Author: Sunfire

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BOWLING GREEN, Ky. (AP) — For years, just enough hardcore classic car lovers and curious travelers wandered through the National Corvette Museum in Kentucky to keep the doors open. Now, after a massive sinkhole swallowed eight pristine models of vintage muscle, attendance has skyrocketed.

And visitors are as eager to peer into the chasm as they are to see the ‘Vettes, if not more so. “The response to this has been bigger than anyone could have ever imagined,” said Katie Frassinelli, a spokeswoman for the museum that sits just off Interstate 65 in Bowling Green. “On the one hand, we don’t want to be known as the sinkhole museum. But on the other hand, it’s bringing a lot of people that may not have otherwise come.”   Continue reading “Gearheads, gawkers drawn to ‘Vette museum sinkhole”

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PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Even as Congress adopted the Stars and Stripes as the nation’s official flag in 1777, another American banner was making history on Revolutionary War battlefields.

The plain blue standard with 13 white, six-pointed stars traveled with George Washington to denote his presence as commander in chief of the Continental Army. This month, conservators finished preserving the fragile and faded silk banner — but it won’t be seen publicly anytime soon. It’s one of thousands of objects waiting for a permanent home at the Museum of the American Revolution, which is expected to open in Philadelphia in late 2016.   Continue reading “Washington’s flag awaits museum’s 2016 opening”

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KENNEBUNKPORT, Maine (AP) — Former President George H.W. Bush celebrated his 90th birthday by making a tandem parachute jump near his summer home, fulfilling a goal he made five years ago after a similar jump even though he can no longer use his legs.

The nation’s 41st president jumped from a helicopter Thursday at about 6,000 feet while harnessed to retired Sgt. 1st Class Mike Elliott, a former member of the Golden Knights, the Army’s parachute team, who guided Bush to a safe landing on his 85th birthday.   Continue reading “90-year-old ex-president makes parachute jump”

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WASHINGTON (AP) — Political polarization in America has broken out of the voting booth.

A new survey from the Pew Research Center finds Americans are divided by ideology and partisanship not only when they cast ballots, but also in choosing where to live, where to get their news and with whom to associate.   Continue reading “In US, political split outgrows the voting booth”

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WASHINGTON (AP) — Less than three years after pulling American forces out of Iraq, President Barack Obama is weighing a range of short-term military options, including airstrikes, to quell an al-Qaida inspired insurgency that has captured two Iraqi cities and threatened to press toward Baghdad.

“We do have a stake in making sure that these jihadists are not getting a permanent foothold,” Obama said Thursday in the Oval Office. However, officials firmly ruled out putting American troops back on the ground in Iraq, which has faced resurgent violence since the U.S. military withdrew in late 2011. A sharp burst of violence this week led to the evacuation Thursday of Americans from a major air base in northern Iraq where the U.S. had been training security forces.   Continue reading “Obama: US will send fresh help to beleaguered Iraq”

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PHOENIX (AP) — A badly injured priest managed to administer last rites to his dying fellow clergyman who was fatally shot in a nighttime attack at their Roman Catholic church in downtown Phoenix as police rushed to the scene after the man also called 911.

Authorities had no suspects or solid leads as of Thursday afternoon. They searched the neighborhood, interviewed the injured priest and examined physical evidence from the scene. Investigators said they are unsure how many attackers were involved or if robbery was the motive.   Continue reading “Police: Priests attacked at Phoenix church, 1 dies”

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A group of marijuana activists has filed a lawsuit claiming they should not have to pay taxes on pot in Colorado, an assertion that threatens to upend legalization in the state less than a year after it became law.

Rob Corry, a local attorney, filed the suit in a Denver District Court this week, asking a judge to order an injunction against the state and the city of Denver because the collection of marijuana-related taxes violates the right against self-incrimination guaranteed by the US Constitution.   Continue reading “Colorado activists sue to halt taxes on legalized marijuana”

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US law enforcement officials must convince a judge to provide a search warrant before they obtain phone location data from a cell tower, according to an appeals court ruling poised to force the police to narrow down their evidence-gathering methods.

The three-judge panel of the 11th US Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that Americans do have the right to expect that their private movements will not be tracked, and the mere action of driving past a cell tower with their phone in hand is not enough cause for police to violate that privacy. The judges ruled Wednesday that police who do obtain the records without a judge’s permission are violating a suspect’s rights under the Fourth Amendment, which protects against unreasonable search and seizure.   Continue reading “Warrant required to obtain phone tracking data, court rules”

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A coalition of immigrant advocacy organizations filed a complaint with the Department of Homeland Security Wednesday, claiming systemic abuse of unaccompanied immigrant children by US Customs and Border Protection.

The groups filed the complaint on behalf of 116 unaccompanied immigrant children, ranging in age from five to 17 years old, “who experienced abuse and mistreatment while in the custody of U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), which includes U.S. Border Patrol,” the document said, asking DHS to investigate the allegations.   Continue reading “Immigration groups accuse US customs officials of abusing minors”

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A gaping security bug in Google’s systems may have been used to unearth millions upon millions of users’ email addresses. The activist claimed it took Google a month to rectify the problem after his report to the company.

Tel Aviv-based security researcher Oren Hafif discovered the bug and has informed Google, which has managed to resolve the problem.    Continue reading “Massive flaw could have exposed every Gmail user’s address”

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A Pennsylvania woman who was serving a two-day jail sentence for failing to pay fines accrued by her children’s truancy was found dead in her cell over the weekend, inspiring the judge who sent her there to condemn the system that mandated her sentence.

