The Guardian – by Ian Sample

The US embassy in Havana more than halved its staff in 2017 when diplomats complained of headaches, nausea and other ailments after hearing penetrating noises in their homes and nearby hotels.

The mysterious wave of illness fuelled speculation that the staff had been targeted by an acoustic weapon. It was an explanation that appeared to gain weight when an audio recording of a persistent, high-pitched drone made by US personnel in Cuba was released to the Associated Press.   Continue reading “‘Sonic attack’ on US embassy in Havana could have been crickets, say scientists”

AOL

Hundreds of Transportation Security Administration screeners working for free during the government shutdown are calling in sick so they can earn money at jobs that pay, union officials told CNN.

Union representatives reported significant numbers of absences at major airports in New York, Texas and North Carolina.   Continue reading “Hundreds of TSA officers calling in sick so they can work paying jobs, say union officials”

AZ Family

PHOENIX (3TV/CBS 5) — Phoenix police are investigating possible sex abuse at a nursing facility after a female patient recently became pregnant and gave birth.

Sources tell Arizona’s Family that the alleged victim has been a patient at the Hacienda HealthCare facility, which is near 16th Street and South Mountain Avenue, for at least a decade after a near-drowning incident left her in a vegetative state. That woman gave birth to a baby boy on Dec. 29.   Continue reading “Woman in vegetative state gives birth at Hacienda Healthcare in Phoenix”

Gainesville Sun

The stretch of interstate will likely remain closed overnight, the Florida Highway Patrol said.

Seven people died and at least eight more were injured, some of them critically, in a multi-vehicle crash Thursday afternoon on Interstate 75.

Two tractor-trailer rigs, a passenger van and mid-sized sedan were involved in the fiery crash in the southbound lanes at mile marker 393 north of Northwest 39th Avenue. It was reported about 3:33 p.m.   Continue reading “Seven killed in fiery crash on I-75 between Alachua, Gainesville”

Rolling Stone – by Kory Grow

Daryl Dragon, the keyboard-playing “Captain” of Seventies hitmakers Captain and Tennille, died at a hospice in Prescott, Arizona on Wednesday. Associated Press reports the cause of death as renal failure. He was 76.

As Captain and Tennille, Dragon and his then-wife Toni Tennille scored a string of catchy, easy-rolling hits in the mid-Seventies, including the Grammy-winning, Number One hit “Love Will Keep Us Together,” “The Way I Want to Touch You,” “Lonely Night (Angel Face)” and “Muskrat Love.” Dragon was known for wearing a captain’s hat and playing multilevel keyboards, as Tennille sang the hits and played her own keyboards. All but two of the albums they released in the Seventies were certified gold or platinum.   Continue reading “Daryl Dragon, Captain and Tennille’s Captain, Dead at 76”

The Wilson Times – by Tyler Stocks

GREENVILLE — No charges will be filed in a Christmas Eve shooting death that was the result of a domestic incident, the Pitt County Sheriff’s Office reported on Friday.

Pitt County Sheriff Paula Dance said that 44-year-old George Thomas Chance was shot and killed by his son, 20-year-old Gejuan Chance, during a violent domestic dispute that took place about 6 p.m. on Dec. 24.   Continue reading “Pitt sheriff: Marine fatally shot his father to stop domestic assault”

Journal Sentinel – by Bruce Vielmetti

Lynn Sarver turned a scary start to her New Year into an act of compassion.

The Waukesha nurse awoke shortly after 5 a.m. Tuesday to find a man sleeping on her dog’s bed — along with Benton, her 130-pound Boerboel, a South African mastiff.  Continue reading “Woman finds strange man sleeping in bed with her dog”

AOL

New year, new state laws.

A slew of new state laws take effect with the turn of the calendar — ranging from minimum wage changes to pink hunting gear to a mandatory cursive writing curriculum. One state will even begin paying people to relocate for remote work.   Continue reading “2019 welcomes pink hunting vests in Illinois, cursive writing in Ohio and more new state laws”

New York Post – by Caleb Parke

A few Kentucky cops went viral for mourning the loss of a truckload of doughnuts.

The driver of a Krispy Kreme doughnut truck noticed his vehicle was smoking on New Year’s Eve, so he called 911.

And while the driver was able to safely escape before fire crews arrived and flames engulfed the truck, the doughnuts didn’t make it.   Continue reading “Cops grieve Krispy Kreme doughnuts lost in NYE truck fire: ‘No words’”

New York Post – by Nolan Hicks, Bruce Golding

A city peace officer got suspended without pay for using handcuffs to wallop a homeless woman who had just bit her — and her union says the punishment is an overreaction to the recent viral video of a baby being ripped from his mom’s armsby cops in a Brooklyn welfare office.

