U.S.Associated PressAlec Baldwin sued for defamation by family of slain Marine
The widow and two sisters of a U.S. Marine killed in Afghanistan are suing Alec Baldwin, alleging the actor exposed them to a flood of social media hatred by claiming on Instagram that one sister was an “insurrectionist” for attending former President Donald Trump's Washington, D.C., rally on Jan. 6 last year. The sister, Roice McCollum, protested peacefully and legally; was not among those who stormed the U.S. Capitol that day and, after being interviewed by the FBI, “was never detained, arrested, accused of or charged with any crime,” according to the lawsuit filed Monday in U.S. District Court in Cheyenne. The lawsuit comes as Baldwin is immersed in an ongoing investigation into the death of a cinematographer and the wounding of a director last fall after a prop gun the actor was holding on a movie set went off.
U.S.The Daily BeastRacist New York Couple From Viral Train Incident Are Arrested... and Fired
A man and woman in New York have been both fired and arrested for verbally assaulting a family on a train in an incident that police have determined to be a hate crime. The Daily Voice reported that Justin Likerman and Kristin Digesaro, of Long Island, turned themselves in on Wednesday. New York's Metropolitan Transit Authority said the charges were brought in conjunction with the Manhattan District Attorney's Office and the Hate Crimes Unit.
U.S.NextSharkChinese woman told by Lowe's customer to go back to her country is scolded by store employee for filming
A Lowe's in Illinois has come under fire after a Chinese woman and Springfield resident claims another customer told her to go back to her country. Xuna Hu says she was shopping for two fire pits when the other customer tried to get Hu to hand over one of the pits, leading up to the alleged racist encounter at a Lowe's branch on Wabash Avenue on Jan. 17. "I was like alright, I'll just give you one then,” Hu told WICS Channel 20.
PoliticsAssociated PressBiden's news conference takes abrupt, lengthy turn
It started when CNN's Jeff Zeleny broke in with a question that referenced concerns many Americans hold about the competence of government, after the chaotic Afghanistan withdrawal and the recent shortage of testing for COVID-19. Biden took to calling on reporters at random, and what started as a very traditional presidential news conference became something else entirely, stretching to nearly two hours. Biden took some unusual — and unusually blunt — questions when the session was opened up to all the journalists in front of him.
BusinessMarketWatchNetflix stands to shed nearly $45 billion in market cap after ‘borderline catastrophic’ forecast
Netflix Inc. brought in more than 8 million new subscribers in the holiday quarter, but executives predicted that growth would suffer much more than expected at the beginning of 2022, sending shares screaming lower in after-hours trading. Netflix (NFLX) on Thursday reported 8.3 million net new paid subscribers in the fourth quarter, trailing its own forecast for 8.5 million but roughly hitting the average analyst forecast of 8.3 million, according to FactSet, and giving the streaming-video service 221.8 million subscribers overall as of the end of 2021. In a video call following the results, Netflix Chief Financial Officer Spencer Neumann said it was tough to pinpoint why net new subscribers are plunging, but could be attributable to “COVID overhang” after two years and a “marginal impact from competition.”
U.S.INSIDERMultiple California high school students were reportedly hospitalized after participating in the spicy social media "One Chip Challenge"
Three high schoolers were hospitalized from a chip trend, a district official said. Paqui's "One Chip Challenge" involves people eating a spicy chip without drinking anything after. The challenge is very popular on TikTok and YouTube, amassing millions of views.
U.S.Yahoo SportsPolice rule mother-son falling deaths at Petco Park suicide-homicide; family claims wrongful death
Police in San Diego have ruled the falling death of a mother and her 2-year-old son at Petco Park in September a homicide-suicide. Raquel Wilkins, 40, and her son Denzel Browning-Wilkins fell six stories to their deaths from a Petco Park concourse prior to a Sept. 25 game between the San Diego Padres and Atlanta Braves. Per the San Diego Union-Tribune, the San Diego Police Department ruled the deaths "suspicious" at the time and launched an investigation that concluded that Wilkins intentionally took her own life and her son's with the fall.
U.S.BuzzFeedPeople Are Sharing Things They Don't Do Anymore Because Of COVID, And It's A Reminder How Much Our Lives Have Genuinely Changed These Past Two Years
So when I stumbled upon a Reddit thread comparing life before COVID versus now, I was intrigued by the conversation going on in the comments. Redditor u/Outrageous-Collar-09 asked the question, "What normal thing pre-COVID feels weird now?" and the responses ranged.
