AOL

A new Massachusetts law allows police, family members and dating partners to request that firearms be temporarily taken from people who appear to be at risk of harming themselves or others.

Gov. Charlie Baker’s (R) signature of H. 4760 on Tuesday makes Massachusetts the 12th state with a so-called red flag law, and the seventh to enact this sort of legislation since the February mass shooting at a high school in Parkland, Florida. The law takes effect in 45 days.   Continue reading “Massachusetts joins wave of states passing ‘red flag’ gun laws after Parkland shooting”

Buzz Feed News

MEXICO CITY — The last two times he ran for president, he held strong to the ideology that his base ascribed to. During his third and final run, he conceded to the old-school gatekeepers of Mexico — and won.

Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s constituency forgave his contradictions and swept him, overwhelmingly, to victory. In that way, he is a lot like his US counterpart, President Donald Trump, who promised to “drain the swamp” but instead brought the swamp with him. Continue reading “Mexico’s New President Isn’t Afraid Of A Fight. Now He Has To Deal With Donald Trump.”

NBC News

Since her husband took office Melania Trump has earned six figures from an unusual deal with a photo agency in which major media organizations have indirectly paid the Trump family despite a requirement that the photos be used only in positive coverage.

President Donald Trump’s most recent financial disclosure reveals that in 2017 the first lady earned at least $100,000 from Getty Images for the use of any of a series of 187 photos of the first family shot between 2010 and 2016 by Belgian photographer Regine Mahaux. Continue reading “News media paid Melania Trump thousands for use of photos in ‘positive stories only’”

Yahoo News

Police have arrested a popular Pennsylvania DJ in the cold case killing of a young woman who was sexually assaulted and murdered in her home back in 1992.

Christy Mirack was just 25 years old when she was beaten, strangled and sexually assaulted in her Greenfield Estate townhouse in East Lampeter Township on Dec. 21, 1992.    Continue reading “Man Arrested in 1992 Murder of Teacher After DNA Website Links Him to Killing”

New York Post – by Carl Campanile

Mike Bloomberg is mulling another run for president — but as a Democrat, sources close to the former three-term mayor said.

If he takes the plunge, Bloomberg would be 78 when he’s competing in Democratic primaries across the nation.  Continue reading “Bloomberg considering run for president as a Democrat”

Business Insider – by Kate Taylor

The bottled-water industry is a booming, $16 billion business.

As PepsiCo increasingly focuses on health over sugary sodas, the beverage giant is betting big on water.

In late 2016, PepsiCo launched LIFEWTR, kicking off the debut of the premium brand with a commercial at the 2017 Super Bowl — an unprecedented launch for a bottled-water brand. Earlier in 2018, the beverage giant launched bubly, a sparkling-water brand that Credit Suisse estimates could exceed $100 million in retail sales in 2018.  Continue reading “Bottled water is stuck in a $16 billion ‘sea of sameness,’ and it is creating a huge opportunity for Pepsi”

Quartzy – by Anne Quito

Great things can happen when the screens are turned off during a power outage.

The first-grader who won the US edition of this year’s Doodle 4 Google art contest with a charming paleontology-themed colored pencil drawing created it when her family’s electricity was knocked out by a snowstorm in March. Seven-year-old Sarah Lane-Gomez, from Falls Church, Virginia drew a sampler of prehistoric reptiles to spell “Google.” The judging panel, helmed by actor Neil Patrick Harris and celebrated humanities teacher Sydney Chaffee, chose Lane-Gomez’s dino-doodle over the 180,000 other entries created by students enrolled in grades K-12 schools in the US. Continue reading “A 7-Year-Old Girl’s $30,000 Google Doodle Was Drawn During A Power Outage”

AP

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — Some critics of the forced separation of Latino children from their migrant parents say the practice is unprecedented. But it’s not the first time the U.S. government has split up families, detained children or allowed others to do so.

Throughout American history, during times of war and unrest, authorities have cited various reasons and laws to take children away from their parents. Here are some examples:   Continue reading “AP Explains: US has split up families throughout its history”

Bloomberg

The Trump administration withdrew from the United Nations Human Rights Council on Tuesday, making good on a pledge to leave a body it accused of hypocrisy and bias against Israel.

