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Jack Black accidentally slapped on the price is right

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A Chihuahua puppy in Texas experienced a huge stroke of luck after police rescued him from a drug overdose on Saturday.

Carrollton police found the 4-month-old dog on the floor of his owner's car in a Home Depot parking lot.
PUPPY GIVEN ALCOHOL LEADS TO CHARGES FOR 3 OHIO RESIDENTS
The police considered the puppy to be so lucky that he needed a new name. They called him just that - Lucky.

Lucky's owners warned police they had a dog in their car after they were arrested in the Home Depot for allegedly switching price tags.
SCIENTISTS STUDY THE BEST WAY TO TALK TO A DOG
When police checked on the dog, they found that he had eaten an undetermined amount of heroin that the owners left in their car, police said. Lucky was transported to an emergency veterinary clinic immediately.

"He was extraordinarily lethargic, almost comatose, barely breathing, his heart rate was very, very slow, his body temperature was really low," Carrollton Police Department spokesperson, Jolene DeVito told KHOU. "He was really on the verge of not breathing."

Lucky's owners, Thomas Romero, 46, and Nina Crawford, 38, were arrested for heroin possession and for fraudulent destruction, removal, or concealment of writing. DeVito told 1080 KRLD that animal charges will most likely be added to their sentences, as well.

According to police, Lucky is on the mend from his heroin overdose and if his owners do not retrieve him within 10 days, he will be available for adoption.

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A Chihuahua puppy in Texas experienced a huge stroke of luck after police rescued him from a drug overdose on Saturday. Carrollton police found the 4-month-old dog on the floor of his owner's car in a Home Depot parking lot.

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7 new Earth-like exoplanets
discovered

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Talk about lucky number seven. Astronomers have discovered not one, not two, but seven Earth-sized planets orbiting a star called TRAPPIST-1.

What's more, three of them are in the habitable zone- the happy place where liquid water can exist on the surface of rocky planets, as it's not too hot or cold. (Although liquid water could potentially exist on any of the seven, NASA said, it likes the odds on those three best.) The space agency calls the discovery of the fascinating solar system record-breaking.

"The discovery gives us a hint that finding a second Earth is not just a matter of if, but when," Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator of the Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters, said at a news conference announcing the discovery.

Zurbuchen called it a "major step forward" towards the goal of answering the very big question: Is there life on other worlds?

The discovery "is very promising for the search for life beyond our solar system," Michael Gillon, astronomer at the University of Liege in Belgium, added during the press conference.

This is the first time astronomers have found so many Earth-sized planets circling the same sun.

Since the seven planets orbit the star-- which is roughly 40 light years away-- fairly close to each other, the view from one planet would reveal other planets to look as big, if not bigger, than the way we see the moon from Earth.

"If you were on the surface of one of these planets, you would have a wonderful view [of] the other planets," Gillon said, adding that they would be much more than just "dots of light" in the sky, as we see other planets, like Venus, from our home planet.
NASA IDENTIFIES 1,284 NEW EXOPLANETS, MOST EVER ANNOUNCED AT ONCE
The three planets in the habitable zone, also known as the Goldilocks Zone, are called TRAPPIST-1e, f, and g. Exoplanet "e" is about the same size as Earth and even gets around the same amount of star light as we do.

Scientists already knew of thousands of planets beyond our own solar system.

All told, the tally of confirmed exoplanets stood at 3,449 on Wednesday. But only a small number of discovered exoplanets meet the criteria for being possible Earths-- Earth-sized planets that are not too big, and in the habitable zone of a star.
NEW NEIGHBOR: SCIENTISTS DISCOVER CLOSEST HABITABLE EXOPLANET
While this discovery was made using the Spitzer Space Telescope, one of the most important instruments in the search for other planets is the Kepler Space Telescope, which is credited with 2,331 confirmed exoplanet discoveries. It uses a technique called the transit method, watching for a star to dim when a planet passes in front of the distant sun. About 74 percent of known exoplanets have been discovered using that method, according to NASA.

Exoplanet discoveries just keep coming.

Earlier this month, astronomers announced that they had evidence of perhaps as many as 114 new exoplanets; the data they used to find those came from Hawaii's Keck Observatory, which made observations of over 1,600 stars for over two decades. One of those newly-discovered planets that has garnered attention is a hot, rocky "super Earth" called Gliese 411b.

Scientists have even discovered a planet orbiting the closest star to Earth, aside from the sun. Called Proxima b, that planet is somewhat larger than our own planet and lies about four light years away- close by cosmic standards but still incredibly far away from a human perspective. (One light year- the distance light can travel in one Earth year- equals almost 6 trillion miles.) The important Proxima b discovery was announced last August.
Follow Rob Verger on Twitter: @robverger

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7 new Earth-like exoplanets discovered, NASA announces

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Talk about lucky number seven. Astronomers have discovered not one, not two, but seven Earth-sized planets orbiting a star called TRAPPIST-1. What's more, three of them are in the habitable zone- the happy place where liquid water can exist on the surface of rocky planets, as it's not too hot or cold.

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7 new Earth-like exoplanets
discovered, NASA announces.

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Talk about lucky number seven. Astronomers have discovered not one, not two, but seven Earth-sized planets orbiting a star called TRAPPIST-1.

What's more, three of them are in the habitable zone- the happy place where liquid water can exist on the surface of rocky planets, as it's not too hot or cold. (Although liquid water could potentially exist on any of the seven, NASA said, it likes the odds on those three best.) The space agency calls the discovery of the fascinating solar system record-breaking.

"The discovery gives us a hint that finding a second Earth is not just a matter of if, but when," Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator of the Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters, said at a news conference announcing the discovery.

