This is adorable.
Jennifer Jones-Wood
Jennifer Jones-Wood
Hillary For South Carolina / Via Facebook: HillaryforSC
Jennifer Jones-Wood
Eric Jamison / ASSOCIATED PRESS
Felipe Dana / dapd
"We got offered to do Ozzfest Japan in the beginning of the year, so I was like 'Let's say yes to that,'" Lee told Rolling Stone. "I just added the three U.S. dates on to it so we could get a little practice before doing a big gig where everything is out of your control."
The band will be at Nashville's Marathon Music Works on Nov. 13, Dallas' South Side Ballroom on Nov. 15, and Los Angeles' Wiltern on Nov. 17, according to the group's official website.
The band has been on "hiatus" for three years, in which time Lee has pursued something of a solo-career, which has also included scoring films.
But she said she felt drawn back to the group, and was touched by fans' continued love for their angst-filled songs.
"It's such a wonderful gift to have this bag of songs that people know," she said. "It makes me very happy to sing 'Bring Me to Life.' I don't feel so disconnected that I can't sing 'My Immortal,' [though] that's just not completely who I am anymore.
"Yes, I have grown since then. I wouldn't write that song today, but it's become a beautiful part of my history and my fans," she said.
There are no apparent plans for any new music as yet, but Lee did hint at further appearances next year.
"It will be good to see the fans again," she said. "I'm going to be keeping my eye open to us for more opportunities. Like probably next year."
LINK: Do You Remember The Lyrics To “Bring Me To Life” By Evanescence
The plane was carrying more than 200 people when it crashed in Egypt’s volatile Sinai peninsula.
This is too cute.
Saul Loeb / AFP / Getty Images
Saul Loeb / AFP / Getty Images
Saul Loeb / AFP / Getty Images
Andrew Harnik / AP
Frank Franklin Ii / AP
A teenage girl in Oregon is recovering from the bubonic plague after she was bitten by an infected flea during a hunting trip, officials said Thursday.
The girl became sick on Oct. 21 and was hospitalized on Saturday, according to the Oregon Health Authority. She remains in intensive care at a hospital in Bend.
Health authorities believe she got the disease from a flea while she was on a hunting trip near the town of Heppner in eastern Oregon. No one else has become sick, and authorities said it's only the eighth diagnosis of plague in the state since 1995.
The plague bacteria is carried by squirrels, chipmunks, and other wild rodents. When they die from the disease, their infected fleas live on and can pass the disease to humans. In the Middle Ages, the plague — or Black Death — is estimated to have killed 75 million people.
With modern antibiotics and early detection, plague deaths are now rare, health officials said. Still, authorities recommend against touching sick or dead rodents, or feeding chipmunks and squirrels.
Centers for Disease Control / Via cdc.gov
"Many people think of the plague as a disease of the past, but it's still very much present in our environment, particularly among wildlife,” Emilio DeBess, state public health veterinarian, said in a statement. “Fortunately, plague remains a rare disease, but people need to take appropriate precautions with wildlife and their pets to keep it that way."
In the U.S., about seven people get the plague every year, according to the Centers for Disease Control. The death rate is about 8 to 10% of cases, according to the World Health Organization, though the rate may be higher in places where the disease is regularly found.
Firefighters stand next to a Dynamic Airways Boeing 767 Thursday at Fort Lauderdale/Hollywood International Airport in Dania Beach, Fla.
Wilfredo Lee / AP
At least 15 people were injured Thursday after a passenger plane's engine caught fire on a runway at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport in Florida.
Teams from the Broward County Sheriff's Office arrived within two minutes of the first 911 call at 12:34 p.m., sheriff spokesman Mike Jachles told reporters. The evacuation was already in progress, and everyone was off the plane by 12:36 p.m.
Firefighters sprayed the plane with chemical foam, and it appears the fire began in the plane's engine, Jachles said. Emergency responders were still evaluating some of the plane's occupants, but 15 people had been transported to the hospital. One person was seriously burned, Jachles said, two had less serious burns and the remaining 12 were "walking wounded" – suffering from bruises and other minor injuries.
Luckily, Jachles said, the sheriff's office had trained for plane fires and first responders were within a mile of the airport when the emergency took place. The outcome could have been worse, he said.
"We had an effective response, a quick response, and I think that's reflected by the results we see," he said.
A team from the National Transportation Safety Board was en route to investigate the fire. The airport reopened around 3 p.m. after officials inspected runways and equipment for any potential damage.
"Let me make it clear that we oppose ad blocking," New York Times chief executive Mark Thompson said on an earnings call Thursday. "The creation of quality news content is expensive and digital advertising is an important way in which we and other high-quality news providers fund operations."
The company seems set to test a number of responses to ad blocking software, in a manner similar to the Washington Post. As BuzzFeed News reported in September, the Post has experimented with pop-up windows asking users to turn off ad blockers, and others directing those who want an ad-free experience to become paying subscribers.
Thompson said the Times was "exploring a number of options, including, but not limited to, technical solutions, to mitigate the blockers should the threat increase."
