PoliticsAssociated PressWisconsin GOP leader Vos fires 2020 election investigator
Wisconsin's Republican Assembly leader on Friday ended a 14-month, taxpayer-funded inquiry into the 2020 election by firing his hand-picked investigator. Assembly Speaker Robin Vos' firing of Michael Gableman came just three days after the lawmaker narrowly survived a primary challenge from an opponent endorsed by former President Donald Trump and Gableman. While Gableman found no evidence of widespread fraud during his inquiry, he had joined Trump in calling for lawmakers to consider decertifying the 2020 election — something Vos and legal experts say is unconstitutional and impossible.
U.S.TODAYNew video released of OnlyFans model Courtney Clenney, boyfriend she’s accused of murdering
Prosecutors in Miami released new video of an OnlyFans model in a violent altercation in an elevator with her boyfriend, who she is now accused of murdering. Courtney Clenney, 26, was charged with one count of second-degree murder in the April stabbing of her boyfriend, Christian “Toby” Obumseli, Miami-Dade County State Attorney Kathy Rundle said during a press conference Thursday. Rundle played a video of Clenney and Obumseli from February at their apartment building that appears to show Clenney hitting the elevator before she starts striking and shoving Obumseli.
U.S.Miami HeraldShe was already in a Florida jail. Then came a ‘horrific’ video and a sheriff’s warning
A woman has been accused of drowning her Chihuahua in her pool and later posting video of the act for her followers to see. Erica Black, 32, was already incarcerated on an aggravated assault charge on $150,000 bond, and got an additional $15K bond tacked on for animal abuse and cruelty. The “graphic and disgusting” video of her drowning the dog last October recently came to light as Black's roommate brought the home security footage to authorities, said Brevard Sheriff Wayne Ivey in a Facebook post on Thursday.
U.S.AutoblogOregon cops make arrests in thefts of 44,000 catalytic converters
Police in suburban Portland, Oregon, said Thursday they arrested a crime ring leader responsible for trafficking more than 44,000 catalytic converters stolen from vehicles on the West Coast since 2021. Beaverton police say they busted a local organized crime ring, arresting two suspected ringleaders and 12 suspected associates. According to Oregon Live, authorities were alerted to the operations when one of the suspects was caught hauling 100 stolen catalytic converters during a traffic stop late in 2021.
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.
PoliticsNational Review‘Sounds about Right’: Ex-CIA Chief Michael Hayden Implies Trump Should Be Executed for Taking Classified Docs
Former CIA Director Michael Hayden seemed to endorse the execution of former president Donald Trump on Thursday after a report indicated FBI agents were searching the former president's residence for classified documents related to nuclear weapons. Hayden responded to a tweet on Thursday by presidential historian Michael Beschloss, who noted that Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, Americans who were convicted of spying on behalf of the Soviet Union, were “convicted for giving U.S. nuclear secrets to Moscow, and were executed June 1953.” Hayden, who previously served as director of the National Security Agency and the CIA under former Presidents Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, and Barack Obama, replied to the tweet: “Sounds about right.”
PoliticsReutersFBI seized top secret documents at Trump's home, U.S. government says
(Reuters) -FBI agents who searched former President Donald Trump's Florida home this week removed 11 sets of classified documents including some marked as top secret, the U.S. Justice Department said on Friday while also disclosing that prosecutors had probable cause to believe Trump may have violated the Espionage Act. The bombshell disclosures were made in a search warrant and accompanying legal documents released four days after FBI agents carried out the search of Trump's Mar-a-Lago residence in Palm Beach based on a warrant approved by a federal magistrate judge. Trump, in a statement on his social media platform, said the records at issue were "all declassified" and placed in "secure storage."
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.
U.S.Fort Worth Star-TelegramInvasive critters that can lay 1,000 eggs at a time are found in Texas. What to know
Invasive critters were collected from a Texas apartment complex pond earlier this year — and wildlife experts say the females can lay up to 1,000 eggs at a time. University of Texas Rio Grande Valley researchers first collected three Australian redclaw crayfish in January and February, according to an Aug. 11 news release from the Texas Parks & Wildlife Department. They were found in a pond that connects to a Brownsville-area resaca, a type of oxbow lake.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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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.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?
WorldMiami HeraldCenturies-old warnings emerge from riverbed as Europe faces historic drought
Water levels have dropped in major rivers across Europe as the region suffers under a historic drought. In those dry riverbeds, centuries-old warning messages have emerged, locals report. One of these stones is embedded in the Elbe River, which runs from the mountains of Czechia through Germany to the North Sea, POLITICO journalist Aitor Hernández-Morales tweeted the same day.
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.
PoliticsAZCentral | The Arizona RepublicTrump, not Merrick Garland, is playing a dangerous game with the FBI raid
Trump and his supporters are up in arms, accusing the FBI of targeting him just because the agency doesn't like him. How quickly they've forgotten – or rather, how conveniently they keep ignoring – that Trump fired his own FBI chief, James Comey, who refused to pledge loyalty to him and wouldn't let Trump use the agency to go after his political rivals. Have they forgotten how Trump agreed with “lock her up” chants, referring to jailing his 2016 presidential opponent Hillary Clinton?
PoliticsINSIDERTrump pleaded the Fifth more than 440 times during his deposition in New York, answering only a question about what his name is, NBC reports
A source told NBC News Trump pleaded the Fifth more than 440 times during his deposition Wednesday. Trump's attorney Ron Fischetti said Trump answered only one question: what his name is. Trump in 2018 railed against pleading the Fifth, saying only "the mob" did that.
WorldReutersSalman Rushdie, novelist who drew death threats, is stabbed at New York lecture
Salman Rushdie, the Indian-born novelist who spent years in hiding after Iran urged Muslims to kill him because of his writing, was stabbed in the neck onstage at a lecture in New York state on Friday and airlifted to a hospital, police said. He was alive and in surgery, according to his literary agent, Andrew Wylie. A man rushed to the stage at the Chautauqua Institution and attacked Rushdie, 75, as he was being introduced to give a talk on artistic freedom to an audience of hundreds, eyewitnesses said.
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.FTW OutdoorsWatch: ‘Idiot’ nearly takes fatal leap in Bryce Canyon National Park
In Yellowstone National Park, for instance, tourons are constantly getting too close to bison, some with disastrous results. Well, stupidity isn't solely reserved for Yellowstone, as one touron in Bryce Canyon National Park in Utah proved. TouronsOfYellowstone's Instagram page posted video of a tourist leaping over a lookout railing and falling backwards upon landing, and sliding to the edge of a cliff.
- WorldCBS News Videos
Video shows model hitting boyfriend months before his alleged murder
Surveillance video shows an incident between social media model Courtney Clenney and her boyfriend, Christian Obumseli, in an elevator in their private Miami apartment building, months before she allegedly killed him. She was charged with second-degree murder this week.
“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.”