Flight attendant points out planes still have ashtrays even though smoking is banned: 'Do you know why?'

A flight attendant on TikTok is answering why planes have ashtrays, even though passengers haven't been allowed to smoke onboard since 1988. Despite the longstanding ban, even newer planes continue to have ashtrays built into the bathroom doors on flights. TikTok user @flyingkaylee, who goes by Kaylee on the app, describes herself in her bio as a Canadian flight attendant who is ready to answer any and all questions about her job.

Maryland Judge Kills Himself Moments Before Arrest for Child Sex Abuse

A Maryland judge killed himself on Friday morning, just as the feds showed up at his Henderson home to arrest him in a child sex abuse case. Caroline County Circuit Judge Jonathan Newell, 50, had been on a leave of absence since July after becoming ensnared in an investigation over allegations that he had a hidden camera that captured naked images of boys in his bathroom. When FBI agents showed up at his door Friday morning to arrest him on a federal criminal complaint, they found him “suffering from an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound,” the Maryland U.S. Attorney's Office announced Friday.

Taliban celebrate beheading of Afghan soldier in grisly video

The Taliban beheaded an Afghan soldier, then chanted praise to their leader while holding the severed head of their victim by his hair in a video posted in a private Taliban chat room. The 36-second video, which was obtained by the Washington Examiner, was posted a week ago. It's unclear when it was made, but on Aug. 17, Taliban leaders promised amnesty for government workers and protection for women.

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  Afghan soldier who passed out from Sandhurst is now in hiding from Taliban

  The Telegraph
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  Photos: Riding along with the Taliban police

  LA Times

WH senior adviser blasts State Farm for using loophole to deny coverage to Hurricane Ida victims

Cedric Richmond, senior adviser to President Biden, appeared Thursday on Don Lemon Tonight to speak about the devastation left by Hurricane Ida and the need for insurance companies to take care of their policyholders. While certain companies, like Allstate and USAA, have agreed to cover some additional costs, State Farm has reportedly refused to cover any extra costs for homeowners who were not under a mandatory evacuation order. “We have companies like State Farm, and I call them by name, that have decided that they're still going to use that loophole or that technicality or fine print, to deny coverage,” Richmond said.

You Could Accidentally Disinherit Your Children Unless You Follow This Obscure Rule

If you're widowed or divorced and have named your children as the beneficiaries of your company retirement plan, you could be putting them at risk of being disinherited if you remarry. Due to a little-known ERISA rule, if your new spouse outlives you, they will receive your company plan funds, rather than your children — even if you have put your children down as your named beneficiaries. While the purpose of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA) is to stop one member of a married couple from giving survivor benefits to someone else that should rightfully go to the surviving spouse, in some scenarios this law can lead to abuse.

How did artifacts, thousands of years old, turn up in a Mississippi alligator's stomach?

Alligators in Mississippi: 5 things you may not know about the South's apex predator Dog tags in an alligator's stomach The story first began to unfold in April when a wild game processor in South Carolina reported opening the stomach of an alligator and finding unusual items. Smith read it and was skeptical. "The curiosity struck me when I saw a post online about someone finding dog tags in an alligator's stomach," Smith said.

Court rules for Florida governor, reinstates ban on mask mandates in state's schools

The decision by the First District Court of Appeals reverses a previous ruling by a Florida district court judge who found in a lawsuit brought by parents that the state did not have authority to ban the face-covering mandates. "No surprise here - the 1st DCA has restored the right of parents to make the best decisions for their children," DeSantis wrote on Twitter. Florida is one of several U.S. states where Republican governors have sought to prevent local governments and school districts from mandating masks, in what has become a highly politicized tussle over COVID-19 precautions.

