BusinessAssociated PressCalifornia 1st to set quota limits for retailers like Amazon
California on Wednesday became the first state to bar mega-retailers from firing warehouse workers for missing quotas that interfere with bathroom and rest breaks under a new law signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom that grew from Amazon's drive to speed goods to consumers more quickly. The measure also bars Amazon, the online retail giant, and similar companies from disciplining workers for following health and safety laws and allows employees to sue to suspend unsafe quotas or reverse retaliation. The bill applies to all warehouse distribution centers, though proponents were driven by Amazon's dominance.
U.S.INSIDERJohn Walsh, the former host of 'America's Most Wanted,' questions if anyone actually saw Brian Laundrie in his home when his attorney said he was there
John Walsh said he didn't think Brian Laundrie ever went to the Carlton Reserve. Walsh wondered whether anyone had seen Laundrie since he returned to his family home. John Walsh, the host of "In Pursuit," has joined the search for Brian Laundrie and expressed skepticism over whether anyone actually saw Laundrie in his family home after he returned from a road trip with Gabby Petito.
U.S.Washington ExaminerAuthorities search for Brian Laundrie 500 miles from home following Facebook tip
Florida authorities searching for the boyfriend of Gabby Petito said Tuesday that someone bearing his likeness was caught on a deer camera hiking through the wilderness. The Okaloosa County Sheriff's Office said it is looking into reports that Brian Laundrie was spotted in the area. The announcement follows a Facebook post on Monday by a user who claimed he saw a man resembling Laundrie carrying a backpack around 6:17 a.m. in Baker, Florida, about 500 miles away from Laundrie's home in North Port.
WorldAssociated PressDad of 3 girls killed in New Zealand says he's forgiven wife
The father of three young girls who were killed last week in New Zealand said Thursday his precious angels had been ripped away from him in a loss he would carry for the rest of his life. Dickason wrote his thoughts in a letter that was read aloud by a reverend during a candlelight vigil that was attended by hundreds of people outside the family's home in the South Island town of Timaru. Lauren Dickason, 40, has been charged with murder in the deaths of her twin 2-year-old girls Maya and Karla, and their 6-year-old sister Liane, in a crime that has shocked New Zealand.
PoliticsHuffPostMary Trump Pulls No Punches When Naming Her ‘Stupidest’ Relative
Mary Trump was asked “what the hell is going on” with her cousin, Donald Trump Jr., and didn't hold back. In this week's episode of the “UnPresidented” podcast, Donald Trump's niece described her cousin as “weak” and a suck-up who was ultimately “left in the dust” by his father, the former president. Trump Jr. is “like many other people in my family,” said Mary Trump, a psychologist who has become one of the fiercest critics of her uncle and his children.
U.S.Fort Worth Star-TelegramFather of 12 dies of COVID in Texas after struggles finding ECMO machine, family says
A day after a wife's public plea to help find her husband an ECMO machine to save his life, a Texas father died of COVID-19. Reed Hickson, a 49-year-old father of 12 from College Station, died Monday. “My little brother Reed was called home last night, leaving behind a legacy of true love and greatness, his family of 12 beautiful children and his magnificent soul mate,” Samuel Hickson said on Facebook Tuesday of his brother.
WorldAssociated PressWoman with Down syndrome loses UK abortion law challenge
A woman with Down syndrome lost a court challenge against the British government Thursday over a law allowing the abortion up until birth of a fetus with the condition. Heidi Crowter, 26, and two others took the Department of Health and Social Care to court, arguing that part of the Abortion Act is discriminatory and violates the European Convention on Human Rights. Crowter has said that she found the legislation “offensive” and disrespectful, and that she wanted to change the law to challenge people's perception of Down syndrome.
U.S.INSIDERNeighbors say they saw Brian Laundrie and his parents leave their Florida home with an attached camper after he returned from his trip with Gabby Petito
A couple said they saw Brian Laundrie and his parents drive off with an attached camper this month. A neighbor said they saw Laundrie leave on September 11, the day Gabby Petito was reported missing. Laundrie's family told the police last week that they had not seen him since September 14.
BusinessBuzzFeed18 Things Home Depot Employees Absolutely Hate That Customers Do And 5 Things They Absolutely Love
div> 1. span> Home Depot employees hate when you do dangerous stuff like this: THESE CUSTOMERS ARE WILD from HomeDepot 2.