Zurbuchen called it a "major step forward" towards the goal of answering the very big question: Is there life on other worlds?

The discovery "is very promising for the search for life beyond our solar system," Michael Gillon, astronomer at the University of Liege in Belgium, added during the press conference.

This is the first time astronomers have found so many Earth-sized planets circling the same sun.

Since the seven planets orbit the star-- which is roughly 40 light years away-- fairly close to each other, the view from one planet would reveal other planets to look as big, if not bigger, than the way we see the moon from Earth.

"If you were on the surface of one of these planets, you would have a wonderful view [of] the other planets," Gillon said, adding that they would be much more than just "dots of light" in the sky, as we see other planets, like Venus, from our home planet.
NASA IDENTIFIES 1,284 NEW EXOPLANETS, MOST EVER ANNOUNCED AT ONCE
The three planets in the habitable zone, also known as the Goldilocks Zone, are called TRAPPIST-1e, f, and g. Exoplanet "e" is about the same size as Earth and even gets around the same amount of star light as we do.

Scientists already knew of thousands of planets beyond our own solar system.

All told, the tally of confirmed exoplanets stood at 3,449 on Wednesday. But only a small number of discovered exoplanets meet the criteria for being possible Earths-- Earth-sized planets that are not too big, and in the habitable zone of a star.
NEW NEIGHBOR: SCIENTISTS DISCOVER CLOSEST HABITABLE EXOPLANET
While this discovery was made using the Spitzer Space Telescope, one of the most important instruments in the search for other planets is the Kepler Space Telescope, which is credited with 2,331 confirmed exoplanet discoveries. It uses a technique called the transit method, watching for a star to dim when a planet passes in front of the distant sun. About 74 percent of known exoplanets have been discovered using that method, according to NASA.

Exoplanet discoveries just keep coming.

Earlier this month, astronomers announced that they had evidence of perhaps as many as 114 new exoplanets; the data they used to find those came from Hawaii's Keck Observatory, which made observations of over 1,600 stars for over two decades. One of those newly-discovered planets that has garnered attention is a hot, rocky "super Earth" called Gliese 411b.

Scientists have even discovered a planet orbiting the closest star to Earth, aside from the sun. Called Proxima b, that planet is somewhat larger than our own planet and lies about four light years away- close by cosmic standards but still incredibly far away from a human perspective. (One light year- the distance light can travel in one Earth year- equals almost 6 trillion miles.) The important Proxima b discovery was announced last August.
Follow Rob Verger on Twitter: @robverger

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7 new Earth-like exoplanets discovered, NASA announces

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Talk about lucky number seven. Astronomers have discovered not one, not two, but seven Earth-sized planets orbiting a star called TRAPPIST-1. What's more, three of them are in the habitable zone- the happy place where liquid water can exist on the surface of rocky planets, as it's not too hot or cold.

