Britney Spears news

• Donald Trump may be in deep trouble: The press is finally figuring out how to cover the “billionaire” bigot

  05-06-2016 22:30 via salon.com
  
  Donald Trump (Credit: AP/Keith Srakocic)
  Do my eyes deceive me, or are cable TV reporters — like drivers who’ve taken a wrong turn and suddenly pull off the road to take a good hard look at the GPS — recalculating their approach to Donald Trump?
  Wouldn’t it be pretty to think so? A swerve in the mainstream TV approach is long overdue. As I wrote recently at The Washington Post, Trump benefited from many easy months of piling up attention while emitting pungent sound bites
  
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• “Thinking about how to transition”: David Means and Luke Mogelson, short story masters, contemplate the novel

  05-06-2016 21:30 via salon.com
  
  David Means, Luke Mogelson (Credit: Beowulf Sheehan/Nama Vanier)
  Luke Mogelson: Reading “Hystopia” is a bit like watching the grande finale at a fireworks show: you’re still dazzled by the last explosion when the next one sets off. Where to begin? I guess an obvious starting point would be its structure. At the outset of the book, in an “Editor’s Note,” we learn that the fictive universe of “Hystopia”—a universe in which, for example, Ke
  
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• For Ali, there were times even The Greatest wasn’t so great

  05-06-2016 21:06 via salon.com
  
  He was The Greatest, and of that there is little dispute.
  Muhammad Ali thrilled wherever he went, becoming the most recognized person on the planet. He showed incredible acts of kindness and moral courage, and fought almost anyone who wanted to get into the ring with him.
  But there were times — some of his making, some not — when even The Greatest was not so great.
  Here’s a look at a few of them:
  ___
  WHAT’S MY NAME?
  It was 1965 and the world was still adjusting to the bra
  
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• William McGirt wins Memorial in a playoff

  05-06-2016 20:12 via salon.com
  DUBLIN, Ohio (AP) — William McGirt won for the first time on the PGA Tour with a playoff victory in the Memorial that earned him an audience with Jack Nicklaus and a spot in the U.S. Open.
  McGirt won in his 165th start on the tour. He played bogey-free the final round for a 1-under 71, two-putting from 65 feet to get into a playoff with Jon Curran, who closed with a 70.
  They finished at 15-under 273.
  McGirt won with a par on the second extra hole at No. 18, getting up-and-down from the rou
  
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• Gov. Cuomo: NY must divest funds linked to Israel boycotts

  05-06-2016 20:03 via salon.com
  NEW YORK (AP) — New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo has issued the first executive order in the country forcing state entities to drop investments linked to boycotts of Israel.
  Cuomo signed the order Sunday before marching in Manhattan’s Celebrate Israel parade.
  The Democratic governor expects state agencies to divest all public funds from any ties to the movement known as Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions. BDS was founded in 2005 to protest Israel’s actions toward Palestinians by boyco
  
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• Arrieta’s win streak ends at 20, Diamondbacks beat Cubs 3-2

  05-06-2016 19:55 via salon.com
  CHICAGO (AP) — Jake Arrieta’s winning streak ended at 20 games when Patrick Corbin and the struggling Arizona Diamondbacks beat the Chicago Cubs 3-2 on Sunday.
  The reigning NL Cy Young Award winner had gone 24 regular-season starts without a loss since Cole Hamels pitched a no-hitter for Philadelphia at Wrigley Field on July 25. Arrieta did lose to the New York Mets in the NL Championship Series last season and was 2-1 in the playoffs.
  Arrieta (9-1) lasted five innings this time, all
  
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• Power wins at Belle Isle for first victory of season

  05-06-2016 19:53 via salon.com
  DETROIT (AP) — Will Power raced to his first IndyCar victory of the season, overcoming a costly penalty in qualifying Sunday and holding off points leader Simon Pagenaud by 0.92 seconds at Belle Isle.
  Power would have set a track record in qualifying earlier in the day, but the Australian was penalized for interference and had his top two laps taken away. Pagenaud won the pole while Power started eighth, but Power prevailed in the end for his 26th career victory and first since the Grand P
  
