WorldAssociated PressDad of 3 girls killed in New Zealand says he's forgiven wife
The father of three young girls who were killed last week in New Zealand said Thursday his precious angels had been ripped away from him in a loss he would carry for the rest of his life. Dickason wrote his thoughts in a letter that was read aloud by a reverend during a candlelight vigil that was attended by hundreds of people outside the family's home in the South Island town of Timaru. Lauren Dickason, 40, has been charged with murder in the deaths of her twin 2-year-old girls Maya and Karla, and their 6-year-old sister Liane, in a crime that has shocked New Zealand.
U.S.HuffPostBrian Williams' Punchline On Anti-Vaxxers, Anti-Maskers Is A Showstopper
Brian Williams unleashed savage sign-off snark on his MSNBC news show Wednesday. Watch the video below. As he was closing out “The 11th Hour,” the host ran a clip from The Recount of anti-vaccine and anti-mask protesters sounding off at local board meetings.
PoliticsBusiness InsiderFEC threatens Rep. Lauren Boebert with legal action after she made Venmo rent payments from her campaign account
FEC filings detail that Republican Rep. Lauren Boebert used campaign funds to pay rent and utilities via Venmo. The FEC says Boebert could still face "further legal action" and needs to provide more information. Freshman Republican Rep. Lauren Boebert of Colorado may face further legal action from the Federal Election Commission after she used campaign funds for a series of rent and utility payments totalling $6,250.
BusinessAssociated PressCalifornia 1st to set quota limits for retailers like Amazon
California on Wednesday became the first state to bar mega-retailers from firing warehouse workers for missing quotas that interfere with bathroom and rest breaks under a new law signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom that grew from Amazon's drive to speed goods to consumers more quickly. The measure also bars Amazon, the online retail giant, and similar companies from disciplining workers for following health and safety laws and allows employees to sue to suspend unsafe quotas or reverse retaliation. The bill applies to all warehouse distribution centers, though proponents were driven by Amazon's dominance.
U.S.Washington ExaminerAuthorities search for Brian Laundrie 500 miles from home following Facebook tip
Florida authorities searching for the boyfriend of Gabby Petito said Tuesday that someone bearing his likeness was caught on a deer camera hiking through the wilderness. The Okaloosa County Sheriff's Office said it is looking into reports that Brian Laundrie was spotted in the area. The announcement follows a Facebook post on Monday by a user who claimed he saw a man resembling Laundrie carrying a backpack around 6:17 a.m. in Baker, Florida, about 500 miles away from Laundrie's home in North Port.
U.S.INSIDERJohn Walsh, the former host of 'America's Most Wanted,' questions if anyone actually saw Brian Laundrie in his home when his attorney said he was there
John Walsh said he didn't think Brian Laundrie ever went to the Carlton Reserve. Walsh wondered whether anyone had seen Laundrie since he returned to his family home. John Walsh, the host of "In Pursuit," has joined the search for Brian Laundrie and expressed skepticism over whether anyone actually saw Laundrie in his family home after he returned from a road trip with Gabby Petito.
- ScienceAFP Videographics
Portugal grape pickers do it in the buff
With early autumn temperatures in Portugal hovering around 30 degrees Celsius (86 degrees Fahrenheit), a group of nudism enthusiasts don't even sport a vine leaf to cover their modesty as they go about their work in a vineyard 100 kilometres (60 miles) south of Lisbon.
U.S.Fort Worth Star-TelegramFather of 12 dies of COVID in Texas after struggles finding ECMO machine, family says
A day after a wife's public plea to help find her husband an ECMO machine to save his life, a Texas father died of COVID-19. Reed Hickson, a 49-year-old father of 12 from College Station, died Monday. “My little brother Reed was called home last night, leaving behind a legacy of true love and greatness, his family of 12 beautiful children and his magnificent soul mate,” Samuel Hickson said on Facebook Tuesday of his brother.
PoliticsHuffPostMary Trump Pulls No Punches When Naming Her ‘Stupidest’ Relative
Mary Trump was asked “what the hell is going on” with her cousin, Donald Trump Jr., and didn't hold back. In this week's episode of the “UnPresidented” podcast, Donald Trump's niece described her cousin as “weak” and a suck-up who was ultimately “left in the dust” by his father, the former president. Trump Jr. is “like many other people in my family,” said Mary Trump, a psychologist who has become one of the fiercest critics of her uncle and his children.