Like most print media companies transitioning to digital, the Times is banking its future on a combination of paid online subscriptions and digital advertising. While the former category has outperformed expectations, the latter is struggling amid an industrywide glut of ad inventory and the rapid shift by readers mobile devices.
In the third quarter, the Times pulled in $48.6 million in revenue from its more than 1 million digital subscribers. Revenue from digital advertising shrunk 5% to $36.5 million and made up just over a quarter of its total advertising revenue of $136 million. In total, the company made a $22 million operating profit on revenues of $365 million.
While other publications have taken direct action in response to the rise of ad blockers, the Times has not. Along with the Washington Post, GQ sometimes asks readers to turn off their ad blocker or pay $.49 for an article, while the Guardian asks readers who use ad blockers to make a donation.
Meredith Kopit Levien, the Times' chief revenue officer, told analysts "I think the Times is at industry average in terms of the rate of adoption of blockers on the web." And the company, she said, is working to address the basic dislike of online ads that has driven the rise of blocking software in the first place.
"We're hard at work at making better digital advertising and creating more relevant experiences for our users that kind of match the surrounding New York Times product and editorial experience," Levien said.
While revenue from classified and display advertising both declined from a year ago, the "other" advertising category, which includes branded content, jumped 42% to $5 million.
Thompson told analysts "you can certainly expect to see us experimenting" and that the company was "exploring reactions and working out what works best."
On Thursday, the popular AdBlock tool reported spotting 17 blockable ads on NYTimes.com.
Kevin Winter / Getty Images
Russell Simmons announced Thursday that he's creating a multi-million dollar fund to compensate customers of RushCard, a pre-paid debit card that he founded, the AP reported.
Customers were left in a lurch earlier this month for as many as 10 days when they lost access to the funds saved in their RushCard accounts. The fund will be used to reimburse customers who had incurred late fees to overdue bills or for any other financial hardships they may have faced at the time.
The hiphop mogul spoke to the AP Thursday and said he was devastated and wants to do right by his customers.
The company told the New York Times that "hundreds of thousands" of customers were affected and that it was discussing a reimbursement fund with regulators and was waiting for their approval to start compensating customers.
Richard Cordray, the head of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau said in a statement last week that the regulator "is prepared to use all appropriate tools at our disposal to help ensure that consumers obtain the relief that they deserve."
The problem started for RushCard users on October 12th after scheduled maintenance took longer than expected. By October 13th, some customers were no longer receiving direct deposits and seeing zeroed-out accounts.
RushCard, along with other prepaid debit cards, targets the millions of low-income Americans who struggle to be served by the traditional banking industry.
LINK: Government Says RushCard Will Be Held Accountable For Failure
LINK: Eight Days OF Chaos For Users Of Russell Simmons' Debit Cards
LINK: This Baltimore Mom Had To Walk To Work On RushCard's 9th Day Out
In South Carolina and seven other states, "disturbing schools" can be a criminal misdemeanor punished by fines or jail time.
So when a teacher and administrator at Spring Valley High School were faced with what they described as a student disrupting class, they turned to law enforcement – the school's resource officer, Deputy Ben Fields.
Video captured Fields violently removing the girl from her desk. Richland County Sheriff Leon Lott said his actions were against the department's training and policies, and the FBI launched a civil rights investigation. An attorney for Fields said Wednesday evening that he had acted professionally and within the law.
A second student who said she had spoken up against Fields was also arrested.
"I had never seen nothing like that in my life, a man use that much force on a little girl," Niya Kenny told WLTX. "A big man, like 300 pounds of full muscle. I was like 'no way, no way.' You can't do nothing like that to a little girl."
Under South Carolina's disturbing schools law, it's illegal to willfully or unnecessarily interfere with or disturb students or teachers, as well as loiter or trespass on campus, or "act in an obnoxious manner" on school grounds.
South Carolina State House / Via scstatehouse.gov
It's a law that's much too broad and leads to the arrest of too many students, state Rep. Todd Rutherford told WLTX. Rutherford said he is representing the 16-year-old girl, who he added was traumatized as well as physically injured from the incident, the New York Daily News reported.
"The legislature needs to take action, and make sure our students are not the targets of rogue police officers called “Officer Slam” who are going to walk in and brutalize them at a moment’s notice," Rutherford told WLTX. "School resource officers are there to protect the children from outsiders. To protect the children from threats that involve guns and knives."
The South Carolina legislature is currently not in session, and Rep. Rutherford was not immediately available for comment on whether he would introduce changes to the disturbing schools law.
Around the turn of the last century, disturbing schools laws appeared in states' codes along with laws to protect worship services or public meetings. In several states, they were rewritten to clarify they applied only to non-students — student discipline would fall instead under the schools' administration.
The South Carolina legislature is currently not in session. Rep. Rutherford was not immediately available for comment on whether he would introduce changes to the disturbing schools law.
The ACLU of South Carolina has called it a law that discriminates against students of color.
"We call on South Carolina educators and officials to work to end the discriminatory discipline policies that exist in our schools -- including zero tolerance laws like 'disturbing schools' and corporal punishment," the group said.