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• Longoria’s HR streak reaches 4 games to power Rays 7-5

  05-06-2016 19:49 via salon.com
  MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Evan Longoria homered for the fourth consecutive game, connecting twice, and the Tampa Bay Rays earned a 7-5 win against the Minnesota Twins on Sunday.
  Logan Morrison also homered twice and Longoria added an RBI single in the ninth for Tampa Bay, which entered with the third-most homers in the major leagues and hit a total of 11 in the four games in Minnesota.
  Xavier Cedeno (3-1) got the win despite allowing a game-tying homer to Eduardo Nunez in the bottom of the eighth
  
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• With stars neutralized, unsung players step up in Cup final

  05-06-2016 19:44 via salon.com
  
  SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) — This is a Stanley Cup Final filled with stars who have won the Hart Trophy, Olympic gold medals and numerous other awards.
  With players like Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, Joe Thornton and Joe Pavelski, the final features some of the biggest names in hockey.
  The one place where those players haven’t showed up so far is on the goal-scoring sheet. In a series that has featured three straight one-goal games all decided either in the final three minutes of regulati
  
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• Broncos say Aqib Talib suffered minor gunshot wound

  05-06-2016 19:42 via salon.com
  
  ENGLEWOOD, Colo. (AP) — The Denver Broncos say star cornerback Aqib Talib is recovering after being shot in the leg at a Dallas nightclub.
  Team spokesman Patrick Smyth said the team has been in touch with the cornerback and that he’s doing OK. Smyth said the team was gathering more information.
  Last week, Talib said he was looking forward to the trip Monday to the White House where President Barack Obama will honor the Broncos for winning the Super Bowl. It’s unknown if he&rsqu
  
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• The Latest: Warriors could match 2 more NBA records

  05-06-2016 19:38 via salon.com
  
  Golden State Warriors' Stephen Curry (30) drives to the basket past Cleveland Cavaliers' Kevin Love (0) during the second half in Game 1 of basketball's NBA Finals Thursday, June 2, 2016, in Oakland, Calif. (AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez, Pool) (Credit: AP)
  OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) — The Latest on Game 2 of the NBA Finals between the Golden State Warriors and the Cleveland Cavaliers (all times local):
  2:30 p.m.
  Golden State can tie two NBA records Sunday night.
  The Warriors enter Game 2 of the
  
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• Mikulak wins fourth straight US Gymnastics Championships

  05-06-2016 18:49 via salon.com
  HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) — Sam Mikulak used a steady performance Sunday on the final day of competition to win his fourth straight all-around national championship in advance of the Rio de Janeiro Olympics.
  Mikulak, who missed the world championships last fall with an ankle injury, scored 181.5 points, finishing 1.65 points in front of 2012 Olympic alternate Chris Brooks. Jake Dalton, another 2012 Olympian, finished third.
  Mikulak broke into a huge smile after sticking the landing on his vault
  
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• ‘Turtles’ sequel underwhelms, women drive ‘Me Before You’

  05-06-2016 18:44 via salon.com
  
  This image released by Paramount Pictures shows, from left, Donatello, Michelangelo, Leonardo and Raphael in a scene from "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows." The movie opened to $35.3 million according to comScore estimates Sunday, June 5, 2016, close to half of what the first film opened to in 2014. (Lula Carvalho/Paramount Pictures via AP) (Credit: AP)
  LOS ANGELES (AP) — Turtle power isn’t all that strong the second time around, according to comScore estimates Sunda
  
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• Fan shot outside Central African Republic stadium at game

  05-06-2016 18:43 via salon.com
  BANGUI, Central African Republic (AP) — Central African Republic’s security minister says a man fatally shot a fan outside the stadium where the country beat Angola in an African Cup of Nations qualifier.
  Jean Serge Bokassa said Sunday that a man believed to be a Muslim militia member pulled out a gun and shot the fan dead after the victim identified him as ex-Seleka. Bokassa said security forces dispersed an angry crowd, which attacked the vehicle of the National Assembly president.
  
