- PoliticsNational Review
Beto: 'I Think There's a Lot of Wisdom in' Abolishing Electoral College
Beto O'Rourke endorsed fellow Democratic presidential contender Elizabeth Warren's call for the abolition of the Electoral College during a Tuesday campaign stop in Pennsylvania. It puts some states out of play altogether, they don't feel like their vote really counts,” O'Rourke told MSNBC's Garrett Haake when asked about Warren's opposition to the Electoral College. “So if we really want every person to vote and give them every reason to vote, we need to make sure their votes count and go to the candidate of their choosing.
NewsAFPLosses from US Midwest flooding seen above $1 bn
Waters began to recede Tuesday in the US Midwest after historic flooding that claimed at least three lives and caused losses estimated at more than $1 billion. The flooding across a predominantly rural part of the country was caused by a big storm last week and rapid snow melt that swelled streams and rivers in large swaths of the middle of the United States, and sent gushing water over levees. Hundreds of homes and businesses were inundated, roadways damaged, and bridges washed away in several states, with much of Nebraska and parts of Iowa hardest hit.
WorldReuters'I am your mother now': NZ mosque shootings hit tight-knit Bangladesh community hard
Waiting to meet her was Farid, the man she would marry in a few hours, as their families had agreed. A quarter of a century later, the life they had built together was torn apart at the Al Noor mosque in Christchurch when a gunman walked into the building, firing on worshippers at Friday prayers. Husna encountered the gunman on his way out of the mosque.
PoliticsYahoo NewsTrump is 'looking into' Facebook 'bias' as aide melts down over suspension
President Trump threatened an investigation into Facebook over perceived bias after a White House staffer was temporarily banned from posting comments on the site. Trump's social media director, Dan Scavino, complained Monday that Facebook had banned him from posting comments. “Dear Facebook,” wrote Scavino, posting a screengrab of the blocking notice he received, “AMAZING.
NewsAssociated PressCorrection: Mob Shooting story
A corrected version of the story is below: Suspect arrested in murder of reputed mob boss New York police say a man is in custody in the shooting death of the reputed Gambino crime family boss NEW YORK (AP) — A 24-year-old man was arrested Saturday in the shooting death of the reputed boss of the Gambino crime family, New York City police said. Anthony Comello was arrested in New Jersey in the death of Francesco Cali on Wednesday in front of his Staten Island home, said Chief of Detectives Dermot Shea, who stressed that the investigation is in its early stages. "There are multiple, multiple angles that we are exploring," Shea said at a news conference at police headquarters.
- NewsPopular Mechanics
Lion Air Pilots Were Checking the 737 Max 8's Handbook Right Before the Plane Crashed
Moments before Lion Air Flight 610 plunged into the Java Sea killing all 189 people onboard last October, pilots of the plane searched through a handbook looking for guidance on how to rescue the aircraft from its downward trajectory, Reuters reports. Three sources familiar with the investigation of the Boeing 737 Max 8's flight data recorders gave a visceral play-by-play of what ensued inside the cockpit, when a faulty sensor on the plane's fuselage triggered an automated anti-stall system that sent the plane into a nosedive. Boeing's 737 Max 8 aircraft have been grounded by aviation authorities across the world after two catastrophic crashes in five months.
- BusinessCar and Driver
View Photos of the 2019 BMW X7
Refined, modern, and enormous, BMW's biggest SUV yet is finally here-even if the jury is still out on its dynamics. From Car and Driver
- U.S.WTVD – Raleigh/Durham
Former UNC chancellor Carol Folt to become next president of USC
Former University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Chancellor Carol Folt is now the new president at the University of Southern California.
- WorldBloomberg
What Happens Next in Brexit? Two Cliff-Edges and a Summit
Follow @Brexit, sign up to our Brexit Bulletin, and tell us your Brexit story. Prime Minister Theresa May is still fighting to get her Brexit deal through Parliament with just days to go until the U.K. is meant to leave the European Union. If she gets through one cliff-edge on March 29 as expected, another looms three months later.
