U.S.Associated PressSocial media model arrested in Hawaii on murder charge
Law enforcement in Hawaii on Wednesday arrested social media model Courtney Clenney on a charge of second-degree murder with a deadly weapon. Hawaii County police said in a statement they assisted the U.S. Marshals Service as they arrested the 26-year-old in Laupahoehoe, which is on the Big Island. Officers used an arrest warrant issued by Miami-Dade County, Florida.
PoliticsRolling StoneTrump Loses It Over Nuclear Docs Report, Again Suggests ‘Planted’ Evidence
Donald Trump, his lawyers, and his allies in Congress and the conservative media have spent the week suggesting that the FBI may have planted evidence when they searched Mar-a-Lago on Monday. It reeked of a defense tactic should the Justice Department have found anything incriminating, and now that The Washington Post has reported they were searching for classified nuclear weapons documents, wouldn't you know it, Trump is once again suggesting that the information may have been “planted” at Mar-a-Lago. “Nuclear weapons issue is a Hoax, just like Russia, Russia, Russia was a Hoax, two Impeachments were a Hoax, the Mueller investigation was a Hoax, and much more,” the former president wrote Friday morning on Truth Social.
U.S.INSIDERA top LA County coroner described in graphic testimony what Kobe Bryant's body looked like to give the jury an idea of what the crash-site photos may have shown
Capt. Emily Tauscher gave graphic testimony about the post-crash condition of each victim's body. A top Los Angeles County coroner on Thursday testified in graphic detail about the state of Kobe Bryant's body following the 2020 helicopter crash that killed all nine passengers, including the basketball legend and his 13-year-old daughter, Gianna Bryant.
WorldAssociated PressRussia struggles to replenish its troops in Ukraine
This also is happening amid reports that hundreds of Russian soldiers are refusing to fight and trying to quit the military. We're seeing a huge outflow of people who want to leave the war zone — those who have been serving for a long time and those who have signed a contract just recently,” said Alexei Tabalov, a lawyer who runs the Conscript's School legal aid group. The group has seen an influx of requests from men who want to terminate their contracts, “and I personally get the impression that everyone who can is ready to run away,” Tabalov said in an interview with The Associated Press.
BusinessFortuneA 33-year-old who worked at Starbucks for 13 years got fired over a month-old violation. It led to a union walkout and a viral video that has racked up 21 million views on TikTok
Sam Amato has spent nearly his entire working life at Starbucks. When a wave of labor activity spread through Starbucks locations across the country, he got involved as a lead organizer at the store he typically works at in Amherst, a suburb of Buffalo, New York, which became one of the first in the country to unionize. On Aug. 5, the 33-year-old had just clocked in for his shift at a different Starbucks in the town of Tonawanda when the store manager pulled Amato outside for a conversation and fired him for a month-old violation connected to closing the store early, a decision that he said left him “blindsighted.”
- U.S.Tampa Bay Times, St. Petersburg, Fla.
Why is The Villages known as ‘the STD capital of America?’
Friends up north and across Tampa Bay snickered when Brian Lafferty revealed where he'd bought a new home. “Without exception, every person I've told I bought a house in The Villages has asked the same thing,” Lafferty said. The Villages, a mammoth retirement community that was the fastest-growing metropolitan area in the nation two years ago, is no stranger to folklore.
WorldReutersLatvia, Estonia withdraw from China cooperation group
VILNIUS (Reuters) -Latvia and Estonia withdrew from a cooperation group between China and over a dozen Central and Eastern European countries on Thursday, following in the footsteps of Baltic neighbour Lithuania which withdrew last year. The move comes amid Western criticism towards China over escalating military pressure on democratically ruled Taiwan, which China claims as its own territory, and Beijing's strengthening of ties with Russia during the invasion of Ukraine. Relations between Lithuania and China worsened after the former allowed Taiwan to open a de facto embassy late last year.
U.S.AccuWeatherHeavy rain hammers Las Vegas, turning famed strip into a river
Pockets of heavy rain and thunderstorms swept across the Southwest on Thursday night, prompting flash flood warnings in southern Nevada, far southeastern California and Arizona. The gusty storms knocked out power to many Las Vegas residents and flooded numerous roadways, including the famous Las Vegas Strip. Harry Reid International in Las Vegas recorded 0.58 of an inch of rainfall from thunderstorms in just an hour, nearly double what the site typically observes for August.
