Iranian supertanker departing from Venezuela to transport heavy oil

HOUSTON/CARACAS (Reuters) -An Iran-flagged supertanker on Saturday was about to set sail from Venezuelan waters carrying 2 million barrels of heavy crude provided by state-run oil firm PDVSA, according to documents seen by Reuters and vessel tracking services. The shipment is part of a deal agreed by PDVSA and its counterpart National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) that exchanges Iranian condensate for Venezuela's Merey crude. The swaps aim to ease an acute shortage of diluents that has cut Venezuela's oil output and exports, Reuters reported last month https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/exclusive-under-us-sanctions-iran-venezuela-strike-oil-export-deal-sources-2021-09-25.

Walgreens cited shoplifting as rationale for closing 5 stores in San Francisco, but local officials, data, and experts cast doubt on that explanation

Walgreens said it's closing some San Francisco stores because of an increase in retail theft. Police data obtained by the Chronicle did not show high rates of shoplifting reports at the closing stores. Walgreens announced Tuesday it would be closing five of its San Francisco locations due to "organized retail crime," but police department data, local officials, and policy experts are casting doubt on that reasoning, according to a report published by the San Francisco Chronicle on Saturday.

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 The videos have reignited criticisms of Hooters for fostering an outdated concept centered around sexualizing servers' bodies.

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  Hooters amends uniform policy after employees condemn ‘disturbing’ new shorts

  The Independent
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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

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.

Galloping bison herd in Yellowstone has tourists running for cover

With a herd of bison galloping toward them in Yellowstone National Park, two tourists caught by surprise made a mad dash over a bridge in search of safety while another tourist captured the moment in video. Kyleen Olson and her family were driving toward the bridge when they noticed the couple walking back over the bridge to their car. At the same time, they also noticed a cloud of dust rising from the trees.

A Florida school says students who get vaxxed must stay home for 30 days due to unfounded claim that they'll infect others

Centner Academy in Florida told parents any student who gets vaccinated must quarantine for 30 days. An infectious disease expert who spoke with WSVN characterized that belief as "science fiction." A private school in Miami, Florida, is requiring students who get vaccinated to quarantine at home for 30 days after each dose.

Woman raped on train as bystanders did nothing, police say

A woman was raped by a stranger on a commuter train in suburban Philadelphia in the presence of other riders who a police official said “should have done something." Superintendent Timothy Bernhardt of the Upper Darby Police Department said officers were called to the 69th Street terminal around 10 p.m. Wednesday after the assault on the westbound train on the Market-Frankford Line. An employee of the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority who was in the vicinity as the train went past called police to report that “something wasn't right" with a woman aboard the train, Bernhardt said.

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  Police say bystanders "should've intervened" as woman raped on train

  CBS News
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  Riders watched as a woman was raped on a SEPTA train but no one called 911, police say.

  NBC News

Brian Laundrie's father was captured removing a yellow protest sign about his daughter from his front yard, report says

The father of Brian Laundrie was captured in photos removing protest signs from his front yard. New York Post obtained images of Chris Laundrie in front of his Florida home on Saturday. The father of 23-year-old Brian Laundrie was captured removing protest signs from his front yard on Saturday, the New York Post reported.

MSNBC Panel Torches Sen. Ron Johnson For Spreading Yet Another Conspiracy Theory

Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wisc.) was roundly condemned by an MSNBC panel Sunday for spreading dangerous conspiracy theories about COVID-19 vaccines and treatments on Fox News. The Republican senator told Fox News host Maria Bartiromo on air Sunday morning that coronavirus vaccines are “experimental” and that ivermectin, an anti-parasitic drug, is not being promoted as a COVID-19 treatment because there's “not money in it.” “What in the entire ― What's he talking about?” MSNBC host Jonathan Capehart asked.

Texas trucker convicted in fiery, fatal crash in Rocky Mountains

A Texas truck driver who lost control of his semi-trailer along a Colorado mountain highway in 2019, ramming into stopped traffic and killing four people in a fiery crash, was convicted late Friday of vehicular homicide and related charges. Rogel Lazaro Aguilera-Mederos, 25, was convicted by a Jefferson County, Colorado, jury of four counts of homicide and more than two dozen other charges, including vehicular assault, reckless driving and careless driving resulting in death. Prosecutors said during the trial that Aguilera-Mederos knew his brakes were failing as he descended Interstate 70, west of Denver, on April 15, 2019.

