BusinessYahoo FinanceOnly one thing will send gas prices back below $4 a gallon, analyst says
Despite West Texas intermediate crude oil futures dipping below $100 per barrel on Tuesday, serious gas price relief may be unlikely happen until motorists make adjustments by driving less. "I think the only thing that's going to make a dent in gasoline or jet fuel prices is demand destruction," Vectis Energy Partners principal Tamar Essner said on Yahoo Finance Live after being asked when gas prices may drop below $4 a gallon (video above). Consumers are beginning to see some pressure taken off their wallets when making their stop at the local gas pump, with the average price of regular unleaded gasoline dropping for the third straight week last week, but prices remain exorbitant as drivers haven't pulled back aggressively on travel.
U.S.INSIDERHighland Park mayor: People said they could tell by looking at mass shooting victims which were unlikely to survive based on 'unbelievable violence' they endured
Seven people died and dozens more were injured in a shooting in Highland Park, Illinois, during a Fourth of July parade. Highland Park Mayor Nancy Rotering said people could tell which victims would not survive. "Every person I've encountered has needed a hug and has started to cry," Rotering told Insider.
U.S.The Daily BeastLook at My Face and Tell Me We Don’t Need Gun Control
The ambulances and police vehicles that kick off the parade came by, then the marching band passed. That's when we heard it: pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop. I thought it was fireworks until I saw people ducking.
PoliticsYahoo Celebrity'Fed up' Debra Messing says she got Biden elected during White House call about abortion rights: Report
The White House orchestrated a call with celebrity Democratic supporters amid the Supreme Court's reversal of Roe v. Wade... and it didn't go very well. According to a report from CNN, Debra Messing was among the participants "fed up" about President Joe Biden's lack of urgency and the administration being unprepared despite weeks of warning. White House aides co-organized the call with the advocacy group Build Back Better Together.
BusinessMarketWatchCar quality is slipping: These are the brands with the most and least complaints, study finds
The study, in its 36th year, asks new car owners to report problems with their vehicles in the first 90 days of ownership. The numbers had been trending down in recent years. Last year, the industry average was 162 owner complaints per 100 vehicles.
WorldFTW OutdoorsCan you spot the mountain lion stalking the elk?
Travel Guide Book on Saturday shared an image showing the hind portion of an elk and, somewhere in the arroyo, a predatory mountain lion. Research reveals that the image was captured by a motion-sensor trail camera in October 2019 as part of an arroyo restoration project in New Mexico's Rio Mora National Wildlife Refuge. Rio Mora shared the image as a quiz for its Facebook followers in July 2020.
WorldReutersU.S. funeral home owner who sold body parts pleads guilty to fraud
A former Colorado funeral home owner pleaded guilty on Tuesday to a federal charge of defrauding relatives of the dead by dissecting their family members' corpses and selling the body parts without permission, a practice exposed in a 2018 Reuters investigative report https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/usa-bodies-funeral. Megan Hess, who operated a funeral home called Sunset Mesa and a human body parts business called Donor Services from the same building, entered the plea to the charge of fraud at a hearing before U.S. Magistrate Judge Gordon Gallagher in Grand Junction, Colorado. Gallagher scheduled Hess, who had previously pleaded not guilty, to be sentenced in January, with the prosecution calling for 12 to 15 years in prison.
BusinessMoneyWiseBill Gates just won legal approval to buy 2,100 acres of North Dakota farmland worth $13.5M — and people are ‘livid’ about it all across the state
Bill Gates made his fortune in tech, but he's now betting big on something completely different: farmland. Last week, Gates secured the legal approval for purchasing 2,100 acres of farmland from northeastern North Dakota potato growers Campbell Farms. Of course, this isn't first time Gates has invested in the asset class.
- WorldWTTG
4 shot in Manassas parking lot after argument escalated, police say
Four people were shot overnight on Monday in a Manassas parking lot after an argument between multiple people escalated, Prince William County Police confirm.