HealthComplexWoman Whose Tongue Was Partially Replaced by Thigh Due to Cancer Says It ‘Started Growing Leg Hair’
A woman whose tongue was partially replaced by a piece of her thigh due to cancer is opening up about her journey, including via a number of increasingly popular TikTok clips. 42-year-old Cameron Weeks Newsom—as mentioned in a Newsflare-citing report from the New York Post this week—suffered from severe pain following a 2013 diagnosis of squamous cell carcinoma, which is the second-most common form of skin cancer. Prior to the diagnosis, Newsom—who credits her family, including husband Anthony and son Hudson, with helping through a difficult time—noticed white spots that formed on her tongue.
HealthYahoo LifeCervical cancer survivors urge other women to not ignore signs of the disease: ‘Your body whispers’
Like Felder, Tracy Jimenez had put off getting screened for cervical cancer but for a different reason: She didn't have health insurance. However, "I did keep going to the emergency room because of really bad back pain I was having," Jimenez, who was 46 years old at the time, tells Yahoo Life. "They told me I had sciatica in my back … They didn't check me to see if I had anything below so I had no idea what was going on."
BusinessMarketWatch‘Good luck! We’ll all need it’: U.S. market approaches end of ‘superbubble,’ says Jeremy Grantham
The U.S. is approaching the end of a “superbubble” spanning across stocks, bonds, real estate and commodities following massive stimulus during the COVID pandemic, potentially leading to the largest markdown of wealth in its history once pessimism returns to rule markets, according to legendary investor Jeremy Grantham. “For the first time in the U.S. we have simultaneous bubbles across all major asset classes,” said Grantham, co-founder of investment firm GMO, in a paper Thursday. “One of the main reasons I deplore superbubbles — and resent the Fed and other financial authorities for allowing and facilitating them — is the underrecognized damage that bubbles cause as they deflate,” said Grantham.
U.S.Kansas City StarGo-kart slams into garage before dragging fleeing driver in snow, Arkansas video shows
A go-kart driver was taking a ride through a snowy Arkansas neighborhood when it appeared to stall at an intersection, surveillance video shows. The driver hopped off and tried to restart the engine when the go-kart took off — all by itself, the video shows. Video shared by police shows the driver ran up the driveway to get the go-kart and appeared to be pushing it back down when the go-kart once again took off.
U.S.ReutersTeddy Roosevelt statue removed from outside New York museum
Workers on Wednesday dismantled a towering statue of President Theodore Roosevelt from outside New York City's American Museum of Natural History. The "Equestrian Statue of Theodore Roosevelt," commissioned in 1925 and unveiled to the public in 1940, depicts Roosevelt on a horse, with a Native American man and an African man on foot at his side. The New York City Public Design Commission voted last June to remove it, the museum said on its website.
U.S.OxygenMom Credits Tracking Device She Installed On Daughter's Car With Finding Her Killer
Wendy Poulsen wanted “a bit of peace of mind” when she installed a tracking device inside the trunk of her 18-year-old daughter's car, but she never imagined it would ultimately help catch her daughter's killer. Poulsen's adopted daughter, Dani, was discovered dead in her car on Sept. 1, 2019 from a fentanyl overdose, according to The New York Post. While the tragic death devastated Poulsen, the data collected within the tracking device was able to lead Minnesota investigators to Dani's drug dealer, Calvonzo Burnett — a man who was also eventually held responsible for selling a lethal amount of fentanyl to another teen, Jordan Knudson, who died in December 2019.
WorldBuzzFeedIt Turns Out Some Tattoos Are MAJOR Red Flags To Have — Here Are 24 Of The Worst
Here are 24 tattoos — besides the obvious, like tattoos of hate symbols — that people think are major red flags for someone's personality. "Something in a language they don't speak." u/Hullaba-Loo "What you think it means: 'Wisdom and Courage.
U.S.Associated PressLegislator dies using medical suicide law he helped pass
A former Vermont legislator and House majority leader has died with the help of a law he himself helped pass that allows the terminally ill to end their own lives, his wife said. Willem Jewett died Jan. 12 at his home in Ripton at age 58, said his wife, Ellen McKay Jewett. In the days before his death, he supported changes to the 2013 law to make it easier for terminally ill people to navigate and get a prescription, VTDigger first reported.
- ScienceAFP Videographics
Rare baby elephant twins born in Kenya
An elephant has given birth to twins in Kenya's north in a moment rarely witnessed among the endangered species. Just one-in-100 elephant births result in twins making the arrival of these calfs -- one male and one female -- a moment of nerves and celebration. Conservation group Save the Elephants said the twins were born to a mother named Bora and were first spotted by lucky tourists on a safari drive at the weekend in Samburu reserve.
HealthMarketWatch‘Your great-great-great-grandchildren will still be getting immunized against coronavirus’: This Mayo Clinic doctor says it’s too late to eradicate COVID-19
As the pandemic enters Year 3, many people are wondering if and when COVID-19, the disease caused by SARS-CoV-2, will become endemic. Endemic refers to the observed level of a disease — or the baseline predictable level with seasonal fluctuations like the flu — whereas a pandemic is typically a global public-health emergency with an unpredictable level of illness and/or death. As such, measles has — for the most part — been eradicated in the U.S.