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• Obama opposes privatization of VA health care

  05-06-2016 18:35 via salon.com
  
  COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (AP) — President Barack Obama is opposing suggestions the government privatize the Department of Veterans Affairs to improve health care veterans receive.
  In an interview with the Colorado Springs Gazette (http://tinyurl.com/hsu4k7p ), the president said his administration has made progress modernizing the VA and providing veterans with more timely health care following criticism over wait times. Privatizing the agency would delay that progress, he said.
  The adminis
  
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• Girl laid to rest 145 years after first burial

  05-06-2016 18:28 via salon.com
  SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — The body of a 3-year-old girl found last month inside a small metal casket still holding a flower has been laid to rest 145 years after she was first buried under what now is a home.
  The San Francisco Chronicle reports Sunday (http://bit.ly/1TVsI3P) the body of the unidentified girl was found last month beneath the floor of a home being remodeled in San Francisco’s Richmond District.
  Dozens of people attended her burial at Greenlawn Memorial Park in Colma, where
  
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• Burroughs’ three-hitter leads Florida St. past Michigan 1-0

  05-06-2016 18:24 via salon.com
  
  OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — Florida State’s normally potent offense was struggling, so Jessica Burroughs decided to take care of business.
  The junior threw a three-hitter to help the Seminoles defeat Michigan 1-0 in a Women’s College World Series elimination game Sunday.
  Burroughs, the Atlantic Coast Conference pitcher of the year, struck out six and walked two.
  She welcomed the pressure.
  “Sometimes the offense is on fire, sometimes it’s not,” Burroughs said. “
  
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• Global experts assess Poland’s threatened pristine forest

  05-06-2016 18:10 via salon.com
  WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Poland’s Environment Ministry says that global forestry experts are checking the condition of the ancient Bialowieza Forest where the ministry has begun extensive logging to stop the spread of a harmful beetle.
  Environmentalists have protested the logging to the European Commission, saying it threatens the forest’s existence while giving no guarantee of success in fighting the bark beetle.
  The ministry said on its website that it has invited experts from t
  
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• NY Gov. Cuomo signing “unconstitutional, McCarthyite” pro-Israel exec. order punishing BDS boycott movement

  05-06-2016 18:00 via salon.com
  
  A Palestinian solidarity protest in Times Square, New York City on Oct. 18, 2015(Credit: Ben Norton)
  New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced on Sunday that he will be signing a pro-Israel executive order punishing people and groups who support a boycott of Israel on behalf of Palestinian human rights.
  Legal experts have described this long pending anti-boycott policy as “21st-century McCarthyism,” warning it would effectively create a discriminatory “blacklist” of Palestinia
  
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• His big con: Donald Trump’s campaign is a real-life version of “The Sting”

  05-06-2016 18:00 via salon.com
  
  Paul Newman and Robert Redford in "The Sting" (Credit: Universal Pictures)
  In the classic 1973 movie ‘The Sting,” Paul Newman and Robert Redford are con men who pull off an elaborate hoax – “the big con.”
  Donald Trump must have seen this movie and picked up a few pointers because it sure seems like he’s attempting to pull off something similar.
  As the movie shows, at the heart of a con lies a deception. In the movie, the victim of the con, the “mark,&rdq
  
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• Donald Trump is an environmental nightmare: Keystone, climate change and the GOP’s demented pander

  05-06-2016 17:59 via salon.com
  
  Sarah Pallin, Donald Trump (Credit: Reuters/Jonathan Ernst/Brian Snyder/Shannon Stapleton/Photo montage by Salon)
  When President Obama officially killed the Keystone XL pipeline in November 2015, that should have been the end of it. But last week Donald Trump promised to raise the pipeline from the dead if he is elected president.
  Trump chose to make his remarks in the heart of America’s drill-baby-drill demographic in Bismarck, North Dakota. “I’m saying yes, we will absolutely
  
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• Authorities: Florida man killed in midair SC skydiving crash

