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☆ Ring to Stop Allowing Police to Request Videos From Security Cameras
▼ + stars: | 2024-01-28 | by ( Amanda Holpuch | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Ring, a home security camera company owned by Amazon, said that it would stop letting police departments request users’ footage in its app amid longstanding concerns from privacy advocates about the company’s relationship with law enforcement. Eric Kuhn, the general manager of subscriptions and software for the Ring app Neighbors, announced on Wednesday that the company was shutting down a feature that allowed the police to request and receive videos from users of the app, a social platform similar to Nextdoor and Citizen where people can share alerts about crime near their home. Mr. Kuhn did not say why Ring was eliminating the app feature, which allowed the police to ask the public for help with active investigations under a special category of posts called “Request for Assistance.”People could respond to the posts by sending the police videos that may be relevant to an investigation without the police needing to seek a warrant.

Persons: Eric Kuhn, Kuhn Organizations: Amazon

☆ Powerful Waves Slam U.S. Army Base in the Marshall Islands
▼ + stars: | 2024-01-24 | by ( Amanda Holpuch | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

A surge of unexpected waves swamped the island of Roi-Namur in the Marshall Islands on Saturday, forcing evacuations from a U.S. Military base and causing damage that could take months to repair. A video from inside a building at U.S. Army Garrison Kwajalein Atoll that circulated widely on social media showed a surge of water crashing through a set of double doors, knocking them off their hinges and upending people who were standing nearby. Another burst of water rushed through the windows, forcing the people to wade through waist-high water as furniture and vegetation floated around them. Roi-Namur is a small island about 2,300 miles southwest of Hawaii and is the second-largest island of the Kwajalein Atoll, a loop of coral reefs in the Marshall Islands.

Persons: U.S . Army Garrison Organizations: U.S, Military, U.S . Army Locations: Roi, Namur, Marshall, Hawaii, Kwajalein

☆ Fierce Storm Sends Flights Bound for One Country to Another
▼ + stars: | 2024-01-22 | by ( Amanda Holpuch | Remy Tumin | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

A powerful storm diverted dozens of flights in Britain and Ireland on Sunday and Monday, sending passengers to Germany, France and northern Britain, and stranding some at airports overnight. At Dublin Airport, 166 flights were canceled Sunday night, another 29 flights were canceled on Monday, 36 flights were diverted to other airports and 34 aircraft performed what are known as “go-arounds,” or aborted landings, according to the airport. Despite the flight chaos, the airport was open and operational on both Sunday and Monday, Graeme McQueen, a spokesman for Dublin Airport, said in a statement to The New York Times. Winds from the storm, named Isha, eased overnight on Sunday and changed to a more favorable westerly direction to allow “for a smooth first wave of flights.”

Persons: Graeme McQueen, Isha Organizations: Dublin Airport, New York Times Locations: Britain, Ireland, Germany, France

☆ Newspapers Stolen After Reporting on Rape Investigation at Police Chief’s Home
▼ + stars: | 2024-01-21 | by ( Amanda Holpuch | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

A Colorado man was cited after more than 200 newspapers were stolen from distribution boxes, stopping people from buying The Ouray County Plaindealer the day it published a front-page story about an investigation into sexual assault at the home of the Ouray city police chief. The Plaindealer said in a note to readers on Thursday that all of the newspaper’s boxes in the city of Ouray and all but one in the town of Ridgway had been emptied after the weekly newspaper’s latest edition had been distributed. “Whoever did this does not understand that stealing newspapers doesn’t stop a story,” the note said. The Plaindealer has been operating since 1877 and reports on news in mountainous Ouray County, which is about 165 miles southwest of Colorado Springs, and has just over 5,000 residents.

Persons: Plaindealer Locations: Colorado, Ouray County, Ouray, Ridgway, Colorado Springs

The police in Burlington, Vt., on Sunday were investigating the shooting of three students of Palestinian descent as a possible hate crime, the city’s mayor said. The three victims, all men in their 20s and students of American universities, were walking near the University of Vermont on Saturday when they were shot and wounded by a white man with a handgun, the police said in a statement on Sunday. Two of them were wearing a Palestinian kaffiyeh. Two of the victims were in stable condition; the third sustained much more serious injuries, the authorities said. “In this charged moment, no one can look at this incident and not suspect that it may have been a hate-motivated crime,” the chief of the Burlington police, Jon Murad, said.

