Now 41, man who killed 4-year-old at age 13 granted parole

Eric M. Smith, who was 13 when he killed a 4-year-old boy with a rock in western New York, has been granted parole, corrections officials said on Saturday. Smith, now 41, appeared for the 11th time before the Board of Parole on October 5 and was granted release as early as Nov. 17, the Department of Corrections and Community Supervision said in an emailed statement. Smith was convicted of second-degree murder in 1994 for luring Derrick Robie into woods near the younger boy's home and striking his head with a rock.

Some Hooters servers on TikTok are saying new shorts are too short

A change to the Hooters uniform at some locations has prompted a handful of the restaurant chain's servers to share their concerns on TikTok. In the videos, which have racked up millions of views since popping up on the platform last week, Hooters servers hold up the new black shorts while sharing their thoughts. The videos have reignited criticisms of Hooters for fostering an outdated concept centered around sexualizing servers' bodies.

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  Short order: Some Hooters waitresses concerned about underwearlike new uniforms

  Washington Examiner
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  Hooters employees are pushing back against new revealing uniforms that include shorts so short that they're 'like underwear'

  Business Insider

Tennessee restaurant ends its late-night service after unruly customers harassed staff and drew guns inside the premises, its owners say

A Tennessee restaurant is terminating its late-night service after reports of unruly behavior. Mid City Grill's owners also cited an incident involving a gun being drawn, local reports said. A diner based in Johnson City, Tennessee, is discontinuing its late-night service after reports of unruly customers harassing employees and other disorderly conduct.

'Lawless city?' Worry after Portland police don't stop chaos

A crowd of 100 people wreaked havoc in downtown Portland, Oregon, this week – smashing storefront windows, lighting dumpsters on fire and causing at least $500,000 in damage – but police officers didn't stop them. Portland Police Bureau officials say that's because of legislation passed by Oregon lawmakers this year, which restricts the tools they can use to confront people vandalizing buildings and causing mayhem. “The reason that we did not intervene goes back to what we talked about last month with House Bill 2928 and the restrictions placed on us in a crowd control environment,” KOIN reports that Portland Police Lt. Jake Jensen said in a neighborhood meeting Thursday.

Suze Orman: These 5 moves will keep you out of the poorhouse in retirement

Downsize your home You may have plenty of sentimental reasons to want to stay in your current home, but if it's more space than you need and you can make money off of it, you may want to consider selling now. Not waiting until you have to sell the house makes sense, Orman says, because if you invest the profits now, you'll accrue much more interest than if you waited another 10 or 15 years. I don't want you to wait till you're 60 or 70 to sell this home,” she says.

SUV of Ohio mom, 2 kids missing since 2002 found in river

Search crews pulled from the Ohio River in Indiana an SUV that belonged to an Ohio mother missing since 2002 along with her two young children, authorities said Friday. Side sonar scan technology led divers to the 1997 Nissan Pathfinder Thursday near Aurora in southeastern Indiana, Indiana State Police said Friday in a news release. The vehicle was registered to Stephanie Van Nguyen, who in 2002 disappeared with her 4-year-old daughter, Kristina, and 3-year-old son, John.

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  Crews find car linked to 2002 missing family

  WCPO - Cincinnati Scripps
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  SUV pulled from the Ohio River could help solve 20-year-old mystery

  WLWT - Cincinnati

Two kinds of blood pressure medication recalled for possibly too much of a carcinogen

Irbesartan, 75 mg, 30-count bottles with lot Nos. H000843, H805727 and H901579 and 90-count bottles with lot Nos. H000844, H000964, H804311, H805267, H805268, H805269, H805725, H805726, H901497, H901577, H901578, and H902258.

China's new hypersonic missile demonstrated an advanced space capability that caught US intelligence by surprise, report says

In August, China tested a hypersonic missile that orbited the Earth before speeding towards its target. The test demonstrated China's advanced space capability, and took US intelligence officials by surprise. The US, Russia and China have been competing to develop hypersonic weapons.