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'Lucky' puppy survives heroin overdose

~~~

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A Chihuahua puppy in Texas experienced a huge stroke of luck after police rescued him from a drug overdose on Saturday.

Carrollton police found the 4-month-old dog on the floor of his owner's car in a Home Depot parking lot.
PUPPY GIVEN ALCOHOL LEADS TO CHARGES FOR 3 OHIO RESIDENTS
The police considered the puppy to be so lucky that he needed a new name. They called him just that - Lucky.

Lucky's owners warned police they had a dog in their car after they were arrested in the Home Depot for allegedly switching price tags.
SCIENTISTS STUDY THE BEST WAY TO TALK TO A DOG
When police checked on the dog, they found that he had eaten an undetermined amount of heroin that the owners left in their car, police said. Lucky was transported to an emergency veterinary clinic immediately.

"He was extraordinarily lethargic, almost comatose, barely breathing, his heart rate was very, very slow, his body temperature was really low," Carrollton Police Department spokesperson, Jolene DeVito told KHOU. "He was really on the verge of not breathing."

Lucky's owners, Thomas Romero, 46, and Nina Crawford, 38, were arrested for heroin possession and for fraudulent destruction, removal, or concealment of writing. DeVito told 1080 KRLD that animal charges will most likely be added to their sentences, as well.

According to police, Lucky is on the mend from his heroin overdose and if his owners do not retrieve him within 10 days, he will be available for adoption.

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A Chihuahua puppy in Texas experienced a huge stroke of luck after police rescued him from a drug overdose on Saturday. Carrollton police found the 4-month-old dog on the floor of his owner's car in a Home Depot parking lot.

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After hosting a late night, post-Oscars special for the past 11 years, Jimmy Kimmel is taking his emcee skills to primetime on the Academy Awards. And he'll be the first to admit he's a little nervous about it.

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approach to politics as he prepares to host oscars - cnn

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Oscars host Jimmy Kimmel talks nerves, politics, and Matt Damon

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After hosting a late-night, post-Oscars special for the past 11 years, Jimmy Kimmel is taking his emcee skills to primetime on the Academy Awards.

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A teenager in Texas allegedly used revenge porn to blackmail his ex-girlfriend into having sex with three friends – and prosecutors claim a demand for fourth romp prompted the woman to call police. Demario Hunter, 18, of Katy, allegedly told his unidentified girlfriend after recording them having sex that he would send the explicit footage to her 13-year-old sister if she didn’t have sex with his three 15-year-old friends.

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A teenager in Texas allegedly used revenge porn to blackmail his ex-girlfriend into having sex with three friends - and prosecutors claim a demand for fourth romp prompted the woman to call police.

Demario Hunter, 18, of Katy, allegedly told his unidentified girlfriend after recording them having sex that he would send the explicit footage to her 13-year-old sister if she didn't have sex with his three 15-year-old friends, KHOU reports.

Hunter then picked up his three teens - who KTRK identified as his cousins - and had sex with the woman. She ended up calling police after Hunter demanded that they meet again for a fourth encounter, prosecutors said.

Hunter's attorney, Equator Turner, insisted his client wasn't prepared to act on the threats.

"He was basically playing poker," Turner said. "Mr. Hunter didn't have any means to do anything that he was threatening to do."
Click here to read more from the New York Post.

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Teen allegedly used revenge porn to force woman into having sex with friends

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A teenager in Texas allegedly used revenge porn to blackmail his ex-girlfriend into having sex with three friends - and prosecutors claim a demand for fourth romp prompted the woman to call police.

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7 earth sized planets found orbiting a star nearby

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Story highlights

Astronomers have found at least seven Earth-sized planets orbiting the same star 40 light-years away, according to a study publishedWednesdayin the journal Nature. The findings were also announced at a news conference at NASA Headquarters in Washington.

This discovery outside of our solar system is rare because the planets have the winning combination of being similar in size to Earth and being all temperate, meaning they could have water on theirsurfaces and potentially support life.

"This is the first time that so many planets of this kind are found around the same star," said Michaël Gillon, lead study author and astronomer at the University of Liège in Belgium.

The seven exoplanets wereall found in tight formation around an ultracool dwarf star called TRAPPIST-1. Estimates of their mass also indicate that they are rocky planets, rather than being gaseous like Jupiter. Three planets are in the habitable zone of the star, known as TRAPPIST-1e, f and g, and may even have oceans on the surface.

The researchers believe that TRAPPIST-1f in particular is the best candidate for supporting life. It's a bit cooler than Earth, but could be suitable with the right atmosphere and enough greenhouse gases.

If TRAPPIST-1 sounds familiar, that's because these researchers announcedthe discovery of three initial planets orbiting the samestar in May. The newresearch increased that number to seven planets total.

"I think we've made a crucial step towards finding if there is life out there," said Amaury Triaud, one of the study authors and an astronomer at the University of Cambridge. "I don't think any time before we had the right planets to discover and find out if there was (life). Here, if life managed to thrive and releases gases similar to what we have on Earth, we will know."

Life may begin and evolve differently on other planets, so finding the gases that indicate life is key, the researchers added.

"This discovery could be a significant piece in the puzzle of finding habitable environments, places that are conducive to life," said Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator of NASA's Science Mission Directorate. "Answering the question 'are we alone?' is a top science priority, and finding so many planets like these for the first time in the habitable zone is a remarkable step forward toward that goal."

And as we've learned from studying and discovering exoplanets before, where there is one, there are more, said Sara Seager, professor of planetary science and physics at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Seager and other researchers are encouraged by the discovery of this system because it improves our chances of finding another habitable planet, like Earth, in the future, by knowing where to look.

What we know

The planets are so close to each other and the star that there areseven of them within a space five times smaller than the distance from Mercury to our sun. This proximity allows the researchers to study the planets in depth as well, gaining insight about planetary systems other than our own.

Starting closest to the star and moving out, the planets have respective orbits from one and a half to nearly 13 Earth days. The orbit of the farthest planet is still unknown.

Standing on the surface of one of the planets, you would receive 200 times less light than you get from the sun, but you would still receive just as much energy to keep you warm since the star is so close. It would also afford some picturesque views, as the other planets would appear in the sky as big as the moon (or even twice as big).