  05-06-2016 17:59 via salon.com
  
  LOWRYS, S.C. (AP) — Deputies in South Carolina say a skydiver killed after a midair crash fell about 14,000 feet to his death.
  Local media outlets report that the body of 32-year-old Bond Springer of Boca Raton, Florida, was found Sunday near Skydive Carolina, a skydiving business in Chester County.
  Authorities say Springer and another experienced skydiver were doing advanced wing suit maneuvers during the final day of CarolinaFest, an event featuring specialized jump teams, when they coll
  
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• Oregon livestock company wins trade-secret injunction

  05-06-2016 17:56 via salon.com
  
  SALEM, Ore. (AP) — An Oregon livestock company has won an injunction against a former employee accused of stealing trade secrets to start his own company in China.
  OmniGen Research of Corvallis, Oregon, has filed a lawsuit saying that scientist Yongqiang Wang is trying to sell knock-offs of its feed additives in violation of confidentiality agreements, The Capital Press reported (https://is.gd/SCjwjL).
  U.S. District Judge Michael McShane has ordered Wang and his wife, as well as the compan
  
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• Full-page ad thanks Ken Starr following Baylor ouster

  05-06-2016 17:47 via salon.com
  
  AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — A full-page newspaper ad thanks Ken Starr for his “exceptional care for students” following his removal as Baylor University president over the school’s handling of sexual assault complaints against football players.
  The color advertisement in Sunday’s Austin American-Statesman is signed by seven Baylor supporters and urges readers to “commend Judge Starr” at the website ThankKenStarr.com.
  The former prosecutor who led the investigat
  
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• Journalist killed in Somalia; a dangerous country for media

  05-06-2016 17:41 via salon.com
  
  MOGADISHU, Somalia (AP) — A radio producer at the state-run Radio Mogadishu says gunmen shot dead a female journalist in the Somali capital.
  Mustafa Hussein said that Sagal Salad Osman, a producer for the station, was shot outside a university in the west of Mogadishu on Sunday and later died at a hospital in the city.
  Attacks on journalists are common in war-ravaged Somalia and media rights group say both Islamic extremists and the government target the media. Osman is the first journalis
  
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• Oil-train derailment, fire damaged Oregon city water system

  05-06-2016 17:34 via salon.com
  
  SEATTLE (AP) — Authorities say an oil-train derailment and fire has damaged essential city services in a small Oregon town.
  The Mosier waste water treatment plant and sewer system are not operational as a result of the derailment Friday of 16 of the 96 tank cars on a Union Pacific train.
  The area around the train remains evacuated on Sunday, and officials are conducting continuous water and air monitoring.
  Authorities are working to clean up an oil sheen in the Columbia River near the scen
  
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• Blue Jays’ Estrada has no-hitter thru 6 vs Red Sox

  05-06-2016 17:26 via salon.com
  BOSTON (AP) — Marco Estrada of the Toronto Blue Jays is pitching a no-hitter through six innings against the Boston Red Sox at Fenway Park.
  The right-hander has walked three and struck out four, throwing 82 pitches Sunday. The Blue Jays lead 5-0.
  Estrada walked the first two batters he faced before Xander Bogaerts bunted into a forceout. Estrada walked Hanley Ramirez leading off the second, but has retired 15 straight.
  Center fielder Kevin Pillar made a nice over-the-shoulder catch on Trav
  
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• Charter schools’ dire lesson: Deregulation invariably leads to disaster

  05-06-2016 17:00 via salon.com
  
  The original concept of charter schools emerged nationally more than two decades ago and was intended to support community efforts to open up education. Albert Shanker, then president of the American Federation of Teachers union, lauded the charter idea in 1988 as way to propel social mobility for working class kids and to give teachers more decision-making power.
  “There was a sense from the start that they would develop models for the broader system,” John Rogers tells Capital
  
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• Gas prices jump 6 cents over past 2 weeks, averages $2.37

