Author: Kristine Phillips
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A packed Greyhound bus was on its way to Chicago. A gunman had other plans, officials say.
Authorities have arrested a man who they say held 50 people hostage while aboard a Greyhound bus late Friday night. The incident began just before 10 p.m. Central time as the bus was headed from Milwaukee to Chicago. A passenger called 911 and said a man armed with a gun had threatened to kill people…
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It’s so hot in Australia that bats’ brains are frying
It has been a weird few weeks of weather. In North America, Canadians and Floridians alike shivered through freezing temperatures, a bomb cyclone and a polar vortex. (It got so cold that iguanas froze and fell out of trees.) Meanwhile, over in Australia, where it is summer now, it has been especially hot. Sweltering, really. In Sydney, temperatures…
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He was a beloved small-town police chief. Now he’s accused of trying to have sex with a child.
Just six months ago, after Michael Diebold lost his left hand and part of his arm in a fireworks accident, he became a local celebrity. The police chief of the small Pennsylvania town of Leechburg drew sympathy from community members, some of whom raised funds to help with Diebold’s medical expenses. A church hosted a fundraising dinner,…
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‘I don’t even know HOW’: Some Oregonians panic about new self-service gas law
A new law that took effect this week in Oregon will allow residents in rural counties to pump their own gas — a divergence from the state’s decades-long history of having attendants pump gas for drivers. Under House Bill 2482, which took effect Monday, retailers in counties with a population of less than 40,000 are allowed to have self-service gas…
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Niagara Falls is coated in ice — and absolutely jaw-dropping
Historian and author Paul Gromosiak once said that winter at Niagara Falls can be so breathtaking that it “diminishes even those skyscrapers” on the other side of the border in Canada. Trees once thick with fall leaves as they framed the cascading falls are mere frozen branches covered in pristine white snow. In Gromosiak’s words 13 years…
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Mike Pence’s Colorado neighbors troll him with a ‘Make America Gay Again’ banner
Vice President Mike Pence arrived in Aspen, Colorado, this week for a holiday vacation – but not without encountering a silent protest from his neighbors in the liberal ski resort town. “Make America Gay Again,” reads a rainbow banner posted on the stone pillars at the end of the driveway of the home where Pence…
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More trouble for the ‘Nigerian prince’: Louisiana police say they caught scam’s middle man
Most people with an email address have likely heard of or been targeted by this scam or some variations of it. A person claiming to be a Nigerian prince tells you that you’re the beneficiary in someone’s will. All you need to do is provide your financial information to prove your identity, and you will…
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People couldn’t believe two dogs killed their owner. So the sheriff described the horror.
Rumors swirled around the death of Bethany Lynn Stephens, a young woman from rural Virginia who, authorities said, was mauled to death by her dogs while out on a walk last week. Many suspected that someone else killed her and doubted that the dogs were responsible. Goochland County Sheriff Jim Agnew said the misinformation, particularly on social…
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Two dogs mauled their owner to death while she was walking them in the woods, sheriff says
Bethany Lynn Stephens had been gone for about a day since she left to walk her dogs. So her father went out to look for her at the area she frequented. There, authorities say, he found her two dogs, guarding what he first thought was an animal carcass. “Much to his horror, discovered that it…
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Stanford sex offender Brock Turner is appealing his conviction
Brock Turner, the former Stanford University swimmer who served a widely criticized six-month jail sentence for assaulting an unconscious woman on campus, is appealing his conviction and asking for a new trial. Turner filed a 172-page brief Friday arguing that the prosecutor incorrectly told jurors during the trial that the sexual assault happened behind a dumpster…