On TRAPPIST-1f, the star would appear three times as big as the sun in our sky. And because of the red nature of the star, the light would be a salmon hue, the researchers speculate.

The researchers believe the planets formed together further from the star. Then, they moved into their current lineup. This is incredibly similar Jupiter and its Galilean moons.

Like the moon, the researchers believe the planets closest to the star are tidally locked. This means that the planets always face one way to the star. One side of the planet is perpetually night, while the other is always day.

Based on preliminary climate modeling, the researchers believe that the three planets closest to the star may be too warm to support liquid water, while the outermost planet, TRAPPIST-1h, is probably too distant and cold to support water on the surface. But further observation is needed to know for sure.

How the discovery was made

TRAPPIST-1 barely classifies as a star at half the temperature and a tenth the mass of the sun. It is red, dim and just a bit larger than Jupiter. But these tiny ultracool dwarf stars are common in our galaxy.

They were largely overlooked until Gillon decided to study the space around one of these dwarfs.

The researchers used a telescope called TRAPPIST (TRAnsiting Planets and PlanetesImals Small Telescope) to observe its starlight and changes in brightness. The team saw shadows, like little eclipses, periodically interrupting the steady pattern of starlight. This is called transiting. The shadows indicated planets, and further observation confirmed them.

In July, the team was able to determine that two of the closest planets to the stars had atmospheres that were more compact and comparable to those of Earth, Venus and Mars by observing starlight through the planets' atmosphere.

By using a global network ground-based telescopes like TRAPPIST and space-based telescopes like Spitzer, the researchers continued looking toward the TRAPPIST system and were able to determine the orbital periods, distances from their star, radius and and masses of the planets.

What's next

Over the next decade, the researchers want to define the atmosphere of each planet, as well as to determine whether they truly do have liquid water on the surface and search for signs of life.

Although 40 light-years away doesn't sound too far, it would take us millions of years to reach this star system. But from a research perspective, it's a close opportunity and the best target to search for life beyond our solar system.

"If we learn something now, it can determine if we looked in the right place," Gillon said.

In 2018, the James Webb Space Telescope will launch and be positioned 1 million miles from Earth with an unprecedented view of the universe. It can observe large exoplanets and detect starlight filtered through their atmosphere.

The researchersare also searching for similar star systems to conduct more atmospheric research. Four telescopes named SPECULOOS (Search for habitable Planets EClipsing ULtra-cOOl Stars) based in Chile willsurvey the southern sky for this purpose.

This star system will probably outlive us because this type of star evolves so slowly. When our sun dies, TRAPPIST-1 will still be a young star and will live for another trillion years, Gillon said. After we are gone, if there is another part of the universe for life to carry on, it may be in the TRAPPIST-1 system.

"This is the most exciting result I have seen in the 14 years of Spitzer operations," said Sean Carey, manager of NASA's Spitzer Science Center at Caltech/IPAC in Pasadena, California. "Spitzer will follow up in the fall to further refine our understanding of these planets so that the James Webb Space Telescope can follow up. More observations of the system are sure to reveal more secrets."

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Astronomers discover 7 Earth-sized planets orbiting nearby star | CNN

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Astronomers have found at least seven Earth-sized planets orbiting the same star 40 light-years away, according to a study publishedWednesdayin the journal Nature. The findings were also announced at a news conference at NASA Headquarters in Washington.

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Ex-wnba player Candice Wiggins said she was bullied because she was straight.

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WNBA Mike Chiari Jesse D. Garrabrant/Getty Images @mikechiari Featured Columnist
Nearly one year since announcing her retirement, former WNBA star Candice Wiggins revealed Monday that she was bullied during her time in the league.

According to Tod Leonard of the San Diego Union-Tribune, the former Minnesota Lynx standout said her status as a heterosexual made her a target for criticism:

Me being heterosexual and straight, and being vocal in my identity as a straight woman was huge. I would say 98 percent of the women in the WNBA are gay women. It was a conformist type of place. There was a whole different set of rules they [the other players] could apply.

There was a lot of jealousy and competition, and we're all fighting for crumbs. The way I looked, the way I played - those things contributed to the tension.

People were deliberately trying to hurt me all of the time. I had never been called the B-word so many times in my life than I was in my rookie season. I'd never been thrown to the ground so much. The message was: 'We want you to know we don't like you.'

Wiggins called the WNBA culture "toxic" and said it contributed to her retiring two years earlier than she intended.

The Stanford alum won a single WNBA title during her eight-year career and averaged 8.6 points per game with the Lynx, Tulsa Shock, Los Angeles Sparks and New York Liberty.

In addition to getting bullied, Wiggins said playing in the WNBA was difficult because of an overall lack of fan interest in the product.

Now 30 years of age, Wiggins is pursuing a career in professional beach volleyball with an eye toward potentially playing in the Olympics one day.

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Candice Wiggins Says She Was Bullied During WNBA Career

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WNBA Mike Chiari Jesse D. Garrabrant/Getty Images @mikechiari Twitter Logo Featured Columnist Nearly one year since announcing her retirement, former WNBA star Candice Wiggins revealed Monday that she was bullied during her time in the league.

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Actor Jack Black is accidentally slapped by a person on the price is right.

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Jack Black slapped on game show - CNN Video

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A man accidentally slaps Jack Black on "The Price is Right."

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the two girls that got killed on a trail last week . they have found one of the phones and there was film on it where it shoes the suspect

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indiana teen filmed suspect before double homicide

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Indiana teen filmed suspect before double homicide, police say

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One of two Indiana teens found dead on a hiking trail last week had taken cell phone video of a man that police believe is a suspect in their double homicide, law enforcement officials said Wednesday.

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its George Washingtons birthday

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a teen inspires the first transgender child and will be sold to kids instead of being an adult collectible

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teen inspires first transgender doll - cnn

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The Tonner Doll Company is releasing a transgender doll inspired by Jazz Jennings.

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40 light years away, seven Earth-size planets orbit a sun called TRAPPIST-1...three in its habitable zone

