSA, though not a record it likely wanted to break. During that one-week span, the federal agency found 73 guns stashed in carry-on bags at airports nationwide, breaking the previous weekly record of 68 set just last October, the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review reports. Of those firearms, 68 were loaded, and 27 had a round in the chamber. Guns can be brought on flights, but they have to be declared in checked luggage only, unloaded, and secured in a locked container, per TSA rules. Unfortunately, these sorts of occurrences are all too frequent, which is why we talk about these finds, a TSA rep says in a blog post, which features pictures of some of the confiscated items, as well as a list of what items were found at which airports. Also discovered: two replica military rounds at Tucson's airport. The TSA notes that even if a passenger has no ill intent in packing the gun in the carry-on, he or she can receive a citation, be arrested, and/or have to pay a fine as steep as $11,000. And despite applause that may come the TSA screeners' way for a job well done, they'd rather not find these weapons at all. Each time we find a dangerous item, the line is slowed down and the passenger is at risk of the repercussions, the post explains. Oddly, despite findings like this, the TSA has been trying to do away with screenings at smaller regional airports to save money, sometimes screening passengers after they land at larger airports to make connecting flights--a process called reverse screening, per Politico. The agency is now restaffing some of those smaller airports with screeners after Congress got wind of the plan and some members denounced it as dangerous.
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(Oct 16, 2011 1:35 PM CDT) While pancreatic cancer was slowly killing him, Steve Jobs dedicated his final months to a new project: the iPhone 5. The next-generation phone was the last project that Steve Jobs was intimately involved with from concept to final design, a financial analyst wrote in a report acquired by CNET. The analyst predicts a slimmer phone, bigger screen size, 4G capability, and the same overall proportions as the 4S. Another source says the phone will boast a brand-new design. This is a very large project that Steve dedicated all of his time to, the source says. He was not that involved in the 4S because his time was limited. The next-gen device will be a cult classic due to Jobs' involvement, the financial analyst predicted--and should be released around the Apple's Developer's Conference next summer. (Click through to see another Steve Jobs creation: the short-turtleneck-and-jeans look.)
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(May 17, 2019 1:50 PM CDT) She was a model who appeared on the cover of Playboy, as a contestant on Survivor, and as a contender in the ring for WWE. Ashley Massaro had done much in her 39 years, but the chance to do more was cut short early Thursday, when she was pronounced dead at a hospital on Long Island, reports the New York Daily News. Officials tell TMZ Massaro was brought to the hospital from her Smithtown home; no cause of death has been revealed, but it's said to be classified as non-criminal. The Blast notes Massaro, who was the winner of the WWE's Raw Diva Search in 2005 and performed with the WWE for three years, was part of a class-action suit against the organization, with dozens of wrestlers alleging it didn't do enough to protect them from repeated head trauma. Massaro wrote in a 2017 affidavit she suffered from depression, migraines, and other injuries she said came about from her work in the WWE. We are saddened to learn of the tragic death of former WWE Superstar Ashley Massaro, the WWE posted on its website, calling her beloved by fans and colleagues alike. Meanwhile, per the Blast, Massaro's only daughter, Alexa, wrote on social media after her mother's death: I love you Mommy I want to wake up in your arms more than anything.
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(Nov 5, 2008 7:22 AM) Norm Coleman has defeated Al Franken in one of Minnesota's tightest Senate elections ever, declares the AP. The GOP incumbent led by 762 votes out of nearly 2.9 million cast. Coleman had 42.03%, Franken 42%, and third-party candidate Dean Barley 15%. But the former comedian has not conceded and is demanding a recount, which will be triggered automatically by Minnesota state law. This has been a long campaign, but it is going to be a little longer before we have a winner, Franken said at a rally. Exit polls showed that Franken held a big lead in Minneapolis and St. Paul, while Coleman ran stronger in Twin Cities suburbs and western Minnesota. The Senate race was one of the ugliest of the campaign, with the rivals trading accusations of corruption and immorality.
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(Nov 6, 2017 3:11 PM) Stocks are closing at new records Monday as upheaval in oil-rich Saudi Arabia sent crude prices to two-year highs, the AP reports. Chipmakers and media companies climbed on deal reports while phone companies sank. Chipmaker Qualcomm rose 1% Monday, off earlier highs, after competitor Broadcom offered to buy it for $103 billion. Broadcom gained 1.4%. Oil prices hit a two-year high as investors wondered if turmoil in Saudi Arabia will affect crude oil supplies. Sprint sank 11.5% and T-Mobile lost 5.6% after they ended talks about a potential deal over the weekend. The Standard & Poor's 500 index rose 3 points, or 0.1%, to 2,591. The Dow Jones industrial average rose 9 points to 23,548. The Nasdaq composite added 22 points, or 0.3%, to 6,786. All three indexes set new records.