LifestyleUSA TODAYI got into 39 colleges without cheating: What applying to schools looks like in 2019
Jordan Nixon has received 39 college acceptance letters so far, all without celebrity parents or $500,000 bribes. It just took years of planning, a private college adviser, 50-plus applications and the unwavering support of family. As the nation's largest-ever college admissions scandal surfaces this week, with celebrity parents and rich CEOs accused of cheating to get their children into prestigious schools, the Nixons are navigating college admissions like the rest of us.
WorldAFPEarly celebrations as Syria war on IS holdout wraps up
Their battle against the last jihadists holding out in the besieged Syrian village of Baghouz hasn't quite ended but Kurdish-led fighters have already started celebrating. The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) delivered the killer blow to the last vestige of the Islamic State group's "caliphate" this week and the end of the bruising six-month-old operation is now within touching distance. With backing from the US-led coalition's warplanes, they forced holdout jihadists from their main encampment and into a few hectares (couple of acres) of farmland by the Euphrates River.
WorldReutersBrexit delay request will be rejected if no guarantees of deal success: France
Britain's request for a delay to Brexit will be rejected by the EU if Prime Minister Theresa May cannot provide sufficient guarantees that her parliament will approve the divorce deal she negotiated, France's foreign minister said on Wednesday. The French stance was markedly tougher in tone than the public rhetoric out of Berlin, where Germany's foreign minister said only that an orderly British departure from the European Union would solve the Brexit turmoil. May asked for a three-month delay to Brexit on Wednesday to buy time to get her twice-rejected departure deal through parliament.
- PoliticsThe Independent
Trump says 'something must be done' about big tech alleged anti-conservative bias - while spending $3.5m in Facebook political ads
Donald Trump has accused major technology firms such as Facebook and Google of “radical left” bias – even as he is spending millions of dollars in political adverts on the platforms. In a post on Twitter – which he also included in his accusation – the president repeated a claim he and many on the right have made before, namely that big tech companies reduce or minimise access to conservative content. “Facebook, Google and Twitter, not to mention the Corrupt Media, are sooo on the side of the Radical Left Democrats.
- NewsUSA TODAY
Catholic Church scandal: 395 Illinois priests, deacons accused of sexual misconduct
CHICAGO – Nearly 400 Catholic clergy members in Illinois have been accused of sexual misconduct, but church officials have only informed congregants of a fraction of those who have faced allegations, according to attorneys who represented clergy sex abuse victims across the USA. A 182-page report, published Wednesday by the Minnesota-based law firm Jeff Anderson and Associates, includes the names, background information, photos and assignment histories of each accused clergy member. The danger of sexual abuse in Illinois is clearly a problem of today, not just the past,” the report concludes.
PoliticsAssociated PressBeto O'Rourke makes early impression in Pennsylvania visit
Former U.S. Rep. Beto O'Rourke is making an early impression in Pennsylvania, a late-voting state that may yet play a role in the crowded 2020 Democratic presidential primary contest. An animated O'Rourke spoke Tuesday for 50 minutes to a crowd of hundreds in a Penn State auditorium, promising to take his campaign everywhere, including Republican strongholds. Later, speaking to reporters, he suggested that he'd support doing away with the Electoral College.
- BusinessConsumer Reports
Is There a 5G Network Near You?
Verizon also will offer Samsung's first 5G phone, the Galaxy S10 5G sometime this spring. The phone will reach the other carriers later in the summer. And LG's first 5G phone, the V50 ThinQ, is expected to launch on Sprint's network in the first half of this year.
BusinessReutersExclusive: Cockpit voice recorder of doomed Lion Air jet depicts pilots' frantic search for fix - sources
The pilots of a doomed Lion Air Boeing 737 MAX scoured a handbook as they struggled to understand why the jet was lurching downwards, but ran out of time before it hit the water, three people with knowledge of the cockpit voice recorder contents said. The investigation into the crash, which killed all 189 people on board in October, has taken on new relevance as the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and other regulators grounded the model last week after a second deadly accident in Ethiopia.