Persons: Jon Murad Organizations: Sunday, University of Vermont, Burlington Locations: Burlington , Vt

☆ Remains of World War II Tank Commander Identified After 79 Years
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-25 | by ( Amanda Holpuch | More About Amanda Holpuch | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

For nearly 79 years, Anne Walker Collingwood knew little about her father, an American soldier who died about three months after she was born while fighting near Hücheln, Germany, during World War II. Her father, Second Lt. Gene F. Walker, was the commander of a tank that was hit by an anti-tank round and caught fire in November 1944. The attack is believed to have killed Lieutenant Walker, 27, instantly, but heavy fighting in the area prevented the surviving crew members from recovering his body. At home in Indiana, Ms. Collingwood’s family told her little about her father. Then in July, Ms. Collingwood received an unexpected call: the military had identified her father’s remains.

Persons: Anne Walker Collingwood, Gene F, Walker, Walker’s, Collingwood’s, Collingwood Locations: American, Hücheln, Germany, Indiana

A fan died in the sweltering heat at Friday night’s show in Rio de Janeiro. Swift postponed her Saturday show until Monday, to the dismay of thousands of fans who had already started filling the stadium. The military police said a fan who was in Rio de Janeiro for the regularly scheduled concert on Sunday was stabbed to death earlier that morning. The fatality and other problems were a departure from the triumphant first leg of Ms. Swift’s Eras Tour, a career-spanning production that broke records in North America. As the tour’s second show in Rio de Janeiro approached on Sunday night, fans grappled with ruined travel plans, extreme heat and disappointment.

Persons: Taylor Swift, Swift, Anne Di Motta Organizations: Sunday Locations: Brazil, Rio de Janeiro, North America, São Paulo

Kaitlin Armstrong was found guilty of first-degree murder on Thursday in the death of Moriah Wilson, a professional cyclist who had briefly dated Ms. Armstrong’s boyfriend and was killed while visiting Austin, Texas, for a bike race 18 months ago. State District Judge Brenda Kennedy said that the jury delivered the guilty verdict against Ms. Armstrong after deliberating for about two hours. It was unclear when Ms. Armstrong would be sentenced. Rickey Jones, a state prosecutor, said in his opening statement that Ms. Armstrong was “not happy” that her boyfriend at the time, Colin Strickland, had been communicating with Ms. Wilson. Mr. Strickland and Ms. Armstrong had an “on-and-off-again” relationship and lived together, Mr. Jones said, though he had briefly dated Ms. Wilson during an off-period in October 2021.

Persons: Kaitlin Armstrong, Moriah Wilson, Armstrong’s, Brenda Kennedy, Armstrong, Rickey Jones, “, Colin Strickland, Wilson, Mr, Strickland, Jones Locations: Austin , Texas

☆ Amazon to Stop Selling Seven Eyedrops After F.D.A. Warning
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-15 | by ( Amanda Holpuch | More About Amanda Holpuch | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Amazon said on Wednesday that it was removing seven eyedrops products from its website after the Food and Drug Administration warned the company that the eyedrops had not been recognized as safe and effective. said in a letter to Andrew Jassy, Amazon’s chief executive, on Monday that Amazon had violated federal regulations by selling the eyedrops, which claimed to help with problems including pink eye, dry eyes, eyestrain and floaters. “These products are especially concerning from a public health perspective,” the F.D.A. letter said. “Ophthalmic drug products, which are intended for administration into the eyes, in general pose a greater risk of harm to users because the route of administration for these products bypasses some of the body’s natural defenses.”The eyedrops named in the letter are: Similasan Pink Eye Relief, The Goodbye Company Pink Eye, Can-C Eye Drops, Optique 1 Eye Drops, OcluMed Eye Drops, TRP Natural Eyes Floaters Relief, and Manzanilla Sophia Chamomile Herbal Eye Drops.

Persons: Andrew Jassy, Manzanilla Sophia Organizations: Food and Drug Administration, Amazon, Eye

☆ Georgia ‘Baby Jane Doe’ Identified After 35 Years
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-14 | by ( Amanda Holpuch | More About Amanda Holpuch | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

A girl known as “Baby Jane Doe,” who was found dead and encased in concrete in southeast Georgia in 1988, has been identified, the authorities announced on Monday. The girl, Kenyatta “KeKe” Odom, 5, of Albany, Ga., was identified after a woman called the police with a tip in January of this year, Jason Seacrist, special agent in charge at the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, said at a news conference on Monday. Kenyatta’s remains were found on Dec. 21, 1988, at a dump site in Millwood, Ga., Mr. Seacrist said. Her blanket-wrapped body had been in a duffel bag inside of a trunk that was encased in concrete and hidden in an old TV cabinet, he said. At the time, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation medical examiner labeled it a homicide but could not determine the cause of death.