Though the law has come under fire, it remains on the books — even passing one challenge to the state Supreme Court. In 2006, South Carolina's Supreme Court considered a case involving a student who said the law unfairly criminalized a wide variety of behavior — including some that should be protected by the First Amendment.
First Amendment rights are protected in schools, the court noted, but students may still not infringe on their classmates' right to an education. Pointing to a previous decision that described the school environment as "fragile by [its] nature," the court said that it's necessary for students and teachers to cooperate and show a "certain level of conduct."
"Clearly the State has a legitimate interest in maintaining the integrity of its education system. This objective is necessarily achieved in part by classroom discipline."
The sheriff's deputy who dragged a South Carolina high school student from her desk before tossing her onto the floor — much of it captured on cell phone cameras — defended his actions in a statement through his attorney Wednesday.
A lawyer for former Richland County Sheriff's Deputy Ben Fields, who was assigned to work at Spring Valley High School, released the statement saying his client's actions were lawful and justified, Fox Carolina reported.
The statement was issued hours after Fields was fired from the department.
In the statement, Fields also thanked people for the support he had received since Monday, when cell phone footage of the incident went viral on social media, causing uproar and leading to his dismissal.
Fields' attorney said he would make no further statements while the matter was under investigation by federal authorities.
First and foremost, Mr. Ben Fields would like to acknowledge and personally thank all of those who have offered their support of his actions during Monday's incident that occurred at Spring Valley High School. The positive response and heartfelt support of Ben has been overwhelming.We believe that Mr. Fields' actions were justified and lawful throughout the circumstances of which he was confronted during this incident. To that extent, we believe that Mr. Fields' actions were carried out professionally and at that he was performing his job duties within the legal threshold.
Mr. Fields welcomes the opportunity to address the particulars at the appropriate time. However, since this matter is presently under investigation with federal authorities, he is respectfully declining to make a statement at this time.
Until such time, there will be no further public comments from Mr. Fields or on his behalf.
LINK: U.S. Opens Civil Rights Investigation Into Officer Caught On Video Throwing High School Student
LINK: Sheriff Fires South Carolina Deputy Who Flipped High School Student
The Weather Company, which owns of The Weather Channel along with a bunch of weather websites, apps and other businesses, will sell the entire company, aside from the TV channel, to IBM.
IBM said it would acquire The Weather Company's corporate and digital business, which includes a lucrative set of operations that store and analyze weather data and license it to other companies. The Weather Company's former owners — NBC Universal, and private equity firms Bain Capital and Blackstone — will continue to own the Weather Channel, which will do a licensing deal with IBM for weather data.
"The Weather Channel operates as a distinct and separate business with its own leadership team, which enables this to be a smooth and seamless transition," said Dave Shull, the CEO of the channel, in a statement.
While the two companies didn't disclose a sale price, the Wall Street Journal reported that a deal would be for around $2 billion. IBM said the Weather Company sells its data and services to more than 5,000 corporate and government clients.
IBM, best known for selling computing hardware and consulting to companies, has made big investments into supercomputing and the large scale data collection and analysis that goes with it. The public face of such efforts is the supercomputers like the company's Jeopardy-winning machine, Watson.
The company said acquiring a giant archive of weather data, as well as the systems and talent to understand it, is another step in its supercomputing efforts. As an example, IBM said the acquisition could help it do "predictive weather analytics coupled with real-time analysis of social media chatter," helping "retailers and distributors finely tune and maintain availability of vital goods in times of need."
Weather data can be useful across a range of industries, from transport to energy and farming. "The Weather Company’s cloud-based data platform will allow IBM to collect an even larger variety and higher velocity of global data sets, store them, analyze them and in turn distribute them and empower richer and deeper insights across the Watson platform," IBM said in a statement announcing the deal.
The acquisition will also give IBM a foothold in people's smartphones, where it will take over the Weather Channel app, which it says is the fourth most used app in the United States on a daily basis — as well as a valuable source of data in its own right. The Weather Company's "sophisticated models analyze data from three billion weather forecast reference points, more than 40 million smartphones and 50,000 airplane flights per day, allowing it to offer a broad range of data-driven products and services," IBM said.
While much of the raw data used for forecasting and analysis is generated by government, weather can still be big business for companies that serve the industries that most care about it. The Climate Corporation, a startup foudned by former Google employees that sells data analysis to farmers and agricultural companies, was bought by Monsanto for over $1 billion in 2013.
IBM is currently valued at about $128 billion, and its shares were up 2% in the hours following the deal's announcement.
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Former New York Mets outfielder Lenny Dykstra is seen during his sentencing for grand theft auto in this March 5, 2012 file photo.
Nick Ut / AP
Former MLB player and convicted felon Lenny Dykstra said Tuesday that during his playing career he hired a "team of private investigators" to dig up dirt on umpires that he'd use to intimidate them into calling fewer strikes against him.
"I just pulled a half-million bucks out and hired a private investigation team," Dykstra explained Tuesday afternoon on The Herd with Colin Cowherd on Fox Sports.
"Their blood is just as red as ours. Some of them like women, some of them like men, some of them gamble. Some of them do whatever … It wasn’t a coincidence do you think that I led the league in walks the next two years, was it? Fear does a lot to a man."