PoliticsAssociated PressArizona Republican resigns after secret recording released
A Republican official in Arizona resigned Tuesday from the board overseeing Maricopa County after a recording emerged of him criticizing his GOP colleagues for opposing a review of the 2020 election. During the meeting recorded surreptitiously last March, Supervisor Steve Chucri suggested two fellow Republican county supervisors opposed the review by Senate Republicans because they nearly lost their own 2020 races. Chucri apologized in a statement announcing his resignation and said he shouldn't have made the comments, adding “the political landscape has changed for the worst this year.
U.S.HuffPostBison Charges And Hurls Another Bison In Yellowstone Showdown
Well, blow me down. That's a mighty buffalo. The National Park Service celebrated Talk Like A Pirate Day on Sunday by sharing video of a male bison charging and flinging another male bison.
- ScienceAFP Videographics
Portugal grape pickers do it in the buff
With early autumn temperatures in Portugal hovering around 30 degrees Celsius (86 degrees Fahrenheit), a group of nudism enthusiasts don't even sport a vine leaf to cover their modesty as they go about their work in a vineyard 100 kilometres (60 miles) south of Lisbon.
WorldAssociated PressChina sends 24 fighter jets toward Taiwan in show of force
China sent 24 fighter jets toward Taiwan in a large display of force Thursday, after the self-governing island announced its intention to join an 11-nation Pacific trade group that China has also applied to join. China's People's Liberation Army flew fighter jets toward Taiwan twice on Thursday, once in the morning with 19 planes, and once in the afternoon with five more. Taiwan deployed air patrol forces in response to the Chinese jets and tracked them on its air defense systems, the island's Defense Ministry said in a statement.
PoliticsWashington ExaminerBarr had 'Oh, s***' moment when Trump blew up over Durham: Book
Attorney General William Barr braced himself in the face of unprecedented fury displayed by President Donald Trump when he was told special counsel John Durham would likely not finish the criminal inquiry into the Russia investigation until sometime during the incoming Biden administration, according to a new book. The fiery episode happened in early December during a White House meeting after Barr explained why he told the Associated Press that the Justice Department had uncovered no evidence of widespread fraud in the 2020 election, Watergate sleuth Bob Woodward and fellow Washington Post journalist Robert Costa wrote in Peril, which was released on Tuesday. Already frustrated by Barr's refusal to back his claims of a stolen election, Trump asked his attorney general when a conclusion would come in Durham's inquiry into the origins and conduct of the Russia investigation he often dubs a "witch hunt."
U.S.The Daily Beast‘Mama, I Don’t Want to Die’: 20-Year-Old’s COVID Death the Latest Among Younger Victims
Health officials in Florida, Texas, and California have also reported seeing a trend in younger and younger people dying from the virus as the Delta variant continues to drive the fourth wave of the pandemic. Shepherd is far from the only twentysomething to have her life cut short by the virus this week. A 26-year-old Wisconsin police officer died from COVID-19 on Wednesday, just hours after his second child was welcomed into the world, according to Fond du Lac Police Chief Aaron Goldstein.
U.S.Reuters'Critical race theory' roils a Tennessee school district
Robin Steenman, an Air Force veteran and white mother of three, is fed up with the way public schools in her community of Franklin, Tennessee are teaching kids about race. She believes that the reading materials and teachers' manuals are biased, specifically the lessons taught to second graders about civil rights leaders like Martin Luther King Jr. Kids leave class believing that white people are oppressors and minorities are victims, Steenman claims. While her only school-age child attends private school, Steenman nevertheless wants the public system, Williamson County Schools, to change its approach.
U.S.TheGrioJoy Reid calls out ‘Missing White Woman Syndrome’ amid Gabby Petito case
Well, the answer actually has a name: Missing White Woman Syndrome, the term coined by the late and great Gwen Ifill to describe the media and public fascination with missing white women like Laci Peterson or Natalee Holloway while ignoring cases involving of people of color. While noting the inconsistencies in the media's coverage of Americans gone missing, Reid acknowledged the sadness of the Petito case. It goes without saying that no family should ever endure that type of pain,” she said, “and the Petito family certainly deserves answers and justice.
HealthBuzzFeedThis Woman's Story Of How She Gained 50 Pounds In Three Months And Was Told By A Doctor That Her Bloating Was "Psychosomatic" Has Gone Viral On TikTok
Kalista Dwyer is a 22-year-old content creator who recently documented her journey with extreme bloating and weight gain on TikTok. In the video, Kalista explains that she'd inexplicably gained 50 pounds in just three months, experienced intense bloating and pain every time she ate, had swelling in her hands, and was fatigued. BuzzFeed reached out to Kalista, who said that her symptoms began last November, when she spent two weeks visiting Costa Rica.
