Michael Hastings, most recently of Buzzfeed but well-known and respected for his fearless reporting in Rolling Stone, Newsweek, and elsewhere, has died at the age of 33
With most of the damage already done, George Zimmerman's attorneys now insist that Martin's controversial cellphone video, which they introduced as evidence of the Martin taping his friends as they beat up a homeless man, wasn't as controversial as they made it sound.
Here's one silver lining from the brutal severe weather of the weather of the last several weeks: It will keep the climate and weather scientists at the NOAA in business, despite budget cuts that had been mandated by the government's sequestration.
New York City, five months into one of the least violent years in its history, had five percent of its total shootings for 2013 over the weekend: 25 people were shot in just 48 hours, bringing the yearly figure to 440 shootings — with six more fatalities.
After Friday's chaotic tornadoes tore apart Oklahoma, only two weeks after what happened in Moore, Oklahoma, the storm chasing community is mourning the loss of one of their own. Well-respected storm chaser Tim Samaras, his son Paul Samaras, and his chasing partner Carl Young died during Friday's storms.
Less than two weeks removed from the terrible tornado that touched down in Moore, Oklahoma, at least nine people died and over 70 were injured Friday night when more severe storms uprooted houses, trees and cars in Oklahoma and other parts of the Midwest.
In what looks very much like a blow to that whole Constitutional thing about due process, a federal judge has ordered Google to release customer data to the FBI, despite the fact that the FBI has no warrant for the information.
Summer is the best time of the year, because of the beach, the ocean, fresh fruit, beer, sports, and enough Vitamin D to end seasonal depression. But it comes with a cost: humiliating sweat stains. You are not alone. Look at all these sweaters.
It's hot. Are you going to the beach this weekend, city-dweller who lives near an urban beach? Do you know how to behave at said locale, not only there but on your way there and on your way home again? Here are some rules.
Today in viral videos: Julie Delpy has had it with your bad manners, a two-year-old baller returns with more trick shots, and ducks.
If Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel needed any more evidence for the military's sexual assault crisis, well, here it is.
Two of 2013's most talked about (and most disgusting) trends have found themselves united on this here Internet.
Laura Bennett on Arrested Development's Netflix problem, Margaret Talbot on the disadvantages of being a breadwinner, Akbar Ahmed on Obama's neverending drone war, Mike Lupica on the new Rutgers AD, and Ronald Brownstein on affirmative action at the Supreme Court.
FBI agents searched the home of man in eastern Texas after his wife blew whistle on him as a potential suspect in the mailing of ricin-laced letter to prominent gun control advocates.
Anyone who's been around for more than a season — anyone who's old enough to drink legally in these United States, let's say — probably remembers a time, historically or lived, in which certain drinks that we no longer drink were popular. But these things go in cycles.
At around 5 p.m. Eastern on Friday, a massive asteroid named 1998 QE2 will zoom by Earth at a relatively close distance. And as exciting as that may be for space nerds, this thing had better keep it's distance: The rock is 2,000 feet across and could wipe out Virginia if it didn't — and that's just its moon.
Law enforcement officials are still trying to explain how a supposedly peaceful interview with an important witness in the Boston bombing case turned into a deadly shooting, but as usual, every new attempt to explain the death of Ibragim Todashev only raises more troubling questions.
"Knaidel" was Arvind Mahankali's winning word at the Scripps National Spelling Bee final.
The surviving Boston bombing suspect has recovered enough to move about and speak freely, enough so that he's calling his mother to proclaim his total innocence.
So much for religious tolerance! E. Gordon Gee, president of (The) Ohio State University, was caught disparaging Catholic leaders of the University of Notre Dame on tape, and he has a recent history of provoking Catholics, generally.
NYC's new Citibike program (which — yes, D.C. people — isn't unique) has been received with a mix of emotions. But one thing is clear: after less than a week, it's already in heavy use, if the real-time data the city makes available is any indicator.
One of the six men prosecuted or convicted by the Obama administration for leaking information to the press, a former CIA agent named John Kiriakou, sent a remarkable letter describing life in the prison where he'll be until 2015. This is what happens when the government catches a leaker.
Charles M. Blow on Michele Bachmann's legacy, Joan Vennochi on Gabriel Gomez's political naiveté, Isaac Chotiner on the culture that created Chris Kyle, Jesselyn Radack on the politics of whistleblowing, and Irin Carmon on the gendered discussion of "work-life balance."