  05-06-2016 16:48 via salon.com
  CAMARILLO, Calif. (AP) — The average price of gasoline has jumped by six cents over the past two weeks to $2.37 a gallon for regular grade.
  Industry analyst Trilby Lundberg said Sunday that the hike is mostly due to a continuing increase in crude oil prices. The price at the pump has risen 60 cents over the past 15 weeks.
  In the Lower 48, the highest average price of regular gasoline was $2.87 per gallon in San Francisco. The lowest was $2.04 in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
  The U.S. average diesel pri
  
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• The Latest: Ali’s brother weeps during church service

  05-06-2016 16:37 via salon.com
  
  LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — The Latest on the death of Muhammad Ali (all times EDT):
  2:25 p.m.
  Muhammad Ali’s brother has taken center stage at a Sunday worship service at the church where their father was a longtime member in Louisville, Kentucky.
  An emotional Rahaman Ali clapped and swayed to hymns and hugged members of King Solomon Missionary Baptist Church in Louisville’s west end. The church features a painting by Ali’s father, Cassius Clay Sr., and isn’t far from t
  
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• Orlando orchestra’s leader leaps from cellist to conductor

  05-06-2016 16:23 via salon.com
  ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — As a young, classical music conductor in a town known more for Mickey Mouse than Mahler, Eric Jacobsen faces a double challenge: Live up to the promise of his youth and innovative background, and somehow discover the magic formula to lure young audiences to the concert hall.
  “Some people feel that since I’m young, I’m going to somehow have the answers for bringing in a younger audience,” Jacobsen said recently in an interview at a converted Spac
  
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• Mayflower II, replica of Pilgrim ship, returning to Plymouth

  05-06-2016 16:21 via salon.com
  
  PLYMOUTH, Mass. (AP) — The Mayflower II is sailing back to Plymouth this week.
  The replica of the famed ship that carried the Pilgrims to Massachusetts in 1620 has been undergoing an extensive restoration in the run-up to Plymouth’s 400th anniversary in 2020.
  That has meant spending the last few winters at Mystic Seaport in Connecticut.
  On Monday, the vessel is scheduled to return to its home port on Plymouth Bay. Tides and weather permitting, organizers say the ship should pass thro
  
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• Hollande: Euro 2016 will be success despite extremism threat

  05-06-2016 16:15 via salon.com
  
  PARIS (AP) — French President Francois Hollande says that the threat of extremism won’t stop the European Championship soccer tournament from being successful.
  Hollande said in an interview on Sunday with France Inter radio that precautionary measures throughout the matches, including a 90,000-strong security force, will ensure the matches scattered in 10 French cities are safe.
  Hollande said France decided to go ahead with Euro 2016 despite two waves of attacks last year, and make i
  
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• EU foreign policy chief presses Albania on reform package

  05-06-2016 16:03 via salon.com
  
  TIRANA, Albania (AP) — European Union foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini has called on Albania to pass a key judicial reform, considering it a decisive step for the country as it strives for EU membership.
  The main opposition Democratic Party is resisting the approval of a final draft package that should be passed by the end of the month to convince Brussels to authorize membership negotiations and also is key to fighting corruption at all levels, especially the judiciary.
  A statement
  
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• Police arrest 5 accused of stealing $4,700 in energy drinks

  05-06-2016 14:24 via salon.com
  
  VACAVILLE, Calif. (AP) — Police in Northern California say they arrested five men for stealing $4,700 worth of energy drinks.
  San Jose television station KNTV reports (http://bit.ly/1TVjpkv) Vacaville police officers nabbed the four adults and one juvenile Friday night as they wheeled a cart full of Red Bull out of a grocery store and loaded it into a waiting U-Haul van.
  The Vacaville Police Department says the grocery store was one of many places visited by the group. Police said the U-Ha
  
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• Djokovic finally wins French Open, beating Murray in final

  05-06-2016 14:24 via salon.com
  
  PARIS (AP) — Novak Djokovic became the first man in nearly a half-century to win four consecutive major championships and finally earned an elusive French Open title to complete a career Grand Slam, beating Andy Murray 3-6, 6-1, 6-2, 6-4 on Sunday.
  This was the top-seeded Djokovic’s 12th appearance at Roland Garros, and his fourth final, and after being stymied over and over in years past, he managed to cast aside a shaky opening set to dominate No. 2 Murray the rest of the way, buoy
  
