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Author: Adam Martin

Shep Smith Apologizes After Fox News Airs a Suicide

Fox News / YouTube

A carjacking suspect being chased by police in Phoenix suddenly got out of the car and shot himself on live television, prompting Fox News's Shepard Smith to apologize after the network aired the footage.

By Adam Martin

Aug 16, 2012

Seven U.S. Troops Confirmed Dead in Afghan Helicopter Crash

It's worth a pause this morning to think about how dangerous things are for those still serving in Afghanistan, as 11 people were killed in a helicopter crash there, including seven international service members, all of whom may have been American.

Comments | 172 Views

By Adam Martin

Aug 15, 2012

A Raid on Ecuador's London Embassy Is Apparently In the Cards

The whole purpose for Julian Assange to seek refuge in Ecuador's London embassy is that British police can't go in there because it's considered sovereign territory, but now Ecuador says Britain is threatening a raid if it doesn't hand Assange over.

Comments | 872 Views

By Adam Martin

Aug 15, 2012

Julian Assange's Great Escape

The most interesting thing about the story about Julian Assange's possible offer of political asylum in Ecuador is now the adventure he may have in trying to leave London, which could involve him shimmying out a window or getting smuggled in a bag.

Comments | 4,828 Views

By Adam Martin

Aug 15, 2012

Family Research Council Shooting Suspect Identified

A gunman opened fire at the conservative Family Research Council on Wednesday, and while police haven't officially released his name, NBC cites "two law-enforcement sources" who said he was Floyd Corkins, 28, of Herndon, Virginia.

Comments | 6,245 Views

By Adam Martin

Aug 15, 2012

U.N.: War Crimes on Both Sides in Syria, But Assad's Are Worse

Allegations of war crimes have been lurking in the background as the Syrian conflict has continued to rage on, but on Wednesday a United Nations expert panel concluded that both sides had perpetrated them—but the Syrian government's were more serious.

Comments | 648 Views

By Adam Martin

Aug 15, 2012

Reuters Blogs Hacked For the Second Time This Month

Once again, somebody hacked into Reuters blogs and posted an inflammatory, and false, story from the Middle East, this time reporting that Saudi Arabian Foreign Minister, Prince Saud al-Faisal (pictured), had died. He has not.

Comments | 503 Views

By Adam Martin

Aug 15, 2012

Jonah Lehrer Gets a Second Chance from Wired

It's been just more than two weeks since Jonah Lehrer quit his post at The New Yorker after it emerged that he fabricated quotes in his book Imagine, but as Buzzfeed's Ben Smith and Reyhan Harmanci report, he's still got another gig within the Condé Nast publishing empire, at his old publication, Wired.

Comments | 3,621 Views

By Adam Martin

Aug 15, 2012

Carlyle Got a $3.3 Billion Bargain on Getty Images

The Carlyle Group's $3.3 billion purchase of Getty Images came in below the seller's target price, but it still represents the latest in a spending spree for the world's largest asset management firm.

Comments | 517 Views

By Adam Martin

Aug 14, 2012

New York Times Finds Its New CEO at the BBC

Mark Thompson, the former BBC director general, has been the rumored replacement for ousted New York Times Company CEO Janet Robinson since June, and on Tuesday afternoon it was made official.

Comments | 1,207 Views

By Adam Martin

Aug 14, 2012

Ecuadorean Government Walks Back Report of Assange Asylum

Ecuador's president and at least one unnamed government official walked back a report from The Guardian on Tuesday that the country would offer political asylum to WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, who's been living in the Ecuadorian embassy in London.

Comments | 3,866 Views

By Adam Martin

Aug 14, 2012

Zimmerman's Lawyer Says He Doesn't Need 'Stand-Your-Ground' to Win

George Zimmerman's legal team announced on Monday night that it wouldn't argue its case under Florida's stand-your-ground law, instead pursuing a traditional self-defense argument, but that that doesn't mean his lawyers see their case as any weaker.

Comments | 862 Views

By Adam Martin

Aug 14, 2012

Fukushima's First Mutants Are Malformed Butterflies

The first creatures definitively shown to have mutated following the Fukushima meltdown are pale blue grass butterflies, but it's still a long way from proving human mutation, scientists said.