Emboldened by recent gains on the ground and and new wave of support from its allies, Bashar al-Assad gave a new interview today, boasting about the arrival of new Russian missiles meant to scare off foreign intervention
President Obama will reach back into the Bush administration and pick former Deputy Attorney General James B. Comey as the new head of the FBI. Comey, a Republican, is bound to be discussed as a bi-partisan choice. But that's not why he's interesting: Comey was a central figure in a Bush-era drama over the administration's warrantless wiretapping program, hospital pleas and all.
The Justice Department's hearts and minds campaign to the media just hit a snag: The Associated Press and the New York Times have refused to attend a meeting with Eric Holder.
The venerable style guide you know and love, the AP Stylebook, is having a big birthday. It's turning 60, and in honor of the occasion its approximately 500 pages of copy guidelines has had a revision. If you're a serial comma lover, it's not the one you're hoping for.
This has not been a good week for thee scandal-prone Rutgers University. Over the past week, questions surrounding Julie Hermann have heightened in number and intensity. Here's a guide to the controversy.
Zimmerman's lawyers are pleading for more money, insisting that they've somehow burned through almost all of the more than $300,000 in online donations the public somehow have to an alleged murderer. Don't be surprised if one of the most hated men in Florida gets his non-Kickstarter Kickstarter coffers filled right up in time to pay his lawyers for jury selection.
After a day of sleuthing, Roger Rabbit's name has been cleared. Investigators have caught the man who set off a small explosion and forced the evacuation of an entire section of Disneyland for a few hours Tuesday evening.
Pew's new research on the role of women in the household finds that 40 percent of homes with children rely on a mother's income. That's substantial, and probably unexpected. But the data behind that trend — and the response to it — show how employment and gender roles in the United States continue to shift away from the Leave It to Beaver model. Murphy Brown is winning.
Have you ever wanted to impress a woman by transforming into a man in uniform, except you were lacking in the uniform department? Now you can at least smell like a man in uniform, with the Demeter Fragrance Library's "First Response — Boston" scent.
Michael Rosenberg on Rutgers's new athletic director, Sarah Kendzior on the myth of American opportunity, Danielle Ofri on the prevalence of hospital errors, Imani Gandy on the lessons of the Gosnell in the black community, and Glenn Greenwald on how journalists defend their own.
One of the winningest quarterbacks in college football history was found dead in the woods of Michigan last night after going missing Sunday evening on a fishing trip near a family cabin. Now, the circumstances surrounding his death provided more new questions than answers.
The entire "Toontown" section of Disneyland in Californa was evacuated this evening after something exploded in a trash can, prompting a ton of cops to descend on the park.
Ten members of Congress sent Washington Redskins owner Dan Snyder a letter today, urging him to change the "derogatory" team name to something else.
This past week a 15-year-old teenage boy who etched "Ding Jinhao was here" into the side of Egypt's Luxor Temple has received worldwide attention, but the underlying question has been whether Ding is an anomaly or the norm?
This is what happens when ink-stained wretches get on two wheels. Following months of fevered warnings about Citibike, the city's famously excitable tabloids have begun to reverse course about the DayGlo-blue bikes installed throughout New York. You know, now that they've actually ridden them.
Linguist Ben Yagoda likes smart for the Word of the Year. Mother Jones' Kevin Drum disagrees. Is smart smart, is it lazy ... or is it mostly just divisive?
It wasn't his first choice, but he'll have to take it. President Obama is looking at the possibility of setting up a no-fly zone in Syria, according to The Daily Beast's very well sourced Josh Rogin. What now?
If you thought JCPenney was having problems at the top — or if pressure cookers were posing problems for the tea-kettle industry — look no further than 405 freeway near Culver City in Southern California, where an innocent stainless steel pot is drawing comparisons to perhaps the least innocent person of all time, spigot salute and all.
Amid a buzz of controversy about her role in invading the privacy of several Harvard staff members, Evelynn Hammonds, the Dean of Harvard College, will step down on July 1, five years and one month after she became both the first African-American and first female to occupy the highest office in Harvard's undergraduate school in June 2008.
Dan D'Addario on Dan Savage's politics, Eugene Robinson on victory in the War on Terror, Blake Zeff on Anthony Weiner's mayoral chance, David Dennis on the hidden side-effects of unpaid internships, and Ayaan Hirsi Ali on the Muslim reaction to violence.
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