PoliticsAZCentral | The Arizona RepublicIf you thought the Trump raid was a fiasco, turns out you were right
The Justice Department and FBI did not understand what they were doing when they ran 30 federal agents and technicians up the gut of Mar-a-Lago Club and into the living quarters of a former president of the United States. No, we had to divine that something was wrong when Justice didn't have the brass to stand up and explain why it demolished 246 years of precedent and allowed government agents to rifle through the drawers of a former American president. Newsweek called them “two senior government officials” with “direct knowledge of the FBI's deliberations.”
BusinessTechCrunchMark Cuban, Mavericks in hot water over Voyager 'Ponzi scheme'
A group of Voyager Digital customers filed a class-action suit in Florida federal court against Cuban, as well as the basketball team he owns, the Dallas Mavericks, alleging their promotion of the crypto platform resulted in more than 3.5 million investors losing $5 billion collectively. Voyager Digital's CEO, Stephen Ehrlich, was also named as a defendant in the suit. Voyager, a New Jersey-based crypto firm, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in July following a crash in crypto prices that instigated a liquidity crunch on the platform.
U.S.INSIDERThe scientific theory of why some Americans don't want Brittney Griner to come home from a Russian prison
The WNBA superstar Brittney Griner has been sentenced to nine years in a Russian prison. A political scientist said two theories could explain why. Given the timing of her detainment, the nature of her alleged offense, and the reputation of Russian courts, Griner is widely considered to be a political pawn that Moscow is using as leverage against the United States.
- ScienceReuters Videos
Disoriented bear cub rescued in Turkey after eating 'mad honey'
STORY: Footage showed the bear wobbling and whining as she sat belly-up in the back of a pick-up truck, after people rescued the visibly-debilitated animal from the forest. Mad honey, or "deli bal" in Turkish, is a type of rhododendron honey that can have hallucinogenic effects. The bear was brought to a vet, where she was receiving treatment and would likely be released into the wild in the coming days, local authorities said, adding that she was in good condition.
U.S.ReutersNew York gun bans alarm residents of upstate bear country
Gunfire has long echoed in New York's Adirondack Mountains. So June's landmark ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court establishing a constitutional right to carry weapons in public seemed like a vindication of an upstate, gun-centric way of life. The ruling by the court's conservative majority appalled Democratic leaders across the country who said it would lead to more gun violence.
BusinessFortune‘One of the most dangerous and irresponsible actions by a car company in decades’: Activist Ralph Nader urges regulators to recall Tesla’s self-driving technology
The man who forever changed vehicle safety standards in the U.S. has a scathing new message for Elon Musk and Tesla's self-driving car technology: He thinks it's dangerous, and regulators should get involved. Musk has been touting self-driving cars as the next big thing for years, saying in 2015 that autonomous vehicles would be on the road within two years. While that timeline hasn't come to fruition, Musk has not yet given up on his dream, nor has he tempered his ambitions.
U.S.Miami HeraldSisters asleep in minivan burned alive in parking lot fire. Now mom is suing Walmart
A Minnesota mother is suing Walmart after a fire in a store parking lot burned her daughters alive, killing one and leaving the other “permanently disfigured,” according to a lawsuit. Essie McKenzie's daughters were sleeping soundly in the back of her minivan when she pulled up to the Walmart Supercenter in Fridley, Minnesota, on Aug. 6, 2019. The girls, ages 6 and 9, were tired after being woken early to go to the airport, where McKenzie dropped off her mother, she would later tell investigators, according to court documents.
WorldYahoo NewsHow did Ukraine strike deep inside Russian-occupied Crimea?
How did Ukraine blow up Russia's Saki Air Base in southwest Crimea on Tuesday? Was it with supersonic ballistic missiles, perhaps made in the United States? Whatever it was, Ukrainians on social media haven't been this excited since their military sank the Moskva, the flagship cruiser of Russia's Black Sea Fleet, in April.
U.S.Charlotte ObserverMega Millions mystery winner in NC shows up to claim her big jackpot
One of two ticket holders in North Carolina who scored a $1 million prize in the July 29 Mega Millions drawing has claimed her money at N.C. lottery headquarters in Raleigh, officials said Thursday. Marjorie Robert of Huntersville bought her $2 ticket at Shop N Save on Mecklenburg Highway in Mooresville, according to a lottery news release. She matched the five white balls, beating odds of 1 in 12.6 million, according to the lottery.
