In tiny Wyoming town, Bill Gates bets big on nuclear power

Then in November, a company started by Bill Gates, TerraPower, announced it had chosen Kemmerer for a nontraditional, sodium-cooled nuclear reactor that will bring on workers from a local coal-fired power plant scheduled to close soon. The demonstration project comes as many U.S. states see nuclear emerging as an answer to fill the gap as a transition away from coal, oil and natural gas to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Many residents in Kemmerer, where the population of 2,700 is little-changed since the 1990s, see the TerraPower project as a much-needed economic boost because Rocky Mountain Power's Naughton power plant will close 2025.

‘Disgusting’: Newly Released Video Captures Florida Officer Grabbing a Female Subordinate by the Throat After She Pulled Him Away from Suspect He Was Confronting

A South Florida police sergeant has been taken off the street after a video of him choking a fellow officer emerged last week. Sgt. Christopher Pullease has been relieved of his supervisory duties with the Sunrise, Florida, police department and is now under investigation after local news station WSVN, acting on a tip, began asking about an incident in which Pullease grabbed a female officer by the throat. The incident occurred on Nov. 19 when officers were called to a convenience store on Sunset Strip after complaints about an individual committing aggravated battery.

Neil Gorsuch defied a request from Chief Justice John Roberts to wear a mask out of respect for Sonia Sotomayor, report says

Chief Justice John Roberts asked the court to wear masks on Sotomayor's behalf, the report said. Justice Sonia Sotomayor, who has diabetes and is at higher risk of severe illness from COVID-19, has been participating in Supreme Court oral arguments remotely from her private chambers after Justice Neil Gorsuch refused to wear a mask, NPR's Nina Totenberg reported on Tuesday.

• 
  To mask or not to mask? Among U.S. Supreme Court justices, it’s not a unanimous decision

  MarketWatch
• 
  Neil Gorsuch Stands Up for His Right to Endanger Sonia Sotomayor’s Health

  Rolling Stone

Irish mourn slain 23-year-old teacher who was out jogging

Hundreds of mourners turned out Tuesday in Ireland for the funeral Mass of a 23-year-old elementary school teacher whose slaying has reignited debate about how to tackle violence against women. Police said Tuesday they arrested a man in his 30s on suspicion of murder in the case of Ashling Murphy, a musician and teacher whose body was found on the banks of a canal near the town of Tullamore in central Ireland on Jan. 12. The killing has touched a nerve with many women in Ireland and beyond, because media reports suggested that Murphy was targeted when she was out jogging in the afternoon.

• 
  Children taught by Ashling Murphy form guard of honour at 'murdered' teacher's funeral

  Yahoo News UK
• 
  Ashling Murphy: Irish police arrest man on suspicion of murder

  The Independent

After returning from national title win, UGA football player charged with destroying property

A Georgia football player might have done too much celebrating after the team returned from Indianapolis from winning the national title last week. Long snapper William Mote was arrested and faces a charge of criminal damage to property in the early morning of Jan. 12 after police allege he destroyed a single pane window of an Athens downtown law office. Mote told Athens-Clarke County police he was intoxicated after drinking at the Silver Dollar Bar, went to see a friend and mistakenly went to the law office, according to a police incident report.

Non-Americans Are Calling Out Things Americans Say That Scream, "I'm An American," And Wow, I Guess I'm Gonna Stop Talking For A While

A while ago, Reddit user TheOmnipotentKoi asked the internet, "Non-Americans of Reddit, what's something someone can say that indirectly screams 'I'm an American?'" Non-Americans shared tons of hilarious things Americans say all the time — and it's so accurate, it hurts. Let us know in the comments below!

Former Air Force base in South Dakota with '50 beds, 15 baths' listed for sale

A 42-acre parcel of land briefly used as an air force base north of Gettysburg is on the market with an asking price of $4.5 million. Property owner Lev Goukassian, a retired businessman who said he ran a computer company, posted the property sale on Facebook marketplace recently with an asking price of just under $1 million. Goukassian said he's been surprised by the offers he's received, including one international inquiry at the initial asking price.

Free Covid Tests Roll Out This Week. Here’s How to Get One.