Dykstra claimed that after an umpire would call a strike against him, he'd turn around and ask, "Did you cover the spread last night?"
Two umpires who worked during Dykstra's playing career have come out as gay; Dale Scott, who came out quietly in 2014 in an issue of Referee Magazine, is an active umpire.
Former umpire Dave Pallone, who resigned after he was outed in 1988, said following the interview that Dykstra had never blackmailed him.
Dykstra claimed to Cowherd that his blackmailing of umpires — which he says started "after he got the money" — is the reason he led the league in walks in 1993. That season, Dykstra walked 129 times. Statistically, his '93 season is drastically different than the years that preceded and followed: Dykstra walked 40 times in 1992 and 68 times in 1994.
Doug Mills / ASSOCIATED PRESS
Cowherd asked Dykstra if this was the first time he had told his story about investigating and blackmailing umpires. Dykstra said yes, and that he has more to say in his upcoming book.
At the beginning of the interview, Dykstra said he spent $500,000 on the private investigator team, but later told Cowherd he'd decided to blackmail the umpires to support his family.
"I had to do what I had to do to win and to
support my family," he said.
Dykstra made his MLB debut in 1985 with the New York Mets. He batted leadoff for the Mets during their 1986 World Series victory over the Boston Red Sox. He spent eight seasons with the Philadelphia Phillies, retiring in 1996 at the age of 33 following numerous injuries.
Post-MLB career, Dykstra attempted various business ventures, but filed for bankruptcy in 2009. In 2011, he was arrested for attempting to purchase a stolen car and charged with bankruptcy fraud. Dykstra pleaded no contest to related felonies in 2012 and spent 6 and a half months in prison.
Dykstra claimed he had a single cell in federal prison between Dr. Conrad Murray — who treated Michael Jackson before his death — and a leader with the Mexican mafia. He claimed he was instructed by the gang leader to read while he was in prison to pass the time.
"I never read a book growing up because I thought it would hurt my eyes for baseball," Dykstra said Tuesday, then claiming he read 300 books during his half-year stint in prison.
The company has now beat analyst expectations in every quarter for the last two years, with 48 million iPhones sold in the last three months.
Josh Edelson / AFP / Getty Images
Apple beat Wall Street estimates for profit and revenue again in its most recent quarter, bringing in $11.1 billion in earnings on $51.5 billion in revenues. The company has now beat Wall Street projections for profits every quarter for the past two years, according to data collected by Bloomberg.
And the real action is still to come: Apple's biggest quarter comes next, as the holiday shopping season spurs a frenzy of phone, tablet and laptop sales. Apple predicted revenue for the final three months of the year at between $75.5 billion and $77.5 billion, while analysts expect revenue in that quarter to be $77 billion. In the holiday season last year, Apple had the most profitable quarter in American history, turning an $18 billion profit on $75 billion in revenue.
Investors cheered Tuesday's results, sending the stock up over 3% to $118 in after-hours trading; Apple stock was up almost 4% for the year as of the end of trading Tuesday, prior to the results being announced.
Andreas Solaro / AFP / Getty Images
Tsering Topgyal / AP
IAC, the internet conglomerate that owns dating sites like Match.com, Tinder, and OKCupid, has told its investors to expect a surge in mobile usage — but says the resulting surge in advertising dollars will take a little longer to arrive.
The company's online dating businesses are already booming, and revenue for IAC's Match Group, which runs dozens of dating sites and also owns the Princeton Review, grew 19% in the most recent quarter, IAC said Monday. But the company is going through a transition familiar to the rest of the internet economy — from desktop to mobile, with users moving to mobile faster than the advertising dollars that target them.
Match, which filed for an IPO earlier this month, said it will be relying on its existing subscription products "to continue to drive revenue growth even without enhancements." In the first half of this year, Match said in the IPO filing, 96% of its $433 million in dating revenue was "direct revenue" from paying users, while the rest was "indirect revenue" — almost entirely advertising. And on mobile, it's harder to convince free users to sign up for paid subscriptions.
"The continued shift to mobile devices in our businesses with pre-existing desktop businesses, while long-term positive, continues to present conversion challenges in the near term," said Greg Blatt, Match's chairman. "On average our mobile products have lower conversion than their desktop counterparts."
The best example is Tinder, an app that is mostly free to use and has been growing insanely fast. Match has started to sell ads on Tinder, a potential revenue goldmine as companies seek to reach the young and thirsty. Match has said that generating ad revenue "has historically not been a principal focus" and that on Tinder, it has sold less than 2% of all available advertising spots.
So while more ads will be showing up on Tinder in the long run, the company still needs to figure how to get people to pay for mobile products. Tinder has been charging for access to special features, and in prepared remarks today Blatt said that Tinder's subscription products "continue to perform well," especially its "Super Like", which "has driven an increase in subscription rates, an increase in match rates, and higher rates of conversations."
