Blog Posts by Claudine Zap

Good dog (Oklahoma County Sheriff's Office)Rescuers scouring the devastation after a huge tornado tore through Moore, Okla., on Monday tweeted a photo of one furry find that has since gone around the Web, receiving more than 52,000 likes on Facebook.

The Oklahoma County Sheriff's office posted the photo of the mud-spattered pup with the description, “Scared, but this little pup survived.”

The sheriff's department later updated the Facebook post to say that further digging showed the dog was found near a body—possibly that of its owner.

But the story didn't end there.

The rescuers were as touched by the sweet little pooch as the rest of the Web, and the sheriff’s office tweeted: "Dog taken to shelter; deputy plans on adopting."

Now, in a possible miraculous twist, it seems all of the Web attention might reconnect the dog with its owner.

Sheila Collins commented on the Facebook post, "Please don't adopt Susie Collins. She is my brother Curtis' dog and he is alive and the only reason he is not well is that he is looking for Susie.

Columbia University (Thinkstock)

This is awkward, to say the least. Columbia University offers a fellowship, launched in 1920, that can only be awarded to someone from Iowa—someone white from Iowa.

To rectify this, the university is finally making changes to the Lydia C. Roberts graduate and traveling fellowship, which limits its recipients to the categories of Iowan and "Caucasian."

According to the New York Daily News, Columbia filed an affidavit with Manhattan’s supreme court to get the restriction lifted. "Circumstances have so changed from the time when the Trust was established" that complying with the restrictions is "impossible," the Daily News writes, quoting the filing. "Columbia University is now prohibited by law and University policy from discriminating on the basis of race."

The money was left to Columbia by Iowa native Lydia C. Chamberlain, who died in 1920. The fund's administrator is now JP Morgan Chase. The fellowships have not been awarded since 1997, according to the Daily News, although it's unclear

The family of Kendrick Johnson is demanding a federal investigation into his death.

The body of the 17-year-old was found in a rolled up mat in the gym of Lowndes High School, where he was a student.

While the Georgia Bureau of Investigation has ruled the death an accident, his family disagreed, believing that Johnson was murdered at the school.

According to a story on ABC local station WALB News 10, officials believe Johnson, who died in January, “was in the gym alone, reached into the mat to get something he dropped, and got stuck.”

The final autopsy report ruled the death accident as a result of “positional asphyxia.”

The family is not convinced. A Facebook page and organizations like Atlanta's National Action Network have brought attention to the case, claiming that it was bungled: The coroner's office wasn't notified until hours after Johnson's death, and the body was moved and his clothes misplaced.

The sheriff denies that the body or clothes were moved, but the coroner's office has

Malcolm Shabazz (AP)

Malcolm Shabazz, grandson of the late political activist Malcolm X, has died in Mexico, U.S. officials confirmed to the Associated Press. The cause of death has not been confirmed.

“Two U.S. officials say Shabazz was killed on Thursday morning in Mexico City. They spoke anonymously because they were not authorized to speak publicly about the case,” the Associated Press reported.

A family spokesperson, Terrie Williams, posted on Facebook, “I'm confirming, per US Embassy, on behalf of the family, the tragic death of Malcolm Shabazz, grandson of Malcolm X. Statement from family to come.”

Malcolm Shabazz was the the son of Qubilah Shabazz, daughter of Malcolm X and Betty Shabazz.

In 1997, Shabazz set a fire that killed his grandmother, Betty Shabazz. She died from the burns, and Shabazz served four years in juvenile detention.

According to the Amsterdam News, he was attending John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York City and was in the process of writing two books.

A landfill like this one is causing local residents lots of headaches (Thinkstock)

Residents unlucky enough to live near a foul-smelling landfill near Bridgeton, Mo., recently got some bad news and better news.

The bad: The landfill stench is likely to get worse as officials go to work to fix the problem.

The sort of good news: The owners of Bridgeton Sanitary Landfill in Missouri have offered residents within a one-mile radius of the waste site a temporary reprieve by moving them to hotels for the next month.

According to a story in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, “270 households in the Spanish Village subdivision, Terrisan Reste mobile home community and some residents of Carrollton Village condominiums” qualify for the relocation to extended-stay hotels three miles away, which also accept pets.

Those preferring to move in with family or friends will receive $125 a week.

The landfill, about 52 acres that goes 240 feet below ground, took in waste from 1985 to 2004.

But in 2010, landfill started to stink.

The website for the Missouri Department of Natural Resources

Houston, we have a problem.

A giant African land snail has been spotted in a Houston garden, and residents are being warned to stay away from it—and to watch out for others.

Texas station KPRC reports that the slow-moving menaces are sometimes carriers of a life-threatening meningitis. It "can cause a lot of harm to humans and sometimes even death," Autumn Smith-Herron, director of the Institute for the Study of Invasive Species at Sam Houston State University, told the NBC affiliate.

The monstrous mollusk is the first of its kind known to slime its way into Texas, and no one is sure how it got there.

A woman in the Briar Forest neighborhood of Houston found the snail and “notified workers at the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center who deal with invasive plants,” according to the station.

The disease-carrying, freakishly big hermaphroditic snails—they can grow up to almost 8 inches in length and up to 4 inches in diameter—can each lay some 100 eggs per month.

In other words, where there’s

Barbara Knight, mother of Michelle Knight, one of the women believed to have been held captive for nearly a decade, said on the "Today" show that she had questioned whether her daughter would ever be found.

"I had my doubts, but then I’d look on the bright side; I’d go to God and prayed for some kind of thing to tell me if she’s alive or not," she said.

Barbara, then 20-year-old Michelle and Michelle's son were living together when Michelle lost custody of her son. Michelle disappeared a short time later, in 2002, and police and social workers did not think it was an abduction.

"Because she was 20, they figured she left because she was upset, because of the baby and everything," said Barbara Knight. She added she was told by police that if Michelle broke any laws or if they spotted her, they would let Barbara know. They never did.

"Certain people told me she wanted nothing to do with me," she said. "But still in my heart, I thought, no, because I know my Michelle."

Barbara Knight now

President Obama received 12 stitches when he was elbowed in the lip during a basketball game in 2010. Ouch! (Atlantic Wire)

It’s probably not what he hoped to be known for. But the man responsible for busting President Obama’s lip with his elbow during a basketball game back in 2010 has finally spoken out.

“I had no desire to bring attention to myself in an accident that caused somebody pain. I didn’t want to disrespect the President of the United States,” Reynaldo Decerega, owner of the offending elbow, told the Boston Globe.

The sharp-elbowed player, who also happens to be basketball trainer and coach, hasn't been asked back to play since.

On November 26, 2010, the programs director for the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute found himself in a pickup game with the president when the elbow incident occurred.

The president took an elbow to the lip and got 12 stitches. Decerega got four stitches on his elbow.

“I felt horrible,” Decerega told the Globe. “I’ve played basketball a million times in my life and I’ve never elbowed anybody. So the first time I do this, it’s to the President of the United