WorldReutersRussia's stated war aims begin catching up with reality
LONDON (Reuters) - The speaker of Russia's lower house of parliament said on Tuesday that Ukraine had become a "terrorist state" and was doing everything to ensure that Russia did not stop its invasion at the borders of the eastern Donbas region as advertised. The remark by Duma speaker Vyacheslav Volodin marked an escalation of Russian war rhetoric but ignored the fact that Moscow's forces already occupy large parts of southern Ukraine as well. It suggested that Moscow, fresh from seizing the last parts of Ukraine's Luhansk region on Sunday, might be preparing once more to expand its stated war objectives, which it reined back a month into the invasion after an assault on the capital Kyiv and an advance on the second largest city Kharkiv were beaten back.
U.S.INSIDERJustice Clarence Thomas once opposed Highland Park's assault weapons ban, saying that the 'overwhelming majority' of those with the rifles use them lawfully
Highland Park, Illinois, banned assault rifles nearly a decade before Monday's mass shooting. The ban was challenged and the case made its way to the Supreme Court, which refused to hear it. In a dissent, Justice Clarence Thomas wrote that an "overwhelming majority" use such weapons lawfully.
U.S.The Daily BeastCouple Slain in Parade Nightmare in Front of Their Toddler
On Monday, he was sitting on his walker and surrounded by his family when he was hit by bullets. We all threw ourselves to the ground,” his daughter, Josefina Toledo, told The Daily Beast after the shooting. My dad, since it's difficult for him to walk… he was sitting on his walker and he was hit in his back and in his head.
- U.S.Associated Press
San Francisco property owners banned from parking car on it
A San Francisco couple that parked their car for decades on a paved part of their property in front of their home has been banned from doing so unless they want to risk steep fines. KGO-TV reported Monday that city officials sent a letter to Judy and Ed Craine telling them they can't park on the pavement on their property on a hilly street even though they have for 36 years. With the letter came a notice of a $1,542 fine and the threat of a $250-a-day fee for continued parking on their property.
U.S.NextSharkTearful WWII vet says on his 100th birthday that current state of America is 'not what they died for'
A U.S. veteran who saw action in World War II lamented the current state of the country while celebrating his 100th birthday. Carl Spurlin Dekel, who spent his special day on June 29 with friends and family, broke down in tears as he told Fox13 in an interview shared the day after that his fellow soldiers did not die in the war for what America has now purportedly become.
HealthPreventionHere’s What Happens If You Eat Mold, According to Food Safety Experts
It happens to the best of us: You distractedly eat a piece of cheese from your fridge, only to realize as you're snacking on the last of it that it's moldy. While that alone can make you feel nauseous, it's only natural to wonder…what happens if you eat mold? Can you get sick from eating mold or is it no big deal?
WorldAssociated PressHigh cost of Russian gains in Ukraine may limit new advance
After more than four months of ferocious fighting, Russia claimed a key victory: full control over one of the two provinces in Ukraine's eastern industrial heartland. The critical question now is whether Russia can muster enough strength for a new offensive to complete its seizure of the Donbas and make gains elsewhere in Ukraine. “Yes, the Russians have seized the Luhansk region, but at what price?” asked Oleh Zhdanov, a military analyst in Ukraine, noting that some Russian units involved in the battle lost up to a half their soldiers.
U.S.HuffPostRep. Lauren Boebert's Terrible Take On Denmark Shooting Slammed As 'Deadly' Stupid
There was just a mass shooting in Denmark, a country with some of the strictest gun laws in Europe. It's time to admit that gun laws DO NOT stop mass shootings! tweeted the Republican gun fanatic, who once had her children pose for a Christmas picture holding assault rifles.