WorldAssociated PressMexican forces surround border migrant camp
CIUDAD ACUÑA, Mexico (AP) — A camp where more than 14,000 migrants had waited along the Texas border just days ago was dramatically smaller Thursday, while across the river in Mexico, Haitian migrants in a growing camp awoke surrounded by security forces as a helicopter thundered overhead . The number of migrants at the Texas camp had been reduced to 3,671, Val Verde County Judge Lewis Owens said Thursday morning. The United States and Mexico appeared eager to end the increasingly politicized humanitarian situation at the border, even as the U.S. expulsion of Haitians to their troubled homeland caused blowback for the administration of President Joe Biden.
BusinessBuzzFeed18 Things Home Depot Employees Absolutely Hate That Customers Do And 5 Things They Absolutely Love
div> 1. span> Home Depot employees hate when you do dangerous stuff like this: THESE CUSTOMERS ARE WILD from HomeDepot 2.
U.S.INSIDERGabby Petito's uncle rips the law firm representing Brian Laundrie's family as 'beyond disgusting'
Gabby Petito's uncle has slammed the attorney representing his niece's fiancé, Brian Laundrie, and his parents. "In the eyes of the public you are as guilty and complicit with this massive cover-up and stalling tactic," Steven Petito posted online. The FBI confirmed Tuesday that it was Gabby Petito's body that was found in Wyoming.
PoliticsAssociated PressArizona Republican resigns after secret recording released
A Republican official in Arizona resigned Tuesday from the board overseeing Maricopa County after a recording emerged of him criticizing his GOP colleagues for opposing a review of the 2020 election. During the meeting recorded surreptitiously last March, Supervisor Steve Chucri suggested two fellow Republican county supervisors opposed the review by Senate Republicans because they nearly lost their own 2020 races. Chucri apologized in a statement announcing his resignation and said he shouldn't have made the comments, adding “the political landscape has changed for the worst this year.
U.S.E! NewsGabby Petito Confirmed Dead at 22 as Autopsy Determines Her Manner of Death
Authorities have confirmed that the remains found in Bridger-Teton National Forest belong to YouTuber Gabrielle Petito. Additionally, on Tuesday, Sept. 21, the Teton County Coroner's Office announced her manner of death was determined to be homicide. "Teton County Coroner Dr. Brent Blue confirmed the remains are those of Gabrielle Venora Petito, date of birth March 19, 1999," the FBI stated in a press release.
U.S.The Daily Beast‘Mama, I Don’t Want to Die’: 20-Year-Old’s COVID Death the Latest Among Younger Victims
Health officials in Florida, Texas, and California have also reported seeing a trend in younger and younger people dying from the virus as the Delta variant continues to drive the fourth wave of the pandemic. Shepherd is far from the only twentysomething to have her life cut short by the virus this week. A 26-year-old Wisconsin police officer died from COVID-19 on Wednesday, just hours after his second child was welcomed into the world, according to Fond du Lac Police Chief Aaron Goldstein.
WorldAssociated PressWoman with Down syndrome loses UK abortion law challenge
A woman with Down syndrome lost a court challenge against the British government Thursday over a law allowing the abortion up until birth of a fetus with the condition. Heidi Crowter, 26, and two others took the Department of Health and Social Care to court, arguing that part of the Abortion Act is discriminatory and violates the European Convention on Human Rights. Crowter has said that she found the legislation “offensive” and disrespectful, and that she wanted to change the law to challenge people's perception of Down syndrome.
U.S.HuffPostBison Charges And Hurls Another Bison In Yellowstone Showdown
Well, blow me down. That's a mighty buffalo. The National Park Service celebrated Talk Like A Pirate Day on Sunday by sharing video of a male bison charging and flinging another male bison.
HealthBuzzFeedThis Woman's Story Of How She Gained 50 Pounds In Three Months And Was Told By A Doctor That Her Bloating Was "Psychosomatic" Has Gone Viral On TikTok
Kalista Dwyer is a 22-year-old content creator who recently documented her journey with extreme bloating and weight gain on TikTok. In the video, Kalista explains that she'd inexplicably gained 50 pounds in just three months, experienced intense bloating and pain every time she ate, had swelling in her hands, and was fatigued. BuzzFeed reached out to Kalista, who said that her symptoms began last November, when she spent two weeks visiting Costa Rica.