“For too long, the Human Rights Council has been a protector of human rights abusers, and a cesspool of political bias,” Nikki Haley, the American ambassador to the UN, said Tuesday at the State Department in Washington. She said the decision was an affirmation of U.S. respect for human rights, a commitment that “does not allow us to remain a part of a hypocritical and self-serving organization that makes a mockery of human rights.”  Continue reading “U.S. Quits UN Human Rights Council, Saying It’s Anti-Israel”

Mercury News

A video of a doctor speaking harshly to an emergency room patient and asking if he’s dead has led to her removal from the work schedule at El Camino Hospital Los Gatos, a hospital spokeswoman said.

The video shows the doctor, Beth Keegstra, mocking 20-year-old Samuel Bardwell, a newly-enrolled student at West Valley College in Saratoga who was brought to the hospital’s emergency room after becoming ill during a basketball practice.   Continue reading “‘Are you dead, sir?’ doctor asks patient in video that led to her removal from Los Gatos hospital”

Today

Desmond Napoles is a smart, self-assured and talented 10-year-old on the rise as a social media star and self-proclaimed “drag kid.” Known as “Desmond Is Amazing” online, the Brooklyn fifth-grader has already been profiled in Vogue and hopes to continue promoting acceptance. NBC’s Kate Snow reports.  Continue reading “Meet the 10-year-old ‘drag kid’ taking over social media with inspiring message”

CBS News

“Giant Hogweed” sounds like a mythical plant that the students of Hogwarts may study, but it’s real — and it’s dangerous. The plant grows in the wild and touching it can cause third-degree burns and even blindness. Giant hogweed was recently spotted in Virginia for the first time and may also grow in other states. Warnings have been issued in previous years after discoveries in Michigan, New York and elsewhere in the Northeast, Midwest and Pacific Northwest.

The latest confirmed sighting of giant hogweed came in Clarke County, Virginia. It was identified by researchers at the Massey Herbarium at Virginia Tech, who say there are about 30 plants in the area.    Continue reading “Giant hogweed, plant that causes blindness and third-degree burns, discovered in Virginia”

AOL

LONDON, June 16 (Reuters) – British authorities have released the medicinal cannabis oil they had confiscated from an epileptic boy who was later hospitalized suffering from seizures, the boy’s mother said on Saturday.

Billy Caldwell, 12, had traveled to Canada with his mother Charlotte to obtain cannabis oil after Billy’s doctor was ordered to stop prescribing it, but when they flew back into London on Monday customs officials confiscated their supplies.   Continue reading “British boy hospitalized after medicinal cannabis confiscated”

The Weather Channel

The makeup of the Earth beneath the Interstate 95 corridor could prove especially problematic in the event of a major solar storm, the U.S. Geological Survey said in a new report.

According to Bloomberg, the soon-to-be-released report found a 300-million-year-old rock beneath the surface of the Eastern Seaboard could amplify the next big solar storm all the way from Washington D.C. to Maine. The makeup of this rock wouldn’t allow the solar energy to go through it and would instead ricochet it back up to the surface, doubling the impacts in this region, the report also said.   Continue reading “Rocks Beneath Eastern Seaboard Could Cause Major Problems During a Solar Storm, USGS Study Finds”

The Eagle

Frankly, it could have been a lot worse. Wade Vielock could have been sitting on the toilet when the enormous snake slithered its way out of the porcelain throne.

Lucky for the Bee County, Texas, man, Vielock was simply cleaning his bathroom, or as a Patch writer put it, “not using it in a way that would have given the blue indigo a tactical advantage.”  Continue reading “Huge snake slithers out of Texas man’s toilet. Deputy wrangles it with her bare hands”

Honest to Paws – by Evelyn H. Armstrong

If you own a smartphone, chances are you use a few different messaging apps to keep in touch with friends. One of the most popular is Snapchat. It’s a great way to quickly capture and share moments, usually alongside a clever observation or with some emojis tacked on to it. Snapchat users may share all kinds of things, but the best snaps are ones that involve funny and adorable pets!

The images these pet owners caught on Snapchat are cute on their own, sure. But what truly sets them apart from the crowd are their hilarious captions. See if you can make it to the bottom of this list without tearing up from laughter!   Continue reading “20 Hilariously Goofy Animal Snapchats That Are Nearly Impossible Not To Laugh At”

The Eagle – by Caitlin Clark

A limited liability company that includes the Texas A&M University System will manage Los Alamos National Laboratory, the Department of Energy announced Friday.

Triad National Security, LLC — principals are the Texas A&M system, Batelle Memorial Institute and the University of California — was awarded the contract to manage and operate the laboratory in Los Alamos, New Mexico.  Continue reading “Texas A&M System partnership wins bid to manage Los Alamos National Laboratory”