China condemns U.S., Canada for sending warships through Taiwan Strait

BEIJING/TAIPEI (Reuters) -The Chinese military on Sunday condemned the United States and Canada for each sending a warship through the Taiwan Strait last week, saying they were threatening peace and stability in the region. China claims democratically-ruled Taiwan as its own territory, and has mounted repeated air force missions into Taiwan's air defence identification zone (ADIZ) over the past year, provoking anger in Taipei. China sent around 150 aircraft into the zone over a four-day period beginning on Oct. 1 in a further heightening of tension between Beijing and Taipei that has sparked concern internationally.

A black woman was missing for 12 days before she was found dead inside a parked police van in Alabama

An Alabama woman was found dead in a parked police van on October 7, The Washington Post reported. Christina Nance's family reported her missing on October 7. Surveillance footage shows someone believed to be Nance getting into the van on September 25.

Judge bars county clerk after voting machine passwords leaked to QAnon

In August, QAnon conspiracy theorist Ron Watkins shared a video he claimed showed ballot machines from Dominion Voting Systems could be remotely accessed to tamper with the results of a vote. This week, a Colorado judge barred Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters from overseeing the county's upcoming November election in relation to a leak of voting machine BIOS passwords. Peters, who tweeted in support of former President Donald Trump's election conspiracy theories, invited a man named Gerald Wood to a meeting involving a “trusted build” software update that was meant to ensure the security of the county's voting machines.

Epstein Bragged About Gift From Woody Allen Before Raping Russian Model, Lawsuit Says

A new accuser has filed a class-action lawsuit against Jeffrey Epstein's estate, claiming the late sex-trafficker raped and assaulted her numerous times from 2017 through 2019—including at his homes in Florida and the U.S. Virgin Islands in the months leading up to his arrest—after interviewing her on Skype and promising to aid her career. The woman, a Russian national referred to as Jane Doe, also claims Epstein gave her a tour of his Palm Beach mansion and showed off a broken guitar, a gift he claimed was from his longtime friend, the disgraced director Woody Allen. Doe's complaint, filed in Manhattan federal court on Thursday, also names Epstein's veteran executive assistant Lesley Groff as a defendant.

Matt Hancock loses UN job just four days after his appointment

Matt Hancock has lost his new job at the United Nations just four days after being appointed, following outrage from figures who condemned the “jaw dropping” decision to appoint him as a special envoy for Covid recovery in Africa. The UN's Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) said his appointment was “not being taken forward,” following days of criticism. Mr Hancock, who resigned his job as Health Secretary in June after he was pictured on CCTV kissing an aide, told The Telegraph on Saturday: “I was honoured to be approached by the UN and appointed as Special Representative to the Economic Commission for Africa, to help drive forward an agenda of strengthening markets and bringing investment...

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  Matt Hancock United Nations job offer withdrawn

  The Independent
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  Ex-health minister, who resigned after he was caught on CCTV kissing an aide, lost his new UN role after only 3 days

  Business Insider

Lazy crane operators making $250,000 a year exacerbating port crisis, truckers say

In an aerial view, container ships and shipping containers are seen at the Port of Los Angeles on September 20, 2021 near Los Angeles, California. LONG BEACH, California — Crane operators who belong to a powerful union and earn up to $250,000 a year transferring containers from ships to trucks are worsening the supply chain crisis that threatens Christmas by goofing off on the job, frustrated truckers told the Washington Examiner. The finger-pointing at the busy Los Angeles County ports comes as scores of container ships are anchored off the California coast, waiting in some cases for weeks to unload their freight.

Vanessa Bryant, Kobe’s Widow, May Be Forced To Take Psychiatric Exam By L.A. County In Lawsuit

Los Angeles County is asking Vanessa Bryant, Kobe Bryant's widow, and other family members to submit psychiatric exams in their legal dispute over photos of the helicopter crash scene that took her husband and daughter's lives. It stems from a legal point: Did Vanessa Bryant and the others suffer emotional distress because photos of their dead relatives were shared by county fire and sheriff's department employees after the crash? Or was the emotional distress only from the crash itself?