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• Nicaragua’s Ortega to seek 3rd straight term as president

  05-06-2016 14:22 via salon.com
  MANAGUA, Nicaragua (AP) — Daniel Ortega is officially running for what would be his third consecutive term as Nicaragua’s president.
  Ortega’s Sandinista party congress has nominated him for the November vote. It’s the seventh straight time he has been the Sandinistas candidate, going back to 1984, the first time he was elected president. He won again in 2006 and 2011.
  Ortega said Saturday night that he will not invite international observers to witness the vote because he
  
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• Puerto Rico votes as Clinton closes in on Dem nomination

  05-06-2016 14:21 via salon.com
  
  SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — Puerto Ricans frustrated by the island’s economic crisis voted Sunday in the U.S. territory’s Democratic presidential primary and local elections, as front-runner Hillary Clinton drew closer to securing the number of delegates needed to win her party’s White House nomination.
  After a blowout victory Saturday in the U.S. Virgin Islands, Clinton was just 60 delegates short of the 2,383 needed to win the Democratic nomination and advance to the N
  
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• Hundreds pay tribute to Muhammad Ali at his boyhood home

  05-06-2016 13:56 via salon.com
  
  LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — Andre Watkins shadowboxed Sunday morning outside King Solomon Missionary Baptist Church in Louisville’s west end, not far from the little pink house where Muhammad Ali grew up.
  All across Ali’s hometown, the faithful headed to Sunday church services to mourn the loss of the Louisville Lip, the city’s most celebrated son. The city will also be the spot for Ali’s funeral on Friday, an event that will be open to all and streamed across the world.
  
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• Fire breaks out at Sri Lankan army camp, causing explosions

  05-06-2016 13:51 via salon.com
  
  COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) — A fire broke out at an army camp near Sri Lanka’s capital on Sunday evening, causing explosions, officials said. There were no immediate reports of casualties.
  After the fire broke out at the Salawa army camp, it later spread to the ammunition dump, causing explosions, said military spokesman Brig. Jayanath Jayaweera.
  He said personnel from the army and the air force were dousing the fire.
  Jayaweera said it was not yet known whether there were any casualties
  
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• Rare French win at French Open

  05-06-2016 13:49 via salon.com
  
  PARIS (AP) — The French pair of Caroline Garcia and Kristina Mladenovic has secured a rare triumph for the home nation at the French Open, winning the women’s doubles to give spectators on Court Philippe Chatrier a victory to cheer before they watch Andy Murray play Novak Djokovic in the men’s final later on Sunday.
  The fifth-seeded pair beat Ekaterina Makarova and Elena Vesnina, the No. 7 seeds from Russia, 6-3, 2-6, 6-4. The last French victors in women’s doubles in the
  
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• The view is stunning when elevator is running

  05-06-2016 13:43 via salon.com
  PORTLAND, Maine (AP) — The elevator serving the world’s tallest bridge observatory on the Penobscot River has inconvenienced more than 200 passengers on 20 separate occasions by stranding them and forcing them to trudge down 25 flights of stairs, according to state documents.
  But the state Department of Transportation says the elevator is completely safe and that those incidents account for a tiny fraction of the hundreds of thousands of passengers who’ve enjoyed the attraction
  
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• Austria suggests interning migrants on Greek islands

  05-06-2016 13:43 via salon.com
  BERLIN (AP) — Austria’s foreign minister is proposing interning migrants on Greek islands.
  In a newspaper interview, Sebastian Kurz says Europe could copy Australia’s model of intercepting migrant boats offshore — either sending them back or keeping them in island camps until their asylum claims have been processed.
  Human rights groups have criticized the practice as inhumane and a breach of international law.
  Kurz told Austrian newspaper Die Presse in an interview publis
  