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  Court rules for Florida Gov. DeSantis reinstates ban on mask mandates in state's schools

  Yahoo News Video
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  Court: DeSantis ban on school mask mandates back in force

  Associated Press

A man said he was compelled by 'righteous anger' to confront a group of women on a beach because of their 'pornographic' bikinis

Footage of a male beachgoer confronting a group of women for wearing bikinis has gone viral. A group of women in Fort Collins, Colorado, have gone viral after a TikTok showed a man at the beach saying they were "flaunting" their bodies and comparing their bikinis to "pornography." Two videos of the incident and a follow-up were posted on TikTok by user @ggarbagefairy, who states her name is Mia.

Hitman in Hasidic garb guns down reformed murderer in caught-on-camera execution

A convicted murderer's second chance at life was cut short this week by a hitman in Hasidic garb who blasted him in the back of the head in a shocking Queens execution caught on surveillance video. Victim Jermaine Dixon — a former member of the “Patio Crew” in Brooklyn — had been out of federal prison for less than a year when the disguised gunman struck on Monday, killing the reformed gangster. Surveillance video from S. Conduit Ave. near 132nd St. in South Ozone Park captured what appears to be the planned hit around 8 a.m.

Buried alive, World Trade Center collapse survivor still carries 9/11 with him today

Tom Canavan was buried alive at the World Trade Center site when the twin towers collapsed 20 years ago on Sept. He was on the 47th floor of the North Tower on a conference call in his boss' office when the American Airlines Flight 11 plane struck his building at 8:46 a.m. Canavan and his colleagues from First Union, a brokerage firm, began to slowly descend the stairwells to safety, passing police, firefighters and Port Authority rescue workers on their way up to try to rescue wounded survivors.

‘You study the science!?’ Watch Apple shopper melt down over masks in Miami Beach

Local filmmaker Billy Corben shared the clip to Instagram with his signature hashtags #BecauseMiami and #BecauseFlorida. A man in a T-shirt and shorts is seen leaning against a table, with two Apple employees talking to him. Two other employees surround them.

My brother-in-law died, leaving his house in a mess. His landlord wants me to repaint and replace the carpet. What should we do?

My problem now is that she wants me to completely pay for a complete refresh of the house with removal of any smoke or mildew residue, prime and paint the entire interior, and replace all of the carpeting. He had paid a damage deposit of $500 when he rented the house, and the owner has not done anything for the house since he moved in. It's a one-bedroom small place.

EXCERPT: 20 years on, 'The Falling Man' is still you and me

The following account from Associated Press photographer Richard Drew is excerpted from the book “September 11: The 9/11 Story, Aftermath and Legacy,” an in-depth look at AP's coverage of 9/11 and the events that followed. On that day, Drew made one of the most indelible — and harrowing — images of the 21st century. My family calls it “the picture that won't go away.”

The Gross Reason Why You Shouldn't Sleep Naked, According to a Viral TikTok Doc

See: 5 Health Benefits of Sleeping Naked) Well, according to one viral TikTok video, you should never sleep naked — or at least without underwear on — and the reason is bound to gross you out. Anthony Youn, M.D., a Michigan-based board-certified plastic surgeon, recently shared some intel on TikTok, revealing that when you fart, you're spraying tiny amounts of fecal matter. That means if there's no clothing barrier between you and your bed, you're potentially transmitting bacteria and germs onto your sheets, your body, and your sleeping partner.

A woman who says her employer denied her request to finish at 5 p.m. so she could collect her daughter from day care won $254,000 after a legal challenge

Alice Thompson wanted to work flexibly in order to collect her daughter from day care. A real-estate sales manager who said her employer failed to seriously consider her request to work flexibly has been awarded $254,621 (185,000 pounds) at an employment tribunal in the UK. Alice Thompson asked her employer - the independent UK real-estate agency Manors - if she could reduce her hours after she returned from maternity leave following the birth of her daughter, she told BBC radio.

Farmers restore native grasslands as groundwater disappears

Tim Black's cell phone dings, signaling the time to reverse sprinklers spitting water across a pie-shaped section of grass that will provide pasture for his cattle. For decades, the Texas Panhandle was green with cotton, corn and wheat. Wells drew a thousand gallons (3,785 liters) a minute from the seemingly bottomless Ogallala aquifer, allowing farmers to thrive despite frequent dry spells and summer heat.