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In a world… 40 light years away, seven Earth-size planets orbit a sun called #TRAPPIST1—three in its habitable zone https://t.co/rGdG4ZWTai

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In a world… 40 light years away, seven Earth-size planets orbit a sun called #TRAPPIST1—three in its habitable zone https://t.co/rGdG4ZWTai https://t.co/mLmr2jHvbD

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In a world… 40 light years away, seven Earth-size planets orbit a sun called #TRAPPIST1—three in its habitable zone https://t.co/rGdG4ZWTai pic.twitter.com/mLmr2jHvbD
— NASA JPL (@NASAJPL) February 22, 2017

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In a world… 40 light years away, seven Earth-size planets orbit a sun called #TRAPPIST1—three in its habitable zone https://t.co/rGdG4ZWTai https://t.co/mLmr2jHvbD

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In a world… 40 light years away, seven Earth-size planets orbit a sun called #TRAPPIST1—three in its habitable zone https://t.co/rGdG4ZWTai https://t.co/mLmr2jHvbD

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In a world… 40 light years away, seven Earth-size planets orbit a sun called #TRAPPIST1—three in its habitable zone https://t.co/rGdG4ZWTai

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California´s wet weather has some believing the drought is over:A statewide downpour brought chaos to Californians this week, but it also provided some welcome relief to the state's 20 million residents who have suffered from drought conditions for more than four years.

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A statewide downpour brought chaos to Californians this week, but it also provided some welcome relief to the state's 20 million residents who have suffered from drought conditions for more than four years.

The record precipitation now has some experts declaring the drought over.

The beginning

The drought began in 2012, but California Gov. Jerry Brown did not declare a drought state of emergency until January 2014. A response team was later established, and state lawmakers have allocated over $3 billion for drought relief and water management improvements.

The U.S. Geological Survey said 2014 was the warmest year on record for California.

According to Park Williams, a climate scientist and an assistant professor at Columbia University's Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, the drought was exacerbated by high temperatures.

"These last five years in California were much warmer than you'd expect just based on the drought alone, and the reason is because the globe's overall temperature has been warming," he told ABC News. "California's relationship with water is one where they either have too much or too little. So California goes through swings very rapidly. That's what made this drought in California so rare ... [it's] very rare to get five dry years in a row."

He added, " Global warming did not cause this drought but nevertheless had a measuring amplifying effect."

Record rain this week

Flooding warnings were in effect Tuesday in Northern and Central California after storms wreaked havoc on the Golden State last weekend.

In Modesto, police went door to door evacuating residents as floodwaters rose. In San Jose, firefighters jumped on inflatable rafts to rescue two people trapped by a roaring river.

More than 2 inches of rain were recorded at the San Francisco International Airport on Monday. Since October, San Francisco has seen 25.6 inches of rain - nearly 2 inches more than the city usually gets in an entire year.

This extreme weather in Northern California came after powerful rain moved its way up the California coast; the rain first pounded San Diego and Los Angeles, stranding drivers in their cars and contributing to the deaths of least five people.

The latest drought outlook from the National Weather Service Climate Prediction Center "shows drought in Southern California likely to resolve and drought in the Central Coast region of California as persistent but improving."

After this incredibly wet winter, Williams said, he considers the drought over; trees that survived the drought will likely begin recovering, and lakes are near capacity, he explained.

Michael Dettinger, a U.S. Geological Survey hydrologist and a researcher at the University of California at San Diego's Scripps Institution of Oceanography, agrees with Williams' assessment.

"I believe that the drought is over at this point," he told ABC News. "If groundwater levels were lower than they should be because of the drought, then we wouldn't need to say it's over. But groundwater levels are down because of overpumping that's been going on ... for 50 to 70 years. To me, that's not drought - that's just a long-term imbalance of how we use water."

David Feldman, a UC Irvine professor of planning, policy and design, said he won't know if the drought is over until May, when the state's rainy season ends.

"If I were regulator working for the state water board, I'd probably lean on the conservative side," he said.

He added, "Things can dry out quickly. You can have a warm spell. You can have a warm period that melts snowpack in the [Sierra Nevada]. I think in May they'll have a good sense of if we can declare this thing over."

The impact

Williams considers groundwater pumping - pulling water out of the ground, much of it by farmers so their crops can grow in dry conditions - a major issue in droughts.

Groundwater is "essentially taking away from future water reserves to survive this current drought," he said.

"If we take groundwater out of the ground and we don't put water back in to replace it, then that is an unsustainable approach to the use of a very valuable resource," Williams said. "As we continue to reduce drought effects by pulling water out of the ground, we're stealing from the future. And so without prescribing any recommendation, I will say that the California government is beginning to try to regulate groundwater use ... The point of doing that is to try to find a more sustainable approach to using that valuable resource."

Dettinger said groundwater was originally treated as a local issue. Now state lawmakers are enacting laws to improve how groundwater is monitored and managed.

"That's I think one of the biggest things that came out of the drought, and it's a good thing. The other big thing that came out of the drought is water use restrictions and efficiency requirements were instituted," he said. "If we use less water, there will be more flexibility to carry us through droughts."

Sobering statistics

California's water comes from three main sources: snowpack, reservoirs and aquifers, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. Californians use an estimated 108 gallons of water per person on average every day, the EPA said.

Since 2012, the Golden State has endured not only record high temperatures but also record low levels of snowpack and precipitation, according to CaliforniaDrought.org, a project of the Pacific Institute, a nonprofit that researches solutions to freshwater issues, in Oakland.

The drought has hit rural communities harder than urban and suburban communities, which are better able to diversify their water sources, according to the Public Policy Institute of California.

Most farming relies on irrigation, which accounts for approximately 80 percent of California's human water use, according to the Public Policy Institute of California. In 2015 farmers had about 50 percent less surface water because of the drought; they pumped more groundwater to make up the difference but still had 10 percent less water than usual, and farm sector losses reached nearly $2 billion, according to the institute.

Drought can be noxious to the environment. Wildfires could become more prevalent, and as many as 18 fish species could become extinct if the current drought continues, the Public Policy Institute of California said.

What the future holds