Persons: Jane Doe, ”, Kenyatta “ KeKe ” Odom, Jason Seacrist, Kenyatta’s, Seacrist Organizations: Georgia Bureau of, Georgia Bureau Locations: Georgia, Albany, Ga, Millwood

The company owns and operates several digital media outlets, including Gizmodo, Quartz and Deadspin. News of the site’s closure bookended a revolution of feminist writing on the internet that Jezebel helped kick off when it launched in 2007. A wave of sites, including DoubleX, from Slate, and Reductress, followed, many of them adopting Jezebel’s incisive focus on gender politics and racism. Anna Holmes, who founded Jezebel and left the publication in 2010, woke up to the announcement of the site shuttering on Thursday and said she was still processing the news. Ms. Holmes, 50, said that she was hired by Nick Denton, the founder of Gawker Media, to launch the publication in 2007.

Persons: Spanfeller, “, Jezebel, Anna Holmes, ”, Holmes, Nick Denton Organizations: O Media, Slate, Gawker Media

☆ $23,500 in Coins to Pay a Settlement? Judge Says Keep the Change and Try Again
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-30 | by ( Amanda Holpuch | More About Amanda Holpuch | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

Pennies, nickels, dimes and quarters might be legal tender but more than 6,500 pounds of loose change is not a proper form of payment, a Colorado judge ruled last week after a defendant attempted to deliver $23,500 in coins to settle a legal dispute. The judge, Joseph Findley, of Larimer County, said that the delivery of more than three tons was done “maliciously and in bad faith,” and that the defendant, a welding company, must now pay more for its act. The welding company, JMF Enterprises LLC, and its owner John Frank, were sued by a custom fabrication company, Fired Up Fabrication LLC, which said it worked as a subcontractor for JMF Enterprises but did not get paid in full. The companies agreed in mediation to the settlement but the agreement did not specify the form of payment, according to Judge Findley’s order.

Persons: Joseph Findley, “, John Frank, Findley’s Organizations: JMF Enterprises Locations: Colorado, Larimer County

☆ Panera Bread’s Charged Lemonade Is Linked to Death in Lawsuit
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-24 | by ( Amanda Holpuch | More About Amanda Holpuch | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

A college student with a heart condition died after she drank a heavily caffeinated drink from Panera Bread, likely thinking it had a safe amount of caffeine, her parents said in a lawsuit filed on Monday. The lawsuit said that the company “failed to properly warn” customers about the potential dangers of its Charged Lemonade and misleadingly marketed the drink as “clean,” even though the large size has more caffeine than a 12-ounce Red Bull and a 16-ounce Monster Energy Drink combined. The student, Sarah Katz, 21, drank Panera’s Charged Lemonade in September 2022, and died later that day, according to the lawsuit, filed in the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas. Ms. Katz’s heart condition, Long QT Type 1 Syndrome, affects the electrical system that controls a person’s heartbeat, the complaint said. She was diagnosed with the condition when she was 5 years old, took daily medication and avoided energy drinks and other highly caffeinated beverages, the complaint said.

Persons: Sarah Katz Locations: Philadelphia

The storm system is helping usher in traditional autumn weather across Britain this week with cool, wind-swept rains on Tuesday and Wednesday. Grahame Madge, a spokesman for the Met Office, Britain’s national weather service, said on Tuesday that it was not unusual for former hurricanes to enter this part of the world. He said this particular system would bring a significant amount of rainfall to parts of Britain, but no hurricane conditions. The Met Office issued a yellow weather warning for heavy rain for much of Wales and northwest England. “Be aware of the possibility of flooding and travel disruption in these areas” on Tuesday and Wednesday, forecasters said.

Persons: Hurricane Lee, Grahame Madge, “ Organizations: Met Office, Met Locations: New England, Canada, Britain, Ireland, Wales, England

But for a variety of reasons, those facing serious crimes are most often required to serve their sentences in the United States. Image Danelo Cavalcante Credit... Chester County District Attorney's Office, via Associated PressDid U.S. law enforcement know that a fugitive from Brazil was in the United States? Mr. Cavalcante was wanted in Brazil in connection with the slaying of a man in his small town of Figueiropolis in 2017. Even if Brazil had issued an Interpol notice calling for his arrest, the United States would have had no reason to believe he was living in the United States. People who are tried and convicted of a crime in the United States must serve their time here, with rare exceptions.