Eileen DiNino, a 55-year-old mother of seven from Reading, Pennsylvania, was found dead in her cell on Saturday. She was in the midst of a 48-hour jail sentence that was meant to erase her $2,000 debt, which had built up since 1999 by her sons’ truancy from a vocational school, according to the Associated Press.   Continue reading “Mother of seven found dead in jail cell serving time for children’s truancy”

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LAFITTE, La. (AP) — Gasps can be heard by tourists on a swamp boat tour in south Louisiana as their guide jumps in the water to feed chicken and marshmallows to two alligators. At one point the guide puts a marshmallow in his mouth and lets one of the gators snatch it away.

The scene was captured on video by Stacy Hicks of St. Helens, Oregon, who visited the area in May. “When he jumped in I was a little scared, more for him than us though,” Hicks said. “I am surprised at the attention this video has gotten. I just thought that this was a thing that happens all the time on the tours.”   Continue reading “Tourist video captured gator-feeding frolic”

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In a scenario that could’ve been extremely devastating, the United States narrowly averted a nuclear disaster in 1961 when an atomic bomb nearly detonated after falling out of a B-52 bomber that broke up in the sky.

According to the Washington Post, the incident took place on January 21, 1961 – less than 20 years after nuclear bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki – and is explained further in a recently declassified report published by the National Security Archives.   Continue reading “Nuclear bomb nearly detonated after falling on North Carolina – declassified report”

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Two residents of Lafayette, Colorado are suing the state, Gov. John Hickenlooper, and energy trade group Colorado Oil and Gas Association for the enforcement of the city’s fracking ban, which was passed last fall in a city-wide vote.

The class-action lawsuit filed Tuesday in Boulder County District Court comes in response to a separate suit filed by the Colorado Oil and Gas Association (COGA) in December that seeks to negate Lafayette’s ban on new oil and gas extraction in the city. Sixty percent of Lafayette voters supported the measure to curb hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, in November.  Continue reading “Colorado residents sue state, governor to enforce local fracking ban”

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Microsoft is attempting to fend off a search warrant served by federal prosecutors in the United States because the tech giant says the government lacks the authority to compel the company for customer data that’s stored overseas.

Experts are already saying that Microsoft’s attempt to squash a search warrant served last December marks the first time that a major company has fought requests from the Justice Department for digital information held on overseas servers. If the Silicon Valley corporation fails to win, however, then a precedent could be established to ensure prosecutors in the US will in the future have little problem asking for digital files even if that data lacks all other ties to America.   Continue reading “Microsoft fights US warrant demanding information from overseas servers”

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KARACHI, Pakistan (AP) — The Pakistani Taliban on Monday threatened more attacks after claiming responsibility for a brazen five-hour assault on the country’s busiest airport in which gunmen disguised as police guards stormed the international airport in Karachi, set off explosions and killed 18 people.

The claim further diminished prospects for a resumption of peace talks with the Pakistani Taliban that officials had hoped could bring an end to the group’s bloody, years-long campaign seeking to overthrow the country’s U.S.-allied government. The insurgency has shaken the stability of the nuclear-armed country, which borders Afghanistan, where international forces have been fighting the Afghan Taliban for more than a decade.   Continue reading “Pakistan Taliban claim deadly airport attack”

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Gun-mounted flashlights may be intended to help police clarify murky situations, but they are increasingly being connected to accidental shootings, according to a new report by the Denver Post.

Following an investigation into the issue – one that proved difficult because of a lack of official record-keeping – the newspaper discovered that over the last nine years, there have been at least five shootings across the United States at the hands of police officers using gun-mounted flashlights. Two of the victims were officers.   Continue reading “Gun-mounted flashlights linked to deadly accidental police shootings”

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Former White House hopeful and longtime lawmaker Ron Paul says United State President Barack Obama’s recent major foreign policy speech was a “disappointment” to anyone holding out for change from the current administration.

Responding to the president’s recent address at the US Military Academy at West Point, New York, the former congressman for Texas wrote on his website this week that Obama has refused to acknowledge any precedents concerning the impact of American interventionism, and instead plans on continuing a policy that attempts to extend Washington’s reach over the rest of the world, notwithstanding neither hypocrisy nor consequences.   Continue reading “Ron Paul on Obama’s foreign policy: ‘Disobey us and we will bomb you’”

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One week after a federal appeals court ruled that citizens possess First Amendment rights to film cops, a police department in New Hampshire agreed to settle with a woman who was arrested on wiretapping charges.

In 2010, Carla Gericke was arrested on wiretapping charges for filming her friend being pulled over by the Weare Police during a traffic stop. When ordered by police to turn over her camera, she refused, and was duly charged for disobeying a police officer, obstructing a government official, and “unlawful interception of oral communications.”    Continue reading “Woman arrested for filming police wins $57,000 settlement”

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Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal has flouted the advice of his own attorney general and scores of legal scholars by signing a bill which blocks a levee board’s lawsuit against oil and gas companies, who are accused of destroying the state’s coast.

“This bill will help stop frivolous lawsuits and create a more fair and predictable legal environment, and I am proud to sign it into law,” Jindal said in a written statement Friday.   Continue reading “Louisiana Gov. signs bill killing lawsuits against oil and gas companies”