Brown has issued a series of executive orders to help the state cope with the drought, the most recent mandating "continued, long-term water savings as drought persists."

Nancy Vogel of the California Natural Resources Agency told ABC News that the governor will consider many factors when he revisits the emergency statewide drought declaration in coming weeks - including groundwater, snow pack and reservoir levels.

This winter's rain "doesn't come all the time," Dettinger said. "The worst thing we can do is forget about droughts just because it's wet right now."

He added, "Going forward, we definitely want to get a handle on the groundwater use because that is the piece that a winter like this can't even fix. We're going to have to fix it on our end by monitoring how much water we take. I would like to see them stop being called drought restrictions and call them sustainability restrictions."

Feldman said it's important to prepare for a drought before one is declared. He recommends that the U.S. follow Australia's example by harvesting rainwater and recycling wastewater.

Most of all, he urged Americans not to take the nation's water for granted.

"Droughts are not just limited to California and the Southwest," Feldman said. "Other areas of the U.S. have been through periods of water stress and drought from time to time. We want to do everything we can ... to protect our water, to conserve it ... to recycle it if we can, just to treat it more wisely than we have in the past."

ABC News' Morgan Korn, Jeff Costello, Lindsey Jacobson, Max Golembo and Melissa Griffin contributed to this report.

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California's wet weather has some believing drought is over

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A statewide downpour brought chaos to Californians this week, but it also provided some welcome relief to the state's 20 million residents who have suffered from drought conditions for more than four years. The record precipitation now has some experts declaring the drought over. The...

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A woman checked herself into a jail for 6 months to help with her heroin addiction.

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7 planets the size of the Earth found orbiting a near by star 40 light-years away, that could potentially have water and support life forms.

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Story highlights

Astronomers have found at least seven Earth-sized planets orbiting the same star 40 light-years away, according to a study publishedWednesdayin the journal Nature. The findings were also announced at a news conference at NASA Headquarters in Washington.

This discovery outside of our solar system is rare because the planets have the winning combination of being similar in size to Earth and being all temperate, meaning they could have water on theirsurfaces and potentially support life.

"This is the first time that so many planets of this kind are found around the same star," said Michaël Gillon, lead study author and astronomer at the University of Liège in Belgium.

The seven exoplanets wereall found in tight formation around an ultracool dwarf star called TRAPPIST-1. Estimates of their mass also indicate that they are rocky planets, rather than being gaseous like Jupiter. Three planets are in the habitable zone of the star, known as TRAPPIST-1e, f and g, and may even have oceans on the surface.

The researchers believe that TRAPPIST-1f in particular is the best candidate for supporting life. It's a bit cooler than Earth, but could be suitable with the right atmosphere and enough greenhouse gases.

If TRAPPIST-1 sounds familiar, that's because these researchers announcedthe discovery of three initial planets orbiting the samestar in May. The newresearch increased that number to seven planets total.

"I think we've made a crucial step towards finding if there is life out there," said Amaury Triaud, one of the study authors and an astronomer at the University of Cambridge. "I don't think any time before we had the right planets to discover and find out if there was (life). Here, if life managed to thrive and releases gases similar to what we have on Earth, we will know."

Life may begin and evolve differently on other planets, so finding the gases that indicate life is key, the researchers added.

"This discovery could be a significant piece in the puzzle of finding habitable environments, places that are conducive to life," said Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator of NASA's Science Mission Directorate. "Answering the question 'are we alone?' is a top science priority, and finding so many planets like these for the first time in the habitable zone is a remarkable step forward toward that goal."

And as we've learned from studying and discovering exoplanets before, where there is one, there are more, said Sara Seager, professor of planetary science and physics at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Seager and other researchers are encouraged by the discovery of this system because it improves our chances of finding another habitable planet, like Earth, in the future, by knowing where to look.

What we know

The planets are so close to each other and the star that there areseven of them within a space five times smaller than the distance from Mercury to our sun. This proximity allows the researchers to study the planets in depth as well, gaining insight about planetary systems other than our own.

Starting closest to the star and moving out, the planets have respective orbits from one and a half to nearly 13 Earth days. The orbit of the farthest planet is still unknown.

Standing on the surface of one of the planets, you would receive 200 times less light than you get from the sun, but you would still receive just as much energy to keep you warm since the star is so close. It would also afford some picturesque views, as the other planets would appear in the sky as big as the moon (or even twice as big).

On TRAPPIST-1f, the star would appear three times as big as the sun in our sky. And because of the red nature of the star, the light would be a salmon hue, the researchers speculate.

The researchers believe the planets formed together further from the star. Then, they moved into their current lineup. This is incredibly similar Jupiter and its Galilean moons.

Like the moon, the researchers believe the planets closest to the star are tidally locked. This means that the planets always face one way to the star. One side of the planet is perpetually night, while the other is always day.

Based on preliminary climate modeling, the researchers believe that the three planets closest to the star may be too warm to support liquid water, while the outermost planet, TRAPPIST-1h, is probably too distant and cold to support water on the surface. But further observation is needed to know for sure.

How the discovery was made

TRAPPIST-1 barely classifies as a star at half the temperature and a tenth the mass of the sun. It is red, dim and just a bit larger than Jupiter. But these tiny ultracool dwarf stars are common in our galaxy.

They were largely overlooked until Gillon decided to study the space around one of these dwarfs.

The researchers used a telescope called TRAPPIST (TRAnsiting Planets and PlanetesImals Small Telescope) to observe its starlight and changes in brightness. The team saw shadows, like little eclipses, periodically interrupting the steady pattern of starlight. This is called transiting. The shadows indicated planets, and further observation confirmed them.

In July, the team was able to determine that two of the closest planets to the stars had atmospheres that were more compact and comparable to those of Earth, Venus and Mars by observing starlight through the planets' atmosphere.

By using a global network ground-based telescopes like TRAPPIST and space-based telescopes like Spitzer, the researchers continued looking toward the TRAPPIST system and were able to determine the orbital periods, distances from their star, radius and and masses of the planets.

What's next