Johns Hopkins University reported more than 527,000 new cases. The seven-day daily average is over 807,000, according to The Wall Street Journal's analysis of Johns Hopkins data. Hospitalizations reached over156,000, a new high.

Mexican governor says predecessor made deals with gangs

The governor of Mexico's Morelos state claimed Monday his predecessor and the previous police chief negotiated with a drug gang. Gov. Cuauhtémoc Blanco had himself been forced to deny any drug links earlier this month after a 3-year-old photo surfaced showing him posing with three men identified as local drug gang leaders. Blanco appeared at prosecutors' offices to ask they investigate any allegations against him, saying “I have nothing to hide, I don't make deals with criminals.”

Trump claims he couldn't have lost the 2020 presidential election because his Arizona rally boasted thousands of attendees and had 'cars that stretch out for 25 miles'

Former President Donald Trump on Saturday continued efforts to raise doubt over his election loss. During an Arizona rally, Trump pointed to the crowd size and heavy traffic to justify his opinion. It remains unclear whether Trump plans to run again for president in 2024.

Letters: Our beloved pediatrician's brutal takedown by York police K-9 was appalling

Supporting our local police officers (and other first line responders) is something we believe in. Two years ago, we learned of Dr. Stephen Brennan's unfortunate encounter with officer Jonathan Rogers and heard what transpired for him thereafter. Dr. Brennan was a terrific pediatrician for our children, there from the get-go for all of them, from their births at York Hospital on up through their teenage years.

What happens to the stock market when interest rates rise?

With the Federal Reserve now widely expected to jack up interest rates in March to beat back rampant inflation, investors in the stock market should buckle up for a more muted few months of returns, says Goldman Sachs chief U.S. equity strategist David Kostin. The S&P 500 has been "resilient" around the start of Fed hiking cycles in the past, Kostin notes. The first is that the stock market didn't fall off a cliff as borrowing conditions became tighter, but losses did come to market goers.

Billionaire's mega yacht, once for sale for $40 million, anchored off Sanibel Island

A New York real estate billionaire's sleek mega yacht, the Silver Shalis, was spotted cruising Fort Myers Beach and anchored off Sanibel Island over the holiday weekend. Built in 2010 by Delta Marine from a ship design by Langan Associates and interior by design house Jonathan Quinn Barnett, the 175-foot, 846-ton craft is owned by real estate tycoon Larry Silverstein. The vessel, which can sleep 12 guests in six cabins and has a crew of 14 housed in seven cabins, has an annual running cost between between $2 million and $4 million.

Donald Trump-Loving Republicans Celebrate MLK Day And Get Told Where To Go

Donald Trump-devoted Republicans were slammed for hypocrisy for their tributes to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. on the MLK Day holiday on Monday. Lindsey Graham (S.C.) and Josh Hawley (Mo.), and former White House press secretaries Kayleigh McEnany (now a Fox News host) and Sarah Huckabee Sanders (now a Republican candidate for Arkansas governor) all praised the slain civil rights icon on Twitter on the annual celebration of his legacy.

• 
  Is today MLK Day? How Martin Luther King Day began

  The Independent
• 
  Family of MLK fight for election reform

  WOFL

Nick Saban and Jerry West sign letter pushing West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin to support voting rights bill

Alabama coach Nick Saban and NBA legend Jerry West are among five prominent West Virginia sports figures pushing Sen. Joe Manchin (D) to support the Freedom to Vote Act. Manchin and Sen. Krysten Sinema (D-Ariz.) have refused to support making a filibuster exception for the voting rights bill. A bill can be filibustered in the Senate if it doesn't have 60 votes; if the voting rights bill was exempt from the filibuster and Manchin and Sinema voted for it, the bill would pass a 50-50 Senate by virtue of a tiebreaking vote from Vice President Kamala Harris.