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  Los Angeles County asks court to force Vanessa Bryant to take psychiatric exam in lawsuit

  Yahoo Sports
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  Los Angeles County trying to force Kobe Bryant's widow Vanessa to take psychiatric exam in lawsuit

  USA TODAY Sports

Truck driver convicted in Colorado pileup that killed 4

A truck driver accused of causing a fiery pileup that killed four people and injured six others on a Colorado highway has been convicted of vehicular homicide and other charges. Rogel Lazaro Aguilera Mederos, 25, was convicted by a Jefferson County jury on Friday in connection with the April 2019 crash on Interstate 70 west of Denver, The Denver Post reported. Aguilera Mederos testified that the brakes on his semitrailer failed before he plowed into vehicles that had slowed because of another wreck in the Denver suburb of Lakewood.

Never Order Seafood Unless You've Asked Your Server This, FDA Warns

Loaded with omega-3 fatty acids and protein, seafood consumption has been linked to increased longevity, better heart health, and weight loss. If you're ordering raw seafood, like sushi, oysters, ceviche, or tuna tartare, at a restaurant, you should always inquire with your server about how it's been stored prior to serving, the FDA recommends. Specifically, the authority says that anyone ordering raw seafood should ask if the food they're ordering has been frozen, thawed, and kept on ice.

Katie Couric’s RBG Coverup Shows How We Ended Up With Trump

The mainstream media's credibility took another big hit this week. Katie Couric, the former co-host of NBC's Today show, revealed in a new memoir that she chose not to air some controversial comments made to her five years ago by the sainted Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, involving RBG's criticism of NFL players like Colin Kaepernick kneeling during the national anthem. Couric says she was “conflicted” because she was a “big RBG fan,” so she only aired some of the harsh words RBG had for the football players refusing to stand for the national anthem.

Bitcoin-mining power plant raises ire of environmentalists

Greenidge Generation runs a once-mothballed plant near the shore of Seneca Lake in the Finger Lakes region to produce about 44 megawatts to run 15,300 computer servers, plus additional electricity it sends into the state's power grid. The megawatts dedicated to Bitcoin might be enough electricity to power more than 35,000 homes. Proponents call it a competitive way to mine increasingly popular cryptocurrencies, without putting a drain on the existing power grid.

A Russian spacecraft pushed the space station out of position and sent astronauts into emergency mode - again

A Russian spacecraft pushed the International Space Station out of position on Friday morning, prompting astronauts to go into emergency mode. It's the second time Russian hardware has caused such an incident since July. Cosmonaut Oleg Novitsky was conducting engine tests on the Soyuz spaceship, which is docked to the ISS, on Friday morning when its thrusters fired too aggressively.

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  Russian crew returns from shooting the first feature film on the ISS

  Engadget
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  Chinese astronauts arrive at space station

  Reuters Videos

Black students suspended after protesting white students waving Confederate flag

Lilyan Huckaby, a white Coosa High School student, said she was “yelling and loud,” in meeting with administrators, yet “they didn't suspend me.” A group of Black students in Rome, Georgia, are alleging racial discrimination after several of them were suspended for planning a protest while their white counterparts were allowed to wave a Confederate flag on campus with no consequences. Four white students at Coosa High School waved a Confederate flag and reportedly hurled racial slurs during a “farm day”-themed school spirit week leading up to homecoming.

Shooting in Syria could mark new phase in Israeli campaign

Israeli media said Saleh had been assisting the Iranian military against Israel. The Israeli military declined to comment, but if Saleh was indeed killed by Israel, it would mark the first time that Israeli snipers are known to have killed someone identified as an Iranian-linked target across the border. Israel has said it will not tolerate a permanent Iranian military presence in Syria and has acknowledged carrying out scores of airstrikes on alleged Iranian arms shipments and military targets in Syria in recent years.