Comments | 6,328 Views

By Adam Martin

Aug 14, 2012

$10,491 Electric Company Rebate Means Homework For the Rest of Us

The news of a Connecticut woman who finally extricated a $10,491 rebate from her power company after she was charged for 25 years for the electricity going to the streetlights near her house means we should all probably be checking our bills a lot more closely.

Comments | 1,103 Views

By Adam Martin

Aug 14, 2012

Burglar's Random Break-in Turned Out to Be Steve Jobs' Home

A burglar who allegedly broke into the late Steve Jobs' Palo Alto home and stole $60,000 worth of computer equipment had no idea of its significance, said a prosecutor who called the burglary "totally random."

Comments | 23,061 Views

By Adam Martin

Aug 14, 2012

Most Documents Related to Aurora Shooting to Remain Sealed

William Sylvester, the judge presiding over the criminal case against James Holmes decided on Monday that most of the documents in his case should remain sealed, but he did release some documents, which at least provide a clue to what evidence is going to come into play.

Comments | 1,035 Views

By Adam Martin and John Hudson

Aug 13, 2012

Police Officer, Civilian, and Suspect Killed in Texas A&M Area Shooting

At a press briefing, Assistant Police Chief Scott McCollum confirmed to reporters that two people have died following the shooting in a residential neighborhood near Texas A&M: Brian Bachmann, a Brazos County Constable, and an unidentified civilian. The alleged shooter has also been reported killed.

Comments | 45,170 Views

By Adam Martin

Aug 13, 2012

The Onion's Not-So Funny History of Twitter Mistakes

Former Onion digital head Baratunde Thurston's Fast Company story of how he almost destroyed The Onion's Twitter credibility in 2008 by accidentally turning it into a spam bot is entertaining and instructive, but it also omits another questionable chapter in The Onion's Twitter history.

Comments | 5,204 Views

By Adam Martin

Aug 13, 2012

President Obama Wants a NASA Mohawk

The highlight of President Barack Obama's congratulatory call to NASA's Mars rover team Monday was when the president said he wanted a mohawk too, but there was plenty more to the talk, and now that the transcript is online you can peruse it at your leisure.

Comments | 1,552 Views

By Adam Martin

Aug 13, 2012

Pirate Memo to Ship Captains: 'Congratulations, You've Been Hijacked!'

The pirates still operating off the coast of Somalia have a relatively sophisticated PR machine, which includes spokespeople and, we learned on Monday, a form letter to victims, but the latter could use some editing.

Comments | 15,519 Views

By Adam Martin

Aug 13, 2012

With Paul Ryan in the Race, Prepare For Some Very Wonky Mud-Slinging

Because Mitt Romney running mate Paul Ryan is such a budget hawk, you can expect the attacks on him and by him to be some of the wonkiest in a presidential election in recent memory, with Ryan's economic skills taking the spotlight.

Comments | 577 Views

By Adam Martin

Aug 13, 2012

Profiling Allegations Make TSA Officers Sound Like Corrupt Cops

The worrisome part of Sunday's big New York Times expose on TSA racial profiling at Boston's Logan Airport is that some in the agency look to be expanding their role into everyday police work, when they still can't get the hang of actually securing airports

Comments | 634 Views

By Adam Martin

Aug 13, 2012

Damning Report Finds Norway Police Flubbed Massacre Response

A new independent report (PDF) on the police response to last summer's massacre on Utoya Island in Norway finds that the Oslo bombing, which preceded the island shooting, could have been prevented using protocols the police already had in place.

Comments | 1,053 Views

By Adam Martin

Aug 10, 2012

Blackmail, Intimidation, and Whiskey Color High-Profile Chinese Murder Saga

When Gu Kailai's murder trial ended after just seven hours on Thursday, the same-day stories still carried very few details about the crime, but now, thanks to leaks from the courtroom, we finally have a narrative, and it's juicy.

Comments | 724 Views

By Adam Martin

Aug 10, 2012

Top Romney Advisor Fehrnstrom Wasn't a Reporter to Make Friends

One way to better understand where the Romney campaign's decisions come from is to learn more about its top media strategist, Eric Fehrnstrom, who's the subject of a lengthy Huffington Post profile on Friday.

