C=Net – by Jon Skillings

The intriguingly long mission of the unmanned X-37B has come to a conclusion at last. But the mystery of the mission lingers on.

The US Air Force space plane, one of just two X-37B vehicles in the Pentagon’s inventory, landed Friday morning under the auspices of the 30th Space Wing at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California after 674 days in space — that is, 22 months.

And that’s about all that the space plane’s handlers would say about the mission, aside from the terse statement that it “conducted on-orbit experiments.”   Continue reading “Secretive X-37B space plane returns to Earth, two years on”

Police car photoKIRO 7

Ben and Rachel Kohnen were racing to the hospital in the middle of the night because Rachel had gone into labor, according to FOX 43. The couple claims they were going about 30 miles over the speed limit. When a police car turned on its lights to pull them over, they admit they kept going.

Rachel was terrified of having the baby in the car. She tried calling 911 to explain the situation, but she was having contractions and was so upset that the 911 operator may not have been able to understand her.   Continue reading “Police allegedly hold woman in labor at gunpoint for speeding to hospital”

Yale-New Haven HospitalCourant – by Kelly Glista

W HAVEN — Officials say Yale-New Haven Hospital expects to receive test results in the next 24 hours on a patient who recently traveled to Liberia and was admitted Wednesday night with a fever.

The patient is one of two Yale University students who returned home last week after spending a month in Liberia researching the Ebola outbreak, according to the mayor’s office.   Continue reading “Yale-New Haven Hospital Patient In Isolation With Ebola-Like Symptoms”

AOL – by Jennifer Peltz

NEW YORK (AP) – A man who served nearly 30 years in prison for murder was ordered freed Wednesday after prosecutors concluded he falsely confessed when he was 16.

David McCallum and the late Willie Stuckey’s convictions were thrown out Wednesday, at Brooklyn District Attorney Kenneth Thompson’s request. Thompson said their convictions hinged on untrue confessions, made by teenagers, rife with inaccuracies and peppered with details seemingly supplied by police.   Continue reading “2 men cleared in 1985 NYC kidnapping, killing”

635488001526624805-635487993515740274-1013-ninaphamoneKHOU – by Rebecca Lopez

DALLAS — Men in full protective suits helped remove a King Charles Spaniel Monday from the apartment of Dallas nurse Nina Pham, who was diagnosed with Ebola on Saturday.

Texas A&M veterinary experts are monitoring the dog named Bentley.

“There is great concern about how to protect this dog; how to treat this dog humanely while protecting the public,” said Dr. Eleanor Green, A&M’s dean of veterinary medicine.   Continue reading “Ebola patient’s dog under medical surveillance”

ABC News

A second health care worker at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital who tended to Thomas Eric Duncan as he died of Ebola has tested positive for the lethal virus, and a local official said this morning that additional cases among the hospital’s health care workers is a “very real possibility.”

“The fight against Ebola in Dallas is a two-front fight now,” Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins said, speaking at a morning press conference.

Authorities said they are now tracking 75 people following the second hospital worker’s diagnosis. The unidentified health care worker reported a fever Tuesday and was isolated at the hospital, authorities said.    Continue reading “Ebola Strikes Second Texas Hospital Worker and More Cases a ‘Possibility’”

Washington Post – by J. Freedom du Lac, Abby Phillip and Brady Dennis

In the first apparent case of Ebola transmission in the United States, a Texas hospital worker who treated an Ebola-stricken Liberian man has tested positive for the deadly virus.

The preliminary test result was announced early Sunday, four days afterthe death of Ebola patient Thomas Eric Duncan in Dallas.

The Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital worker reported “a low-grade fever” Friday, the Texas Department of State Health Services said in a statement. This person “was isolated and referred for testing.” The preliminary test result was received late Saturday.   Continue reading “Dallas health worker who tested positive for Ebola wore ‘full’ protective gear”

Marcel Hamer lies prone after being struck unconscious.New York Daily News – by Ryan Sit

A video showing an NYPD officer apparently knocking out a Brooklyn teen surfaced on Wednesday — the same day footage of another cop allegedly stealing more than $1,000 from a Brooklyn construction worker went viral.

The officer stopped 17-year-old Marcel Hamer on June 4 in Clinton Hill on suspicion of smoking marijuana, police said.