Persons: Danelo, Danelo Souza Cavalcante, Cavalcante, ”, Aaron Reichlin, Alejandro Mayorkas, Desiree Rios, Biden, Mayorkas, Saul Martinez, noncitizens, ” Mr, Reichlin, Melnick, Eleni Cavalcante, “, William Stock, Stock Organizations: Department of Homeland Security, Prison, Immigrants, Attorney's, Associated Press, . Immigration, Customs, ICE, American Immigration Council, Homeland Security, The New York Times, ., Mr, Congress, United, Pennsylvania State Police, American Immigration Lawyers Association Locations: Pocopson Township, Pa, Brazil, United States, Pennsylvania, Chester, U.S, Chester County, Washington, Figueiropolis, Pompano Beach, Fla, deportable, Philadelphia

☆ Ian Wilmut, Scientist Behind Dolly the Sheep, Is Dead at 79
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-11 | by ( Amanda Holpuch | More About Amanda Holpuch | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

Ian Wilmut, the British scientist who led the project that cloned a mammal for the first time, Dolly the sheep, shocking scientists who had thought that cloning was impossible, has died. His death on Sunday after a long illness with Parkinson’s disease was announced by the Roslin Institute, a research center near Edinburgh, where Dr. Wilmut had worked for decades. Dr. Wilmut and his team announced the remarkable birth of Dolly in February 1997, creating a media frenzy and raising questions about the ethics of cloning. Dolly’s birth to a surrogate mother at the Roslin Institute on July 5, 1996, had been shrouded in secrecy for months. Dolly, who was named after the singer Dolly Parton, died in February 2003 at age 6 after a brief lung infection.

Persons: Ian Wilmut, Wilmut, Dolly, Dolly Parton Organizations: Roslin, National Museum of Scotland Locations: British, Edinburgh

The organizers of the Mexico City Marathon said they were investigating runners of the race last month for “unsportsmanlike” attitudes, after reports of people cheating emerged online. The Sports Institute of Mexico City, which organized the marathon, said in a statement last week that it would “proceed to identify those cases in which the participants” of the 40th Mexico City Marathon “would have demonstrated an unsportsmanlike attitude during the event and will invalidate their recorded times.”The institute did not immediately respond to questions about how many people had been disqualified from the race or why they had been disqualified. There is precedent for a large number of disqualifications at the marathon. Organizers said in 2018 that 3,090 runners were disqualified, mostly for course cutting, or crossing the finish line without running the entire distance. In 2017, they disqualified 5,806 people, most of whom had engaged in course cutting.

Organizations: Mexico City Marathon, The Sports Institute of Locations: Mexico, The Sports Institute of Mexico City

“It looks like somebody took a bunch of dynamite and threw it up on top of the trees,” he said. The hurricane made landfall on Wednesday in a sparsely populated area of Florida known as the Big Bend, which includes Levy County. Mr. Bobbitt, 47, knew that Cedar Key’s mayor had begged people to leave on Tuesday. “I felt like I had some resources here to be able to help folks,” Mr. Bobbitt said. “Our little downtown shopping district, with our restaurants and our shops — 100 percent of those buildings are ruined,” Mr. Bobbitt said.

Persons: Donald Cowan, Idalia, ”, Michael Presley Bobbitt, I’ve, Bobbitt, “, Mr, ” Mr, Kenny Young, Young, that’s Organizations: Cedar Locations: Levy County, Fla, Inglis, Florida, Bend, Levy, Gulf of Mexico

Higher winds. In a 2018 paper, Dr. Kossin wrote that hurricanes over the United States had slowed 17 percent since 1947. Dr. Kossin likened the problem to walking around your back yard while using a hose to spray water on the ground. Because warmer water helps fuel hurricanes, climate change is enlarging the zone where hurricanes can form. There is a “migration of tropical cyclones out of the tropics and toward subtropics and middle latitudes,” Dr. Kossin said.

Persons: ”, James P, Kerry Emanuel, “, Kossin, “ you’ll, Emanuel, Dr Organizations: National Oceanic, Atmospheric Administration, Hurricanes, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, National Hurricane Center, Researchers Locations: United States, subtropics, Japan

☆ She Was Depressed and Forgetful. It Was the Worm in Her Brain.
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-29 | by ( Amanda Holpuch | More About Amanda Holpuch | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Roundworms infect hundreds of millions of people globally, according to the Cleveland Clinic, but the researchers in Australia said this was the first report of the Ophidascaris worm species infecting a human. The woman may have been infected by the worm the same way small animals typically are: by accidentally consuming worm eggs. Carpet pythons were at a lake area near where the woman lived, the article said. She had no direct contact with the snakes but often gathered warrigal greens, which are similar to spinach, from around the lake to cook. The article said that she could have inadvertently consumed worm eggs by eating the greens or because her hands or her kitchen were contaminated by them.