Over the next decade, the researchers want to define the atmosphere of each planet, as well as to determine whether they truly do have liquid water on the surface and search for signs of life.

Although 40 light-years away doesn't sound too far, it would take us millions of years to reach this star system. But from a research perspective, it's a close opportunity and the best target to search for life beyond our solar system.

"If we learn something now, it can determine if we looked in the right place," Gillon said.

In 2018, the James Webb Space Telescope will launch and be positioned 1 million miles from Earth with an unprecedented view of the universe. It can observe large exoplanets and detect starlight filtered through their atmosphere.

The researchersare also searching for similar star systems to conduct more atmospheric research. Four telescopes named SPECULOOS (Search for habitable Planets EClipsing ULtra-cOOl Stars) based in Chile willsurvey the southern sky for this purpose.

This star system will probably outlive us because this type of star evolves so slowly. When our sun dies, TRAPPIST-1 will still be a young star and will live for another trillion years, Gillon said. After we are gone, if there is another part of the universe for life to carry on, it may be in the TRAPPIST-1 system.

"This is the most exciting result I have seen in the 14 years of Spitzer operations," said Sean Carey, manager of NASA's Spitzer Science Center at Caltech/IPAC in Pasadena, California. "Spitzer will follow up in the fall to further refine our understanding of these planets so that the James Webb Space Telescope can follow up. More observations of the system are sure to reveal more secrets."

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Astronomers discover 7 Earth-sized planets orbiting nearby star | CNN

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Astronomers have found at least seven Earth-sized planets orbiting the same star 40 light-years away, according to a study publishedWednesdayin the journal Nature. The findings were also announced at a news conference at NASA Headquarters in Washington.

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A statewide downpour brought chaos to Californians this week, but it also provided some welcome relief to the state's 20 million residents who have suffered from drought conditions for more than four years.

The record precipitation now has some experts declaring the drought over.

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A statewide downpour brought chaos to Californians this week, but it also provided some welcome relief to the state's 20 million residents who have suffered from drought conditions for more than four years.

The record precipitation now has some experts declaring the drought over.

The beginning

The drought began in 2012, but California Gov. Jerry Brown did not declare a drought state of emergency until January 2014. A response team was later established, and state lawmakers have allocated over $3 billion for drought relief and water management improvements.

The U.S. Geological Survey said 2014 was the warmest year on record for California.

According to Park Williams, a climate scientist and an assistant professor at Columbia University's Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, the drought was exacerbated by high temperatures.

"These last five years in California were much warmer than you'd expect just based on the drought alone, and the reason is because the globe's overall temperature has been warming," he told ABC News. "California's relationship with water is one where they either have too much or too little. So California goes through swings very rapidly. That's what made this drought in California so rare ... [it's] very rare to get five dry years in a row."

He added, " Global warming did not cause this drought but nevertheless had a measuring amplifying effect."

Record rain this week

Flooding warnings were in effect Tuesday in Northern and Central California after storms wreaked havoc on the Golden State last weekend.

In Modesto, police went door to door evacuating residents as floodwaters rose. In San Jose, firefighters jumped on inflatable rafts to rescue two people trapped by a roaring river.

More than 2 inches of rain were recorded at the San Francisco International Airport on Monday. Since October, San Francisco has seen 25.6 inches of rain - nearly 2 inches more than the city usually gets in an entire year.

This extreme weather in Northern California came after powerful rain moved its way up the California coast; the rain first pounded San Diego and Los Angeles, stranding drivers in their cars and contributing to the deaths of least five people.

The latest drought outlook from the National Weather Service Climate Prediction Center "shows drought in Southern California likely to resolve and drought in the Central Coast region of California as persistent but improving."

After this incredibly wet winter, Williams said, he considers the drought over; trees that survived the drought will likely begin recovering, and lakes are near capacity, he explained.

Michael Dettinger, a U.S. Geological Survey hydrologist and a researcher at the University of California at San Diego's Scripps Institution of Oceanography, agrees with Williams' assessment.

"I believe that the drought is over at this point," he told ABC News. "If groundwater levels were lower than they should be because of the drought, then we wouldn't need to say it's over. But groundwater levels are down because of overpumping that's been going on ... for 50 to 70 years. To me, that's not drought - that's just a long-term imbalance of how we use water."

David Feldman, a UC Irvine professor of planning, policy and design, said he won't know if the drought is over until May, when the state's rainy season ends.

"If I were regulator working for the state water board, I'd probably lean on the conservative side," he said.

He added, "Things can dry out quickly. You can have a warm spell. You can have a warm period that melts snowpack in the [Sierra Nevada]. I think in May they'll have a good sense of if we can declare this thing over."

The impact

Williams considers groundwater pumping - pulling water out of the ground, much of it by farmers so their crops can grow in dry conditions - a major issue in droughts.

Groundwater is "essentially taking away from future water reserves to survive this current drought," he said.

"If we take groundwater out of the ground and we don't put water back in to replace it, then that is an unsustainable approach to the use of a very valuable resource," Williams said. "As we continue to reduce drought effects by pulling water out of the ground, we're stealing from the future. And so without prescribing any recommendation, I will say that the California government is beginning to try to regulate groundwater use ... The point of doing that is to try to find a more sustainable approach to using that valuable resource."

Dettinger said groundwater was originally treated as a local issue. Now state lawmakers are enacting laws to improve how groundwater is monitored and managed.

"That's I think one of the biggest things that came out of the drought, and it's a good thing. The other big thing that came out of the drought is water use restrictions and efficiency requirements were instituted," he said. "If we use less water, there will be more flexibility to carry us through droughts."

Sobering statistics

California's water comes from three main sources: snowpack, reservoirs and aquifers, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. Californians use an estimated 108 gallons of water per person on average every day, the EPA said.

Since 2012, the Golden State has endured not only record high temperatures but also record low levels of snowpack and precipitation, according to CaliforniaDrought.org, a project of the Pacific Institute, a nonprofit that researches solutions to freshwater issues, in Oakland.

The drought has hit rural communities harder than urban and suburban communities, which are better able to diversify their water sources, according to the Public Policy Institute of California.