The Super Like, which can only be used once a day for free, lets users see that they have been liked before they decide to like someone back. If you want to do it more than once a day, you can get five daily Super Likes, plus other subscriber-only options, as part of the $9.99 per month Tinder Plus service (the company charges less than this for users in some international markets, and more for people older than 30.)
Ads are still not a priority for the dating app. "Tinder product resources are primarily now focused on growth initiatives, not monetization initiatives," Blatt said.
Tinder introduced ads in April, and in an earnings call in July, Blatt said "in a world of scarce resources we opted not to devote meaningful time this year to developing the sort of roadmap," but noted that "there's huge demand from advertisers." In June, Tinder co-founder Sean Rad said that users swipe right 20% of the time for brand profiles and that Tinder users watch the app's video ads all the way to the end at a significantly higher rate than other mobile video ads.
Match said in its IPO filings that it has 59 million monthly active users and 4.7 million paid users. The company said it would stop disclosing those numbers and instead disclose "average paid member count," which is the sum of paid subscribers at the end of every day in a quarter divided by the numbers of days in that quarter. Right now, the average paid member count is 4.2 million, up from 3.6 million a year ago.
Three adults and a 2-year-old boy were killed when a car drove into the crowd. Another 51 people were injured.
The driver, Adacia Chambers, is facing charges of murder and DUI. Four people were killed and more than 50 people were injured.
Here's what we know about those who died:
Nash was at the parade with his mother, Nicolette Strauch, who was injured in the incident.
Strauch is an OSU student and also works for the school's parking and transit services. OSU President Burns Hargis said in a statement Monday that she was "devastated" by the child's death.
Josh Lucas, the boy's father, on Sunday posted "Miss you so much buddy" on Facebook.
A GoFundMe page is collecting donations to support Strauch, as well as pay for Nash's memorial service.
The boy, who would have turned 3 in April, was described as joyful and loving.
"Nash was a sweet, happy, smart little boy who had so much potential," the family said in the statement. "He was a joy to be around and absolutely nothing can be done to make up for the loss we have suffered."
Authorities say they are investigating the incident after the “disturbing” video footage began to spread through social media on Monday.
The Kurdistan Region Security Council has released a video that appears to show Thursday's rescue of 69 hostages from ISIS in a joint operation with the U.S. that also left an American soldier dead.
The helmet-camera video shows civilian men quickly filing through the prison in Hawija, Iraq amid what sounds like gunfire. In one room, the black flag used by ISIS hangs on a wall. In another room, the former prisoners are patted down; an American soldier can be heard speaking in the background.
The overnight mission saved hostages who were in "imminent danger" of execution by ISIS, U.S. officials later said. Kurdish officials said more than 20 ISIS fighters were killed, and six were taken captive.
U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter said a "significant cache" of intelligence was gathered in the raid.
Three Peshmerga soldiers from Kurdistan were injured in the operation, and U.S. Army Master Sgt. Joshua L. Wheeler, 39, was killed. It was the first U.S. combat death in Iraq since 2011.
Wheeler, who was assigned to the Army's Special Operations command, had deployed three times to Afghanistan and Iraq.
LINK: U.S. Soldier Killed During Hostage Rescue Mission In Iraq Has Been Identified
LINK: Defense Secretary Defends Ground Missions In Iraq After Death Of U.S. Soldier In Hostage Rescue
The Canadian Coast Guard began a rescue mission Sunday evening after a boat carrying 27 people sank off the coast of British Columbia.
There were fatalities as well as survivors, said staff at the Join Rescue Coordination Center in Victoria. The boat belonged to a local tour company.
According to Global News, the boat was part of a guided whale watching tour.
This is a developing story. Check back for updates and follow BuzzFeed News on Twitter.
Paul J. Richards / Getty Images
Ben Carson compared abortion to slavery in an interview on Sunday, adding he would only support terminating a pregnancy in the "extraordinarily rare" case where the life of the mother was at risk.
Carson's comments were part of an interview with NBC's Meet the Press and expanded on his previous statements on the issue. He said abortion should not be an option for unwanted pregnancies or in situations of rape or incest.
"I'm a reasonable person and if people can come up with a reasonable explanation of why they would like to kill a baby, I'll listen," Carson said.
Carson then compared abortion to slavery.
"During slavery, a lot of the slaveowners thought they had the right to do whatever they wanted to that slave, anything that they chose to do," he said. "What if the abolitionists had said, 'I don’t believe in slavery, I think it’s wrong, but you guys do whatever you want to do.' Where would we be?"
Moderator Chuck Todd also asked Carson if he would support overturning Roe v. Wade, the Supreme Court case that determined abortion as a right.
"Ultimately I'd love to see it overturned," Carson said.
LINK: Carson In 1999: White People “Have No Grasp” On History Of Racial Violence In U.S
Warning: this post contains distressing images.
NBC / Via nbcnews.com
The fishermen, Recep Evran and Cenap Gumran, spotted the infant, Muhammed Hasan, and a group of other people nearby floating in the waters of the Aegean Sea off the town of Kusadasi, Turkey's Hurriyet Daily News reported.
The refugees had been on a migrant ship that sunk while trying to reach Greece.
At the start of the video, the men first rescue the others from the water, believing the baby was dead as he was pale and cold.