The video begins showing Marcel Hamer lying on his back, shouting in pain with the cop’s left foot planted on Hamer’s stomach. He then pleads repeatedly with the cop, saying he wasn’t smoking marijuana.    Continue reading “NYPD officer knocks teen unconscious with punch over suspicious cigarette”

AOL

MADRID (AP) – Three more people were under observation for Ebola in a Madrid hospital, boosting the number being monitored for symptoms to 16. A nursing assistant infected with the virus remained in serious but stable condition Saturday.

The latest three are a nurse who came into contact with nursing assistant Teresa Romero, a hairdresser who attended to her and a hospital cleaner, all of whom were admitted to Madrid’s Carlos III hospital late Friday.   Continue reading “Ebola: 3 more people under observation in Spain”

93112733-student-sits-next-to-a-statue-depicting-luitpold-princeSlate – by Rebecca Schuman

Last week, Lower Saxony made itself the final state in Germany to do away with any public university tuition whatsoever. You read that right. As of now, all state-run universities in the Federal Republic—legendary institutions that put the Bildung in Bildungsroman, like the Universität Heidelberg, the Universität München, or the Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin—cost exactly nichts. (By the way, they weren’t exactly breaking the bank before, with semester fees of about EUR 500, or $630, which is often less than an American student spends on books—but even that amount was considered “unjust” by Hamburg senator Dorothee Stapelfeldt.)

Continue reading “You Can Now Go to College in Germany for Free, No Matter Where You’re From”

CBS New York

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) — Police said a man climbed out of a sidewalk grate and hurled a smoke bomb into a Greenwich Village restaurant Friday evening, before climbing back underground and vanishing.

The incident happened around 5:45 p.m. Friday at Bar Pitti, at 268 Sixth Ave. between Bleecker and Houston streets, police told CBS 2.

The suspect emerged from the grate that leads up from the subway system and threw the device, police said.   Continue reading “Police: Man Climbs Out Of Grate, Throws Smoke Bombs In Greenwich Village Restaurant”

PHOTO: The father of Claire Davis, pictured left in an undated photo held by the Arapahoe County Sheriff Robinson on Dec. 14, 2013, has issued a statement of forgiveness towards Karl Pierson, right posing for his senior class portrait in Sept. 2013. ABC News – by Sadie Gurman

Investigators say the student who killed a classmate before taking his own life at a suburban Denver high school described himself in a diary as “a psychopath with a superiority complex” and indicated he was exacting revenge for being teased in elementary school.

Karl Pierson, 18, wrote that he planned the Dec. 13 attack at Arapahoe High School to start a conversation about elementary school teasing, according to investigative reports released Friday.   Continue reading “Report: School Shooter Wanted Revenge for Teasing”

101014ebola1.jpgGothamist

Because wantonly perpetuating anxiety and fear is the perceived calling card of major news outlets (especially on a slooooow Friday), NBC New York brings you another Ebola scaremongering tale: A Vegas-bound flight from JFK was held on the ground after a passenger vomited in-flight. Had the passenger been to Africa recently? Yes he had. Was the logical assumption that he’d just splashed Ebola all over the damn plane? You bet.

Firefighters and CDC officials met the passenger at the gate, where he was immediately quarantined. A “thorough assessment” followed, and it was determined the passenger did not have Ebola. He was just a guy who had been to Africa who puked on a plane. Nothing to see here, although this is disturbing: Continue reading “Nauseous Man On Flight Out Of NYC Quarantined Upon Arrival”

The Eagle

Texas transportation officials have declined PETA’s request to erect a 10-foot granite tombstone in memory of chickens killed when a truck overturned in Bryan.

“We appreciate PETA’s concern for these chickens and all other animals,” officials said in a statement. “TxDOT’s rules do not allow memorials for animals on highway rights of way. The agency does, however, allow for the following memorials: memorial sign program for victims of motorcycle crashes; memorial marker for peace officers; memorial sign program for victims of impaired driving; and memorial for individuals.”   Continue reading “Transportation officials deny PETA’s request for Bryan chicken memorial”

9 News – by Brandon Rittiman

FORT COLLINS, Colo. – Nearly a year into legalized sales of recreational pot, the two main candidates for Colorado governor mulled the idea of repealing the law in a 9NEWS debate Thursday.

Republican challenger Bob Beauprez (a former congressman) advocated for a statewide vote on repealing the legalized sale of cannabis.

Gov. John Hickenlooper said a vote on repeal would be “premature,” but agreed there is cause for alarm over the effect the drug might have on young people.   Continue reading “Should Colorado repeal legal marijuana?”