Persons: Scott Gardner, ” Dr, Gardner, we’re immunocompromised, ” Organizations: Cleveland Clinic, Manter, Parasitology, University of Nebraska Locations: Australia, Lincoln

The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill was under a shelter-in-place order on Monday afternoon after the school warned that an “armed, dangerous person” was on campus. The university sent an alert just after 1 p.m. that advised people in the area to go inside and stay away from windows. All classes & events canceled for today.”Students returned to class on Aug. 21 after summer break. The university did not immediately respond to requests for comment. It was not clear whether there were injuries.

Organizations: University of North, Chapel, ” Locations: University of North Carolina

☆ Bob Barker, Betty White and Their Fight Over Billy the Elephant
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-27 | by ( Amanda Holpuch | More About Amanda Holpuch | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

Bob Barker and Betty White were American television fixtures for decades, both known for supporting animal welfare, but they were so divided on what they thought was best for an elephant named Billy that it was rumored to have caused a feud between the two. The feud rumor was published in 2009 in The National Enquirer, which cited anonymous sources who said Barker had threatened to not attend the Game Show Awards if White attended. This claim was repeated by a number of gossip blogs at the time and circulated again after Barker’s death on Saturday. White died in December 2021. Neither Barker nor White appears to have addressed the rumor in public, and all reports of their supposed feud seem to trace back to The Enquirer.

Persons: Bob Barker, Betty White, Billy, Barker, White Organizations: National Enquirer Locations: American

☆ What’s Inside a Butter Cow? It’s Not Just Butter.
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-24 | by ( Amanda Holpuch | More About Amanda Holpuch | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The oily visage of a butter cow is an alluring sight at state fairs across the nation, but few people have taken the time to think about what’s inside them. Warning: It’s not more butter. Instead, like any large sculpture not hewn from a solid block of clay or ice (or sometimes butter), the cows and other large dairy-based sculptures are assembled around an internal framework, or armature. Paul Brooke, the lead sculptor for the American Dairy Association Mideast butter cow display at the Ohio State Fair, said that people have questioned why the sculpture was not made only of butter “over the years off and on.” It comes down to basic sculpting principles, he said. “It would work without the armatures if you could start with a huge block and just do the whole thing just by carving removal of butter, it would stand,” Mr. Brooke said.

Persons: Paul Brooke, Mr, Brooke Organizations: American Dairy Association, Ohio State Fair

☆ Aldi to Buy 400 Winn-Dixie and Harveys Supermarket Stores
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-17 | by ( Amanda Holpuch | More About Amanda Holpuch | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

The German supermarket chain Aldi is acquiring hundreds of Winn-Dixie and Harveys Supermarket stores in the southeastern United States, the company announced on Wednesday. Aldi said the deal included about 400 grocery stores in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana and Mississippi. Some of the locations will be converted into Aldi stores, while the others will remain operating under their current brands. Aldi, a discount retailer, opened its first stores in the United States in 1976. The chief executive of Aldi USA, Jason Hart, said in a statement that the company hoped to keep growing in the United States and that it aimed to add 120 new stores in the country this year.

Persons: Aldi, Jason Hart Organizations: Aldi, Dixie, Harveys, Aldi USA Locations: Winn, United States, Alabama , Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi

☆ Woman Is Awarded $1.2 Billion in ‘Revenge Porn’ Lawsuit
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-15 | by ( Amanda Holpuch | More About Amanda Holpuch | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

A Texas woman was awarded $1.2 billion in damages last week after she sued her former boyfriend and accused him of sending intimate images of her to her family, friends and co-workers from fake online accounts. The woman, who is identified only by the initials D.L. The couple started dating in 2016 and were living together in Chicago in early 2020 when they began a “long and drawn-out break up,” according to the lawsuit. temporarily moved to her mother’s house in Texas and Mr. Jackson began accessing the security system there to spy on her, the lawsuit said. told Mr. Jackson that she no longer wanted him to have access to what the lawsuit described as “visual intimate material” of her that she had allowed him to have while they were a couple.

Persons: Marques Jamal Jackson, Jackson Locations: Texas, Chicago

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