"We were very upset [because we thought] he wasn't alive," said Evran, according to the Associated Press.
"We thought he was dead. Then, when we were pulling Muhammed to the boat, we heard his voice ... And at that moment, we were ecstatic. I said 'He's alive, he's alive!" Evran said.
Laura Rauch / ASSOCIATED PRESS
A Colorado rancher sold 1,700 wild horses to be slaughtered for meat after buying them from the federal government and saying he was planning to send them to pasture as pets, according to a newly released report.
Tom Davis was the biggest buyer of horses from the Bureau of Land Management, which is responsible for the thousands of horses that roam government-owned land in the West. When herds grow to large to be supported by the land, the bureau may sell horses or put them up for adoption.
But the horses should not be sold for slaughter, with Congress having pressured the bureau to adopt a policy to make sure the animals go to good homes. "Adopt a living legend," reads one portion of the bureau's website.
Carolyn Kaster / ASSOCIATED PRESS
In 1999 and the early 2000s, the Davis family adopted 24 horses through the National Wild Horse and Burro program, according to a report released Friday by the federal Office of Inspector General. In the following years, he began to buy horses from the government by the truckload.
Between 2008 and 2012, investigators found that Davis spent $17,940 on horses. The Bureau of Land Management spent $140,000 transporting them to his care.
Davis told the bureau he might resell the horses, but he completed a bill of sale that he would not knowingly turn over the animals for slaughter.
When bureau staff asked him what he was doing with so many horses, he said he was giving them to "wealthy friends" to keep as pets on their pastures.
A complaint against Davis in 2012 first alleged he was actually sending the horses to be slaughtered. When the bureau investigated, however, officials said they couldn't find any evidence of wrongdoing.
Blm Handout Photo / AP
An independent investigation by the OIG began around the same time.
In an interview with OIG investigators, Davis ultimately admitted to reselling the horses to a company that transported them to Mexico to be slaughtered for meat, according to the report. He made a profit of about $100 for each horse he sold.
"Davis said that demand for horse meat, which he compared to meat from cows, sheep, and goats, was high, and that he wanted to obtain more horses from [the government wild horses program]," the OIG report said.
Federal and local prosecutors declined to file charges against Davis.
In response to the OIG report, the Bureau of Land Management said they no longer have a "business relationship" with Davis. The bureau also said it had tightened its policies to prevent similar situations: Since December 2012 a higher-level manager must approve sales of more than four horses to a single buyer within six months, deputy director of operations Steven Ellis wrote.
Ellis added that bureau staff had repeatedly asked Davis what his plans were for the horses.
"Unfortunately these practices were not strong enough to prevent Mr.
Davis's deceitful actions," Ellis wrote.
Kelly Black, 42, was walking her dog Paco around 6 a.m. ET in Jacksonville when she was hit by a truck and dragged underneath the vehicle.
"It appears that she was possibly struck by a tractor trailer and it's unknown if the driver knew that he struck the victim," a police spokesman told reporters Friday.
As Tucson News Now reported, Paco waited by his owner's side as she died, then continued to wait as police arrived to cover up the body.
CBS47 / Via actionnewsjax.com
Paco was filmed by reporters lying on the street, his head slumped on the road, as officers taped off the area of the accident.
After the body was taken away, the dog stayed at the scene, but he was eventually reunited with Black's family.
CBS47 / Via actionnewsjax.com
Police believe the dog may be the only witness to the crash, but Black's mother, Pat Johnson, told Tucson News Now she hoped someone would come forward.
Johnson said Black had two dogs. “They're going to be real sad over their momma's not home with them no more. Momma's not coming back, I guess, no more,” she said.
Vote 1 Dogald Trump.
AP Photo/Mary Altaffer
Jason Decrow / Invision for Purina Beggin / AP Images
Jason Decrow / Invision for Purina Beggin' / AP Images
Mary Altaffer / AP
The official color of the U.N. was projected onto some 300 buildings and monuments around the globe.
Lucas Jackson / Reuters
Lucas Jackson / Reuters
"The timeless values of the U.N. Charter must remain our guide," U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said in a statement. "Our shared duty is to 'unite our strength' to serve 'we the peoples.'"
"To mark this anniversary, monuments and buildings across the world are being illuminated in U.N. blue," he said. "As we shine a light on this milestone anniversary, let us reaffirm our commitment to a better and brighter future for all."
China Stringer Network / Reuters
RushCard founder Russell Simmons
Dima Gavrysh / AP
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has issued a blistering statement targeting RushCard, the prepaid debit card founded by Russell Simmons whose system failure has prevented some customers from accessing their money for more than ten days.
CFPB chief Richard Cordray said he has "personally spoken" with Rick Savard, the CEO of RushCard's parent company, "to make sure that action is being taken to address harm that has occurred," along with "harm that may still be occurring, and the cascading financial effects of consumers not having access to their funds for more than a week."
Cordray also hinted at further regulatory action. "We indicated that the CFPB is prepared to use all appropriate tools at our disposal to help ensure that consumers obtain the relief that they deserve," he said in the statement. Cordray also said he had spoken with other financial and consumer regulators, including the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, which overseas banks, and the Federal Trade Commission.
