“I’m a lifelong Republican, but I am an American first. Alongside the countless devoted public servants it has been my honor to know, I have spent my life fighting for the sanctity of our Constitution and of the rule of law. The Capitol is a place of reverence for me,” William Webster, who is currently serving as the chairman of the Homeland Security Advisory Council, wrote in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch....
Yeltsin first suggested the summit at last June’s G-7 summit in Halifax. But it remained a fantasy until technical experts from the G-7 and Russia developed an agenda at a meeting early this month. “Everyone’s realizing just how urgent it is to get a handle on the loose-nukes issue,” says a U.S. official. Clinton is expected to sign a “presidential decision directive” ordering a stepped-up U.S. effort to help Russia safeguard its bomb-grade uranium and plutonium....
While aid slowly makes its way to the thousands of people whose homes were destroyed, people from isolated villages arrived at the public hospital in L’Asile, located in a remote stretch of countryside in the southwest. Sonel Fevry, the hospital’s director, said five patients came through the doors Tuesday with broken bones. A nearby area was devastated by the disaster, with every building in a 10-mile stretch—including homes, churches, and schools—completely destroyed....
The setting in the affluent Mediterranean principality of Monaco is perfect for amateur Agatha Christies. The list of potential suspects who might have a motive for killing Safra could fill a mystery writer’s cupboard of villains: the Russian mafia, Arab terrorists, drug cartels and other money launderers, Mossad-trained bodyguards and scheming relatives. And then there’s the man who’s actually in prison and awaiting trial on possible arson or manslaughter charges in Safra’s death: his 43-year-old American nurse, Ted Maher....
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For Baby Richard, the only issue that may matter is when his biological father knew he was a father: Illinois requires a father to demonstrate an “interest” within the first 30 days of a child’s birth. Richard’s father, Otakar (Oto) Kirchner, didn’t start legal action for 80 days. “I was living under the impression the baby was dead,” Kirchner says. The case is riddled with such deceptions. Early in 1991, when Daniela was eight months pregnant and not yet married, Oto left her and went to Czechoslovakia to tend to his critically ill grandmother....
At 50, Ocalan (pronounced OH-jah-lahn) is an over-the-hill Marxist guerrilla with a nasty reputation. For more than 14 years, his fighters launched vicious attacks against government forces in southeastern Turkey, where about 12 million Kurds live without full political or cultural rights, denied even the use of their own language in schools or broadcasting. But Ocalan’s guerrillas also killed fellow Kurds who refused to cooperate with them. The uprising drew an equally savage response from the Turks, and so far, the two sides have murdered more than 30,000 people....
And that was just one day. Day 80, to be exact, out of 100 or so that MacArthur will have spent at sea before she sets foot again on dry land. The 5-foot-2, 24-year-old Englishwoman is the youngest sailor ever to compete in the Vendee Globe, a singlehanded, 26,000-mile race so grueling it’s called the Everest of sailing. MacArthur has been among the front runners since the race began in November off Les Sables d’Olonne on France’s southwestern coast....
Steinbrenner is under investigation by Baseball Commissioner Fay Vincent for paying $40,000 in January to Howard Spira, a confessed gambler. Spira alleges he got the money in return for “dirt” on Dave Winfield, then a Yankee with whom Steinbrenner was feuding. Steinbrenner says different things about the money: he paid it “out of goodness of my heart”; he paid it because Spira threatened to disclose damaging details about Yankee employees; he paid it after Spira threatened him and his family....
On Thursday morning, Trump officially called for delaying the November 3 election. He claimed that increased mail-in voting due to the coronavirus health crisis would lead to fraud, although there is little to no evidence that the two are connected. “With Universal Mail-In Voting (not Absentee Voting, which is good), 2020 will be the most INACCURATE & FRAUDULENT Election in history. It will be a great embarrassment to the USA....