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• The Latest: Florida braces for possible tropical storm

  05-06-2016 13:42 via salon.com
  TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — The Latest on severe weather across the United States (all times local):
  11:30 a.m.
  A tropical storm warning is in effect for a large stretch of Florida’s Gulf coast from Indian Pass in the northern Panhandle to Englewood south of Tampa.
  The National Hurricane Center in Miami issued the warning before noon EDT Sunday. Tropical storm conditions — including heavy rain and strong wind — are expected to reach the area under the warning by Monday after
  
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• US rides a little momentum in BMX down stretch to Rio

  05-06-2016 13:37 via salon.com
  Nicholas Long felt ill before his final ride. Alise Post got unclipped down the last straight in her race.
  The American riders each still managed to secure third-place finishes at the recent world championships, good enough to clinch spots on the U.S. Olympic team.
  After getting left off the podium at worlds in 2015, the United States has a little momentum with the Summer Games in Rio coming up.
  “Pretty happy, to be honest,” said Jaime Staff, USA Cycling’s BMX director. “
  
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• Latest: Some evacuations lifted in California brush fire

  05-06-2016 13:28 via salon.com
  
  CALABASAS, Calif. (AP) — The Latest on a Southern California wildfire (all times local):
  8:10 a.m.
  Authorities lifted some evacuation orders after crews working through the night protected homes and held a brush fire in the populated hills northwest of Los Angeles to just over 500 acres — but serious challenges remain.
  Los Angeles County Deputy Fire Chief John Tripp says firefighters hope to get the eastern and southern flanks of the blaze surrounded before temperatures soar again Su
  
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• Selected data on 5 streetcar systems across US

  05-06-2016 13:27 via salon.com
  
  Selected features about five streetcar systems studied by the Mineta Transportation Institute at San Jose State University in California:
  ___
  LITTLE ROCK, ARKANSAS, River Rail (now called Rock Region Metro)
  Operating expenses: $9.61 per passenger trip
  Average speed: 4.4 mph
  Ridership trend (2005-12): Down 32 percent to 104,868
  MEMPHIS, TENNESSEE, The Trolley
  Operating expenses: $2.61 per passenger trip
  Average speed: 7.69 mph
  Ridership trend (2005-2012): Up 46 percent to 1,491,841; service suspe
  
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• Malaysia Airlines says passengers injured due to turbulence

  05-06-2016 13:04 via salon.com
  
  KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) — Malaysia Airlines says a flight from London to Kuala Lumpur has experienced severe turbulence, causing minor injuries to some passengers and crew.
  The airline said there was a “brief moment of severe turbulence” when flight MH1, with 378 people on board, flew over the Bay of Bengal on Sunday.
  It said in a statement that the flight landed safely in Kuala Lumpur, and that a small number of affected passengers and crew were given immediate treatment.
  
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• The GOP screwed themselves: The brilliant gerrymander that gave Republicans the Congress — and created Donald Trump

  05-06-2016 12:00 via salon.com
  
  John Boehner, Donald Trump, Barack Obama (Credit: AP/Reuters/Jason Reed/Andrew Harnik/Pablo Martinez Monsivais/Photo montage by Salon)
  Some seven years after celebrating his victory with an exuberant late-night speech in Grant Park, a no longer jubilant Barack Obama—wearier, grayer, even enervated—began the last year of his second term with a speech in the East Room of the White House, announcing executive action on gun-control measures which he had been unable to get through Co
  
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• The right’s long war on hope: How the GOP manufactures apathy, cynicism and rage

  05-06-2016 11:59 via salon.com
  
  Ronald Reagan, George W. Bush, Donald Trump (Credit: AP/Bob Dougherty/Charles Dharapak/Chris Carlson)
  Back in 1967, the psychologist Martin Seligman conducted a famous psychological experiment at the University of Pennsylvania. He administered shocks to two sets of dogs. The first set could stop the shocks by pressing a lever, or, later jumping over a low partition. The second set had no control over the frequency or duration of the shocks. Even when these subjects were given the chance to jump
  
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