Surveillance video obtained by The Post shows Department of Homeless Services Officer Tiffany Randolph swinging the cuffs at Olivia Morphis after the out-of-control woman chomped down on her wrist during a Dec. 21 melee at the 30th Street Intake Center in Manhattan.   Continue reading “Officer bit by homeless woman, hits back with cuffs, gets suspended: union”

Washington Post – by Steve Hendrix

CHINCOTEAGUE NATIONAL WILDLIFE REFUGE, Va. — In the cold months, this barrier island is a place of austere stillness, its famed wild ponies grazing along brown marshes, their long faces reflecting in waters often skimmed in ice, their seasonally shaggy coats flickering in the chill breeze.

But the offseason calm covers a foreboding anxiety. There is a danger lurking, literally, underfoot. In recent months, several of the horses have picked up a fungus-like infection in their hoofs and legs, probably by stepping in contaminated wetlands. Seven have died, including four that were euthanized Friday at a field hospital set up to treat them on the Chincoteague Fairgrounds.   Continue reading “On an island famous for wild ponies, a dangerous infection is killing horses”

New York Daily News – by Danielle Cinone

It’s not always Tequila’s fault … or is it?

Four men tried to ring in the New Year with more than $500,000 worth of Patron Tequila in Tampa, Fla. — but deputies caught them as they were stealing the heavy load.

Continue reading “Four men busted for stealing $500G worth of Patron Tequila”

Rolling Stone – by Daniel Kreps

Ray Sawyer, the Dr. Hook & The Medicine Show member who sang the 1973 Shel Silverstein-penned hit “The Cover of ‘Rolling Stone,’” has died at the age of 81.

Page Six first reported Friday that Sawyer died in Daytona Beach, Florida following a brief illness; a representative for the band confirmed the singer’s death to Rolling Stone.   Continue reading “Dr. Hook’s Ray Sawyer, ‘Cover of Rolling Stone’ Singer, Dead at 81”

The Weather Channel

After a late-December respite from the bitter chill in the central and eastern United States, colder temperatures are likely to return for the beginning of the new year and intensify by February, according to the latest outlook from The Weather Company, an IBM Business.

Temperatures are expected to be below average overall from the South to the mid-Atlantic from January through March 2019. Temperatures are forecast to be near-average or slightly colder from the Southwest to the central Plains, Midwest and Northeast.   Continue reading “January-March 2019 Temperature Outlook: Cold in East, South; Mild in Northwest”

The Sequin Gazette – by Felicia Frazar

Police say a man arrested with a gun talking about going to a church to fulfill a prophecy wasn’t targeting a local church, and didn’t even know what city he was in.

The man was arrested after a witness reported seeing a man carrying a gun about 7 a.m. on Sunday in the 2400 block of West Kingsbury Street, Seguin Police spokesperson Tanya Brown said.   Continue reading “Police: Armed man talking about prophecy wasn’t aware of what city he was in”

AOL

A sleepy town in Massachusetts is in the headlines after a 25-year-old man died while being arrested for viciously attacking his Tinder date.

Erich Stelzer, 25, a bodybuilder who shared fitness videos on YouTube, died in custody after he was tased by police in Cohasset, Mass. The incident took place Thursday evening after Cohasset police received a call about a disturbance and arrived to find Stelzer assaulting a 24-year-old woman with weapons, including a knife.  Continue reading “Fitness YouTuber dies after being tased by police as he attacked his Tinder date”

AM New York – by Mathew Chayes

An NYPD drone will be up as the ball drops.

For the first time in the 111-year history of the celebratory New Year’s Eve ball drop in Times Square, the police will fly an unmanned aerial vehicle to monitor the crowd, which could reach 2 million revelers, the NYPD said Friday.   Continue reading “Drone, ‘blocker vehicles’ part of Times Square New Year’s Eve security plans, NYPD says”

The Weather Channel

Roadways were still snowy and slick a day after Winter Storm Eboni closed interstates, highways and spawned treacherous travel conditions that turned deadly in three states.

At least four deaths are linked to the powerful snowstorm that caused numerous crashes across the Plains and Upper Midwest this week. On Friday, the storm brought trouble to New England states.

Continue reading “Four Dead After Winter Storm Eboni Creates Treacherous Travel Conditions”

AOL

Bre Payton, a staff writer at the right-wing website The Federalist, died on Friday at age 26 after a brief and sudden illness.

The news was reported on Twitter by Payton’s good friend, San Diego politician Morgan Murtaugh, who found the 26-year-old Payton unconscious in her room Thursday morning before rushing her to a San Diego hospital for treatment.   Continue reading “Bre Payton, staff writer for The Federalist, dies at 26”