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(Oct 10, 2013 2:05 AM CDT) A Universal Orlando roller coaster called the city's tallest got stuck last night, leaving 12 people high and dry for several hours before authorities rescued them. Firefighters were contacted at about 7pm; two hours later, they began using ropes and harnesses to reach those at the top of the 167-foot-tall Hollywood Rip Ride Rockit, WKMG reports. All were rescued by 9:45, the Orlando Sentinel notes; one rider was hospitalized with neck pain. The cause of the problem isn't yet clear, says Universal, noting that the ride, which reaches 65mph, halted automatically. It closed afterward, but if technicians solve the problem, it could be open again as soon as today. This summer, the ride was closed for two days after a rider received minor injuries when her car stopped, the Sentinel reports.
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(Aug 29, 2016 10:40 AM CDT) More than $1 million has been raised in the name of Donald Trump by a PAC--but zero dollars appear to have gone to help the GOP nominee, and donors are furious with the registered genius and grape soda connoisseur behind the setup, Politico reports. Ian Hawes is the 25-year-old behind dinnerwithtrump.org, a site not affiliated with Trump's campaign and that offers an exciting opportunity, if you're a Trump fan: a chance to win tickets to a Trump fundraising event, complete with flight and hotel stay. That contest site, in addition to other fundraising efforts Hawes has made--including nearly $110,000 in Facebook ads, per federal records--has so far brought in $1.1 million from more than 21,000 donors, Hawes says. The issue: Donors say they thought this fundraising effort was part of Trump's campaign, though the fine print on the site notes it's simply giving away two tickets to a Sponsor-selected fundraising evening event with Trump in attendance. I feel ripped off and taken advantage of. ... This is robbery, says one donor who ponied up $256 to Hawes' American Horizons PAC, thinking she was donating directly to Trump's camp. Hawes denies he's pulling one over on anyone, noting that interested parties can enter the dinner contest without donating--though Politico notes a double your chances promotion is offered via multiple entries if someone contributes--and that the PAC will refund donations to anyone who asks for one. Plus, he adds, Trump's campaign has never told him to cease and desist using Trump's name. The dinner with the Donald site isn't Hawes' only moneymaker scheme: He's also launched crookedhillary2016.org-- to fight Crooked Hillary's campaign of lies --and has registered imwithtrump.org, though that's not live yet. (The real Trump was closing the fundraising gap with Clinton earlier this month.)
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(Mar 16, 2010 11:30 AM CDT) Flights don't get much worse than Virgin America Flight 404, which took 16 long hours to get from LAX to JFK. The plane was supposed to land in New York at 3:30pm, but high winds forced it to circle for hours. Finally it landed in Newburgh, 90 miles away, where it sat on the tarmac until almost midnight, passengers tell the New York Post. One passenger had a panic attack and was escorted off by police. Food supplies ran so low that Pringles had to be rationed, at four chips per passenger. Eventually Jet Blue, which has facilities in Newburgh, got buses to carry the passengers the last two and a half hours to New York. They finally arrived at 2am. To make the PR disaster even worse for Virgin, one of the passengers was a social media executive, who posted constant updates about the experience online. Virgin's CEO saw the videos and called to apologize, promising a $100 credit for all passengers.
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(Feb 3, 2008 1:56 PM) A pair of earthquakes shook Rwanda and the Congo today, killing 39 and injuring 380, the AP reports. Congo was hit first, with a 6.0 blast early this morning. Rwanda was shaken scant hours later, with a 5.0 shock. I was at home when the earthquake hit, and the next thing I heard was the house falling down, said one injured woman. Rwanda took the heaviest casualties, accounting for 34 bodies so far, according to the country's Ministry of Health. Some of the dead were worshippers caught in a collapsing church when the quakes hit. Rescuers are still combing the wreckage for more victims. In the Congo, the quakes hit the lakeside city Bukavu, damaging schools, homes, and churches while killing five.
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(May 4, 2009 9:56 AM CDT) Filene's Basement filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy today, the Wall Street Journal reports. The bargain clothing store has struggled in an increasingly competitive discount retail market, court papers said. The chain plans to sell 17 of 22 locations to real-estate investors Crown Acquisitions, though it will still hold a required auction in which it hopes to sell the rest of its assets. Crown will keep the century-old Filene's name, it said.
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(Mar 29, 2008 8:44 AM CDT) Possible fraud involving forged documents from a Japanese trading firm may have cost Lehman Brothers $250 million, the Wall Street Journal reports. The investment bank loaned funds to a Japanese biotech firm last year; the transaction was secured by top trading company Marubeni Corp. But the biotech firm filed for bankruptcy March 19, and the funds still haven't been paid back. Marubeni claims to be a victim of identity theft, possibly involving several of its own employees. Lehman has filed a criminal complaint with Japanese police and is working closely with the authorities to seek full recovery of funds it believes to have been fraudulently misappropriated, the company said in a statement. Reuters puts the loss at $350 million, and says Goldman may have also been scammed.