Comments | 1,731 Views

By Adam Martin

Aug 10, 2012

Is Jon Huntsman Sr. Harry Reid's Deep Throat?

The latest speculation on Nevada Sen. Harry Reid's source for his charge that Mitt Romney paid no taxes for a decade is that it was Jon Huntsman Sr., a suggestion fueled by circumstantial evidence and denied by the Huntsman family, but still worth a look because, well, it kind of makes sense.

Comments | 9,625 Views

By Adam Martin

Aug 10, 2012

Anonymous Knocks Australian Spy Site Offline in Digital Protest

We haven't heard much from Anonymous stateside of late, but hacker activists operating under the banner in Australia took down some of that country's official websites on Friday, showing the now-familiar technique of disabling high-profile sites still grabs attention.

Comments | 529 Views

By Adam Martin

Aug 9, 2012

James Holmes Is Mentally Ill, His Attorneys Say for the First Time

Offering the first hint of a defense strategy in the murder trial accused Aurora theater shooter James Holmes, defense attorneys said on Thursday their client was mentally ill.

Comments | 3,570 Views

By Adam Martin

Aug 9, 2012

Zeitoun, Dave Eggers' Post-Katrina Hero, Faces Murder Solicitation Charges

By now you may have heard that Abdulrahman Zeitoun, the protagonist of Dave Eggers' 2009 book Zeitoun, is in jail for allegedly beating his ex-wife, but the latest addition to Zeitoun's legal troubles is even darker: He's accused of plotting her murder.

Comments | 5,000 Views

By Adam Martin

Aug 9, 2012

The Times Expedites Its Response to Your Lolo Jones Complaints

The New York Times gets it, ok? It was too hard on LoLo Jones, so you can stop writing to complain now.

Comments | 3,884 Views

By Adam Martin

Aug 9, 2012

Florida Accidentally Shows Zimmerman's Grades, Trayvon's Body

The Florida State Attorney's Office caused some havoc in newsrooms on Thursday when it released a batch of evidence in George Zimmerman's second-degree murder case, then recalled it 25 minutes later, saying it hadn't been reviewed properly.

Comments | 2,961 Views

By Adam Martin

Aug 9, 2012

Ruth Bader Ginsburg: The Toughest Supreme Court Justice, Ever

Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg survived cancer twice, so we already knew she was tough, but now it turns out she broke two ribs early in June and didn't even think the injury was serious enough to take time off work. 

Comments | 10,154 Views

By Adam Martin

Aug 9, 2012

Neoconservative Billionaire Adelson: My Casinos Will Not Comp Your Prostitutes

Whether or not there is prostitution in the Macau casinos owned by big-time GOP donor and casino billionaire Sheldon Adelson isn't the point of his lawsuit against a Jewish organization he accuses of libel.

Comments | 652 Views

By Adam Martin

Aug 9, 2012

The State of American Torture: The Fresh Prince of Bel Air vs. Waterboarding Children

Remember torture? It used to be quite the scandal here in the United States, when officials at places like Guantanamo Bay would waterboard prisoners, but you don't hear about it as much anymore. Don't you know? Waterboarding is so suburban these days.

Comments | 1,096 Views

By Adam Martin

Aug 8, 2012

News Corp's Earnings Are Grim, Especially For Print

News Corporation's less-than-stellar fourth quarter makes clear the company's reason for wanting to split its print and broadcast operations, as its publishing unit hemorrhaged money thanks in part to last year's News of the World phone-hacking scandal.

Comments | 345 Views

By Adam Martin

Aug 8, 2012

Wikipedia Cracks Down on Editors, But VP Prediction Game Continues

On Tuesday when Stephen Colbert exhorted his Colbert Nation to edit the Wikipedia pages of Romney's potential vice presidential choices, Wikipedia locked those pages to all but veteran editors, making the trick of counting the edits to see who's the favorite a lot more accurate.

Comments | 303 Views

By Adam Martin

Aug 8, 2012

NYPD, Microsoft Hope to Make a Mint off New Surveillance System

The new data analysis system New York police department unveiled Monday not only monitors images from surveillance cameras, license plate scanners, and myriad other data streams citywide, in real time, it also has the power to make the NYPD money.