Most farming relies on irrigation, which accounts for approximately 80 percent of California's human water use, according to the Public Policy Institute of California. In 2015 farmers had about 50 percent less surface water because of the drought; they pumped more groundwater to make up the difference but still had 10 percent less water than usual, and farm sector losses reached nearly $2 billion, according to the institute.

Drought can be noxious to the environment. Wildfires could become more prevalent, and as many as 18 fish species could become extinct if the current drought continues, the Public Policy Institute of California said.

What the future holds

Brown has issued a series of executive orders to help the state cope with the drought, the most recent mandating "continued, long-term water savings as drought persists."

Nancy Vogel of the California Natural Resources Agency told ABC News that the governor will consider many factors when he revisits the emergency statewide drought declaration in coming weeks - including groundwater, snow pack and reservoir levels.

This winter's rain "doesn't come all the time," Dettinger said. "The worst thing we can do is forget about droughts just because it's wet right now."

He added, "Going forward, we definitely want to get a handle on the groundwater use because that is the piece that a winter like this can't even fix. We're going to have to fix it on our end by monitoring how much water we take. I would like to see them stop being called drought restrictions and call them sustainability restrictions."

Feldman said it's important to prepare for a drought before one is declared. He recommends that the U.S. follow Australia's example by harvesting rainwater and recycling wastewater.

Most of all, he urged Americans not to take the nation's water for granted.

"Droughts are not just limited to California and the Southwest," Feldman said. "Other areas of the U.S. have been through periods of water stress and drought from time to time. We want to do everything we can ... to protect our water, to conserve it ... to recycle it if we can, just to treat it more wisely than we have in the past."

ABC News' Morgan Korn, Jeff Costello, Lindsey Jacobson, Max Golembo and Melissa Griffin contributed to this report.

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California's wet weather has some believing drought is over

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
A statewide downpour brought chaos to Californians this week, but it also provided some welcome relief to the state's 20 million residents who have suffered from drought conditions for more than four years. The record precipitation now has some experts declaring the drought over. The...

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George Clooney and his wife are having twins.

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george clooney opens up about becoming a first-time dad - cnn

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George Clooney opens up about becoming a first-time dad in his 50s

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George Clooney is ready for his next challenge -- parenthood.

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Mr. Kohl- A Mother of 5 in South Carolina receives an act of kindness from the  cashier of Walmart who pays for half her grocery bill.

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Mr. Kohl- A Mother of 5 in South Carolina receives an act of kindness from the  cashier of Walmart who pays for half her grocery bill.

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Mom's A Mess Trying To Calm Her Baby. Then The Walmart Cashier Inserts Her Personal Credit Card

A South Carolina mother of three, was blown away when a Walmart cashier insisted on paying half of her $200 grocery bill - with her personal credit card.

Facebook / Ashley Jones

Ashley Jones wrote on Facebook:

"Today me and my Husband Michael Jordan went to the Walmart on Garners Ferry Road in Columbia, SC. It was another dreaded shopping trip trying to buy groceries for a family of 5. We got as much stuff as we could get on my husband's income since I'm a Stay at Home Mom. We literally dread going to Walmart and buying groceries period because my husband's whole check goes to food for our family.

I will say that I'm not a fan of shopping at Walmart because of how rude some of the people can be. But after tonight my whole perspective has changed.

As me and my husband were in line putting our groceries on the thing for the cashier to scan we had our youngest daughter with us, who was very fussy and tired and just wanted to go to sleep. Half of the time the cashier's don't engage in conversation but the cashier we had tonight was very friendly.

I can't remember exactly what she said but it was along the lines of you must have a big family y'all have a lot of stuff. I said yeah we do. She told me my total and I was digging through my wallet trying to count all of my money out. She gave me a smile and said you guys look like you need a blessing tonight. I just smiled back. Then the cashier walked around the counter and was hitting something on the keypad. (I thought she was giving us a coupon) then she walked back to her register. I then looked at the total and I was at a loss for words.

This sweet woman whom I never met in my life paid for half of my groceries!

I was in complete shock because I never expected anything like that to ever happen. Me and my husband were just staring at each other like is she serious? Did she really just do this? I was really at a loss for words. I didn't know what to say.

How could this woman who didn't even know me, know our situation, know us, why would she do this? I asked her what her name was and she told me, I thanked her and asked her if I could take a picture with her and post it to social media and she said yes.

Me and my husband and our very fussy one year old finally got into the car and when we did we just looked at each other and smiled and at that moment we both knew things were going to be OK because there truly are good people out there.

Thank you so much Sharnique Dasant you truly are a blessing and you will never realize how much you helped us out and how much faith you have put back into our hearts."

In an interview with the local news station, the cashier, Sharnique Dasant, said the couple looked like they needed a blessing and God told her to help them.

"She started putting her stuff up, her baby was crying, she had her husband with her," Dasant remembered.

"As we're scanning and scanning, she got in front of me and it's like I saw a different face on her," Dasant said. "And I just had like a little man on my shoulder that was like, 'Give her a $100 dollars, give her $100 dollars.' And I was like, 'give her $100 dollars?' Like, I'm talking to myself like, 'Give her 100 dollars!'"

"So I was like, I said, 'Yeah, God told me to give you $100 dollars,'" Dasant said, "and she said 'What? What? What are you talking about?' So I said, 'He told me to give you $100 dollars.' So I went ahead and I slid my card. I went around the register and I slid it for her."

Please consider making a donation to Sunny Skyz and help our mission to make the world a better place.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Mom's A Mess Trying To Calm Her Baby. Then The Walmart Cashier Inserts Her Personal Credit Card

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A South Carolina mother of three, was blown away when a Walmart cashier insisted on paying half of her $200 grocery bill - with her personal credit card. Facebook / Ashley Jones Ashley Jones wrote on Facebook: "Today me and my Husband Michael Jordan went to the Walmart on Garners Ferry Road in Columbia, SC.

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Teen inspires first transgender barbie doll.

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teen inspires first transgender doll - cnn

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The Tonner Doll Company is releasing a transgender doll inspired by Jazz Jennings.