He said these discussions were to "ensure a comprehensive response that addresses the situation quickly and holds accountable all of the parties involved to make consumers whole."
The CFPB, which was inspired by Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren, who also helped set the agency up, has long taken a very public stance against what it sees as bad actors in the financial services industry. After news broke that thousands of RushCard customers were unable to access cash for up to a week, the CFPB has been soliciting consumer complaints on social media and its website.
“It is outrageous that consumers have not had access to their money for more than a week,” Gail Hillebrand, the associate director for consumer education and engagement at the at the CFPB, told the New York Times Tuesday. “We are looking into this very troubling issue. Consumers increasingly are relying on prepaid products to keep their funds, make purchases and manage their money.”
The problem started for RushCard users on October 12th after scheduled maintenance took longer than expected. By October 13th, some customers were no longer receiving direct deposits and seeing zeroed-out accounts.
RushCard, along with other prepaid debit cards, targets the millions of low-income Americans who struggle to be served by the traditional banking industry. Like other prepaid cards, the Russell Simmons product has drawn criticism for its fees, which include a $10 activation fee and $7.95 monthly fee, along with a $2.50 out-of-network ATM fee. The company said this past weekend that it would suspend those fees through the end of February.
On Thursday, Simmons said on Twitter "ALL FUNCTIONS back up," but noted that "there area few people that have problems with card to card transfer fixing that now" [sic]. Simmons also said some customer had been seeing transactions show up twice, but said this was just a display issue that was being corrected.
Here is CFBP chief Richard Cordray's full statement
“The CFPB is taking direct action to get to the bottom of this situation that may have harmed thousands of innocent consumers already. Today, I have personally spoken with UniRush CEO Rick Savard to make sure that action is being taken to address harm that has occurred, the harm that may still be occurring, and the cascading financial effects of consumers not having access to their funds for more than a week. We have stressed that RushCard and its relevant business partners must ensure that no other consumers will be denied access to their funds. Further, we indicated that the CFPB is prepared to use all appropriate tools at our disposal to help ensure that consumers obtain the relief that they deserve. We also agreed that the most constructive path forward for UniRush to reduce consumer harm is to take immediate action to resolve these issues. The CFPB has also engaged in discussions with fellow regulators, including the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and the Federal Trade Commission, to ensure a comprehensive response that addresses the situation quickly and holds accountable all of the parties involved to make consumers whole. Affected consumers should continue to file complaints directly with UniRush or with the CFPB at consumerfinance.gov or toll-free at 855-411-2372.”
Jerry McBride/The Durango Herald via AP
The mine blowout that turned a Colorado river a sickly orange for several days over the summer was caused by the Environmental Protection Agency team working on a clean-up project, according to an independent report by government investigators.
The Department of Interior's Bureau of Reclamation on Thursday delivered its report on the Gold King Mine incident to the EPA, summarizing how the spill was caused and offering recommendations to prevent future disasters. The failures at Gold King Mine show larger issues within the procedures the government uses to remediate abandoned mines, the report stated.
"[We] found that the conditions and actions that led to the Gold King Mine incident are not isolated or unique, and in fact are surprisingly prevalent," investigators wrote.
Alexa Rogals / AP
According to the Associated Press, thousands of mining tunnels in the western U.S. are filled with the same contaminated sludge. Government authorities have struggled with clean-up efforts for years, and many waterways have been contaminated.
EPA
In spite of the serious nature of the issue, the investigators found there are few requirements about how a clean-up should be managed. Clean-up efforts often focus on environmental issues with "little appreciation for the engineering complexity of some abandoned mine projects that often require, but do not receive a significant level of expertise," the report stated.
Regarding the Gold King Mine, the report said the EPA team guessed the water levels within the mine tunnel were at about the same height as the seepage coming through a blocked-up portal. In reality, the water levels were higher and pressurized, as if against a dam.
"This error resulted in development of a plan to open in the mine in a manner that appeared to guard against blowout, but instead led directly to the failure," the report stated.
The error could have been corrected if the team had used a drill rig to bore into the mine from above to check the water levels — a technique used in a another mine clean-up nearby.
"Although this was apparently considered at Gold King, it was not done," the report said. "Had it been done, the plan to open the mine would have been revised, and the blowout would not have occurred."
Alexa Rogals / AP
The report did not detail communication and decision-making within the EPA to assign blame. The technical implications, however, were clear, investigators said.
"The incident at Gold King Mine is somewhat emblematic of the current state of practice in abandoned mine remediation," the report stated.
In addition to miscalculating water levels, the report said the EPA team failed to analyze the consequences of a potential failure as well as how their work could affect the local groundwater system.
After the blowout, contaminated water moved as a plume through the Animas River as it traveled into New Mexico and Utah, toward Lake Powell. Residents were urged not to drink or come into contact with the water.
River closures caused economic hardship for farmers as well as recreation businesses. The contamination didn't appear to have immediate effects on wildlife, but officials acknowledged that sediment could resurface in coming years.