WorldThe Daily BeastPutin Pal Drops Menacing Hint: a ‘Cleansing’ Is Coming for Europe
The time has come for the forgetful Europe to give itself a moral cleansing,” Lukashenko said, without going into further detail about what that would entail, according to BelTA. Lukashenko mentioned that efforts to fight Nazis from World War II, or what Russia calls the “Great Patriotic War,” are not over yet—echoing erroneous Russian claims that they are waging war in Ukraine in order to “denazify” or fight Nazis in Ukraine. It is “a war to destroy the Slavic ethnos, cultures and entire nations.
U.S.Associated PressFlags to be lowered in Kentucky after 3 officers killed
Flags at Kentucky state buildings will be lowered to half-staff Tuesday morning in honor of three officers who were killed when a man with a rifle opened fire on police attempting to serve a warrant, Gov. Andy Beshear said Monday. Flags will remain at half-staff until sunset Thursday in remembrance of Floyd County sheriff's deputy and Martin City fire Chief William Petry, Prestonsburg police Capt. Ralph Frasure and Prestonsburg police Officer Jacob Chaffins, Beshear said in a news release. The three were killed Thursday night in an hourslong standoff at a home in Allen, a small town in the hills of Appalachia in eastern Kentucky.
- WorldStoryful
Crowd Flees Philadelphia Fourth of July Celebrations Amid Shooting
At least two officers were injured in a shooting at a Fourth of July fireworks display in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, officials said. Police said the officers were taken to hospital and later released. No arrests had been made.
U.S.INSIDERGavin Newsom takes vacation to Montana — one of 22 states that California bans state-funded travel due to anti-LGBTQ+ policies
California Gov. Gavin Newsom took a trip with his family to Montana on Friday. Montana is banned from state-funded trips in California because of its LGBT policies. Newsom did not travel on state funds.
U.S.Yahoo SportsBrittney Griner sends letter to President Joe Biden asking for release from Russian detainment
She will be detained for at least six more months while her trial resumes and faces up to 10 years in a Russian prison if convicted of drug smuggling charges. While she did not enter a plea on the first day of her trial – July 1 – her trial will resume on Thursday. In another letter to her wife, Cherelle, Griner admitted she's trying to stay strong mentally throughout her detainment until she returns to home.
BusinessThe TelegraphThe airline that keeps cancelling flights minutes before take-off
Giorgio D'Anna was due to fly on the 09.50am Wizz Air service from Gatwick to Podgorica in Montenegro. It was a holiday he had been looking forward to for some time – he planned to go hiking in the Durmitor National Park. Which made it all the more disappointing when he received a text from the airline, 20 minutes after boarding was underway.
U.S.Refinery29Say Goodbye To Macy Gray — She Outed Herself As A TERF
You can't support someone's rights or claim to believe in their existence as you take away their basic rights — like their right to play on a school sports team. Trans girls and women are being barred from competing in sports in states around the country. Gray's trans-exclusionary radical feminist (TERF) behavior isn't new (J.K. Rowling — who supported Gray on Twitter — and writer Chimamanda Nzgozi Adichie are other famous examples), but it's even more upsetting considering that cis Black women should be supporting trans women because we're fighting the same fight against the same oppressors.
ScienceAssociated PressNASA: Contact lost with spacecraft on way to test moon orbit
NASA said Tuesday it has lost contact with a $32.7 million spacecraft headed to the moon to test out a lopsided lunar orbit, but agency engineers are hopeful they can fix the problem. After one successful communication and a second partial one on Monday, the space agency said it could no longer communicate with the spacecraft called Capstone. Engineers are trying to find the cause of the communications drop-off and are optimistic they can fix it, NASA spokesperson Sarah Frazier said Tuesday.
“Left unchecked, if artificial intelligence reaches cognition … it will be fueled by some of the most inhumane impulses of humanity.”
“Now is the time to stop and think — before our technology outstrips us once again.”
“I don't want to talk about sentient robots, because at all ends of the spectrum there are humans harming other humans.”
“Minds can take different forms … We should avoid reducing questions about AIs to ‘Can AIs think and feel like us?’”
“To identify sentience, or consciousness, or even intelligence, we’re going to have to work out what they are.”