U.S.Reuters'Critical race theory' roils a Tennessee school district
Robin Steenman, an Air Force veteran and white mother of three, is fed up with the way public schools in her community of Franklin, Tennessee are teaching kids about race. She believes that the reading materials and teachers' manuals are biased, specifically the lessons taught to second graders about civil rights leaders like Martin Luther King Jr. Kids leave class believing that white people are oppressors and minorities are victims, Steenman claims. While her only school-age child attends private school, Steenman nevertheless wants the public system, Williamson County Schools, to change its approach.
PoliticsWashington ExaminerBarr had 'Oh, s***' moment when Trump blew up over Durham: Book
Attorney General William Barr braced himself in the face of unprecedented fury displayed by President Donald Trump when he was told special counsel John Durham would likely not finish the criminal inquiry into the Russia investigation until sometime during the incoming Biden administration, according to a new book. The fiery episode happened in early December during a White House meeting after Barr explained why he told the Associated Press that the Justice Department had uncovered no evidence of widespread fraud in the 2020 election, Watergate sleuth Bob Woodward and fellow Washington Post journalist Robert Costa wrote in Peril, which was released on Tuesday. Already frustrated by Barr's refusal to back his claims of a stolen election, Trump asked his attorney general when a conclusion would come in Durham's inquiry into the origins and conduct of the Russia investigation he often dubs a "witch hunt."
- TechnologyReuters Videos
Apple furious at EU plan for standard chargers
New Android phones already tend to use the EU's favoured port. Apple says the regulation will stifle innovation, and hurt consumers. Industry commissioner Thierry Breton sees it the other way round.
WorldAssociated PressChina sends 24 fighter jets toward Taiwan in show of force
China sent 24 fighter jets toward Taiwan in a large display of force Thursday, after the self-governing island announced its intention to join an 11-nation Pacific trade group that China has also applied to join. China's People's Liberation Army flew fighter jets toward Taiwan twice on Thursday, once in the morning with 19 planes, and once in the afternoon with five more. Taiwan deployed air patrol forces in response to the Chinese jets and tracked them on its air defense systems, the island's Defense Ministry said in a statement.
BusinessBusiness Insider2 former Chick-fil-A employees pled guilty to defrauding the company of half a million dollars to pay for luxury cars, vacations, and a house
A former Chick-fil-A manager and hospitality director pled guilty to fraud charges. The two men intercepted payments from customers into their own bank accounts. A former Chick-fil-A manager pled guilty to charges of defrauding the company and customers of nearly $500,000, according to a release from the US Department of Justice.
U.S.HuffPostRight-Wing Preacher Cooks Up The Most Bonkers Plea Yet For A Private Jet
Right-wing televangelist Kenneth Copeland is begging viewers to send him cash to support his private jet so he won't have to deal with coronavirus vaccine mandates to travel, which he called “the mark of the beast. Copeland, who in the past has claimed that he needed a private jet to avoid “demons” on commercial flights, made the claim during his “VICTORYthon” fundraiser on Tuesday. You get into this situation, 'We're not gonna let you fly unless you're vaccinated,'” he said.
WorldReutersExclusive-Echoes, uncertainty as Afghan pilots await U.S. help in Tajikistan
A U.S.-trained Afghan pilot was talking to Reuters on a smuggled cellphone from Tajikistan, where he is being held, when something strange happened - his voice started looping, repeating everything he had just said, word for word. It also came amid growing feelings of impatience and uncertainty among the Afghan pilots and personnel who have been held by the government in Tajikistan since fleeing there on Aug. 15. There are 143 Afghans detained at a sanatorium in a mountainous, rural area outside of the Tajik capital, Dushanbe, waiting and hoping for over a month for transfer by the United States.
“It wouldn’t take much of an annual wealth tax to rescue the retirement system.”
“Privatizing Social Security — or at least letting individuals opt-out so they can escape the sinking ship — would be a huge win.”
“Congress could save hundreds of billions of dollars by modestly paring back the benefit formula for future wealthy retirees.”
“Raising the retirement age reduces the number of beneficiaries, thereby reducing the costs of the program.”
“Social Security as we know it needs to be abolished and replaced with a better system.”