- WorldThe Telegraph
Danish MP told her baby not welcome in parliament
A Danish MP said on Tuesday she was ordered to remove her infant daughter from parliament's chamber, sparking surprise in a country often hailed as a pioneer in women's rights. "You are not welcome with your baby in the parliament's chamber," speaker Pia Kjaersgaard, an outspoken former leader of the far-right Danish People's Party, allegedly told MP Mette Abildgaard. "I didn't ask for permission to bring her since I had previously seen another colleague bring a child into the chamber without any problems," Ms Abildgaard, whose Conservative party is part of the ruling centre-right coalition, wrote on Facebook.
- WorldBloomberg
Novartis Probe Finds No Trace of Payoffs to Greek Officials
Novartis AG said its own internal investigation found no evidence of bribery to Greek state officials as an upcoming election puts the Swiss drugmaker back in the spotlight. Greece is investigating reports of payoffs by Novartis in a high-profile case that implicates two of the country's former prime ministers and a European Union commissioner. The U.S. is investigating similar allegations.
WorldAFPSyrian refugee father and son laid to rest as New Zealand burials start
A Syrian refugee and his son who fled the chaos of their homeland only to meet tragedy in New Zealand were buried on Wednesday in the first funerals of those killed in the mosque massacres. Hundreds of mostly Muslim mourners gathered at a cemetery in the southern city of Christchurch to lay to rest Khalid Mustafa and his 15-year-old son Hamza, who were among 50 people slaughtered at two mosques by an Australian white supremacist. The pair had fled to New Zealand seeking sanctuary from the Syrian maelstrom but died in last Friday's hail of bullets, a bitter irony that New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern called "gutting".
- NewsMashable
Aggressive Instagramming is ruining Southern California's super bloom
Fields of fiery "super bloom" poppies are lighting up the hills of Walker Canyon in Lake Elsinore, a city about halfway between Los Angeles and San Diego. Thanks to uncommonly heavy rains this winter, much of Southern California is seeing a massive burst of wildflower blooms across the state. The poppies in Walker Canyon are so lush, they can be seen from space.
- PoliticsThe Independent
Republican senator Johnny Isakson says Trump will get a major 'whipping' after McCain attacks: 'The country deserves better'
The Republican chairman of the Senate Veteran Affairs Committee was slated to deliver a major rebuke of Donald Trump after his repeated attacks against the late war hero and former Senator John McCain. Johnny Isakson, a Georgia Republican who heads the veterans committee in the US Senate, told journalist AB Stoddard he would deliver a “whipping” towards Mr Trump after he attacked Mr McCain in a series of misleading tweets over the weekend. Mr Isakson, who has previously described Mr Trump's attacks against Mr McCain as “unthinkable,” told the journalist he wanted to “elevate John” with a speech scheduled on Wednesday.
- BusinessCar and Driver
See Spy Photos of the Jeep Wrangler Plug-In Hybrid
The plug-in hybrid Jeep Wrangler could function as an alternative power source in addition to offering improved fuel efficiency. From Car and Driver
PoliticsYahoo NewsElizabeth Warren: Time to end the Electoral College
Warren was taking questions in Jackson, Miss., on CNN when an audience member asked her about voter disenfranchisement. The senator proposed a constitutional amendment that would ensure the right to vote for every American citizen, rolling back voter suppression laws at the state level, and essentially restoring the Voting Rights Act, which the Supreme Court gutted in 2013. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, a Democratic 2020 presidential candidate, speaks to supporters in Memphis.
- NewsUSA TODAY
'We assume a terror motive': 3 killed on tram in Dutch city of Utrecht; suspect arrested
Three people died and five were hurt in a brazen shooting on a tram in a bustling residential neighborhood in the Dutch city of Utrecht on Monday, an assault authorities said was likely terrorism. Following a sweeping manhunt across the historic city of nearly 350,000 people, Gokmen Tanis, 37, was arrested by authorities. Justice Minister Ferd Grapperhaus said Tanis was known to justice authorities and had a criminal record, but would not elaborate. Later, authorities downgraded the alert to a 4.