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(Aug 28, 2012 2:22 PM CDT) The Obama administration today finalized a major upgrade to America's fuel economy standards that will force new cars and trucks to average 54.5 miles a gallon by 2025. The final rules rolled out today are essentially the same ones proposed last year, the Detroit News reports, but they are no less impressive for all that, representing a doubling of the standards in place when Obama took office. What's more, automakers are largely on board with the deal. The administration negotiated the deal with automakers, and 13 of them, including Detroit's big three support it. Only two, Germany's Daimler and Volkswagen, have come out against it. We've come a long way in five years, a Pew Clean Energy researcher tells the Washington Post, noting that in 2007, lawmakers hotly debated whether to mandate a 30 mpg by 2025. We expect the rules to be tough, a GM exec said, but we have a strong history of innovation.
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(Dec 28, 2015 8:31 AM) After spending a frigid night lost in the marshes of a bird refuge near the Great Salt Lake, a 14-year-old Utah boy was found alive--and is expected to make a full recovery, KSL reports. Brayden Neilson suffered hypothermia and is being monitored for any lasting damage to his hands after being exposed to what Fox13 reports was a 4-degree night. The teen and a friend were hunting in the Ogden Bay Bird Refuge about 40 miles north of Salt Lake City early Saturday morning and the two became separated, with only Brayden's friend making it to their truck. They both placed 911 calls around 9pm, but the information Brayden provided was confusing and inconsistent, as KSL puts it. There was some concern he was starting to get hypothermia and was maybe hallucinating, Weber County Sheriff's Lt. Lane Findlay tells KSL. Police say that attempts to ping Brayden's cellphone failed to provide a specific location. Later, the phone's battery died. Hours into the search, which included helicopters, authorities discovered Brayden's sled of supplies, but no Brayden. His brother tells KSL that around 1am, the teen called his grandmother and said he was about five minutes from his Bluffdale home, despite being more than an hour away. It didn't make a lot of sense, says Findlay. Brayden ultimately walked 6 to 7 miles to the Antelope Island Causeway in Syracuse, where he found a landline and again dialed 911 around 6am Sunday. Findlay says Brayden likely has his warm hunting clothes to thank for his survival; Brayden's brother tells KSL the teen had removed his gloves, and his hands were blue when he was found. (In this case, hypothermia may have saved a skier's life.)
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(Dec 9, 2019 5:01 AM) A Walmart in Florida took to Facebook on Friday with some wonderful news for its customers: Someone had paid off all of the store's active holiday layaway accounts. The bighearted person who did so, per CNN: Chicago Bears linebacker Khalil Mack, who opened his wallet to help out families in his hometown of Fort Pierce. A store manager says that a representative from the Khalil Mack Foundation, a charitable group that helps underprivileged youth and families, showed up at the store and asked to be a secret Santa, with the funds to cover all 300 holiday layaway accounts that needed paying off. TCPalm.com notes it isn't clear exactly how much money was doled out. We here at Walmart would like to thank the Khalil Mack Foundation for your generosity, and for making so many families happy for the holidays! the store wrote on its Facebook page. It's not the first time the 28-year-old has helped out others: WGN reports that Mack donated $2,000 earlier this month to help a Chicago youth football team get to Disney for a championship event. Earlier this year, his organization also donated 100 pairs of cleats to his former high school in Fort Pierce.
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(Oct 31, 2017 7:14 PM CDT) Cut loose! New York City lawmakers voted Tuesday to legalize dancing in bars, repealing a 91-year-old law that banned boogieing at most city nightspots, the AP reports. The anti-dancing law was first enacted in 1926 and prohibited dancing in bars and restaurants that don't have a cabaret license. Critics said the so-called cabaret law originated as a racist attempt to police Harlem's 1920s jazz clubs and continued to be enforced unfairly. If you're Latino, if you're black, if you're from the LGBTQ community, you all have been impacted by this law, said City Councilman Rafael Espinal, a Brooklyn Democrat, who introduce the legislation to repeal the law. It is time we right this historical wrong and remove New York's inappropriate and arbitrarily enforced dancing licensing.
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(Jun 17, 2011 3:21 AM CDT) A jihadi website closely linked to al-Qaeda has posted a hit list of 40 prominent people, mostly Americans. Those named include a congressman, a conservative pundit, Pentagon officials, and American businessmen whose company helps produce drones, reports ABC News. The site includes photographs and biographical information, and suggests followers send the targets parcel bombs. The FBI has sent the list to law enforcement authorities. Officials say the list appears to be a terrorist wish list, posted in response to American-born al-Qaeda spokesman's Adam Gadahn recent call for Muslims in the US to buy guns and carry out lone wolf attacks. Jihadi websites are often full of empty threats, and there has been a surge in such postings since the killing of Osama bin Laden, the FBI says. But this posting is unusually target-specific and displays an in-depth knowledge about defense contractors.
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