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.

A California man who twice broke into his dad's former home was fatally shot by the new owners, authorities say

A California man who broke into his old home twice in the same weekend was fatally shot by the new owners, according to a press release from the Calaveras County Sheriff's Office. Authorities identified the man as 28-year-old Lennin Elizalde, the son of the house's former owner, according to the sheriff's office. The new owners recently brought the Valley Springs property through a real estate company, according to authorities.

Freed murderer charged in Florida with slaying of single mom

Police have charged a convicted murderer who was released from prison last year with the slaying of a South Florida woman whose body was found in a canal after being missing for three weeks. Eric Pierson, 54, was charged Saturday with first-degree murder for the slaying of Erika Verdecia, 33, hours after her body was found Saturday near Fort Lauderdale. Pierson had been released from prison in September 2020 after serving 27 years of a 40-year sentence for the 1993 beating and strangulation murder of 17-year-old Kristina Whitaker, whose death helped galvanize a push for longer prison sentences.

Democrats mock Donald Trump over Virginia governor race, flying a plane with a banner near Mar-a-Lago

Virginia GOP gubernatorial candidate Glenn Youngkin has attempted to distance himself from Donald Trump. The Democratic National Committee has mocked Trump about this by flying a plane with a banner near Mar-a-Lago. The Virginia governor race between Youngkin and Terry McAuliffe is currently neck-in-neck.

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  Delicate GOP dance for Trump, Youngkin in Virginia gov race

  Associated Press
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  Local Matters: Prominent Democrats stump for McAuliffe in Virginia governor's race

  CBS News Videos

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.

Coast Guard: 1,200-foot ship dragged California oil pipeline

Investigators believe a 1,200-foot (366-meter) cargo ship dragging anchor in rough seas caught an underwater oil pipeline and pulled it across the seafloor, months before a leak from the line fouled the Southern California coastline with crude. A team of federal investigators trying to chase down the cause of the spill boarded the Panama-registered MSC DANIT just hours after the massive ship arrived this weekend off the Port of Long Beach, the same area where the leak was discovered in early October. During a prior visit by the ship during a heavy storm in January, investigators believe its anchor dragged for an unknown distance before striking the 16-inch (40-centimeter) steel pipe, Coast Guard Lt. j.g.

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  U.S. Coast Guard boards ship in connection with California oil spill

  Reuters
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  Investigators believe cargo ship dragged California oil pipeline in January

  The Week

6 Social Security Changes for 2022

Every October, the Social Security Administration (SSA) announces its annual changes to the Social Security program for the coming year. Below is our summary of the Social Security changes that were announced in October 2021 and are set to take effect on Jan. 1, 2022. The big news for 2022 is that nearly 70 million Social Security recipients will see reflected in their monthly benefits the largest cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) since Ronald Reagan's first term in office in 1982.

Japan PM says Fukushima wastewater release can't be delayed

Japan's new prime minister on Sunday said the planned mass disposal of wastewater stored at the tsunami-wrecked Fukushima nuclear plant cannot be delayed, despite concerns from local residents. Speaking at his first visit to the facility since taking office, Fumio Kishida said his government would work to reassure residents nearby the plant about the technical safety of the wastewater disposal project. The Fukushima Daiichi plant suffered a triple meltdown in 2011 following a massive earthquake and tsunami.

Republican senator casts Trump as election loser destined to lose 2024 nomination

A Republican senator described former President Donald Trump as an election loser who is not guaranteed to win the GOP's presidential nomination in 2024 if he decides to run. Sen. Bill Cassidy, one of seven Republicans in the Senate who voted to convict Trump in connection to the Capitol riot, cut in with a dismissive answer when Axios co-founder Mike Allen posited that if Trump runs again he will have a winning ticket within the party. "I don't know that," Cassidy intoned.

Turkey's Erdogan says U.S. proposed F-16 sales in return for its F-35 investment

President Tayyip Erdogan said on Sunday that the United States had proposed the sale of F-16 fighter jets to Turkey in return for its investment in the F-35 programme, from which Ankara was removed after purchasing missile defence systems from Russia. Reuters reported earlier this month that Turkey made a request to the United States to buy 40 Lockheed Martin-made F-16 fighter jets and nearly 80 modernization kits for its existing warplanes. Speaking to reporters before departing for a trip to West Africa, Erdogan said Turkey wants a return for its investment in the F-35 programme and that talks on the issue are ongoing.