LINK: Colorado Reopens River After Major Contamination Spill
Amazon.com founder and CEO Jeff Bezos.
Sajjad Hussain / AFP / Getty Images
Amazon investors are adjusting to a strange new reality: a company that has capacity and the willingess to churn out profits on a somewhat consistent basis.
The e-commerce giant said Thursday it made a $79 million profit in its most recent quarter, up from a $437 million loss in same period last year. Wall Street analysts were expecting a loss of 13 cents per share, not the 17 cent per share profit they ended up seeing. As usual, revenue grew by around 20%, hitting $25.4 billion compared to $20.6 billion in the third quarter of 2014. The rising value of the U.S. currently meant overseas sales looked a little lower in dollar terms — $1.3 billion lower, Amazon said.
Amazon
While the online retailing business is still thriving, the company's cloud computing unit has emerged as one of Amazon's crown jewels. The impressive financials of Amazon Web Services was revealed for the first time in April, and it keeps getting better: This quarter, the unit had revenue of just over $2 billion, almost double the same period last year, and it made a $521 million operating profit.
To put that in perspective, Amazon's entire North American online retail business made an operating profit of $528 million. Rackspace, a public company valued at $3.5 billion which provides similar cloud computing services, had $1.8 billion in revenue in all of 2014. In the last nine months, AWS's revenue has been almost $5.5 billion with profits of almost $1.2 billion.
Amazon stock rose 10% in after-market trading to $620.53. Amazon stock often generates wild price swings in the wake of earnings reports, which have historically gyrated between large loses and marginal profits, along with steady revenue growth. On average the stock swings by 9% after reporting results, according to data collected by Bloomberg.
On a call with analysts, Amazon chief financial officer Brian Olsavsky said "innovation and investment will continue and can be lumpy,” and that the company “will continue to work on costs.”
But it looks like some form of bottom-line stability is emerging. Amazon has turned out a profit in three of its last four quarters, and beat Wall Street expectations in all four. In the four quarters before that, it beat or matched Wall Street expectations once and turned a profit twice. Amazon's stock is up over 80% in the last year.
The Republican presidential hopeful made the remark at a forum for members of the Hispanic community in Nevada.
The Republican presidential hopeful spoke at an event at the College of Southern Nevada presented by the Libre Initiative. The forum aimed to offer members of the Hispanic community a chance to ask Bush about issues they were interested in.
Students take cover under desks as they participate in the "Great California ShakeOut" earthquake drill.
Justin Sullivan / Getty Images
Using GPS and aircraft radar to measure stress in tectonic fault lines, NASA scientists have calculated that there is a 99% chance of a 5.0 or greater earthquake hitting Los Angeles within the next 2 1/2 years.
An earthquake that size is considered moderate, but depending on where it struck, the shaking could cause millions in damage to buildings and infrastructure, and even kill.
The paper, written by scientists at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, and published in Earth and Space Science, examined the Orange County town of La Habra, where a 5.1-magnitude quake in 2014 caused about $12 million damage. A 6.1 quake near Napa, California, in 2015 left one person dead, as many as 200 injured, and caused an estimated $300 million in damage.
According to the authors, changes on the surface of the earth can help predict what's going on with faults below its surface. For example, researchers looked at displacements on the surface before and after the 2014 La Habra earthquake. Their findings suggested another similarly sized — or larger — earthquake would take place somewhere within the L.A. region's intricate fault system soon.
The paper sparked concern among Southern California residents, as well as a skeptical response from the U.S. Geological Survey, which noted that NASA paper fails to explain how the 99% probability was calculated.
The USGS' own seismic hazard map puts the probability of an earthquake in the same region within three years to be 85%.
Andrea Donnellan, the NASA paper's lead author, told KPCC that her team looked at the number of magnitude 5.0 earthquakes over the last 81 years.
“So if you just look at that on average, it's about an earthquake every three years," Donnellan told station.
Broken bottles are seen on the floor after falling off the shelves at a CVS pharmacy, following a magnitude 5.1 earthquake near La Habra, California on March 29, 2014.
Gene Blevins / Reuters
The USGS' 85% probability was the result of input from hundreds of scientists working toward a consensus using multiple models, said Lucy Jones, a USGS seismologist. The USGS hazard assessment is then used by government agencies in their emergency planning.
"It's a way to try and incorporate a range of scientific understanding and get the best assessment," she told BuzzFeed News.
The probability of 85% means a 5.0 earthquake every few years, Jones explained. Some of them could cause damage, while others might be barely felt by most Southern California residents.
A probability of 99.9%, however, would suggest a 5.0 earthquake every few months, a rate that doesn't fit with historical observations, Jones said.
According to a USGS statement, the earthquake rate implied by the 99.9% probability is "significantly higher than observed at any time previously in Southern California."
The lack of details on the method of analysis by the NASA scientists, the USGS added, "makes a critical assessment of this approach very difficult" and does not change its earlier finding of an 85% probability.
Simply put, it's true that California regularly sees earthquakes, Jones said, but one paper shouldn't cause panic.
"We have a lot of earthquakes, and we need to prepare for them," she said.