Newly released FBI documents detail how a Swiss bodybuilder offered to kill Kobe Bryant's rape accuser for $3 million

A Swiss bodybuilder offered to kill Kobe Bryant's rape accuser for $3 million in 2003, the FBI says. Bryant's lawyers contacted the police upon hearing the offer, and the bodybuilder was arrested. A newly released FBI report details how officials caught the bodybuilder.

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  Inside a Bodybuilder’s Bungled $3 Million Plot to Kill Kobe Bryant Accuser

  The Daily Beast
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  Feds unseal records in man's $3M scheme to kill Kobe Bryant rape accuser

  USA TODAY Sports

Laser-initiated fusion leads the way to safe, affordable clean energy

The quest to make fusion power a reality recently took a massive step forward. The National Ignition Facility (NIF) at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory announced the results of an experiment with an unprecedented high fusion yield. A single laser shot initiated reactions that released 1.3 megajoules of fusion yield energy with signatures of propagating nuclear burn.

Biden wanders out of place while first lady speaks at DC middle school

President Joe Biden appeared to wander out of place Friday while first lady Jill Biden delivered a speech at a Washington, D.C., middle school. While Jill Biden discussed the "mix of emotions" each school year brings, the president lifted his hand to his face, as if to cover his eyes to see something, before wandering behind the first lady and out of frame, footage showed. The president, first lady, and Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser toured Brookland Middle School to encourage vaccinations and doing all one can to protect children in school, according to WJLA.

Ted Cruz Tries Trolling Patton Oswalt, Who Just Puts The Joke On Him

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) took a cheap shot at Patton Oswalt early Thursday after Oswalt nixed multiple performances at venues that refuse to require proof of vaccination or a negative test result from audience members. “Both of his fans were disappointed,” Cruz snarked on Twitter. The stand-up hit back at the Texas Republican with a series of one-liners, zinging Cruz for his ill-fated vacation to Cancun as his state was hit by a devastating winter storm, that hardcore porn incident and his amplification of 2020 election conspiracy theories that led to the U.S. Capitol riot.

Salesforce said it will help relocate employees and their families who want to leave Texas after a restrictive abortion law took effect

A law banning abortion after six weeks of pregnancy took effect in Texas last week. Salesforce said it would help employees relocate if they had concerns about access to reproductive healthcare. Salesforce is offering assistance to its employees after a restrictive abortion law took effect in Texas last week.

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  DOJ sues Texas over its abortion law

  Yahoo News Video
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  Texas is only the beginning of the new abortion fight

  Yahoo News 360

Gannon Stauch Was Shot in Jaw and Stabbed 18 Times, Detective Reveals

During a preliminary hearing on Thursday, Sgt. Rosario Hubbell of the El Paso County, Colorado Sheriff's Office testified that Letecia Stauch's DNA was present on a 9mm handgun investigators found in the Stauch family's house and that a forensic exam determined that a bullet lodged in Gannon Stauch's head had been fired from the same gun. Stauch's lawyer, Joshua Tolini, was in court and unavailable to be reached for comment Friday morning, his office told The Daily Beast. The charges against Stauch include first-degree murder, child abuse resulting in death, tampering with a deceased human body, and tampering with physical evidence.

Vatican rejects Israeli criticism over pope comments on Jewish law

The Vatican has rejected criticism from senior Israeli rabbis over remarks by Pope Francis about Jewish books of sacred law, saying he was not questioning their continuing validity for Jews today. Last month Reuters reported that Rabbi Rasson Arousi, who is in charge of the Israeli Chief Rabbinate's relations with the Vatican, had written a stern letter to the Vatican in which he said that Francis' comments at a general audience on Aug. 11 appeared to suggest that the Torah, or Jewish law, was obsolete.