WorldReutersExclusive-Echoes, uncertainty as Afghan pilots await U.S. help in Tajikistan
A U.S.-trained Afghan pilot was talking to Reuters on a smuggled cellphone from Tajikistan, where he is being held, when something strange happened - his voice started looping, repeating everything he had just said, word for word. It also came amid growing feelings of impatience and uncertainty among the Afghan pilots and personnel who have been held by the government in Tajikistan since fleeing there on Aug. 15. There are 143 Afghans detained at a sanatorium in a mountainous, rural area outside of the Tajik capital, Dushanbe, waiting and hoping for over a month for transfer by the United States.
PoliticsHuffPostRuh-Roh! Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene’s ‘Scooby-Doo’ Stunt Did Not Go Well
Conspiracy theory-endorsing Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) turned to the cartoon “Scooby-Doo” to try to trash the Green New Deal on the House floor on Wednesday, and critics couldn't believe the stunt wasn't a parody. “This is a simple meme that you would find on the internet but this meme is very real,” said Greene, pointing to a poster held up by an aide showing character Fred Jones unmasking a baddie who turns out to be the communist emblems of the hammer and sickle. “The Green New Deal, surprise, serves China and China only,” added Greene, who's become something of a celebrity on the right for her peddling of racist and anti-science conspiracy theories and her unswerving devotion to ex-President Donald Trump.
PoliticsPeopleBiden Had a Four-Word Reaction After He Found Trump's Giant Video Golf Setup in the White House: Book
When President Joe Biden moved into the White House in January, a new book reports, he found his new home somewhat cold — with unusual remnants of Donald Trump's presidency. Peril, by the Washington Post's Bob Woodward and Robert Costa, contains headline-making reporting on the fraught final days of Trump's administration. "Trump's existence permeated the White House," the Peril authors write, according to an ABC News report.
- U.S.Associated Press
High school goes remote again, blames student misbehavior
A Connecticut high school that recently resumed full in-person learning for the first time since the onset of the pandemic sent students home temporarily for remote learning — not because of the virus, but rather issues with misbehavior. New Britain High School, in suburban Hartford, is “hitting the refresh button” and will restart the school year, Principal Damon Pearce wrote in a letter late Tuesday to students and families. Pearce initially said instruction would be done remotely through the end of this week, but the district later notified parents that students would be welcome back Thursday for a half-day.
BusinessBusiness Insider2 former Chick-fil-A employees pled guilty to defrauding the company of half a million dollars to pay for luxury cars, vacations, and a house
A former Chick-fil-A manager and hospitality director pled guilty to fraud charges. The two men intercepted payments from customers into their own bank accounts. A former Chick-fil-A manager pled guilty to charges of defrauding the company and customers of nearly $500,000, according to a release from the US Department of Justice.
- BusinessReal Simple
5 Companies Hiring Work-From-Home Employees for Great Pay Right Now
Not ready to give up that WFH life? Here are five companies that are hiring fully remote employees right now—complete with competitive salaries and exciting perks to boot.
U.S.Associated PressSheriff IDs woman found in 1977 as victim of serial killer
A Mississippi sheriff's department said Tuesday that it has identified the skeletal remains of a woman found nearly 44 years ago, and investigators believe she was a victim of the now-deceased Samuel Little, the most prolific serial killer in U.S. history. Hunters found the woman's remains in December 1977 in the small community of Escatawpa in coastal Jackson County, Mississippi, and investigators had referred to her since then as “Escatawpa Jane Doe.” Sheriff Mike Ezell said in a news release Tuesday that investigators used DNA to identify the remains as those of Clara Birdlong, who was born in 1933 in Leflore County, Mississippi, which is nearly 300 miles (483 kilometers) northwest of Jackson County.
“It wouldn’t take much of an annual wealth tax to rescue the retirement system.”
“Privatizing Social Security — or at least letting individuals opt-out so they can escape the sinking ship — would be a huge win.”
“Congress could save hundreds of billions of dollars by modestly paring back the benefit formula for future wealthy retirees.”
“Raising the retirement age reduces the number of beneficiaries, thereby reducing the costs of the program.”
“Social Security as we know it needs to be abolished and replaced with a better system.”