On Sunday night, one Reddit user bravely resurfaced an image of Dandy, the long-forgotten Yankees mascot. Dandy’s brief tenure lasted 1979 until 1981. He was a large, pear-shaped pinstriped bird with red hair and a thick mustache. He was named after the tune “Yankee Doodle Dandy,” and was 7 feet tall, as per The Wall Street Journal. The origin of Dandy is the stuff of urban legend. AJ Mass, author of Yes, It’s Hot in Here: Adventures in the Weird, Woolly World of Sports Mascots, speculated that after the Philadelphia Phillies’ success with their Phanatic, which debuted in 1978, the Yankees needed their own creature....
Picking apart several of the advanced statistics out there, it becomes obvious that all of the contenders that have emerged thus far have their own weaknesses that could be costly in May or June. They’re still the favorites, but the questions on these teams mostly become obvious with a close look at the stats: MORE: Lakers adjust to Kobe Bryant | Mike Brown: LeBron could still improve Blazers: Post defense It’s not just that the Blazers struggle defending the post, it is that they are almost the worst in the league at it, allowing 0....
In a similar case in San Diego, Steven White, 32, faced a mandatory sentence of 25 years to life for shoplifting a $130 VCR. He decided instead that a bullet through the brain was the less painful way to go. The suicide note he left offered apologies to his parents for the heartbreak he caused them, but suggested that spending that much time in prison was too high a price to pay for a misdemeanor....
But last week, almost nine months after he resigned from the department’s No. 3 job, Webster Hubbell became another of Clinton’s Arkansas liabilities. Hubbell tentatively agreed with Whitewater independent counsel Kenneth Starr to plead guilty to one count each of mail fraud and tax evasion. The charges, both felonies, stemmed from allegations that Hubbell billed more than $200,000 in improper expenses to the Rose Law Firm. Among the clients overcharged were the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp....
Washington is focused on ways to rein in Big Tech. For many Democrats, the path forward is clear. They want to break up Big Tech. They want a moratorium on mergers. And they want social media companies to censor even more online speech. For many Republicans, this debate is about our path forward. Do we hold Big Tech accountable or do we sit on our hands and do nothing? In many ways, this discussion is a microcosm for a broader debate taking place within the conservative movement—one that reflects shifting views about the role of government on issues as varied as trade and the economy to national security....
That evening in her jail cell, not knowing whether she would live or die, Yates penned a letter apologizing to her family and eulogizing her five dead children. She wrote of inquisitive Noah; John, with the cute grin; precious Paul; Luke, who tried to keep up with his brothers, and little Mary, a loving baby with beautiful blue eyes. “I regret that this illness brought me to a place where I was capable of killing my own children,” wrote the 37-year-old mother....
Matl was charged with violating the Parks and Wildlife Code that makes it illegal to intentionally, knowingly or recklessly allow for the release of certain snakes. He’s currently being held at the Grand Prairie Detention Center with a $10,000 bond and faces up to a year in prison if convicted. While Matl was taken into custody on Friday, the snake, which was reported missing in August, has yet to be located, the Grand Prairie Police Department told Newsweek....
“I took Grammer off my social media,” she told Andy Cohen during the Real Housewives of Beverly Hills reunion. “It’s still on my passport … David is all for it. He said, ‘Your kids — both of your kids’ last name is Grammer. I understand that.’ He has no problem.” Camille and Kelsey had two children during their 13-year marriage, Mason Olivia, born in 2001, and Jude Gordon, born in 2004....
The position has been a problem for the club since Dani Alves left for Juventus, with Aleix Vidal failing to convince coach Luis Enrique he can do the job. Barca, however, are not interested in a transfer that could put at risk their activity for the coming summer. Martial is back for United Srna, then, has emerged as a good, cheap option, a Larsson-style firefighter who can do a sterling job for the Catalans in the twilight of his career....
What’s really frightening about these results is that the alarm has been ringing since the 1983 publication of “A Nation at Risk,” the federally sponsored study that highlighted vast problems in the public schools. Yet despite years of talk about reform–and genuine efforts at change in a few places–American students are still not making the grade and remain behind their counterparts in other industrialized nations. Most mainstream educators already agree that American math instruction needs a drastic overhaul, with more emphasis on group problem-solving and creative thinking rather than repetitive drills....