PoliticsINSIDERHillary Clinton mocked Trump for pleading the Fifth at his deposition, comparing it to her marathon public testimony over Benghazi in 2015
Hillary Clinton mocked Donald Trump for pleading the Fifth in his New York deposition Thursday. Trump refused to answer questions in New York Attorney General Letitia James' probe into the Trump Organization. Hillary Clinton mocked former President Donald Trump for pleading the Fifth Amendment at his New York deposition, comparing it to her hours-long questioning over Benghazi in 2015.
U.S.Associated PressCancellation of Atlanta festival sparks new fight over guns
Tens of thousands of Music Midtown festivalgoers are no longer going to descend on Atlanta's massive Piedmont Park next month to cheer on hip-hop star Future or watch beloved rock band My Chemical Romance take the stage. In fact, some people are convinced Atlanta — center of the nation's hip-hop music scene — will lose more music festivals and performances on public land as organizers and artists learn that state law makes it nearly impossible for them to stop people from carrying guns among the alcohol-fueled crowds. Live Nation has refused to say why it recently called off September's Music Midtown, a longtime fixture for pop music lovers.
U.S.HuffPostStephen Colbert Taunts Fox News Host's 'Very Stupid Theory' About Trump
You know when you accuse someone of planting evidence before they say that they even found anything, it's when you know they're gonna find something,” Colbert said, then offered an example: “Officer, before you breathalyze me, I must inform you I suspect that you have planted a fifth of tequila in my stomach. But Colbert saved some of his harshest words for Fox News host Ainsley Earhardt, who he said presented a “very stupid theory” when she implied something nefarious was hiding in the backpacks carried by FBI agents. What was in those backpacks?
U.S.The Daily BeastMissing Truckee Teen’s BF Shares Final Texts as Cops Release New Images
As the FBI announced Thursday that it was adding 16-year-old Kiely Mai Rodni to its national missing persons database, the search for the girl—who was last seen five days ago at a campground senior farewell party—continued in earnest. Scores of people have flocked to a recreation center in Truckee, the California town from which Rodni vanished, to ask how they can help with the search, according to Cassie Hebel, a friend who spoke to The Daily Beast on behalf of the family. It's unclear if Kiely ever made it home from the party at the Prosser Family Campground in the early hours of Saturday morning, according to Placer County authorities.
U.S.Associated PressWisconsin woman in Slender Man attack drops release request
One of two Wisconsin women who were sent to a state mental health facility after a 2014 stabbing attack on a sixth-grade classmate that they claimed was to appease the horror character Slender Man has withdrawn her petition for release. In June, Morgan Geyser, 20, asked Waukesha County Judge Michael Bohren to order her release as he did last year for her co-defendant, Anissa Weier, who spent nearly four years at a mental health facility in Oshkosh. Bohren appointed three doctors to evaluate Geyser's mental state.
U.S.Miami HeraldA disturbance is developing in the Gulf of Mexico. What the forecast shows
A disturbance began to develop Friday just offshore of southeastern Louisiana in the Gulf of Mexico, forecasters said. The system, described as a surface trough of low pressure, has a low 10% chance of formation in the next two to five days, according to the National Hurricane Center. “Development, if any, of this system is expected to be slow to occur during the next couple of days as it drifts west-southwestward over the northwestern Gulf of Mexico,” the hurricane center said in its 8 a.m. advisory.
U.S.Fort Worth Star-TelegramTexas man dies after chugging unknown fluid when jury convicts him of child sex assault
A Frisco man who had just been convicted of child sexual assault died Thursday afternoon after he “chugged” a water bottle that contained an unknown fluid in a Denton County courtroom The 57-year-old man had a large water bottle containing what appeared to be cloudy water, but he had not been drinking from it during the trial, the Denton Record-Chronicle reported, according to attorneys involved in the case. But once a Denton County jury returned its guilty verdict against Edward Leclair, he “chugged it,” the Denton Record-Chronicle reported. Leclair, who had been free on bond, was taken into custody and sent to the holding cell, which is located next to the courtroom, attorneys said.
- WorldUSA TODAY
Home explosion leaves at least three dead, damages dozens of homes in Indiana
Evansville Fire officials said the explosion had a 100-foot blast radius and damaged about 40 homes. At least three people were killed.
“The media has anointed men who have sex with men as the biggest threat to our survival from monkeypox.”
“Rich countries have ignored endemic monkeypox in West and Central Africa for far too long, despite having effective vaccines.”
“The biggest worry for Americans is not the disease: It’s that our response to it shows how little we have learned from COVID-19.”
“Monkeypox should be a relatively easier virus to control, but only if the United States takes the needed steps now.”
“Global health officials must advocate for and enact a unified, coherent approach to fighting the monkeypox pandemic.”