WorldReutersSpain sends warships to Black Sea, considers sending warplanes
Spain has sent warships to join NATO naval forces in the Mediterranean and the Black Sea as tension in the region rises over the Russian military build-up on the Ukrainian border, Defence Minister Margarita Robles said on Thursday. A mine-sweeper is already en route and a frigate will sail within three or four days, Robles told reporters. "Russia cannot tell any country what to do, so NATO will protect and defend the sovereignty of any country that can or wants to join NATO," she said.
PoliticsINSIDERRep. Lauren Boebert reportedly asked an Orthodox Jewish group if they were doing 'reconnaissance' at the Capitol
Boebert reportedly asked an Orthodox Jewish group if they were doing "reconnaissance" at the Capitol. The group was there with Rep. Tom Suozzi, and one member said they were "not sure to be offended or not." "I'm too short to see anyone's yarmulkes," said Boebert in response, adding that it was a joke.
PoliticsHuffPostExecutive Privilege Ruling Lands Steve Bannon, Mark Meadows In 'Deep Doo-Doo': Legal Expert
Onetime White House strategist Steve Bannon and former chief of staff Mark Meadows are in “deep doo-doo” now that the Supreme Court has ruled against former President Donald Trump's claim of executive privilege to shield documents sought in the U.S. Capitol riot probe, warned law professor Neal Katyal. Bannon and Meadows have refused to testify before the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on Congress, claiming that they, too, were protected by the executive privilege shield Trump has claimed. Asked by MSNBC's Lawrence O'Donnell on Wednesday what they face now, Katyal quipped: “I think the technical legal term is deep doo-doo.
U.S.Associated PressNavy will let Wisconsin keep badger statue for 50 more years
The Navy will let Wisconsin keep its beloved badger statue for 50 more years, scrapping plans to move the sculpture to an East Coast museum. The statue, sculpted from melted-down cannons seized from Cuba during the Spanish-American War, was affixed to the first USS Wisconsin before World War I. The U.S. Naval Academy Museum lent it to the state in 1988. The academy museum contacted state officials in March 2020 asking for the statue's return so it could be lent to the nonprofit Nauticus Museum in Norfolk, Virginia, where the second USS Wisconsin is berthed as an exhibit.
PoliticsLexington Herald-LeaderWith gaffe on voting rights, Mitch McConnell confirms what many already fear
Of course, Sen. Mitch McConnell made a gaffe on Thursday when he said that African-Americans were voting at the same rate as Americans, leaving out the word “white.” McConnell was explaining why democracy was in fine shape, despite the failure of the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act to progress in the U.S. Senate. McConnell thinks we should suspend the filibuster only when he's trying to pack the U.S. Supreme Court as he did in 2017.
U.S.Miami HeraldSleeping woman wakes up to man touching her on United flight, feds say. ‘Get away’
A woman who drifted off to sleep in her seat during a United Airlines flight from Las Vegas to Virginia opened her eyes to find the man next to her touching her breast, federal officials said. When she yelled “get away from me,” the man hopped out of his seat and headed to the back of the plane, where he told a flight attendant he “sexually assaulted the woman sitting next to him,” according to prosecutors. Ivan Lopez, Jr., 26, is now facing a charge of “abusive sexual contact aboard an aircraft in flight” after the Dec. 24 flight bound for Washington Dulles International Airport, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of Virginia said in a Jan. 19 news release.
WorldReutersUkraine war necessary if Russia recognises breakaway regions - pro-Kremlin MP
MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian-backed separatists in east Ukraine would expect Russia's army to fight with them against Ukrainian government forces if Moscow follows through on a parliamentary proposal to recognise their independence, a pro-Kremlin lawmaker said on Thursday. Alexander Borodai made the comment after 11 lawmakers proposed that parliament ask President Vladimir Putin to recognise https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/might-russia-recognise-independence-breakaway-east-ukraine-regions-2022-01-20 the independence of the breakaway Donetsk and Luhansk regions. Such a move would mark a major escalation by Russia after weeks of mounting tensions around Ukraine.
“Cooking is the No. 1 way you’re polluting your home … You’re basically living in this toxic soup.”
“People (myself included) like cooking with gas! It’s one of the few energy uses that inspires brand loyalty to the fuel consumed.”
“It’s time to start making new buildings all-electric and switching out all those existing gas appliances, including gas stoves.”
“If you're looking for personal ways to protect the environment and your health right now, you have much bigger fish to fry.”
“Market-based solutions have not achieved their desired goals, thus new ways of thinking need to emerge.”