Comments | 667 Views

By Adam Martin

Aug 8, 2012

Two Years on Greyhound: The World's Most Grueling Doctoral Thesis

Our sister site Atlantic Cities has a great post on the way people avoid socializing on long-haul bus trips, inspired by research done by a Yale graduate student named Esther Kim who undertook arguably the most grueling doctoral thesis in the world: Riding Greyhound for two years.

Comments | 1,633 Views

By Adam Martin

Aug 8, 2012

July Was the Hottest Ever. For Real

This spring-summer season has been a big one for warm-weather records, but the news that July was the hottest month ever recorded in the lower 48 states is the least-qualified one we've seen.

Comments | 862 Views

By Adam Martin

Aug 8, 2012

FBI: Sikh Temple Shooter Shot Himself, Acted Alone

Wade Michael Page, the man authorities say opened fire in a Sikh temple in Wisconsin on Sunday, died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head after he had been shot by police, the FBI said at a press conference on Wednesday, helping to clarify a narrative that has been incomplete so far.

Comments | 862 Views

By Adam Martin

Aug 8, 2012

Twitter Gives Police a User's Data After Broadway Theater Threat

It was the specificity of the threats that made New York police lean on Twitter to turn over the identifying details of a user who said he wanted to shoot up the Longacre Theater, the location where Mike Tyson's one-man show is playing.

Comments | 1,399 Views

By Adam Martin

Aug 8, 2012

John Steinbeck's Son Wants No Part of Texas Execution Politics

The oddest thing about Tuesday night's execution of a convicted Texas murderer with an IQ below the generally accepted competency level was the role the work of John Steinbeck played in the debate around it.

Comments | 4,600 Views

By Adam Martin

Aug 7, 2012

Giffords Shooter Pleads Guilty to 19 Counts; Agrees to Life in Prison

Jared Loughner, the man accused of shooting former U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords and 18 others, killing six in Tucson in January 2011, is competent to stand trial, a judge found, before Loughner formally pleaded guilty to 19 counts of murder and attempted murder.

Comments | 3,401 Views

By Adam Martin

Aug 7, 2012

Documentary About Aurora Will Debut About a Month After Shooting

Technically the BBC Three documentary, tentatively titled The Batman Shootings, is set to debut one month and three days after the July 20 massacre in Aurora, but that's still very fast.

Comments

By Adam Martin

Aug 7, 2012

Thanks to Rush, Sandra Fluke Is Now an Actual Obama Campaign Operative

When Sandra Fluke became a household name after Rush Limbaugh called her a "slut" for testifying in favor of requiring insurance to cover contraception, right-wing conspiracy theorists howled that she was a Democratic operative. Now she kind of is.

Comments | 1,056 Views

By Adam Martin

Aug 7, 2012

The Navy's Quixotic Quest to Bury an Unclassified Laser Leak

Bookmark this for a fun lunch read: Wired's Danger blog room has a lengthy, entertaining report on its wrangling with the Naval Criminal Investigative Service over an unclassified document describing a fictional laser weapon, that NCIS insists was "leaked."

Comments | 1,415 Views

By Adam Martin

Aug 7, 2012

For Women, NYPD Stop-And-Frisks Are Even Worse

Street stops by the New York Police Department are about as effective for women as for men—that is, they turn up very few guns—but as The New York Times illustrates in a Tuesday report, they often feel a lot more intrusive.

Comments | 2,137 Views

By Adam Martin

Aug 7, 2012

Marvin Hamlisch, EGOT-Winning Composer, Dead at 68

Marvin Hamlisch, the Hollywood and Broadway composer who wrote the music for The Sting and A Chorus Line, and one of only 11 people to have won an Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony award, died on Monday at age 68.

Comments | 862 Views

By Adam Martin

Aug 7, 2012

Wisconsin Sikh Leader Died Defending His Congregation

There are many details that came out overnight about the mass shooting at a Sikh temple in Wisconsin, but the one that may be the most upsetting is the report of the Sikh temple leader who died while trying to defend his congregation.

Comments | 3,104 Views

By Adam Martin

Aug 6, 2012

Mark Cuban to Distribute Andrew Breitbart's 'Occupy' Documentary

In case you were worried you would never get to see the documentary Andrew Breitbart made about Occupy Wall Street, you can rest easy: Mark Cuban and Todd Wagner are on the case.

Comments | 2,085 Views

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