• 
  Sinema, Manchin slammed as Senate begins voting bill debate

  Associated Press
• 
  Sanders turns up heat on Manchin, Sinema with tweet on voting rights bills

  Fox News

Taliban 2.0 aren't so different from the first regime, after all

As political science professors specializing in conflict and violence, we find that the Taliban's changes are limited to international public relations campaigns on social media and other outlets. While promoting a moderate face to the world, with promises of living “peacefully” and respecting women's rights, the regime has continued to systematically violate human rights and strengthen its autocratic grip. Theories about what experts called “Taliban 2.0” continued after the group assumed control over Afghanistan.

They relied on rapid coronavirus tests to gather safely. Some wish they hadn't.

Video: What you should know about rapid at-home covid tests A New York woman who relied on negative rapid test results to go out with her friends on New Year's Eve only to get back a positive PCR test result afterward said she believes the at-home tests offer "a false sense of security." The Food and Drug Administration acknowledged the issue on Dec. 28, noting that "early data suggests that antigen tests do detect the omicron variant but may have reduced sensitivity." A week later, a small preprint study that has not yet been peer-reviewed found the rapid tests failed to detect the virus on day zero and day one after infection for 30 individuals in New York and San Francisco.

Pakistan says trial of Chinese traditional medicine for COVID-19 successful

Pakistani health authorities on Monday announced the completion of a successful clinical trial of Chinese traditional herbal medicine for treating COVID-19, as the South Asian nation enters a fifth wave of the pandemic driven by the Omicron variant. The Chinese medicine, Jinhua Qinggan Granules (JHQG) manufactured by Juxiechang (Beijing) pharmaceutical Co Ltd, is already being used in treatment of COVID-19 patients in China. "Since it was tried on patients with different variants of COVID-19, we expect it to be effective on Omicron as on other variants," Professor Iqbal Chaudhry, director of the International Center for Chemical and Biological Science (ICCBS) where trials were conducted, told reporters.

‘Get Out’: Judge Retaliates Against Lawyer Who Liked a Facebook Post Criticizing the Judge’s Decision to Reverse Conviction of Teen Rape Suspect

An Illinois judge was removed from presiding over criminal cases after reversing his own decision to convict a teen with sexual assault. According to the Herald-Whig, Judge Frank McCartney, chief judge of the Eighth Judicial Circuit, issued an administrative order to be filed Thursday, Jan. 13, reassigning Judge Robert Adrian from criminal court to small claims, legal matters, probate dockets, and civil matters after his controversial decision has become a major eyebrow-raising headline. After a three-day bench trial in October, Adrian found Drew Clinton, 18, guilty on one count of criminal sexual assault of Cameron Vaughan at a graduation party on May 30, 2021.

Experts ranked the most beautiful states in the U.S. Here’s where Florida ended up

With its concrete jungles, ongoing construction, packed highways and deteriorating condos desperately reaching skyward away from the floodwaters, Florida is truly one of the most beautiful states in the country. At least, it is according to photography and printing experts Printique, which ranked the states in order of beauty and decided that Florida is the third most beautiful state in the land. Not too shabby for what is essentially an overflowing, frequently toxic swamp filling rapidly with New Yorkers.

Tennis-Djokovic has to comply with rules to go to Spain, PM says

World men's tennis No. 1 Novak Djokovic will have to comply with Spanish health rules to be able to travel to Spain, Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said on Monday. Answering a question on whether Djokovic would be allowed to enter Spain to compete after Australia deported him for being unvaccinated against COVID-19, Sanchez said: "Any sportsperson who wishes to compete in our country must comply with the health rules of Spain".

• 
  Spain urges Djokovic to set an example and get vaccinated

  Reuters
• 
  Djokovic leaves Australia but debate goes on in vaccine saga

  Associated Press

People Shared The Brattiest, Most Entitled Messages They've Gotten From Exes, And They'll Make Your Blood Boil

Already gave $150 to him for an "emergency" from ChoosingBeggars u/batgirlbitch / reddit.com / Via

Laura Ingraham clapped in celebration while reporting that Gen. Mark Milley, a target for Trump fans, has COVID-19

Fox News' Laura Ingraham appeared jubilant when reporting on Gen. Mark Milley's COVID-19 diagnosis. Milley has long been a target of disdain for Trump supporters. Ingraham discussed Milley's case on a section of her show in which she pushes vaccine misinformation.